Surabaya by Piet - 1/80 - Mid 17th-Century VOC ship

[ianmajor]

Piet,

 

A very impressive pair of anchors.

 

I agree with you about not polishing the parts until you can see your face in them. To me you have produced a very realistic metal surface by getting rid of any "machine marks" but leaving it (very) slightly rough. Easier said than done.

[mobbsie]

Nicely done Piet, you have a very good set of skills and you make the most of them.

 

Anchors are going to look terrific when finished.

 

Be Good

 

mobbsie

[Piet]

Thank you all for dropping in and clicking the like button, it's really appreciated.

 

A special thanks to MarkT, Patrick, Nils, Pete, JesseLee, Sjors, Remco, Ian, Mobbsie and Anthony for your very kind words.

 

Sjors and Remco, send me the specs, drawings and material but I don't think you can afford my price

What's the fun in farming out these pleasurable little Jobs, you'll miss all the fun that way.

 

Hey Ian, after the anchors were blackened (painted flat black over metal primer) none of the brass is visible.  However, they still needed to be semi nice looking because all blemishes will show through the paint.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

Well, let's see, what is it today - -  oh yeah, Saturday evening. I managed to complete both main anchors yesterday afternoon.  Put the bolts in the stock, left all pf them with just a skootch sticking above the wood to simulate the upset and painted them flat black.  After the paint had dried I stained the wood in oak because I think that's what they used in those days.  Now the stocks look like those on the photos of the various Dutch ships.  thanks Jan for pointing it out to me.

 

For the smaller anchor I plan to chuck the square brass bar in the lathe and turn the shank round but leaving the top end square.  I still have some round brass rod for the arm so that one will be close to scale as well.  Need to hunt for an example first, make a drawing and start work.

 

Here are two pics of the completed main anchors.  Hope yuns approve.

 

 

 

Cheers,

[GLakie]

Your hard work on the anchors paid off nicely Piet. They look as realistic as the ones on the replica that was posted. 

 

Cheers

[*Hans*]

Just one thing I have to add on the above topics....

 

Every VOC ship had normally 6 of these anchors on board - all in different sizes.

 

So another 4 to go Piet....

 

(and in the same high quality).

[Piet]

First of all to all who visited and clicked the like button my sincerest thaks and secondly -

 

Thanks to George for your very kind words, I think these anchors will do.

 

And Hans, thank you too for your kudos, much appreciated.  Hmmm, 6 anchors total on board?  Well now, I think I'll leave it at three though.

I'm in the process on number three - this one'll be smaller and I'll call it "stern anchor."  Well, one never knows what this crazy Dutchman may do in the future.  I thought there were three brass bars in the package I ordered but there was only one.  The price is okay but the shipping brings it to about $12 for a package.  I can get only three anchors out of one bar.

 

 

It's still rather chilly here in Florida, 55F in the morning.  So after breakfast I spend some time reading my new book on the "Valkenisse."  Very interesting book where Ron Napier describes his work on the restoration of that model.

After an hour reading I made a working sketch for the third anchor.  I had a short piece of the 3.2 mm brass bar left over that worked out exactly right.  Without further ado I ventured out into the garage, aka shipyard, to start work on the third anchor.

 

I chucked the bar into the four jaw lathe chuck, centered it and proceeded to make the square bar round to 2.5 mm.  I had to really work very slowly because the bar was sticking out to about 55 mm and not supported.  It worked okay but finalized the diameter with a file.  The 1 mm pin on the end was equally testy but that too worked okay.  I don't advice anyone doing this, the bar or rod is just too springy and the chance for the cutting tool running underneath the bar is just too risky.

That 1 mm pin will go into a 1 mm hole in the center of the arm to fasten the two parts together.

 

In any case, I lucked out again

 

After lunch I started on making the arm.  I decided against making it from round stock - didn't have aby anyway - and used the left over part of the 3.2 mm bar.  My thinking was to make it look like a forged oval piece of iron.

So first I had to reduce the 3.2 mm bar to about 2.5 mm or a smidgen larger and pre-shape it to a slight bend.  This required a lot of filing but it made the actual bending easier when I had to do it by using the persuader tool (hammer) with the piece in the bench vice. The final shaping with the hammer was done on the vice anvil.

 

Then came the dressing of the piece to shape it the way I wanted with files.  It's not done yet but I think it's beginning to look satisfactory.  The ends of the arm still needs to be have the cut-outs filed in for the flukes, then all the 1 mm holes drilled in the pertinent locations.

Hopefully tomorrow I can solder the metal parts together after my dentist visit.  I'll keep all yuns posted for sure.

 

I'm really enjoying this little project!  :)

 

Working sketch for the "stern anchor." 

 

This shows the rough formed arm and started with the shaping using various sizes of files.

 

Here we see a little more progress in the shaping where I also started with the oval shape.

 

Cheers,

 

 

[michael mott]

Very nice work on the anchors Piet, you must be pleased.

 

Michael

[mtaylor]

Piet,

Your work is inspiring if I may use that word.  I see what you do and it kicks me to push harder.   I love your anchors.

[cog]

Hmmm, couldn't you heat it up and hammer it down (carefully ...) ever so slightly ... it's not that brittle it will break on a hammer's impact will it ... Looking good ... very good

 

Cheers

[Piet]

Thanks everyone for dropping by in my humble shipyard and all the likes, I'm overwhelmed.

 

Thank you Michael, yes, I'm pleased with how they came out. 

 

Hello Mark, thanks for dropping in and for your very kind word.  That's one of the reasons why we should look at others work - it pushes us to emulate the inspiring work of others.   We also learn new things, how other people have solved problems or are using materials we are not familiar with.  I am inspired by what I see being done on this forum.

 

Hoi Carl, yes, working with hot metal does make it easier but  by the time I get the hot bar to the anvil and then on it it cools off very quickly, thus a waste of time.  The bend is really not that much and cold working the bar at this size works quite well.      

If I'm going to make three more anchors as Hans is teasing me with, I may just give it a try.  I can set the torch nearby and heat it up between the hammer whacking. Or let Gwen hold the torch to keep the bar hot

 

 

Well okay, so after I came back from the dentist and had some lunch I decided to drill the three 1 mm holes in the parts, make the two flukes and solder all the metal parts together.  Tomorrow I'll finish dressing it down some more, make the rope ring and stock. 

 

Here is the evidence of this afternoon's 2 hour work session.  Hope yuns like it.

 

 

Cheers,

 

[amazone]

verry nice job piet

[Omega1234]

Hi Piet

 

As Lawrence has hinted above, I'd be willing to place the first order!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[popeye the sailor]

nice job on the anchors Piet.........they really look spot on  

[Piet]

Thank you all for visiting my humble shipyard and clicking on the like button.

 

Thank you Amazon Dirk, Lawrence, Patrick and Popeye Denis for your encouraging comments.  Orders for anchors?  Yuns think you can afford my prices?        Good to see you Dirk, hope all's well with you and your project.

 

I didn't have much time yesterday to post anything, besides there was really nothing worthwhile to post.  The weather has been just too chilly and windy here in Palm Coast, Florida so my stay in the garage - aka shipyard - was brief.  The same for today, still too cold for me and I didn't feel like punishing my delicate old bod if I don't have to.  Did I ever tel all f you that I HATE cold weather?  Well, I HATE cold weather.

 

The only thing I did yesterday was put some primer on the anchor and made the stock.  After the primer was dry I installed the stock, cut the bolts from 1 mm brass rod, drilled the bolt holes, mixed some slow cure epoxy cement and installed the bolts. 

I also cut a small piece of boxwood out of some stock I have for the counter decoration.  That piece is 40 X 65 X 5 mm - I wanted to keep the carving reasonably small so as not to be overpowering.  This will also give me the space to add some more decorative things on the sides, bottom and top.  The stern area will require quite a few carvings to hide the intentionally kept bare areas for that purpose.

 

On my dentist visit yesterday he have me about 6 small burs.  One is a tungsten carbide bit and the rest are diamond studded.  They are tiny, thus very good for carving the mane on the bow lion.

 

Today I moved some of my things inside and finished the small "stern anchor" in the breakfast nook where it was nice and warm.  I could look outside at my koy pond and do some work in the warmth.

So I filed all the bolts down to just above the wood to give it the feel and appearance of hammered heads.  I already put the little jar of flat black paint inside to let it come to room temperature.  The first thing was using the toothpick trick to put some flat black on the bolts.  Let it dry and then brushed the flat black on the anchor and put it aside to let the paint dry.   That gave me the chance to have some lunch and let the paint dry.

 

After lunch I put the oak stain on the stock  and put it aside to dry.  Gwen, who doesn't want to be called the Admiral, said that she really liked the anchor, it's better then the first two, she said.  So, okay, I'm a happy camper   Looks like that I'll be making a few more, ummm, for myself though

 

Next thing was that I transferred the drawing of the Sura and Buaya battle to that little piece of wood  and proceeded to cut it out with the Proxxon jigsaw.  I left a handle like piece at the top end to have something to hold on to.   I like to hold the parts I work on between my fingers, that way I have a better feel of what I'm doing.

 

Well, that's it or now and below are a few pics of my accomplishments for two days work.  Hope you like it.

 

The completed "stern" anchor for the Surabaya.

 

This is the sketch for the counter carving.   It's the visual depiction of a legend about a shark, called the Sura who fought with a salt water crocodile, the Buaya, for supremacy of the Kali Mas and the river delta.  The word kali means river in the Indonesian language and that's the place where the city called Surabaya was established.  It's the city where I was born and raised, a really nice place - at that time - ergo, the name of this model. 

 

This shows the rough cut-out for the carving.  This will be a real challenge for me, it'll be my fist attempt at carving.  Wish me luck.

 

Cheers,

[Omega1234]

Hi Piet

 

I wish you luck for the carving; although I doubt that you'll need it!

 

All the best

 

Patrick

[pete48]

Hello, Piet, I agree with Patrick  you got this

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[JesseLee]

Can't wait to see how the carving turns out. I need to learn to do this too. A father & son at my church are both dentists so I think I am going to ask them for some worn out burs that they would be throwing out anyway.

 

Jesse

[GLakie]

What the other guys said Piet! We all know it'll turn out fine! 

[ianmajor]

Well Piet,  I don't read your log for the modelling but for the education I receive about far flung places and their folklore. Well actually that is not quite true - the anchors are fabulous.     

[Piet]

Hello everyone and I thank all of you who visited and clicked the Like button.

 

@ Patrick: Thanks for the encouragement and I need all the good luck I can get.  This is my very first attempt with carving.

 

@ Pete: Thank you too.  This carving business is not easy but we'll give it a bloody go.

 

@ JesseLee:  Yes, I like to see how it goes as well, you are not the only one    You'll like these small dental burs, they work really nice, slow on boxwood, which is actually a good thing.

 

@ George: Thanks my friend, all you guys have more confidence in my carving ability then I do, but like said, I'll give it a real good try.

 

@ Ian: Thanks for kudos, I try.  As far as tales from far flung places - - well, I think that livens it up a little and all yuns get to know me a little better that way. 

 

 

Today I made an attempt with carving the Sura and Buaya for the counter decoration.  Most of the carving I did was with a #11 blade.  Two of the holes I had to make in the center of the model I did with a #60 drill bit and followed with one of the dental burs.

This being a relief carving or actually it'll be a combo of bass relief and semi pierced relief, the visual aspect can only be realized when viewed one way, or so it seems.  I undercut parts of the figures to show some dept and form, just hope it'll work as I envision it.  Perhaps more work then necessary but it's worth a try.  Like the tail of the shark - I wanted to show it with an upward twist.  I also removed a lot of wood under the crock's upper jaw that's clamped down onto the shark's tail.

So far I have used primarily the #11 blade, dental bur, a #60 and #50 drill bit, a broken piece of an 80 tooth jeweler's saw blade, a rotary sanding drum and a few small files.  I need to hunt for a stiff bristle brush for the Proxxon hand tool I have and of course sandpaper. 

 

After about an hour into it I removed that little handle at the top end of the model.  I really didn't need it, it was in the way.

 

As yuns can see from the below pics there's still a lot of work to do before it's completed.  Then we have to decide whether to keep it or make a new one.  I'll let Gwen cast her critical eye on it , she's not bashful in telling me the truth.  Any of you master carvers also don't be shy and let me know where to improve, what to change.  

 

What you see here is a total of 5 hours worth of work.  No, I'm not as fast as Sawdust Dave, but don't forget that this is my fist carving attempt.

 

This shows the model straight on as one would see it when on the ship.

 

This shows the model looking from the top of the counter down towards the water.  I just wanted to show the undercuts at the shark's tail and the crock's head.

 

Cheers,

[Remcohe]

I'd say keep on going it looks very promising. I like it that the sharks tail is free from the transom and adds depth to the overall picture. If you can pull this off with the tip of the sharks nose that would increase the depth as well.

 

Remco

[Jack12477]

Looks good to me Piet.  I agree with Remco about the shark's nose.

[JesseLee]

That's a good start Piet! I think you'll do just fine with this!

 

Jesse

[mobbsie]

Your carving is going to look absolutely great Piet.

 

Continue with what you have there mate, it's looking real good so-far. The relief work will be a real bonus.

 

Be Good

 

mobbsie

[cog]

Hmmm, you don't say ... Piet ...  your first attempt at carving ... you're pullin' me legg roaght ... (I'll believe you when Gwenn confirms that!!!) Wonderful job, and very fine and crisp lines so far. I wish you a steady hand and patience ...

 

Cheers

[Piet]

Thanks everyone for dropping in and your comments and to all who liked my feeble efforts.

 

@ Remco: I found that by doing this carving piece as a combo of bass relief and semi pierced relief brings with it some visible distortion when see in other then straight on.  I like the idea of the shark's tail lifted op slightly but that makes the crock's mouth look out of place.  To make the shark's upper jaw lifted up slightly would not be natural.  Reason being is that when the shark has a hold on the crock's tail it's tight around the flesh without a gap.  Actually, I do like the thought though. 

Right now I have second thought on this carving piece and am contemplating to make another carving.  I already cut another piece of wood from the bigger blank.  I want to experiment a little with this one and see what I can do with making the crock's head an jaw look more realistic from other viewing positions as one would normally look at a model.  I'm also thinking of making it a few percentage points larger.  The below pic will show why.  Just thinking now mind you

 

@ Jack: Thank you.

 

@ JesseLee:  Thank you as well.

 

@ Mobbsie:  Thank you too and yes, I'll be giving it another go.  Like I mentioned to Remco above, I'm not happy with the results and besides I made a few errors that really bother me.  So I'll just chalk this up as a learning curve and practice makes one come closer to perfection.  Uh oh, that means I'll have to do a lot of practicing

 

@ Carl:  Yup, this is truly my very first try at carving, no 3D or bass relief, nada in the carving world.  I do have steady hands and patience, except with myself, I get upset when I can't do things right from the start   By the way, Gwen thinks its cute and likes it 

 

 

 

Well then, today I tried to finish the Sura and Buaya carving but noticed a few rather glaring flaws and tried to monk with them.  But in the end things still bothered me and rather then saying "good enough," or "you can't see it from 10, 000 feet", I'd rather make another carving.  Hey, no prob - I learned a few things and that's a good thing.

I did stain it, heavy I must say, with cherry and it did improve the looks but still not good enough.

 

I do have a request to make though.  What color would you advice for this particular carving?  I'll be framing the counter with a floral motif and paint it in yellow ocher.   Perhaps in that case a light stain would probably be best as a nice contrast to the cherry background and the ocher border carvings.

 

I also made a start with carving one of knechten (nights) for the forecastle bits.  The scale is so small that this was a real test in miniature carving.  At least it looks like a face but I call it a Rapa Nui   So, I'll have to try another one and another one and another one till they look half way decent.

 

Hedy, I'm having fun and that's the main thing.  

 

This shows the doctored up and stained SuraBaya carving and the name banner below it.  That'll be ascream carving the lettering.

 

Here is my first attempt carving a miniature head.  Well, okay it's version 1.0 with many more attempts to come.

 

Here we see Rapa Nui on the bit post.  He still needs a hat of some sort and paint but - - - back to carving another one.  A cheeky little fellow, looks like he's got jaundice or some other problem, the poor fellow.  He's done with a #11 blade and some sandpaper.

 

Cheers,

[GLakie]

Your carvings look good to me Piet!  Some say the Rapa Nui was the civilization that created the Moi on Easter Island. But the Rapa Nui say they didn't.

Edited February 15, 2016 by GLakie

[Remcohe]

Ok, 2.0 is even better!

 

Remco

[popeye the sailor]

I would never guess this is your first time at this Piet.........looks great!