Scott asks .....a few questions that get long wordy answers...
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>Couple questions I have always had.
>The skutchins?
>Having a perfect inlay recess means you need a matching inlay.
>I assume you filed out yours first and used it to mark the template.
>But now that you made the template, what will be the easiest way to
>reproduce skutchins?
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I made the template first, then traced with a sharp scribe inside and
cut around and filed just outside my line.
They were / are usually pressed, but I have a cheat in mind. Years ago
I saw a tool that was simply a sheet of saw steel with two 1/8 inch
holes drilled about 1/2 inch apart, and the shield shape ( or any
other shape) sawn through with a jeweller's saw at about a 15 deg
angle and spaced about 2 inches from the holes. Your silver (up to
about 1mm thick) is tucked under the shape and it is squeezed in the
jaws of a vice, or press....instant mass produced escutcheons...!!
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>Also template placement and holddown?
>Suppose you have a dinky 2 blade sleeveboard, (a small pattern of
>pocketknife) in pearl,
>and you want to line up the shield with the lines of the knife?
>I guess you can mark the scale with a felt tip and try to line up the
> template that way.
> But how do you get it to hold still whilst you bow the tune???
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Scott....the order of work is the key.
Do the cutting of the recess first, with it clamped upright in a vice.
When I make something that will have curves and fancy shapes on it,
but will also have some applied decoration that will need good
alignment, I will do the applied decoration first, then draw my
guidelines from that part to my outline....much easier. My first rule
of making ANYTHING is work from what I know to what I don't. Your
question is how would I locate the shield on the shell. Well I would
look to the whole job and see that that will be a difficulty, and I
have the shield in my hand, and I have a blank knife shell, so put it
in the location I KNOW will give me waste all around. It might be only
a few mm all around the knife sides but I will have the front of the
shell and the back of the shell co-planar, and if I lay it out right
and scribe or draw a line through it I will have a LONG axis through
the shield along a line of axis on the shell to match with the knifes
axis...much easier to get right.
So often I see the proud display of semi-finished work that will have
the best efforts over cut with another one two or sometime even more
processes later. It is a fault that takes away any reference points,
lines or planes that are your guides later. I use those all the time
to get things right.
Best described like finishing a lever cap knob completely, and then
doing the inlay in it. Machine making might make all this seem a
little unimportant, but hand making stuff is all about not snookering
yourself later. I'm always allowing a little in the seams to make it
right later.
Hope that makes some sense...???
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>Oh one last dumb question.
>Does the thimble need to be so close to your body? It looks pretty
>uncomfortable bowing.
>I keep wondering, if you used a longer shaft,..................
> well, all I have seen, have very short shafts with the thimble right
>up against you. Does it need to be there for another reason I am not
>seeing?
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The pulling back and forth on the bow is pretty vigorous, and if for
instance it was half way between the chest and the cutters the thing
would be pulled from side to side. If you half that distance - 1/4 the
sideways force at the cutter, half it again and so on until it is
negligible when it is right up hard on the chest.
I think I got that right from my studies in engineering 35 years
ago....but if you had it in your hands for 1/2 a second you would've
felt it have almost no sideways force due to the effective long lever,
even though you were pushing left and right like crazy. All you get is
rotation.
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>yours
>and way to go!!!
>Scott
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Thanks Scott,
But I feel like an idiot.....I have an awful infection in the end
joint of my middle finger...I stabbed myself with a needle file doing
the next slightly smaller shield shape.
And I don't want to re-cut the teeth on the tool I already have
because it will do small work really well, so I want to make another.
Tomorrow...woops...today....it is a Holiday....Australia Day, so I
might get a chance to take some pictures and do a bit more of a write
up.
Regards,
Peter
In Melbourne, Australia.....happy Australia Day !!
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