oldravendale
Western Thunderer
Amazing, Pete. Just amazing. (And I go along with the comment about the wood grain, but I don't suppose any railway anywhere ever wood grained brass....)
Brian
Brian
Finescale - of a sort?!
- Thread starter Peter Insole
- Start date
Boyblunder
Western Thunderer
Peter Insole
Western Thunderer
It does seem a shame to paint it! I am hoping the covering will adhere after all the handling too - as I just can't resist the temptation of constantly fondling the beautiful material!
Carved hardwood is so smooth and sooo tactile!
Way back, when I was but a mere sprog, my family were keen to encourage my artistic tendencies by submitting my work to the Royal Drawing Society, Annual Exhibition in London, for three consecutive years. After one preview, a well known art critic effusively wrote that he considered that I was the "new Whistler"!
Ah well, not to be, but how wrong was he?! Could anyone have imagined that his error was only a matter of spelling?!
Otherwise, thank you all for your kind comments!
Pete.
Carved hardwood is so smooth and sooo tactile!
Way back, when I was but a mere sprog, my family were keen to encourage my artistic tendencies by submitting my work to the Royal Drawing Society, Annual Exhibition in London, for three consecutive years. After one preview, a well known art critic effusively wrote that he considered that I was the "new Whistler"!
Ah well, not to be, but how wrong was he?! Could anyone have imagined that his error was only a matter of spelling?!
Otherwise, thank you all for your kind comments!
Pete.
Eastsidepilot
Western Thunderer
Pete, a bag of sand and a couple of wooden boxes, we could cast a real one from that ! 
.......................got me coat 
Nice woodwork by the way
Col.
.......................got me coat Nice woodwork by the way
Col.
Overseer
Western Thunderer
There is special primer for oak to block the tannin and give paint a chance of staying on. Last time I specified it was around 1997 for the new French Oak panelling in the Blue drawing room at Waddesdon Manor. It looked amazing before it was painted and still did afterwards, but in a different way. Your safety valves will look just right, and we will all know they are oak.
Peter Insole
Western Thunderer
Funny you should say that Col... the thought had crossed my mind, for just a nanosecond... before I remembered there would be a cost!
There is a reason why I had briefly wondered if a casting might be worthwhile though... as you will see in the following:
The only practical way that I could see to carve the cast branch off the main valve column for the whistle mount was to make it as a separate piece. Quite apart from not having a lump of Oak (or indeed any other suitable timber) of the right proportions to include the branch, the complex shaping at the top intersection point was a bit too brain scrambling for me to even contemplate an attempt!
An offcut from the main proved to be perfect... if just a little fiddly to work:
I had to drill the holes first, while the wee block was still in the square, although to reduce the risk of splitting the grain, I also had to chisel out a section on the wobbly end to provide a small section of flat for the bit to start on.
This particular hole had to be at a shallow angle, so I packed the vice of the drill table as well.
Then yet more of the dust generating fun got going again:
Oh, by the way, I nearly forgot to record the result of that previous drilling exercise, so made sure I took this shot before continuing.
Can you tell where this is going yet?
After an awful lot of fettling, flattening, fidgeting and fitting of pegs for a final, super strong glue up...
The finished item was finally fixed firmly in place:
Yep! It is hollow all the way through!
(I ran a cable tie in and out before the adhesive had cured to check that none had squidged out and was blocking the double bent passageways!)
I know... I know, it must be way beyond bonkers to even think of perhaps fitting a working whistle (possibly using something like a Co2 cartridge?) at some later date... just imagining how the neighbours might become thoroughly annoyed during the summer season timetable!
It did seem to be a good idea to at least give myself the option of being able to feed a slender, flexible tube through, and down into the large, hollow dome below?!
Pete.
There is a reason why I had briefly wondered if a casting might be worthwhile though... as you will see in the following:
The only practical way that I could see to carve the cast branch off the main valve column for the whistle mount was to make it as a separate piece. Quite apart from not having a lump of Oak (or indeed any other suitable timber) of the right proportions to include the branch, the complex shaping at the top intersection point was a bit too brain scrambling for me to even contemplate an attempt!
An offcut from the main proved to be perfect... if just a little fiddly to work:
I had to drill the holes first, while the wee block was still in the square, although to reduce the risk of splitting the grain, I also had to chisel out a section on the wobbly end to provide a small section of flat for the bit to start on.
This particular hole had to be at a shallow angle, so I packed the vice of the drill table as well.
Then yet more of the dust generating fun got going again:
Oh, by the way, I nearly forgot to record the result of that previous drilling exercise, so made sure I took this shot before continuing.
Can you tell where this is going yet?
After an awful lot of fettling, flattening, fidgeting and fitting of pegs for a final, super strong glue up...
The finished item was finally fixed firmly in place:
Yep! It is hollow all the way through!
(I ran a cable tie in and out before the adhesive had cured to check that none had squidged out and was blocking the double bent passageways!)
I know... I know, it must be way beyond bonkers to even think of perhaps fitting a working whistle (possibly using something like a Co2 cartridge?) at some later date... just imagining how the neighbours might become thoroughly annoyed during the summer season timetable!
It did seem to be a good idea to at least give myself the option of being able to feed a slender, flexible tube through, and down into the large, hollow dome below?!
Pete.
timbowales
Western Thunderer
Or you could thread some wires through and have a sugar cube loudspeaker hidden in the whittled whistle......
Peter Insole
Western Thunderer
Yes indeed, something of that order thank you Tim... It would certainly be a slightly less potentially explosive way to go about it?!
I'm getting a bit excited now...!!
Pete.
I'm getting a bit excited now...!!
Pete.