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Antlers hotel

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2019 10:30 pm
by BillK
Hi there, have been away for a while.

My brother and sister-in-law live in a house that is on the site of a hotel that overlooks the Hudson river. The hotel was destroyed by fire many years ago. My brother found a post card of the hotel and when he showed it to me I thought "that would make a nice carving" :D

This is carved into a piece of light mahogany that has its own story as it was once under the Hudson River during hurricane Sandy back a few years ago.

I mostly used two rail sweeps to bring out the many angles of the building. My finishing technique after carving was to apply Boiled Linseed oil. Then a coat of amber shellac. After that dried, I used a water based stain that is walnut color and rubbed it over the building section and immediately wiped it off so that it only was capured in the indents. Followed that with 2 more coats of the shellac. The flat part was not sanded but hand planed smooth. I used a coat of Alfie shine on the flat parts (some of you from across the pond might be familiar with Alfie) after that. I'm pretty pleased with the results.

I plan to use this technique on other building scenes that I want to use.

Thanks for reading and looking. Enjoy!
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Re: Antlers hotel

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2019 10:56 pm
by highpockets
Great Job!!! I really like the hotel and the finish you applied.

Thanks for sharing....

Re: Antlers hotel

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2019 11:27 pm
by mark-s
Very nice...most impressive.
mark-s

Re: Antlers hotel

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2019 7:01 pm
by BillK
Thanks very much. Did one more coat of shellac on hotel carve section, looks great.

Re: Antlers hotel

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2019 7:15 pm
by scottp55
LIKING the detail and finish, as much as the story and the wood Bill !! :)
Well done!
scott

Re: Antlers hotel

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2019 3:40 pm
by BillK
Thanks Scott! I always appreciate your comments. I always like carving Mahogany.

Re: Antlers hotel

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2019 4:02 pm
by WNC_Ed
Awesome idea
Amazing execution.
Very cool stories behind the plaque and the wood.
Thank you for sharing the finishing technique, I always wonder how folks here make things look so good.
Great job!

Re: Antlers hotel

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 4:48 pm
by scottp55
Bill,
Did you use one of your Aspire designed wood planes?
Forgot to mention I liked the hand planed feature!
Even better that YOU used the software and made the plane?

Oh.....And THANKS a BUNCH for mentioning "Alfie Shine"!!! :)
You got me screen sucked for over two hours once I saw it had Copal in it!
Got jar with Copal and D-Limonene on my floor right now dissolving, once I found out 2 months ago it WILL (eventually) dissolve Central America Yellow Copal(first it sucks the color out of it to a nice honey color). NOT going to add any of my Myrrh or Frankincense resin yet :)
MAY add a hair of Carnauba to one of my beeswax/linseed mixes now, but need a candy thermometer if doing without solvents(beeswax discolors ALMOST at same temp as Carnauba melts).
So Thanks for sending me off on a tangent on Renaissance Finishes last night!! :D

Oh..REAL BOILED Linseed, or hardware store BLO?
Heavy metal salt "Dryers" and hand rubbing so much scares me(especially the Cobalt).
Earthpaint makes a good polymerized one(but last gallon I got takes 2-3 days....vs. 1 day with fan on previous 2 gallons...think they changed their "Boiling" heat?).

Again...Nice job!
scott

Re: Antlers hotel

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 6:32 pm
by BillK
Hi Scott,

Thanks for remembering my handplanes. I use them all the time! I used the block plane on the edges of this one. I wasn’t sure on the Mahogany so I do own a nice bevel up Veritas smoother that I used on the face. I’m making a plane till for my collection now, I’ll post a picture of it soon although it doesn’t have a ton of carving on it. Hand cut dovetails and dados. And smoothed and edged with my planes. I should also mention that I made some of my own irons recently out of O1 and nicely hardened and tempered. I’ll add a picture here.

Love that Alfie Shine. Just added another coat. Smells like Christmas!

And I will confess to hardware store BLO! This wood seemed so dry that I thought it could benefit from a little drink of that, lol.
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Re: Antlers hotel

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 7:42 pm
by scottp55
Nothing quite like a good planed surface!
Always liked Veritas stuff, but never even seen one of their planes in person. How's their body and iron? Backed off well?
Don't have a smoothing plane, but with a 35 degree my low angle Jack seems close;
https://www.lie-nielsen.com/product/low ... ?node=4167

Don't think I'll ever get into making my own Irons..congrats! :)
We don't use Linseed quite the same....and your BLO is covered up...so thirsty wood DID get a treat:)

Just stuck some Myrrh and Frankincense on the charcoal...Not going to add the cinnamon oil and clove oil as I don't have any...BET it smells nice(the house certainly does:)

Make sure and post the next Aspire designed Plane!! :)

Has your brother and his wife seen it yet?

scott

Re: Antlers hotel

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 8:13 pm
by BillK
Scott, the Veritas plane is everything you’d expect it to be for the price you pay for. Perfect out of the box. The thick iron is easy to hand sharpen. The casting is heavy. The tote and knob are beautiful.

No, they haven’t seen this one yet, I think this weekend we’ll deliver.

Thanks!