Glenfilthie
45 Cal.
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2007
- Messages
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Disclaimer: what follows are the sometimes painful and ugly lessons the budding craftsman will learn along the journey to building a fine custom front stuffer. There is no art, skill, or merit in what follows - just the accomplishments of a rather dull student of the manly arts as he struggles to learn! Period correct? Nope. Folk art? HA HA HA HA!!! :grin: No, this stuff is not on par with the artifacts and art turned out by guys like Luis and Swampy and Stumpy - but who knows? One day I hope to be able to be as good a craftsman as they are. The journey starts now.
My goal is to master the skills of checkering and inlays. You have to walk before you run, so I decided to learn to carve and do inlays on a cheap hatchet from the bargain bin at one of the local tool houses. My thinking is that if I mess this up, I can sneak it into the campfire while Claude and the other black powder geeks are dozing, and nobody will see what an awful job I did! :thumbsup:
So it is that I unleashed my ignorance on this poor wretch below. Not only was I inexperienced, but I was seriously impatient. I couldn't wait to see what effects staining would have. I didn't let the glues under the inlays cure long enough. I didn't take the time to properly measure for the skip line checkering. Once I damned near cut my middle finger off with a slip - the idiots among us are reminded that axes are sharp! Respect the blades! That little stunt cost me 6 stitches! Ouch!
Yecht! :barf: Stop laughing you guys!!! :cursing: The friggin wire inlays don't work well around compound curves and I was trying for a 3D effect with the carving - bah! Oh well, I learned something. On the other side I tried for a thistle silver inlay:
I sanded and filed and smoothed it out and it looked really good. Then I got the bright idea of anchoring it with a brass tack and the damned thing bent and curled up - and I threw a temper tantrum Donald Duck would have been proud of! I must have sanded everything out and started again three or four times, each attempt as bad as the last! I am so damned mad now that this one is going into the fire pit, and Satan can have it with my compliments! :cursing:
Thankfully when my stitches came out, my spirits were low and I was thinking of quitting, the fine fellers at Track of the Wolf came through! They sent me an e-mail about a sale on these:
http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Cate...x?catId=9&subId=60&styleId=231&partNum=AXE-CE
AND - because I am such a big wheel and VIP customer - they threw in an extra handle!!! These guys are AWESOME!!! :hatsoff:
When I got the package the blade was shiny and new - I would have to rust brown it. There is no edge on it either when it ships from the factory, so idiots (who shall remain nameless) won't open themselves up on the blade while they work on it! Sweet! I will strop that to a razor when it's finished!
With the first handle I tried the skip line checkering and the thistle inlay again:
On the other side I wanted to do an inlay of a horse's head:
Unfortunately it kept popping out, and I filed and sanded so much that the inlay went from looking something like a horse to looking more like a Great Dane with elephantisis!
:shake: Sheesh, that looks like chit! Part of the problem was that these handles are cheap. This is not an expensive axe, so I don't feel disappointed or angry at the guys at TOTW. This axe is sold as mere tool and was not meant to be embellished. (If all you want is a chit house belt axe, those handles will work just fine). I tried leather dye as a stain and it just didn't take right either. I started on the second handle and did some preliminary scratchin' but it was going the same way as the first.
Trying to checker and stain crappy wood wasn't working for me so I dug out a nice piece of curly maple from the scrap pile and bought a $12.00 rasp from Home Despot. I used the TOTW handle to trace the pattern - and I'll be darned! I made a perfectly good handle for myself! Look at this!
It's the first time I ever made a handle and that thing came out just fine! And my goodness, that curly maple made the checkering a dream come true. Some brass tacks, some cabernet stain, and she came out like this:
When I set it out like that, the clouds parted, the heavens shone down and the angels sang their praise! My head swelled right up as I basked in my accomplishment, and I called a friend up to brag and gloat. He was amazed that you could shave an ape and have him turn out a piece of work like that! My life just couldn't get any better!
Then his 12 year old son saw it and claimed it.
Oh well. Another call to the turkeys at TOTW and a couple more weeks and I will have another - and this one will have inlays too! :thumbsup:
Wish me luck fellers!
My goal is to master the skills of checkering and inlays. You have to walk before you run, so I decided to learn to carve and do inlays on a cheap hatchet from the bargain bin at one of the local tool houses. My thinking is that if I mess this up, I can sneak it into the campfire while Claude and the other black powder geeks are dozing, and nobody will see what an awful job I did! :thumbsup:
So it is that I unleashed my ignorance on this poor wretch below. Not only was I inexperienced, but I was seriously impatient. I couldn't wait to see what effects staining would have. I didn't let the glues under the inlays cure long enough. I didn't take the time to properly measure for the skip line checkering. Once I damned near cut my middle finger off with a slip - the idiots among us are reminded that axes are sharp! Respect the blades! That little stunt cost me 6 stitches! Ouch!
Yecht! :barf: Stop laughing you guys!!! :cursing: The friggin wire inlays don't work well around compound curves and I was trying for a 3D effect with the carving - bah! Oh well, I learned something. On the other side I tried for a thistle silver inlay:
I sanded and filed and smoothed it out and it looked really good. Then I got the bright idea of anchoring it with a brass tack and the damned thing bent and curled up - and I threw a temper tantrum Donald Duck would have been proud of! I must have sanded everything out and started again three or four times, each attempt as bad as the last! I am so damned mad now that this one is going into the fire pit, and Satan can have it with my compliments! :cursing:
Thankfully when my stitches came out, my spirits were low and I was thinking of quitting, the fine fellers at Track of the Wolf came through! They sent me an e-mail about a sale on these:
http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Cate...x?catId=9&subId=60&styleId=231&partNum=AXE-CE
AND - because I am such a big wheel and VIP customer - they threw in an extra handle!!! These guys are AWESOME!!! :hatsoff:
When I got the package the blade was shiny and new - I would have to rust brown it. There is no edge on it either when it ships from the factory, so idiots (who shall remain nameless) won't open themselves up on the blade while they work on it! Sweet! I will strop that to a razor when it's finished!
With the first handle I tried the skip line checkering and the thistle inlay again:
On the other side I wanted to do an inlay of a horse's head:
Unfortunately it kept popping out, and I filed and sanded so much that the inlay went from looking something like a horse to looking more like a Great Dane with elephantisis!
:shake: Sheesh, that looks like chit! Part of the problem was that these handles are cheap. This is not an expensive axe, so I don't feel disappointed or angry at the guys at TOTW. This axe is sold as mere tool and was not meant to be embellished. (If all you want is a chit house belt axe, those handles will work just fine). I tried leather dye as a stain and it just didn't take right either. I started on the second handle and did some preliminary scratchin' but it was going the same way as the first.
Trying to checker and stain crappy wood wasn't working for me so I dug out a nice piece of curly maple from the scrap pile and bought a $12.00 rasp from Home Despot. I used the TOTW handle to trace the pattern - and I'll be darned! I made a perfectly good handle for myself! Look at this!
It's the first time I ever made a handle and that thing came out just fine! And my goodness, that curly maple made the checkering a dream come true. Some brass tacks, some cabernet stain, and she came out like this:
When I set it out like that, the clouds parted, the heavens shone down and the angels sang their praise! My head swelled right up as I basked in my accomplishment, and I called a friend up to brag and gloat. He was amazed that you could shave an ape and have him turn out a piece of work like that! My life just couldn't get any better!
Then his 12 year old son saw it and claimed it.
Oh well. Another call to the turkeys at TOTW and a couple more weeks and I will have another - and this one will have inlays too! :thumbsup:
Wish me luck fellers!
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