HAIIAPHNK

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I have already sent my customer a photo of the results of the work at this stage. He hasn't replied yet. He's probably busy right now. I think he will be able to check his email this weekend. I hope he likes it too. 

What a brilliant idea with the marker. I thought I was the only one who had trouble blackening brass. And here's such a great idea! Thank you. It's a great morning today, a chance to look at beautiful work and a beautiful ship. And to see some great advice. It's a great day!

1 hour ago, druxey said:

Lovely curves that you've cut. I also enjoy your sense of humor. Building one of these models requires that, I think!

 

Thank you for the high praise. 
I see that the photo makes visible what the eye in ordinary life does not notice. And I see a lot of inaccuracies. Maybe I'll even try to make another attempt so that I can't be picked on in a macro photo as well. For me this is the ideal. And I have something to strive for. There are such masters who delight with their exceptional accuracy.

 

And at the same time I want to say that if you can see mistakes from the outside, you can safely talk about the problems that you have noticed. I will of course first curse anyone who sees mistakes and says that my work is far from ideal. Perhaps I will run around the computer for a while, show my tongue, beat myself with my fists in my chest and show my dissatisfaction in various other ways. But soon it will pass and I will definitely start listening to criticism. Alas, such behavior is the norm for almost every artist. It doesn't work without it. That's why I warn you in advance, so that you are ready for anything. The main thing is not to be afraid at such moments, not to show your fear of my grimaces and shouts and not to make any sudden movements. You may not even look me in the eye, sometimes that helps too. Remember, you are at a safe distance. I have rarely had time to run to people who criticize me who are more than 100 kilometers away from me. More often I've managed to cool off on the way. So that should be a calming thought too.
 

And it's also important to realize that pointing out my mistakes is very important. Because there is a possibility that my eyes may get tired and not notice the mistake. Which means I might notice the problem much later.  So after a tantrum, I'm pretty much 100% thankful for the advice. So criticism is really important to me as well. Almost as important as praise. Although who am I trying to kid? There's nothing better than praise. Thanks!!!!! THANK YOU!!!  

I'm also very happy that you're interested in reading my stories. It is also an important part of my life for me. I am not good at short stories. And I am very glad that the translator keeps the possibility to understand my stories and even the humor.

Chapter 7 (unplanned).
About how the author reflects on time and finally gets to the main thing.

 

As I said at the end of the last chapter, the original plan was to put the issue about the side gallery dome in one issue. But then I decided that it would be better to split it into two parts because the text was too long. It was too tedious to type a large text. And even the online translator began to hang, swear and complain. So I decided to publish half of it before the translator completely destroyed everything I had time to translate.
In the morning, when I decided to continue publishing the story, I thought of one nuance.

 

And indeed, it is now the last days of May. Just a moment more and summer will come. Which means that about a year ago and took up this project. And I saw it as my usual carving work. I put my lion projects on hold because now was my chance to tackle new ways of carving. Except that in order to start carving for the Fulminant, I'd have to prepare a bridgehead first, build the stern of the ship. I expected it wouldn't take me very long. And what happened? It's been almost a year and I'm not even halfway through building the stern yet. I have the most challenging design and fabrication phases ahead of me. When will I get to the point where I can do the carving? And that realization was kind of scary to me. It told me that I had misjudged my strength. And one has to accelerate a lot to keep this project from becoming a perpetual thing. On the one hand, doing what you love and building a ship is wonderful. I certainly don't dare to start building my own ship. And this opportunity to do the ship is ideal. If I enjoy it, then let it go on for as long as possible. But at the same time, the thought makes me very sad. If it were my own project, I would not rush, but rather stretch the pleasure of each stage and each new task. But I made a promise to the customer. And I've already broken it. I've missed deadlines. And it's always weighing on me. 

Also, as much fun as it is to build the stern structure, I get a sense of longing when I look at the lion figurine I've put aside. When will I get back to this project? So eager to get back into carving again. I really miss the process.

And now, while finishing the dome structure of the side gallery, I realized my dream of returning to chisels and cutters. But first things first.

 I put the arch in its place and began designing the rest of the dome. 

 

 

 

On the historical sketch this element is drawn loosely. And this drawing can be represented in the finished design in different ways. I was faced with the task of making the design look realistic and at the same time not too different from the original. There were a lot of questions, for example, how to make the dome look three-dimensional, because in fact it is a flat part. Or what kind of materials to use so that the end result would be a balanced combination. Some time ago I already tried to rebuild Beren's drawing into my own version, and they differed from each other, as the ship's hull and the historical drawing had many differences. So now I was faced with having to make changes for the second time. I was not quite satisfied with what I had drawn once. I needed to look at certain nuances in more detail. For example, I came to the conclusion that I should change the original shape and size of the false window. 

The painted version now looked too big compared to the windows on the stern. And I didn't like it. I also decided to correct the dome and make it smaller.

Unfortunately, I can't show photos of intermediate stages of production. They just do not exist. At this point, my son left for a few days on a small trip with friends and took the camera with him. And before that, I broke my phone, so there was nothing to take photos with. So right after photos with paper templates will immediately follow photos with already finished dome.

 

This picture is the only one that can be called intermediate and working. Here I glue the inner part into the frame. At the same time I will explain a little what is this strange bar, which “stuck” to the dome. I made the frame of the dome the way it would be made in life. And in a shipyard, it would be assembled from several separate segments. And the sides would be made of separate boards. And because the joints are so small, it's easy to break off when working. So I glued a temporary strip on top of this joint, which gives additional rigidity. So now it will be a little clearer to look at the following shots, where you can also see this temporary detail.

 

 

And this is how the dome looked after I removed this temporary stiffener.Now there is no point in it anymore. I've already done all the work, so it's not so dangerous to accidentally break off the gluing point. Besides, now the inner field has taken over the role of a rigid base. And the frame will be safe. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now for a historic moment in the history of this project. I have finally gotten to the stage that can be called carving! Yay! Opening the champagne, setting off the fireworks and dancing on the balcony! 🙂

 

 

 

 

And the final frames are now left. This too can only conditionally be called a finale. Other elements with decorations will appear here in the future. But these details will be made of another material, not wood. So it will be a different story. And I am finished with the wooden part at this point. 

Carving has appeared so far in a very small form. But it is even more logical to begin with. The first appearance by all laws and should be small and insignificant, like a fresh sprout. Some time will pass and it will turn into something more significant and big. Maybe even like a huge tree. Hopefully my story too will someday be filled with carvings that will finally become many and will finally become the main theme of this story. We'll live to see...

 

 

 

 

7 hours ago, druxey said:

Well, you got there, Aleksandr! An unorthodox method, but it worked for you. Well done!

 

Thank you! 
I just have a question. You wrote that the method is not standard? But isn't that what Hubac's Historian advised me to do?  
The need to use a translator does not always convey thoughts the way they sound in one's own language. Is this again a case of me getting it wrong? Just wondering. 

Chapter 6
which will talk about the power of advice, and the author calms down and even rejoices. But it's not accurate.

 

When I was a student, there was a guy who went to school with me. In the course, he played the role of the joker. He was always cheerful and would drop jokes and witticisms on every occasion. With such an easy to communicate, but he was irresponsible and even lazy, often took his duties not seriously, from which he himself and suffered. And the other students at some point realized that it is better not to rely on him, he could easily fail. People can be like that. I remembered him now because at first many fellow students tried to correct him, to press on his conscience or to show that his not serious attitude could bring him problems. Usually at such moments they would say:
Sasha, I want to give you some advice. 
And then he would turn the conversation into a joke and answer:
- “What a country of Soviets. Well, give your advice. (play on words: Soviets = advice)
After that, someone would wave his hand and decide that there was no point in trying to make sense out of it. Someone still expressed his opinion, saying that Sasha does not do right. But often after the advice, our cheerful fellow student would make another joke, again showing that he was not in the mood to dramatize the situation. Eh, don't worry, everything will be fine.
Ever since my student days, when I hear the word “advice”, I remember this classmate.

 

I remembered it now, because after this introduction, the conversation in this part of the story will begin with advice. And these tips I asked other forum members. Because I could not figure out how to make a molding in the form of a curved ellipse. Now I am already surprised, because the solution was simple and obvious, even strange, how could not guess? But I was really stumped. And the decision to seek advice was a good one. So I want to say thank you very much for your active participation and good advice. In this thread I often ask for help, and always get good discussions that help in working on the ship. 

And now I will show you what I got.

 

 

 

 

This is the template I got. Maybe I could have made it out of brass with less thickness, but I was afraid that the template could deform when working.  Thanks to the advice I immediately paid attention to the fact that when making moldings there are two options: 1- to fix the template with the workpiece stationary and hands to move the scraper; 2 - to fix stationary scraper, and hands to move the template. Since I didn't know which option was better, I decided that the template should be such that it fits both options without problems. The holes around the edges will allow the template to be fixed stationary. They may also be useful in the 2nd method. Since the template is not that big, it may be difficult to hold. 

In this case I can screw some kind of rail to the template, which I will use as a handle. 

 

At first I tried the 1st way, but then I changed my mind and fixed the scraper stationary. I can't give a definite answer as to why I decided to do it this way. Most likely both methods can do the job. But for some reason I felt more comfortable moving the template. I fixed the scraper primitively and not beautifully, just clamped it between two bars. Like this. 

 

Here is a photo of the very beginning of the process, a little later I added another addition to this primitive clamp for the scraper. Even more primitive. Almost at the very tip of the scraper, I hammered in two nails. They gave even more rigidity to the scraper, it did not sag from the pressure and this addition was enough for me. As you can see from the photo, I did not attach to the template and lath - handle. It turned out to be quite convenient to hold the template in my hands. And after a while I got a molding in the form of the necessary shape.

 

The arch should continue I the form of straight sections, so I immediately with the use of the same two scrapers (outline of the inner part of the molding + outer outline) made and straight sections. On the same my depot for the moldings I have already shown.

 

 

All that was left was to put it all together. This is what it looked like when finished. I particularly enjoyed adjusting the tiers on the straight sections. I made the gap at the arch on purpose. According to my idea, the window frame will be placed in this niche later. Of course, it could have been done differently, but this gap will simplify several problems at once. At first I thought about how to properly describe everything in my head, but then I changed my mind. When the stage of work is up to the window frames, everything will be easier to understand from the photos. Much easier than my explanations now. I will emphasize the main thing: the gap at the arch is made on purpose, it is not because of my crooked hands and blind eyes. Do not throw rotten tomatoes.

 

 

 

Hmmm. I sincerely thought I could fit everything into one post until the end of this little object. But now I'm looking at how much I've written, and I think it's best to stop there. 

What words will I leave as a conclusion? Last time, I wrote about how a lot of things didn't work out for me the first time. And I was dissatisfied, even annoyed. Now I felt quite the opposite emotions. Throughout the work with the molding-arch I enjoyed it. When I thought about how the final design should look like, how I will then insert the window frame here, when I made a template, when I put all the parts together. And even when I was preparing this post. I guess it's all about spring. Although, wait, it's almost summer already!

23 minutes ago, Gregory said:

Considering earlier discussion it should easily fall within 1501-1750.

 

Is there some kind of typo here or some kind of humor? ❔

 

 

 

 

Yeah, that's what I'm doing. It's hard to do anything differently in this process. Only if you do it with your eyes closed. Or if you try to squeeze the scraper all the way in right away. But you have to be very persistent and have the strength of the Hulk to push through the wood at once. 
But nevertheless, I suddenly started to get rejects. And it wasn't just one lath that turned out to be of poor quality. There were several. That's why I decided to look for another option. I agree that it is too complicated. It was much easier to just look for a more suitable material.
But it turned out to be an unusual story. Without the adventure with moldings, this post would have turned out to be an ordinary set of photos with the result. Maybe it should have been done that way. But I wanted to share it. 

 

Winter has not been easy for me in recent years. It is during this period that various problems pile up. And they “knock me out of the saddle”. And this winter was no exception. Therefore, in the winter period of time my shipyard on the table covered with cobwebs and dust. But fortunately with the onset of spring the work there began to come to life. So after a long break I have something new to show. So far it's still small steps. All that I will show are minor changes. But the ice after winter doesn't melt in a minute. I'm happy with this pace. 

That's the introduction. And now after the introduction, you can write something like this:

 

 

Chapter 3 (or 4, or even 5).
in which we learn about the balcony windows, the crooked moldings, and the author is furious. 

 

I finished work on the big screen on the transom of the ship, on which the crest with wings should appear in the future. And now it was necessary to go lower and deal with the decoration of that part of the transom, which is on the second floor of the officers' rooms. Where the balcony is. 

 

I thought this was the easiest part of the whole transom. It would be perfect for “warming up your hands” after a long break.

But it turns out it's not that easy. And the easy ride I was expecting didn't work out. I couldn't figure out the best way to make the shields and screens under the windows and the columns between the windows. I won't list everything, I'll just say that I didn't like some nuances and others. And I had to remodel several times. I will show only one of those variants, which were. 

 

 

 

 

It was also a very ugly design that I had to remove completely. I don't even remember exactly how many attempts there were. 

And now I'll move on to another problem. I need to make moldings for my job. A lot of them. This is the most basic part that is required all the time. They are used to make the edging of shields with fillets. Moldings decorated the joints between the parts. And so on. I made them with the help of a figurative scraper. The technology is so old and familiar that there is no point in describing it. But now when making moldings I faced a problem. Very often they turned out crooked, the pattern of the profile was not even along the rail, it resembled a drunken snake, which in addition still hiccups. 

 

 

 

In the photos, you can even see that the scraper cut into the lath during the movement and chewed off its side wall.

The reason for the defect in the moldings was most likely due to the wood. At least it seems that way to me. I think that the laths I made as blanks were from a board that had too wavy fibers. And that wood grain kept the scraper from going straight. The fibers had different textures, next to the area with soft fibers were places where the wood was harder. So it was easy for the scraper to go sideways and cut the wrong areas.

 

I primarily wanted to show how crooked the pattern is, that it doesn't match the rail. To be honest, I was very surprised when I got the discarded laths for the photo shoot. They had been lying in the garbage can the whole time. I didn't see them after the milling itself. And now it was a big surprise to me to see that the slats themselves had become crooked as well. So this again suggests that the problem is most likely poor quality material. From the same log I carved an English lion. The carving satisfied me. But as a material for thin laths this blank already showed a bad result. What can you do, wood is a living material. From the same billet I made moldings for the transom. And there everything was in order. The remaining laths are still even. But here the result is quite different. Wood is not metal, and not plastic. It has its own character. Although I may be wrong. After all, the laths were lying (exactly wallowed) in the trash. The rest of the trash that was lying on top could have also affected the warping. Maybe there was a different humidity from some wet wipes or something else.
Again, I got distracted.

Of course I started looking for wood with a straighter fiber pattern. But I still had concerns. What if there would be rejects now too? 
And at this point I decided to make a small bed, which can help in working with moldings. 

 

The principle is simple. I used to glue the rail to a piece of plywood and move the scraper by hand. But what if you do the opposite? What happens if the scraper is clamped and the lath moves? I can make walls on both sides of the rail, and then it will move like in a chute and can't run off to the side. A clamped scraper would also ensure that the wood cut would only be where it needs to be. 
I can make one side of the tunnel movable and the width of the channel can be adjusted for any lath size and handle laths with different sizes. So I decided to try this method. Perhaps this method has been around for a long time and I should have just searched a bit for similar designs and made one, taking into account other people's experience. But I have not met such a thing before. So I had to do everything on the basis of my own assumptions. Or maybe the fact that I haven't seen something like this from others suggests that it's not the best way to make moldings. 

I really like it when homemade machines or devices are made qualitatively and beautifully. But more often it happens that you need to make something very quickly and from the material that was lying in the corner. And then homemade devices look like Frankenstein's monster. This little machine became that monster. I just took the first materials I could find. We need to at least figure out if this system will even work. Why waste good material on such an attempt? So I apologize in advance for the fact that the device does not look very beautiful. 

But, you will agree that this is not the most important issue. More interesting and important is another one. Does this method work at all?
In short, yes, it is quite a working option. Although it also has its nuances or disadvantages. What are they?

 

 

 

 

Let me start with the scraper itself. In the process of work it is impossible to immediately set the scraper so, when it makes the last, clean removal of wood. When you hold the scraper with your hands, it gradually descends lower and lower. This is the same principle on this bed. This means that after each layer, the scraper has to be readjusted and lowered. And it is very important that it is lowered without any misalignment. Otherwise it can lead to defects. It takes more time and needs more attention. I would not call it a disadvantage, but rather a feature. But the following nuance definitely fits under the name “minus”. Since for milling it is necessary to push the rail, and it can be very thin, then there is a high probability that the rail can easily break when you push it. And the thinner the cross-sectional size of the rail, the more likely this problem is.

What can we say then? This method is not good? No, I will not categorically reject this milling method. It is possible to achieve a quality result even with very thin laths. All I did was to push the rail very slowly and adjust the scraper so that it removed the chips in very small portions. Plus I also covered the channel where the rail was moving from above. So there was nowhere for it to bend and therefore break. 

A little later, I added another stop to this bed at the back edge. At this end, I could install a scraper that would remove chips from only one edge. This position is convenient when you want to make a shaped edge on a convex part, for example.

 

 

This whole design was a bit of an experiment. I was prepared in advance that the method is not worth attention. And many “pitfalls” were obvious even before the experiments started. But I'm glad I tried it. And I'm happy with the result I got. Yes, I had some discarded parts. A few slats did break before I even got the idea to turn the channel into a tunnel. I won't say that I will reject the classical variant (when the scraper moves) now. Most likely I will use both methods. For the final comparison we need to take the rails that started the whole story. Those that turned out to be crooked by the classical method. And use the same ones, but already in this “depot”. Then it will be quite clear whether this device has such advantages that cannot be obtained by other methods. But I will do this when I have nothing to entertain myself with. For now, my head is already puffing with other tasks and problems.

And at the end, I'll come back to the balcony area. Here's what I've got. 

 

 

Compared to what came before this option I liked it. So I kept it. And after the transom, I decided to turn my attention to the sides as well. Where the side gallery is. And more precisely the upper tier of this gallery, where the dome is made in the form of a false structure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The story about the rest of the false dome will already be in the next chapter. I already asked for advice in a previous post. So the intrigue about what will happen next will definitely not happen anymore, but I still have to pretend that everything is unknown and covered in fog. Let's see what I got. Did I get anything? Did I succeed in taking the advice.

Intrigue...

Thank you very much. The tips are great. I don't know if the translation is accurate? But I get the main point. Or guessed. I will try to implement a new way of working with the scraper. 

What will work (or not) I will try to take pictures with my camera.

P.S. I have after eight years of life fell to the death of the brave my phone. I tried to take pictures with it in the workshop, as I didn't want to keep the camera in a dusty room. But now, along with the phone, the shots I took during the work are gone. So it will not be possible to show the latest changes in the form of gradual changes. There will be only those shots with the current state of the work process. 
In principle, it is not so upsetting. There was nothing new or very interesting in the work. More had to be redone. Several times we had to remove what worked and do it differently. It's even good that I didn't have time to show anything.
But with the arch I will try to shoot step by step. The situation was not so trivial. Perhaps someday it will be useful to look at it again and remember what methods I used to do it. It often happens that I forget myself. So detailed comics about the arch will be useful.

 

Work on the ship is moving slowly. More often it is one step forward and then two steps back. But it is good that it is like that, rather than standing still. 
And there's one problem I've encountered. After several attempts I decided to voice my problem in the chat, maybe someone knows how to solve this problem.
The essence of the issue is as follows. I need to make a molding. And the molding should be in the form of an arc. But unlike previous cases, this arc is not part of the radius. It is an ellipse, moreover, the axes of this figure have “slipped”. I have attached a picture to make it clearer what I am talking about. 

 

The most obvious solution, in my opinion, is milling with a shaped cutter. You can make a blank in the form of an arc of the desired shape, and then cut out the profile of the molding with a router. But the problem is that I don't have a milling machine. 
Previous moldings I made with a shaped scraper. This method allows you to make even radius moldings without machines. But now this option is not suitable. I also could not bend the finished molding, the size of the ellipse is too small. The part crumples and breaks. Maybe someone has already faced such a task and can tell me how to make such a part?

 

6 hours ago, empathry said:

... and in such a case, why not set the entire ship model on fire and analyse the wave lenght(s) emitted by its raw products through a spectrometer ? 

The customs would get from its ashes all the requested (legal) answers !  

Are we turning to Ray Bradbury Farenheit 451 ?

Will books be burnt ?

Will art be burnt ?

We'll ourselves be burnt and euthanized (... obviously for "our" security) in order to fertilize this planet ? 

 

Oh! We are now very close to a difficult place. I would not like disputes to arise between opponents and supporters of the use of bone.
There can be many different opinions here. And each side will be right.

5 hours ago, wefalck said:

BTW in earlier post I erroneously wrote the German Ivory Museum is in Michelstadt, it is in Erbach, another town nearby: https://elfenbeinmuseum.de/.

 

Thanks for the very interesting link. I've bookmarked it. In the spring there are plans to go to Nuremberg to visit friends. It would be a lie to say that we’ll make a detour along the way and stop at the museum. This trip is hard for me. And I know for sure that during my trip to Nuremberg, if I even suggest making a stop, my family will not understand me. And they will rightly say that even if they agree, I will be the first to break. And you can only carry me around the museum. Or drag it. I don't mind, but other people definitely won't understand.
But after Nuremberg it will be possible to check how much such a trip will cost me and make plans.
There is a maritime museum in Hamburg. And he's just great. 9 floors! And everything is in the ships! This is a fairytale. I was even able to convince my family to go there twice. For the first time we went specifically to this museum. And after the long journey it was enough for me to get to half of the museum. And I begged for two years to go there again. And already from the second time I was able to examine it completely. It was a good trip. Highly recommend. And if you go with your family, I can add advertising for them too. You can say that after the museum you will take your family to a musical. There are different performances, but the best is The Lion King. Believe me, not only will your children be delighted, but you will have a great time too.
Well, I made an advertisement for the Hamburg Maritime Museum. I'll go ask them for a free ticket for advertising.

6 hours ago, mtaylor said:

I just want to step back a bit and say the the carving in this topic is wonderful and also all the conversation about the methods, woods, and various bits of information in this area.    Thanks for doing this and I'm looking forward to your next project.

 

Thank you for your kind words. They mean a lot to me. I really wanted to share not only the result of my work, but also the emotions that I had during the entire working process. And this is directly related to those discoveries and solutions to technical issues. And with historical stories.
I tried to make the post interesting to read and watch.
It is very important to know that this approach is actually interesting to someone, and not just me doing it for myself.

1 hour ago, Bob Cleek said:

Not side-tracked at all. Interesting thoughts. Ivory is, of course, out of the question and I suppose elephant bone would also be similarly unavailable and illegal to trade in most everywhere in the civilized world.  The laws are labyrinthine, though. Sometimes ivory is still released on the world market from various legitimate sources, such as national "treasuries" of confiscated poached elephant ivory.  Some nations permit antique (over 100 years old) ivory items to be imported and/or sold, while others do not. Some permit exceptions for possession of musical instruments containing ivory, such as antique piano keys. Reportedly, the acquisition of "legal" ivory is not recommended because, due to changing national and international law, products made from protected endangered animals change so fast that one can't rely on any one law remaining in effect for any great length of time. As you probably know, the same is true for protected woods, e.g., African ebony and Brazilian rosewood, etc. These international trade restrictions commonly adversely affect musical instruments (with stories of famous musicians finding their prized antique instruments confiscated by the customs authorities when they travel internationally to perform, but they certainly threaten the same sort of nightmare for any "traveling" ship model which may contain now-prohibited endangered materials.

 

My dentist is a very accomplished miniature carver, producing very fine human figurines of about an inch tall out of various materials used for dental prosthetics and the like. Not that I otherwise ever look forward to going to the dentist, but I'll have to ask her when I see her next what synthetic ivory-like materials are best for carving small details. Plastics pose the problem of possibly melting from the heat of a rotary carving burr, but there must be stuff dental technology has developed to get around that.

 

As for bovine bone, one source I've found that's quite convenient is our pet stores here in the U.S. I don't know if the same is true in Germany, but all U.S. pet stores sell sterilized, fully dried cow bones in various shapes and sizes which are for the enjoyment of people's pet dogs. (They also sell "smoked" flavor cow bones, but these are stained brown and don't appear as the boiled, dry white bones used in the French prisoner-of-war bone models.) While I haven't gotten around to it as yet, I expect that when the occasion arises next, I will try cutting up some of these bones and epoxy-laminating them where necessary to obtain the size and shape of stock I require. Straight leg bones of eight to ten inches are available, as are knee and hip joint bones. The joint "balls" have a finer-grained texture and polish up better than the non-joint bone and can be as large as around three inches in diameter and solid throughout. 

 

Animal bones do have one minor drawback, however. If a rotary dental burr is used to carve them and the burr gets hot enough from friction to burn the bone material, it has a rather disagreeable aroma. I expect, though, that using a modern air turbine dental handpiece with a water-jet cooling feature should negate that. I think, though, that most carvers using dental burrs prefer to use the old belt-driven laboratory "dental engines" which are much easier to control in a "high(er) torque - low(er) speed" mode than the newer turbine and micro-motor handpieces that operate on a "low(er) torque - high(er) speed" basis and the slower speed should keep the heat down if one takes care not to overdo it.

 

I'm late, but still noticed the corrections and additional information in your post. And wanted to respond to these thoughts.
Maybe this will be helpful. Give a big hello to your dentist. For some reason I pictured him carving miniature sculptures directly into the patient's mouth. Why? Right out of a tooth or dental modeling compound. I imagined the patient coming home, opening his mouth, and there..... 
Now, on a more serious note. Try telling your friend to look for a tagua nut. Very interesting stuff. Especially if you need to make very tiny pieces. And even if you have to glue a common blank from different parts, it is very easy to do with ordinary second glue. Unlike bone, this glue is quite sufficient for a very secure connection. In appearance, the color is very similar to ivory. Very easy to work with both hand tools and electric hand routers. There is no unpleasant odor at all like bone. Which is just a huge plus. Maybe this is just the thing to help your dentist friend make his carvings even more interesting.
I have a project in the works right now with the French ship Fulminant. I'm posting this thread right here:

 

 

There's just so much to do with bone carving. At least one day I will get to that stage of the work as well. So in this thread is what I had time to learn and try. If you are interested, you can have a look, suddenly you will find something useful for yourself or on the contrary, you will see some questions in which you can enrich me with your hints and advice. 
In both cases I will be only glad.

 

I too have come to the conclusion that research is the only way to prove accurately. Even then, there are likely to be problems. For example, they may demand not just a certificate of origin, but that the certificate was made here and not there. They will say that they trust this laboratory, but not this one. 
A receipt from the purchase may help. It might not. There will always be nuances. For example, what prevents you from buying one thing and making it out of a different material? 

 Or, for example, I have an old piano, which I got from my grandmother, or grandfather's billiard set. If I didn't buy it, but received it as a gift, I can't prove anything. 

In this case, pictures that show step by step that I took exactly the bones from the grocery store, boiled them, sawed them apart and cut them out would be more valid than just a receipt. In theory.
There's a lot of nuance and human error involved. For some people, one piece of evidence will be enough, and for others, no evidence at all will be enough. Plus, as mentioned, laws change very quickly. I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow there are new clauses that outlaw cow bones too. If killing elephants is a crime, why not outlaw any other killing of animals as well. Today it still seems absurd and impossible. But what will happen tomorrow?

19 minutes ago, Bob Cleek said:

Not side-tracked at all. Interesting thoughts. Ivory is, of course, out of the question and I suppose elephant bone would also be similarly unavailable and illegal to trade in most everywhere in the civilized world.  The laws are labyrinthine, though. Sometimes ivory is still released on the world market from various legitimate sources, such as national "treasuries" of confiscated poached elephant ivory.  Some nations permit antique (over 100 years old) ivory items to be imported and/or sold, while others do not. Some permit exceptions for possession of musical instruments containing ivory, such as antique piano keys. Reportedly, the acquisition of "legal" ivory is not recommended because, due to changing national and international law, products made from protected endangered animals change so fast that one can't rely on any one law remaining in effect for any great length of time. As you probably know, the same is true for protected woods, e.g., African ebony and Brazilian rosewood, etc. These international trade restrictions commonly adversely affect musical instruments (with stories of famous musicians finding their prized antique instruments confiscated by the customs authorities when they travel internationally to perform, but they certainly threaten the same sort of nightmare for any "traveling" ship model which may contain now-prohibited endangered materials.

 

Yes, the question about elephant ivory or mammoth bone is a very difficult one. I'm definitely not going to look for that material. If only because of its expensive cost. 
I am aware of the fact that one can find legal ways to acquire it. For example, in the form of strips of bone from musical instruments. Or old billiard balls. Maybe there are some other sources where you can get this material and without getting involved in smuggling or something else illegal. 
An artificial substitute would suffice for me. Or a natural substitute that superficially resembles bone, such as tagua nut.
I wonder how exactly you can defend yourself against the charges. Let's say I use ordinary cow bone in my work. How can I prove that it is cow bone? And not elephant ivory or walrus tusk? For example, if I post my work process on the forums and the photos show exactly what material I am using, will that be a sufficient argument that I have not done anything illegal?

44 minutes ago, wefalck said:

I am not a carver at all, but I can see, where the texture of the chosen wood would pose serious challenges at this small scale.

 

I only know Wengé as wood for furniture (and don't like it's colour and texture, but it seems to be fashionable these days) and would have doubts, that it would be suitable for small-scale carving.

 

And, of course, I like the result of your carving efforts both, the execution of the carving itself and the colour of the wood.

 

Thank you for your appreciation of my work. I'm very glad you liked it.

I completely agree with you. In shipbuilding, the choice of wood depends on a very large number of nuances. And not every wood is suitable for small figures. Fortunately, this particular lion project gives me more room for experimentation and choice. The size of the lions is much larger than the usual ship sculptures I've done before. Which just gives me the opportunity to use types of wood with more active fiber patterns or nostril pores in the material. 
I still have time to think about which types of wood to choose for the other lions. Perhaps some of them will be wenge or another similar wood with a dark chocolate color. So far this is a question that has not found a definite answer.
Virtually 100% among the lions will also be a lion made of bone. This is another puzzle that has yet to be solved. It is very desirable to make a French lion out of this material. It seems to me that a French lion just has to be made of that material. And it's either going to be cow bones, like the French captive modelers did. But then I would have to decide how to make a large figure from small fragments of bone. For obvious reasons, cow bones will not make it possible to find a solid piece of material. So it would have to be a prefabricated structure. And that's going to be a challenge. All hope is that the current work on the Fulminant ship will help to find suitable thoughts on how to accomplish this.

And the skill of working with bone, of course. Or there is an option to take artificial substitutes for elephant bone for this lion. 

But again, I've gotten sidetracked.

I just wanted to show that the choice of material for a complete lion pride collection is a separate topic. Interesting and not easy. I want the material and the image of a particular lion to complement each other. In the case of the French lion, this connection is semantic. And in the case of wenge, this wood can give the right parallels with specific historical prototypes. For example, with Spanish lions. Several of the lions of this shipbuilding school are dark. And it would be appropriate to emphasize this very point. At least, that's what I think.

 

 

 

What happens next? Most likely the next lion in this project will be the Turkish Lion. But this, the next story will be completely different. If only because I did not take photos of the work process. Yes, at the moment the work is about 70 percent done. But when I'll get through the remaining 30 I don't know. I don't think I'll finish this lion anytime soon. 
I'll probably only post the finished photos. Turkish ship sculpture is completely unknown to me. I know almost nothing about this school. Except that I know that there, as well as in other Muslim countries, they did not use images of people. That's why all sculptures on ships are either animals and birds. Or ornaments of some kind. The lion I chose for reference is practically the only feline predator I could find on the Internet. I am glad that it is very different in style from Russian, English or other European lions. Which is already a great thing. And to my great regret with such a strong peculiarity of appearance I am not at all aware of how sculpture developed in Turkey. Who knows, maybe in time I will find something interesting to share. But only time will tell.

This concludes the story of the Russian Lion. It turned out to be very long. I thought for a long time whether it was worth publishing such long posts. After all, I could have limited myself to photos. Thank you to everyone who participated in the discussions and showed their interest in my work. Without this reaction it would have been much more difficult. So I want to thank everyone who supported me with their interest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, here are the final shots of Chewbacca. This is the end of all planned works.

This project was an unusual one. A lot of things were done for the first time. It was the first time I made a Russian lion. It was the first time I got acquainted with paduk. Very unconventional wood. It showed a lot of surprises and was not easy to work with. But I am glad that I did not stop and did not abandon this idea and brought it to the end. For smaller jobs this wood is probably not suitable. Unless there are some special designs where the fibrousness and frequent pores in the wood will be justified. In its classic form it is not the best material for ship models. But in my case it is the case when the disadvantages of wood did not affect the final result. Even on the contrary, it emphasized the desired effects. The final sculpture at the same time looks like a rustic, rough work. And at the same time, the color of the wood gives a completely opposite effect - something expensive and regal. And at the same time, even a fresh figure looks very old, as if it were found in the basement of some old castle. And I am sure that with time paduk will become darker, which will further enhance this effect.
I'm happy that I was able to work with plastic for the first time. And as a stand it looks both neutral and at the same time the smooth polished edges, the cold shine of the glass "dialogues" with the uneven tool marks on the sculpture itself. When I was still working with plastic, I heard doubts from some modelers. Why did you use plastic? 

Better get a tree, they told me. Like wenge. It'll look very organic. But in the end I was happy with the way the plastic looked. First of all, it immediately reminds me of some kind of museum piece. In the future, there will be other lions in this Pride parade. Perhaps some of them will be made of dark wood, wenge or hornbeam. I haven't made up my mind yet. But I am already sure that whatever the future lions will be in terms of color and tone, the plastic will not "argue" with any of them. It is the most neutral to any color of wood. And having seen how the Russian lion looks on a plastic pedestal I was only convinced of this.
And of course, this project was a premiere for me in the style of presentation. The variant with admiralty division into sectors, the nails shown were an unexpected solution for me. For someone this look may look controversial, but I'm glad I decided to do this experiment and I like the way this lion looks exactly. I hope that when the whole collection comes together it will be interesting to look at. And each of the lions will tell its own story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

33 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

Considering the cost of the carving sets I didn't think some of those prices were that out of line but then I'm not the one that has to write the cheque. 

 

Life changes. I used to be able to run like a deer and jump like a kangaroo. Not anymore. What I could afford yesterday is not so easy today. It took me a long time to save up to buy these kits even then. And not just those. I had my own workshop. Today it's a little corner in the basement or a dining room table. But sadder than that is another thought. Now I'm thinking about what could happen tomorrow. I wonder if I'll spend it on something I won't be able to use tomorrow. 
But I'm not complaining. On the contrary, I have the strength and desire to pursue my favorite hobby. My arms and legs are moving and my head is working. And many people do not have such riches as I have. You just need to make sensible decisions. There is a great desire to have all possible machines and tools. But sometimes you can think of something that can replace expensive solutions. 
Or maybe time will pass and I'll save up for such a contraption. And I'll be happy again.

14 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

I'm out of me league so I have no idea if any of these would work.....

 

Yes, those are the exact machines in question. I looked at them, then I looked at my carriage. Then I looked at the price of the machines and I went to cry. I even thought they would be more expensive, but I was still impressed with the price. Found a Chinese analog on Ali Express, costs half the price, but.... Many different But... Tomorrow I'll try how I can grind at least one test groove in the sharpening stone. Without a router. Already scared...

1 hour ago, wefalck said:

No, not for gem-stones, but you are right, these have a similar 'goniometer-head'. The Deckel SO is a tool-grinder for single-lip tools, such as D-bits, engraving cutters, and can be also used for chisels. The tool can be turned around its axis at a given angle to the grinding wheel, which is needed for hollow gauges. 

 

I'm not very good with computers. I didn't immediately realize how to find information. The name Dekel in the search showed different covers. It was only after some time that I realized to look at the picture. And I found some information about similar machines. It's a wonderful piece of machinery. It has, of course, some peculiarities. On the one hand, I saw that they have a set of collets of different diameters, which is a plus. But at the same time there are still some limitations, if we consider them in the matter of sharpening these chisels. I'm not sure if the pear-shaped handles will fit in the mount. Or even more correctly, it is almost certain that most likely this will not be realistic. Long handles, too. Still, there will be a lot more advantages. If access to such a machine became available, I would definitely consider the question of making removable handles. My very first carving kit had just such a removable handle. There was only one. It was in the shape of a pear, and all the blades had to be changed. It worked for me as a first set. Ah, back in my college days, how long ago that was.
I'll make a note of it, maybe one day I'll come across such a machine somewhere. I haven't found an ad for something like this yet.

27 minutes ago, wefalck said:

Ideally, one should have something like the Deckel SO (or one of the various old or modern clones), perhaps with a diamond honing wheel, for sharpening:

 

Yes, a professional machine. I daresay it's for cutting corners on gemstones? Although there would be a mandatory fluid feed and most likely the disk would be horizontal. But there's probably a lot of variations. 
If I had the blades separate from the handles, it would be the most ideal. As it is, the tool mount would need to be further modernized. Ni or tear the blades out of the handles and give the tool new ones so that the blades can be easily removed.
Having something like that would be a dream come true. Tell me, and similar machines are found somewhere in the sale. Just wondering what the cost might be? I will see the price, roll my eyes and once again realize that it will remain just a dream. I just want to cry...