Great Newspaper Headlines

I realize that the following has absolutely nothing to do with woodcarving but it does go along with a posting from last fall.  People, in this case newspaper editors, don't say what they think they are saying.  Check out these headlines...with my comments, of course!


Include Your Children When Baking Cookies - Do you add them before or after the vanilla?

Kids Make Nutritious Snacks - Yum!

Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Experts Say - That would be my guess.

Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant - That's one way to solve the problem.

Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers - Better than hanging 'em!

Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half - Talk about severe punishment.

Drunks Get Nine Months in Violin Case - Must have been a really big violin!

Iraqi Head Seeks Arms - A brain would be good, too.

Is There a Ring of Debris around Uranus? - Oh, I hope not!

Prostitutes Appeal to Pope - To each his own.

Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over - ibid.

Teacher Strikes Idle Kids - I've been tempted myself.

_________ Wins Budget; More Lies Ahead - You fill in the blank.

Plane Too Close to Ground, Crash Probe Told - I concur.

Miners Refuse to Work After Death - I sure wouldn't do it.

Stolen Painting Found by Tree - I guess the tree got "board" just standing around.

Two Sisters Reunited after 18 Years in Checkout Counter- They didn't recognize each other?

War Dims Hope for Peace - That follows.

If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last a While - That has been my experience.

Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide - They've been watching CSI!

Man Struck by Lightning Faces Battery Charge - You'd think he'd had enough.

New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group - Serve more Pizza.  Problem solved.


Typhoon Rips through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead - Gives a whole new meaning to "RIP"

'Til next time...Keep makin' Chips and improvin' your sentence construction.

Downhill Racer

They say that confession is good for the soul, so here's another true Confession from the Carvin' Tom workbench:  "While I can claim that I drew up the plan for this little guy, transferred it to a block of wood, cut it out on the band saw, carved and painted it, I can take absolutely no credit for the actual concept behind him."
Here's the story: 

A couple of days after Christmas, my wife and I were in the downtown Columbus, Ohio library enjoying their Christmas Train display with our daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren.  After examining the train from ground level, I took a stroll up the steps behind the display to get a bird’s eye view of the castles, buildings and trains.  At the top of the stairs (the second floor balcony) I discovered a display case that had been produced by a design class (or perhaps classes) from a local college (I don't think that it was Ohio State, but I'm not sure at this point) that was just overflowing with ideas for future carvings.

Inside the glass case was a whimsical underground community inhabited by literally dozens of energetic (albeit, carved wooden) mice doing all of the things that mice "might" do if they were only "slightly" more human-like. 

From the one side you could peer into a labyrinth of underground tunnels filled with:
     1) Brick-lined streets with little "hobbit" houses with all manner of
         interesting appointments: miniature tables, chairs, beds, cupboards and
         even Grandfather clocks,
     2) Little shops with front widows overflowing with treats to tantalize even the
         fussiest of mice,
     3) Hoards of "little-mouse-children" playing "little-mouse-children" games
In short, it was a complete world where the residents were actively living, shopping and playing.

From the other side you could see the snow-covered, outside world where there were even more mice of all sizes and ages riding their sleds, playing the snow, or doing what our little friend is doing here -- racing down the hill on a pair of skis.

I must have spent a half an hour walking around and around the case just trying to take it all in. The attention to detail and the numbers of imaginative characters was just amazing. Every place I looked there was another little detail that I missed on the pass before. 

This carving is just one of the many ideas that I took away from the display and, I dare say, that if in the future you find another carved mouse doing something distinctly "un-mouse-like" on this blog you can probably assume that I got the inspiration from the display at the downtown Columbus Library display.

The body of this little guy was carved from a chunk of basswood.  For strength, the tail was carved separately from some sort of hard, very pungent, cedar-like wood and glued on.  I had fun carving him all hunkered over like he is.  I think he thinks he's flying. 

His skis were my first attempt at bending wood. I cut them out of a piece of  cherry and sanded them smooth. I built a little jig out of a block of wood and a couple pieces of 1/4" dowel rod.  I stuck the skis in a pan of water, boiled them for about 10 minutes, pulled them out of the water and clamped them both in the jig, one above the other. 

The two skis ended up not being "quite" the same.  Prior to actually executing "the bend", I was afraid I might have trouble getting the dowel rods into place quickly enough, so when I drilled the holes in the jig I made them slightly oversized and probably didn't make them as deep as they should have been. As a result the ski on the bottom was held much more rigidly than the one on top and ended up being much closer to "spec" than the other.   But for a first effort, they are plenty close enough alike for me. Heck, he likes 'em!  As it turns out you don't have to work quite as quickly as I imagined.  My recommendation would be to use thicker dowel rods -- like maybe 1/2" -- and make sure that the holes they slip into are nice and snug so nothing can move.

Just a side note: If you live anywhere in the Columbus area and you haven't seen the train or the "mouse case", you must add it to your "to do" list for next year's Christmas season.  The train scenery is right out of "Harry Potter" and the mouse case...well...you've got to see it to believe it.  You'll love them both and the price is free...I think there is even a break on the cost of parking on weekends.

One for the Bench:

Don't toss your dashed hopes into the trash bin.  Instead, place them carefully into a drawer where you are likely to re-discover them some bright, sunny morning. -
Slightly paraphrased from Robert Brault.

‘Til next time…Keep makin’ chips.

I think I finally got it right

The Dove and the Rainbow - rev 4.0

It has taken 4 tries but I believe that I finally have the proportions right for the Dove and the Rainbow.  I had no more than finished...in fact, as I think about it, I had not yet finished...the Dove and Rainbow, rev 3.0 (the one with the cloud) when a friend asked me to make yet another Dove and Rainbow as a gift for her sister.

The Dove and the Rainbow - rev 3.0

The Dove and the Rainbow - Rev 2.0

Over the course of making the 4 iterations of this carving, I have continuously made each the rainbows skinner and skinner always looking for the best dove/rainbow size ratio.  I think that now, finally, the rainbow and the dove are properly proportioned. 


Tell me what you think.

One for the Bench:

            You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than
             you can by what others say about him.

'Til next time...keep makin' chips!

Good Ol' No. 119

No. 119

After six years of construction on the Transcontinental Railroad, the trailheads of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads finally met at Promontory
Summit in the Utah Territory on May 10, 1869. 

To commemorate the completion of this incredible accomplishment, two locomotives, the Union Pacific's westbound "No. 119" and the Central Pacific's eastbound "Jupiter" came together until their cowcatchers were separated by less than the length of a single railroad tie.  Four spikes, two made of  Gold from California, one made of Silver from Nevada and one made of Gold, Silver and Iron from Arizona were driven into the final tie while the message: "Dot...Dot...Dot...Done" was flashed from coast to coast by telegraph.

I understand that my accomplishment here pales in comparison to laying a couple of thousand miles of railroad tracks, but about a year ago, I produced a model of the "Jupiter" for John, my one boss, in honor of his 20th anniversary with our company.  That might sound like an odd subject for an anniversary present, but when your company makes railroad equipment, it actually *does* make sense. 

This week, my other boss, Harry, finally caught up and celebrated his 20th anniversary.  It was only fitting that he should receive a model of the *other* of these two historic locomotives.

Just like the "Jupiter", old "No. 119" was made primarily of Basswood although there are a few odds and ends that I fashioned out of small dowel rods and other wood scraps.  I turned the boiler, smokestack, sand and steam domes, cylinders, bell and wheels on the lathe and then assembled the cab, cowcatcher and drive rods from hand-carved/cut pieces. 

The roof of the cab was covered with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper painted black to simulate rolled roofing.  The track measures 16" long and the case makes the overall length about 2" longer.  I do hope that Harry has room for this relatively large piece in his new house:-)

The two locomotives are "nominally" of the same scale.  Unfortunately, the lack of any drawings and only a few good photos  -- those taken at right angles to the train so I could actually measure things -- made it very difficult to get them to agree in all details.  I did do a much better of getting the gauge of the tracks correct on this locomotive.  The wheel spacing was far too wide on the first locomotive, once again because I couldn't locate any really good photos or drawings to work from.  It looks great from the side but sadly way out of scale when viewed head on.

After it was all said and done, I realized that I had actually built both models "upside-down".  In real life, the locomotives of the day were built from the ground up and as I see now that methodology is preferable for building models, too.  It probably would have forced the design to be more accurate if I had started with a specified rail spacing and built the wheels, frame and body to match.  Getting the rail spacing to exactly match the wheel spacing of an already completed model was much tougher - to say nothing of less forgiving - than it would have been the other way around.

I did get a little smarter this time when it came to the finish.  In my opinion, the "Jupiter" suffered from a serious case of "Model Fuzz".  No matter how well I sanded it, the texture of the wood still showed through the paint.  This time, I used a couple of coats of sanding sealer on the boiler, stack and domes -- sanding between coats with 220-grit sandpaper - prior to painting.   Then when I applied the acrylic paint, it went onto an already smooth, hard surface.  That worked much better! 

I also spray-painted all of the brass items.  The metallic, acrylic brush-on paints (e.g., brass, gold, silver) that I have run across must use actual metal pigments mixed with a vehicle that is very transparent.  They always seem to go on "chunky" and require quite a number of coats for good coverage.  That might work on a big item or something that wasn't supposed to be made from metal but on something this small, it looks really bad.

Another gentleman produced the beautiful, slope-top Plexiglas case and cherry wood base for this train as well as John's last year - Thanks, Ken.

Harry and his Train

One bit of trivia I learned during my research on these two locomotives is that you can tell what type of fuel a steam locomotive uses by the shape of the smoke stack:

The "Funnel" or "Cabbage" stack locomotives (like the "Jupiter") burned wood and needed the huge stack so as not to set the tracks or surrounding forests ablaze as the train passed through.  Apparently, the larger stack allowed for baffles and screens that let the hot gases and smoke escape while any solids, including glowing embers, swirled around and eventually fell down into a chamber for later cleanout.

Coal-burning locomotives had straight stacks that may or may not have had any sort of "ember-trapping" screens.

One from the bench

     He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.

"Til next time...Keep makin' chips!

Another Commemorative Plaque

Another dedicated and enthusiastic group of mission workers from Beulah Presbyterian Church in Churchill, PA http://www.beulahpresby.org is preparing for another trip to "Katrina-land" to help some of the unfortunate individuals in Mississippi try to put their houses and their lives back together.

Most of us who came through that big storm without so much as a scratch would probably shocked to realize that it has been over 5 years (!) since Katrina hit.  This occurred to me when Jeff, the trip organizer, came to see me a few weeks ago to ask if I would be willing to carve another "housewarming gift" for the group to take along.

Jeff's request was a little different this year.  Previously the gift has always been given to one of the families that they help during that trip, but this year Jeff wanted to show the team's appreciation the church that serves as their "home away from home" for the construction week.  That church is a Christian and Missionary Alliance Church and the carving is a rendering of the church's logo.

Except for the cross which is made from cherry, the plaque is done in basswood. Each piece was fashioned separately and the "let-in" to the round basswood back to give it a relief-carved look.  I turned the crown on the lathe, cut it almost in half and then veeeerrry carefully cut the points into the crown (the points were very thin and cross-grain).  It was the last thing to be "let-in" and needed be shaped to fit over base of the chalice and the pitcher (see the second photo).

The only real problem that I encountered was in the final step of the finishing process.  I sprayed the plaque with polyurethane, but I had to do it in the garage where it was pretty cold (remember, it's February in Pittsburgh!).  Immediately after spraying, I rushed the still dripping plaque into the shop and sat it under a lightbulb to keep it warm while it dried.  After a couple of hours I went to buff it with some #0000 steel wool prior to applying a coat of paste wax.  While the polyurethane felt dry and hard, under the surface it had the consistency of chewing gum.  It grabbed a hold of every single particle of steel wool "dust" and just wouldn't let go.  All I could do was repeatedly wipe down the surface with mineral spirits to remove the stickiness, sand it all smooth again and apply the wax.  As a result the finish is anywhere near as nice as I had hoped for.

Note to self: Give more thought to the idea of adding a nice warm spray booth to the shop!

One for the Bench:
  
    Those who criticize our generation...or the next...forget who raised it.

'Til next time...keep makin' chips!

I wasn't expecting this one at all

Some time last year I carved the "Water is Life" plaque (left) to commemorate the passing of a woman from a co-worker's church who had devoted her life to raising money to install water wells in Malawi. 

I sort of assumed that it would be hung in their church or given to the woman's family as a memorial.  But I was wrong.  Apparently, this past Lenten Season, my co-worker's church raised enough money to have another well installed in Malawi.  One of the parishioners took the money and the plaque to Malawi and this picture shows the results of their -- and I guess my -- efforts. 

All those happy people kinda made me feel good this morning.  (I'm guessing that the plaque won't stay out there on the pump.)

My co-worker  indicated that his church is planning on raising money for another well during this upcoming Lenten season.  So, if you are interested in helping in that effort, drop me an e-mail and I'll connect  you with him.

That's enough.  I probably don't really need a "One from the Bench" today:-)


'Til next time...keep makin' chips!

Snow Demon Exorcized

I carved the pictured Snowman plate last year.  Loyal readers are aware of the damage inflicted on the Northeast last February (the snowiest February in the history of Pittsburgh) that was *apparently* the result of our leaving it on the wall next to the front door past the end of the Christmas season.

I say "apparently" because when my wife and finally associated his presence with the massive accumulation of snow, we removed him from the wall and the snow stopped almost instantaneously with  very little snow accumulating after that date.....Hmmmm.

Now as an Engineer with 40 years experience I am not given to believing in hochus-pochus, but in this case I have to admit that I can't argue with the empirical data collected thus far.

We hung the rascal again before Christmas without any undue problems.  We figured that the demon probably has some sort of agreement already worked out with Santa Claus to provide snow for the recipients of skis, snowboards and sleds to try them out.  We vowed to take him down the moment the weather turned bad but Christmas came and went and despite the accumulating snow outside, my wife and I ignored his presence.

Then suddenly, late last week, after about the 20th day of snow in a row, we realized that he was still hanging on the wall.  Immediately, we snatched him off and replaced the hand-carved, wall-hanging with our initials that normally hangs there.  The snow, although still falling, has abated considerably.  In fact, the "Groundhog Day" blizzard that devastated the Midwest and Northeast just went right around Pittsburgh leaving us pretty much unscathed.

Coincidence???  Well, I don't know.  We're going to try him one more chance next year and if he isn't on his best behavior, he's staying in the box with the other Christmas decorations from then on.  Maybe they can rehabilitate him:-)

One For the Bench:

     You do not need a parachute to skydive.  But you do need a parachute to skydive twice.  OK...ok...I admit that's pretty lame, but  it makes about as much sense as this posting:-)

'Til next time...  Stay warm and keep makin' chips!

Happy 1000th !

This morning I checked the blog's hit counter and found that as of this morning "Carvin' Tom's" has been visited 1002 times!

It feels good to know that somebody -- or in this case a bunch of somebodys -- has been paying attention to my ramblings.  I've actually had people that have spent the best part of 30 minutes here and have read dozens of posts.  That is a great feeling.  Thanks!

I know that I haven't posted anything new recently and I apologize for that.  I have been working on a couple of new pieces but as usual they are surprises and can't be revealed just yet.  I promise that I'll get them up as soon as I can.

Oh, check out the newly  added blog to my list of links: www.theoldstump.blogspot.com.  Brandant has been posting some really fine caricature tutorials.

One for the Bench

     Only the wisest and the stupidest of men never change.

'Til next time...Keep makin' chips!

The Dove and Rainbow, revisited

You may recall from earlier this year, I posted a bit about, Scott, a ventriloquist friend of mine who gave a very nice presentation about how to carve and paint dummies at our carving club.  It was quite a nice evening.


I think that I mentioned at the time that his church (Scott is one of the two Pastors there) was in the process of adding a 6000 square foot addition onto their building and completely renovating their sanctuary.   They have done a nice job.  It really looks fantastic now!.

I promised him that I would make a "housewarming gift" to commemorate the new addition.  Since then I have been trying to come up with an original idea and finally decided to fall back on a previous design, or at least something based on a previous design, the Dove and the Rainbow and the picture shows the final product.


The proportions of my previous efforts (this one is the third) have always bothered me.  The rainbow was too short and too wide.  I managed to beg borrow and steal...well, not actually "steal"...chunks of a number of different types of wood for the rainbow.  This rainbow is about twice a long as the previous ones, about 2/3s as wide and has an additional stripe.  I would have like to have even more stripes but the colors of the wood I was able to find just weren't varied enough to merit it.  The species of wood, from top to bottom are: Bloodwood, Cherry, Butternut, Oak and Purpleheart.


I wanted to have a place to add a little brass plate with the title and appropriate bible verses, so I added the cloud.    The dove and the cloud are both carved from basswood.


One of the people that my wife works with reminded me that I really needed to add an olive branch.  I had thought of the before but this time I bent one up of tinned copper wire, filled in the leaves with solder and superglued it in place.  I think it was a nice touch although any similarity between it and a real olive twig is purely coincidental.

I hope you like it.

One from the Bench:


         Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought.

'Til next time...Keep Makin' Chips!

Railroad Signal Lamps

To say the least, my daytime job is often "a bit different" from what most people experience in their lifetimes. Here's one reason why:

My company makes electronic signal equipment for the railroad industry. Quite a number of years ago my bosses decided to shoehorn some of our equipment into a Garden "G" Gauge model train so that they could demonstrate its operation on a moving (albeit small) train at trade shows. Over the years the train display has grown in size and complexity. The latest iteration measures 10 feet by 30 feet and has a bit more than 80 feet of track in sort of a "flattened dog bone" shape. The rear edge alone has 2 mainlines and 2 sidings, each more than 15 feet long!

Over the past few weeks it has actually been my job, if you can call it that, to spend my time cutting and fastening the track with foam rubber track bed on the new display. Yeah, I know. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it!

The display is pretty much devoid of any scenery except for a couple pieces of wayside equipment, e.g., the signal lamps. The longer I worked on the track and the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that the signal lamps that we have used for years just didn't quite measure up to the standards of the new display, so I decided to make some replacements. The picture shows one of the four new signal lamps that I built.

I am sure that there are those who would slavishly conform to the required scale to ensure authenticity in all model train projects. I realized early on that, although all 4 of our trains are all considered "G" gauge trains, none of them were built to exactly the same scale. So, no matter what scale I chose, it wouldn't be quite right. Instead, I just sort of "eyeballed" the scale and made the signal lamps about 7 inches tall or about even with the average cab roof.

Originally, I had planned to blather on here with a blow by blow description of how I put it together on the off chance that someone might want to actually duplicate them. After a sobering evening's reflection I realized that anyone who was that interested could just look at my annotated photo and glean everything they need to know to duplicate what I did. If you want more info than that, just drop me an e-mail. I can probably tell you much more that you will want to listen to.:-)

The display will debut in September in Minneapolis (?) and then be disassembled and rushed to another show in New Orleans (?) just a week or two later. Now, on to the wiring...

One from the Bench:

Don't let your victories go to your head, or your failures go to your heart.


'Til next time...Keep makin' chips!