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Regulator Clock – Eat dessert first

August 28, 2017 by Bob Easton 6 Comments

Gratitude: I’m always grateful for having so many choices.

Whether it is carving wood, making boxes, creating websites, or building boats, I have so many choices that things sometimes get set aside.

Jeweler's clock

My original article about this clock was 3 and 1/2 years ago. The clock has a mechanical movement, one that is fine enough to be categorized as a “regulator.” In the age of mechanical movements, regulators were used as reference sources for setting other clocks. Building a regulator clock is a “bucket list” project for me. I watched the clock catalogs as fine, robust mechanical movements faded away, being replaced by quartz crystals and cheap Chinese plastic. The very few fine brass mechanical movements still being produced are becoming ever more expensive. So, I grabbed one a few years ago before the price became stratospheric. Once I acquired the mechanical movement, I roughed out some cherry lumber and set the project aside.

Now, I’m getting back to it. The cherry lumber is well acclimated. I still have the original drawings, 8 large sheets. The movement and other parts are still in their original boxes waiting to go to work.

Most of it will be built according to plan, except… I’m a woodcarver and wanted more carving detail than the original plan. More than the original, but not as much as the baroque Vienna Regulators. I have redrawn the stack of top moldings, replacing the dentil molding with egg and dart.

  • drawing of top and bottom moldings
  • detail drawing of top molding changes

This is where we come to eating dessert first. The moldings will be the most fun because making them is building new skills. So, moldings are the dessert I’m eating first, especially the egg and dart. Then, the other molding profiles, and lastly the case. About half of the moldings are directly on the edges of parts of the case, on boards. The rest are on sticks that wrap around the case. Let’s start with the sticks. To get to the desired dimensions, a couple of them are laminated. I glued them up long ago with hide glue and have oriented the profiles to avoid exposing join lines. (click photo to enlarge.)

Now for the most fun, the egg and dart. Prepping the wood for the egg and dart is relatively easy. It is basically a stick with one corner rounded over. After 4-squaring the stick, a #9 hollow does most of the work. I added extra shadow lines along the top and bottom of the egg and dart pattern by first using a marking gauge and then deepening those marking lines with a rebate  plane tilted about 45 degrees. A pair of dividers and a plastic pattern (Thank You Mary May) helps with laying out the carving pattern.

  • photo of egg and dart stick with #9 hollow plane
  • photo of egg and dart stick with extra shadow lines
  • photo of egg and dart pattern

After that, it’s a simple matter of carving. Well…. my carving bench doesn’t hold a 40 inch work piece. The answer is a pair of vee-blocks and some creative clamping. The last picture in this episode is of a practice piece. It has promise and I learned from it.

  • photo showing vee-blocks on the carving bench
  • photo of an egg and dart practice piece

Other articles in this series…

  • Regulator Clock – Done
  • Regulator Clock – Woodworking completed
  • Regulator Clock – Scratching the frames
  • Regulator Clock – Door Hinged
  • Regulator Clock – Case Dry Fitted
  • Regulator Clock – Jelly Side Down
  • Regulator Clock – Case Frames – 2
  • Regulator Clock – Glass – 2
  • Regulator Clock – Case Frames – 1
  • Regulator Clock – The Works work
  • Regulator Clock – Glass
  • Regulator Clock – Tongue & Groove planes
  • Regulator Clock – Completed Mouldings
  • Regulator Clock – Stick Mouldings
  • Regulator Clock – Plate Mouldings
  • Regulator Clock – Egg and Dart Moulding
  • Regulator Clock – Eat Dessert First
  • Regulator Clock – original description
  • Regulator Clock – Stock Prep
  • Regulator Clock – Plans for Moldings
  • Taming the Rabbet

Filed Under: Clocks, Woodcarving

Small Wonders
at The Cloisters in New York

May 2, 2017 by Bob Easton Leave a Comment

It is an extraordinary exhibit! It’s still on for another few weeks. If you go, take a magnifying glass (or use your phone camera’s zoom feature) to see the details. These carvings are TINY! Most of them are in the neighborhood of 2 inches in diameter.

As best as anyone knows, these objects are about 500 years old and appear to have been created in the Netherlands. At least that is where most of them have been found, passed from generation to generation in the families of patrons and collectors. Precisely who made them and precisely where, no one knows.

One of the conservators, Peter Dandrige believes that the vast majority of them came from one carver, or from that carver’s workshop. David Esterley isn’t quite convinced of that. He’s seen other instances of many people taking up a popular genre and working with it until the market waned. In either case, it’s thought that the creation of these miniatures was done only for about one generation.

Peter Dandrige and David Esterly gave a talk at the exhibit on Sunday, April 30. Peter is one of the conservators who examined these carvings with all manner of imaging techniques, such as “micro CT.” David Esterly, as many of us know is a renown, current day, carver. Both offered a great amount of speculation about these miniatures. Peter talked of discovering how the carvings are made of layers, as shown in the video. David talked of wood carving techniques, brought along a block of boxwood to show how dense and tight grained it is, and even had a “layer” of his own that he had begun carving in the style of these 500 year old carvings. David said he used his smallest tools and still ended up with a result 30-50% too large.

Much of the speculation, of course, was about the making of these miniatures. Peter believes that the holes found in many layers were more than for assembly, but also for work holding while carving. David suggests otherwise, that mere pins would not have been enough to take the pressure of working. He speculates that the carver(s?) used tabs extending beyond the edge of each scene as pads for clamping.

Since they are so small, the best way to see them in close detail is to use either of two resources:

  • The exhibition’s catalogs (there are two) have many very high quality photos, along with a number of essays. My choice among the two is the one published by “AGO Research” the people who did the actual research.
  • An online site “The Boxwood Project,” has an extensive collection of high resolution photos and a zoom tool  that lets one magnify these carvings to the point of being able to see tool marks.

For carvers, there’s an excellent essay, “The Making of Gothic Boxwood Miniatures” at the Boxwood Project site. That essay offers more photos of the layering technique and a photo of some tools used by yet another artist, 150 years later, to create similar miniature carvings.

Lastly, here is a borrowed screen capture at about 75% zoom from one of the images at The Boxwood Project site. (click for a larger view)

screen capture - Adoration of the Magi miniature boxwood carving

 

Filed Under: Woodcarving

This Eagle Walks

February 10, 2017 by Bob Easton 6 Comments

photo of eagle head walking caneHistory claims that mankind started in the nearly tropical Garden of Eden. Later, some men moved northward and ended up in places where there is sometimes ice upon the ground. {Why?} One man recently made an unplanned maneuver on the ice and ended up with spiral fractures in both the lower bones of one leg. That will be a long time mending. He’s still not allowed to put any weight on that leg, but at some point will be able to set aside the knee scooter and crutches in favor of a simple walking cane. Maybe this one will help.

The cane is made from American Walnut. The head and the shaft both came from the same 7/8″ thick piece of lumber. The shaft is 1-7/8″ at the top tapering to 7/8″ at the bottom.

The primary concern for any walking cane is that it be safe enough to support a person without failing. The shaft on this one is easily strong enough for most adults. My biggest concern when making it was to ensure that the handle is so well affixed as to not come loose.  It is of tenon and mortise construction, but not a complete through tenon. I didn’t want a tenon sticking through the top of the eagle’s head.

photo of fox wedged tenon about to enter the mortiseThrough tenons are often tightened considerably using wedges. I tightened this tenon with “fox wedging.” No, I don’t know what a fox has to do with it, but that’s what it is called.

Wedges are inserted into slots in the tenon and driven home as the tenon enters the mortise. It’s a self-completing joint that had better be right when it is put together. I’ve never made one of these, but spent a lot of time ensuring enough room inside the mortise for expansion, but not so much as to make the wedging ineffective. (What is half of the wiggle room and how thick do those wedges need to be? Have I tapered the 3″ deep mortise enough? What is “plan B” if this thing gets stuck half way in? What’s “plan C” if it’s too loose, yet to tight to extract and refit?)

It worked on the first try.

The finish is several coats of “Tru-Oil gun stock finish.” That’s a very durable oil / varnish combination that brings out the natural walnut coloring. A coat of furniture wax and a rubber tip complete the cane.

I hope the recipient likes the Art-Deco style.

photo of eagle head walking cane
photo of eagle head walking cane
photo of eagle head walking cane

Filed Under: Woodcarving, Woodworking

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