Welcome Rich,

Another great book that I used to construct small boats for a whaling ship is 

I will chime in with more positive comments on the Treenail cutter.  I bought mine years ago and still use it.  Checked their website again to see if replacement cutters were available and noticed they have discontinued the cutter and only limited replacement parts are available.  As mentioned above it jams up and is difficult sometimes to clear but a quality product.  When cutting treenails with it I find that boxwood is the best wood.

In summary, I would not hesitate to purchase any of their products.

Chuck,

I am certainly pleased to hear this.  I have been using Thruston blades for over 25 years now.  Will check out the Malco source right now.  Thanks for the update.

Excellent advice from Chris, Never use CA on rigging anywhere except to treat the end of your rigging to stiffen it when you thread it through a block or other small hole.  I built kits years ago using CA and it has since crumbled or destroyed many of the knots where I employed it.  In those past years, it was recommended by many but it hadn't been time tested.  Diluted PVA glue is perfect for the job and the clove hitches are very easy to do.

I will second the comments above and add the suggestion to keep an extra bottle of thinner available while spraying to clean the brush between sprays, for instance when you stop for a few moments to rearrange your parts.  Even for a couple minutes I will run a quick cleaning spray of thinner through to prevent gumming up.  It doesn't take but a second or two for these fine needles to clog.  Good Luck!  The produce a beautiful finish.

Yeah, the diameter varies with the cheaper drill bits and then when I get to checking it, I even find the 61-80 gauges seem to vary, again with the exception of Starrett.  You are right it doesn't really affect our modeling needs but I guess I am just running out of patience as an "old guy" when tolerances even on the less expensive stuff were much closer.  It certainly isn't just limited to tooling, you can't even buy a coat or pair of shoes without some discrepancy in the sizes.  I guess my tolerance levels just need some adjusting .

I have suffered through this problem for years.  I acquired an excellent set made by the J. I. Morris Co. in the US many years ago and purchased extra taps to cover breakage.  They only had the four sizes 00-90,0-80,1-72 and 2-56.  Also had a Japanese set that was much smaller but have no idea where I got that set and haven't seen any of those available anywhere.

I searched to see if Morris was still carrying them and they don't appear available on their website but a search disclosed the following:

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/morris-miniature-tap-die-set-481307855

This is like my set and these are very high quality.  My suggestion would be to watch E-Bay as suggested in the above listing.  All of this other stuff is about the equivalent of small numbered drill sizes and the chinese drill guages.  You just can't count on the sizes of these drill bits unless you get the very high quality and the Starrett drill gauges seem to me to be the only accurate ones.  

I will second Bob's comments.  The Dumont tweezers are beyond compare.  You can keep them sharpened on a stone when necessary and every time I buy one of the cheaper versions I am always disappointed.  They can be bought on ebay for fairly competitive prices.

Bob Cleek also mentioned the Proportional Dividers with rack and pinion which are also available on ebay for very reasonable prices at times.  I find myself reaching for these constantly to transfer dimensions for different plans which are not drawn to the same scale.

Great Job!!!!  Makes me ashamed of myself for buying one.  May still go back and try to duplicate the beautiful machine you made.

I will reaffirm comments made by John Allen and Mark.  I have been building model ships for over 40 years and used CA glue exclusively on rigging for the first 25 years or so.  The I began to see articles written by some of the professional model makers warning about the long term affects of using CA.  Brittleness, shiny look and breaking.  Over the years, I have many of these knots on previously built models that need repair.  

The only time I use CA on rigging is to straighten the ends when having problems getting the line through holes and when mounting difficult to reach eyebolts in various locations.  I use diluted Hide Glue or diluted white glue as mentioned above on all rigging. 

I have to agree with Cliff Ward.  The Cameron Drill Press is wonderful.  I, too, have had mine for over 40 years and it is a great accurate machine.  Coupled with the little x-y table you can do just about anything.  I like mine so much that I picked up another on E-Bay last year for my second home and workshop.  Once again as Cliff said it is not cheap but it will last a lifetime.

The manual 164 is the one that I have.  Didn't check the current price but watch E-Bay as they show up every now and then.

http://cameronmicrodrillpress.com/product/cameron-series-164/

Ben,

Many thanks for posting this....was not aware that it is available.  Just ordered one!

Danny,

Thanks for the quick reply. They certainly are more handsome than the black ones that are accompany the DRO's now.  

 From the photos of the lathe it sure looks like you have a nicely set up shop.  Are there any other pictures on the Forum of other areas of your workspace.  Since I got the DRO I am thinking about building a small stand with a drawer in it for my lathe.  And then I will probably want to do the same thing with my Mill.  This kinda stuff gets out of control for me and is the main cause of my models taking so long to finish.  I will start out with ideas of something simple, then it progresses to hand cut dovetails and so on.  From the looks of what I have seen of your shop, you suffer from some of the same issues.

MIKE/DANNY:

I got the DRO set up on my mill and liked it so much I bought another unit without the display for my lathe. 

Danny you have a really neat set up on yours.  Did the encoders come with the red handwheels when you bought yours, or did you fashion them somehow later.  I really hated to give up my Adjustable-Zero red handwheels but the DRO comes with some generic looking black wheels.  

This Sherline DRO is on sale this month at Sherline for anyone that is interested.  Usual disclaimer, no connection but just purchased one.

Cliff,

Not trying to answer for Druxey but I usually split the bamboo down to a smaller size with a scalpel or xacto and then begin to pull through the drawplate.

Fellow Modelmakers,

I am bringing this subject back to life for two reasons.  First of all to thank Druxey for his original post of introduction to Mihail Kirsanov and his fine chisels as well as Vossiwulf for the pictures and review that he posted.  Secondly, to let everyone know that these are available again for anyone interested.

After reading the original posts, I contacted Michael and attempted to order a set of these only to find that he was out of town and would not be producing them until October of this year.  By some stroke of luck, my feeble mind recalled this information and I contacted him in October and ordered a set.  As previously noted by others, the order from Russia was painless, paid with PayPal and received the chisels within 16-20 days of shipping.  I do not want to bore you folks with a reiteration of the past posts but these chisels are beautiful and far superior to anything I have seen offered anywhere else.  I have seen pictures of his model work and he is also a fine modelmaker as you would expect.  As mentioned before, there will be a learning curve on sharpening but Michael provides instructions for this by e-mail. 

Druxey has previously offered to provide his contact info if interested and I will do the same by PM.  I would also remind you as stated in the previous e-mails that Mihail does not speak English so you will have to use some form of translation software.  I found Google to be very easy to use. 

Derek,

Take a look at the Articles Database section of this forum, under Materials and Tools.  Phil Krol's Ropewalk is listed here.  Very well written with a great deal of details.  I built one of these years ago and it works beautifully.  I used an old belt driven dental motor for power.  These can be found on E-Bay at a reasonable price and most of them have the option to reverse the motor.  If this interests you and I can be of any further help let me know.  

Bill,

Always heard to stay away from tea, even diluted, will deteriorate over time.  Mark mentioned this earlier in this thread.

Eddie,

This is an age old problem with me too.  When I started building models, I used the rigging supplied with kits, black and a manila color.  As my skills or maybe obsessions progressed i began to make my own rigging and found it necessary to color it.  At first, I followed the advice of many and stained the standing rigging with Minwax Jacobean and the running rigging with a mix of Golden Oak and Special Walnut adding and wiping until I got the desired color.

I later ran into an article written by Erik Ronnberg who recommended Liquid Shoe Polish instead of the oil based stains, I believe stating that the oil based stains would eventually deteriorate.  So I then switched over to a mix of brown shoe polish and black until I achieved the desired effect.  This seemed to work nicely.

Then along comes a new article my Erik, who I respect greatly, that is stating problems with fading on the shoe polish and recommends an oil based paint or dye mixed with turpentine and further dissolving bees wax in this mixture saving the independent processes.  I tried this but was having trouble with the colors so I began using a water based dye stain and independently dissolved bees wax in turpentine and carefully pull the rigging through a piece of cotton dipped in the mixture.  This seems to work nicely for me.  

Sorry I hope this helps some, I still use the shoe polish on the standing rigging because I need to match what was already completed on this model some time ago when I was struggling through on these trials.  I guess I am so fearful of problems occurring with some of these processes because of my early use of CA glue on rigging and the horrid deterioration that it caused over a period of about 20 years or so.  Good Luck!  I hope I have not rambled too much and further confused the matter.

Bob,

I have read reviews on this saw in the past and it is certainly a great saw for the modelmaker.  Would jump all over this if it was in my  area.  Good price too.  I approached many of the local printers looking for one lurking in their basement and was unsuccessful in my search.  Hope a modelmaker can catch up with this one.

Jim,

I was also interested in a set of these and sent Mikhail an e-mail last week.  He responded that he would not be at home until October but would get back with me then.  Sounds like you and I are a little late with our requests.  I will either let you know then or send you his e-mail if you have not already received it.  Just let me know.

Druxey,

I am also interested in a set of these.  Could you send me the e-mail address.  

Thanks,

Bill

Ed,

Thanks for the additional clarification on the parcelling.  After I submitted the post I looked at it again and saw that it was only on the serving and then I remembered why I did not continue with my efforts to parcel shrouds.  It would add too much diameter.  I guess if you were really obsessive about it you could worm with some silk thread of the proper diameter and serve.  Would be a job that would take an incredible amount of effort with very little return.  Nevertheless, I will employ your idea on the servings where noticeable in the future.  The construction of this model is "beyond belief" and I will be following this build closely.  

Great job , Ed.  I have always been disturbed by the ridges left in larger rigging line after seizing but this is the first time I have seen a modelmaker add the parcelling.  Does a beautiful job and worth every second of the time it took.  Your work never ceases to amaze me.