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DanKnowles - Posted - 12/20/2009: 19:43:33
It's Sunday and the shop is quiet except for the vacuum running in the other room sucking off the pearl dust. Pearl dust I'm told is mostly calicum carbonate. I don't suppose eating the stuff in would do much more than help grow strong teeth and bones. But the breathing of this stuff can be disastrous. This stuff can make you sick. Don't breath it.
More hours of inlay cutting. The nice thing about cutting these materials is that you have to relax. The saw blade is not much bigger than a hair and they break almost with just a breath. Any little bit of tension and bang... blade changing time. I is amazing how tired and sore my fingers get from holding the materials down on the cutting board. They must be firmly held to the board or snap there goes another blade. This is a meditation thing. A constant interplay of the Yin and Yang. Even after all these years I still break a lot of blades. Cool thing is, I've gotten pretty quick at changing them.
First thing on the cutting board is the little boys arm. All of the skin highlights I am cutting out of ivory. This is elephant ivory that came from the key tops of a old piano that was being junked. I collect all this stuff I can get my hands on. If you have some you want to get rid of please let me know. It is a bit thin for most inlay purposes but careful routing makes it work just fine. 
I also use Mastodon and fossil walrus ivory, each has its own particular texture and color. I'll shoot some photos of both and will post them for you to see, soon. I'd say I'd do it manana but you know what they say about manana.
Here I have cut out the middle mans shirt. I'm cutting it from turquoise Re-con stone from Mase Craft. This is a material they make from 80% stone and the remainder is some type of polyester. It's cool stuff to work with and it adds considerably to my palate of color.
Here I'm filing away at it removing all of the kirf marks. Again filing may be the most important part of this process, it trues and fits the shapes and adds a professional gloss to the whole thing.
Here I am cutting the shadow aea of the middle mans face. It is being cut from Gold Lipped Pearl, that comes from the Philippines. On this whole project the skin shadow tones are all being cut from gold mother of pearl.
After several hours of cutting I glue all of the pieces together in one mass. They are layed on a piece of wax paper, on their faces and tack glued. Then the spaces are filled with a mixture of ebony dust and glue. This helps strengthen the lines. Later I will detail engrave all of the pieces. As a good artist friend of mine says, "It's all about drawing, it all comes down to drawing."
The little boy is my grandson Keaton. 
Edited by - DanKnowles on 12/20/2009 20:00:33
mojo_monk - Posted - 12/21/2009: 03:47:32
quote:
Originally posted by DanKnowles
jbalch - Posted - 12/21/2009: 09:53:39
It has been said before that this is a magnificent project. I certainly agree.
One thing that is really special (and extremely rare) is to watch a world-class builder, visual artist, and national-championship player make an instrument for his own personal use. This project is 100% Dan...not filtered by the need to please a client (although he does that very well too). I think this gives us all a glimpse of Dan's unique genius.
Very cool!
... Very special! ....
Dan. Thanks again for sharing!
Edited by - jbalch on 12/21/2009 13:32:18
spaz - Posted - 12/21/2009: 13:51:15
man, i would have loved to have seen a video of you turning that thing. how close to a circle did you bandsaw off the corners? Did you cut the inside as well or turn that completely? Did you rub your hand on the glossy-smooth finish after you were done? There is nothing quite like the look and feel of highly polished raw wood. Years ago I found an old chunk of oak in a friends workshop and turned a round-head mallet out of it. I spend more time admiring it than using it when I go visit.. 
DanKnowles - Posted - 12/21/2009: 19:52:07
John,
Thank you for your complements, I don't know what to say
Another day of inlay cutting.
This has been some of the most exzilerating inlay cutting ever for me. I wonder about this, feeling so fine sawing away on this stuff.
The cutting today was some of the most difficult to date in this project. These two faces carry more cut detail, meaning many more tiny pieces. Each of these faces average seven pieces.
Usually when cutting a major project I will cut all of one type of material the fit them all together at the end. This time though for continuity sake I decided to start with the female figure on the peghead and cut toward the rim, fitting and gluing as I went.
This approach really gives me a feeling of accomplishment.
I am looking forward to tomorrow when I get to start cutting the steamboat Robert E. Lee.
DanKnowles - Posted - 12/22/2009: 19:20:07
Today I cut the steamboats...both of them, their fire smoke and all!
Here is the steamboat Robert E. Lee. Her hull is made from turquoise, main body white MOP, the fire is spiny red coral, the smoke is some of the wormy abalone shell that I prepared earlier,brass dust and marble.
Both steamboats are pictured, the Natchez is following the R. E. Lee. The boats, like all the inlays are just placed on the fingerboard and peghead, none are in their final location. 
Tomorrow I will attempt to cut a man watching from a skiff, steamboat flags, foliage and if I am real lucky perhaps some water and background.
DanKnowles - Posted - 12/23/2009: 19:04:04
Today I continued inlay cutting & finished! I think...
The man watching from his skiff started todays cut work...
Then it was time to mark fret slots. The inlay must be cut back slightly from the fret slot so that the fret tang will have some purchase in the slot.
The R. E. Lee is marked.
Cutting the first fret figures.
As I was getting ready to cut the Natchez fret slot I slipped and dropped the inlay, proving my fallibility. Here is the result.
So I re-cut it... This time to make sure I wouldn't get fumble fingers I cut it from some of my most expensive material, African Green Sea Snail.
Here it is all slotted. 
Well I hope this will keep everybody through Christmas. Anyway Marry Christmas. Or as Tiny Tim would say, "Gaw bless us, every one."
DanKnowles - Posted - 12/26/2009: 10:46:07
I hope everybody had a great Christmas. For those of you who are Jonesing for this mess here we go again...
Before routing for inlay, the fingerboard needed to be radiused. Using our glass based sanding board ( 3/4" plywood with a 1/4" plate glass base) and radius gauges the fingerboard is sanded to shape. When the fingerboard is getting close to shape, chalk is applied then the fingerboard is sanded until all of the chalk is gone, proving that the fingerboard is true.
Step 1 Because the inlay crosses the truss rod access cavity, a piece of ebony had to be inlayed (for a truss rod cover) before the other inlay could be continued.
Step 2 A pattern was made from paper centering and checking placement.
Step 4 The ebony is tack glued in place to the peghead.
Step 5 Using chisels the cavity for the truss rod cover is cut and fitted.
Some folks may look at this and wonder why I'm not chawing away at this with a router. First there is nothing wrong with power routing. When the chance affords I always choose hand tools. When I was a child my folks always encouraged hand tool skills. My Dad would say, "Son if you can't do it by hand, then obviously you don't have the ability to do it." He would never let me use a power tool for any project until I could prove that I could acheive it with my saws, planes, knives ansd chisels. I hated this as a kid, I liked the noise and sawdust, but now I love using these tools. Some of the tools I use were my great-grandfathers. 
Step 6 Next I place the inlay group on the peghead, tack glue and mark placement.
Step 7 ( I'm into this step business today... I hope you'll forgive me) This time using my miniature 'power router(!)' and a dental burr the inlay cavity is routed.
Step 8 After much routing and fitting the cavity is complete. The truss rod cover is glued in place to the inlay. Then it is sawed free.
Step 9 after smoothing the recent cut inlay, it is glued in place. All of the voids are filled with a combination of ebony dust and glue. Then the whole peghead is sanded flush.
A magnet inlayed in the truss rod cavity will hold the truss rod cover in place. Next we move on to inlaying the fingerboard.
DanKnowles - Posted - 12/27/2009: 07:05:23
All of the pieces of inlay material were glued in their proper location on the fingerboard. This was done using a couple of drops of cyno. Care must be used to not get to much glue on the inlay piece. We only want the piece to be tacked in place.
Using a white pencil that has been sharpened to extreme point I draw around each piece. Here I am marking around the Robert E. Lee. I change my techniques depending on what I need to acheive. Most times I'll mark the outlines with a sharpened ice pick or knife. These pieces are quite fragile and often the pressure of a knife will break the piece. 
The inlay pieces are removed from the fingerboard using a thin knife. The knife I use is a old cake decorating knife that I have cut short and ground quite thin. I slide it under the piece and pop the piece free. Here I have removed all of the pieces and am ready to start the routing.
The line running the length of the fingerboard is a prospective horizon line. I am going to inlay a pearl line with hills in the background and turquoise water shapes in the foreground. I've got a bit of turquoise that tends towards green that I'll use along with some gray and brown marble to emulate the green/brown water of the Mississippi river. I may also inlay some black or sunburst pearl in water shapes.
DanKnowles - Posted - 12/28/2009: 18:01:05
Today I started routing the fingerboard inlay. The first fret figures were first. Here the routing has begun. 
Here is my router setup. I built this several years ago and it has been fooled and tinkered with. At one time I had a miniature vacuum and a little LED light hooked up to it. Mostly all that stuff just got in the way of easy operation.
I always clean out the bottoms of the cavities with a snall dog leg chisel. The router with the dental burr tends to leave little chunks that have to be removed.
Some one told me once that I am a 'Jazz man" inlay artist because I have a very improvisational approach to this art.
Here I get to improvise.
Using the router I hog out the shapes I want for water.
A mixture of ground turquoise, copper, silver, brass and glue is placed in the routing cavities. Here I have used a file to level the work. Normally I would wait until everything is in and then level. I figured that you might enjoy seeing it smoothed out as we moved along. 
Here both steam boats have been inlayed, the turquoise put in and the surface has been quickly leveled. Tomorrow I hope to inlay my fisherman, the trees and begin adding lines to break up the water shapes.
DanKnowles - Posted - 12/29/2009: 20:10:27
Most of my day was spent teaching banjo, guitar and inlay art, but I was able to steal a bit of time away for the ebony one. It's funny how much I look forward to working on this project each day.
Today most of my available time was used on inlaying brass and black water details. This is a fun technique, but it is easy to over do.
We already have all of the turquoise inlayed and much of it is in wide blocky strips. What I want to do is visually break up these areas with the black and then add shimmer with the brass. Later I will add even more shimmer with silver.
First using a Japanese 1/8 laminated chisel turned so it cuts like a graver, I cut grooves to fill with brass.
By the way, I really love these Japanese chisels. I have several, the one pictured is relatively new but some I own are 80 to 100 yeas old. They were made by laminating (in a forge) soft steel to hard steel giving the chisels both strength and the ability to be really sharp and hold an edge. I have some of my great grandfathers English chisels and though they ae fine tools they are not nearly as nice as these. 
Next, using one of my blood transfer pipets filled with cyno, I gingerly fill the grooves with glue.
Earlier using a fine file, I made some fine brass filings.
Holding a pinch of the filings between my thumb and first finger I carefully fill each groove. After all the grooves are filled with filings I add more cyno. Before the glue has set I drive and pack the filings into the groove using a small hammer.
Although I am only showing the brass, when I wish for black lines, the same technique is used only this time filling with ebony dust.
I was not able to get any photos of the hammering because this mut be done immediately after adding the glue. The cyno sets soooooooooooo quickly.
Here are a couple of views of the inlay as it is today.
As an additional note: Today UPS delivered parts from my good Canadian friend Bill Richard. If you ever have are privileged to see or use any of Bills work, grab onto it with all you have. These are some of the finest parts that have been made sense the glory days of the 1890's.
Anyway in the package was one of Bills titanium White Lady tone rings. This has got to be one of the most interesting rings I have seen in a long time. The ring is considerably lighter in weight than its comparable brass ring. It has such a full and interesting tap tone, very musical sounding and louder than the brass. It is a bit brighter in tone than the brass and I am quite excited to hear it sing. In the next day or two I will mount it on my Pharoah banjo and try it out. I had intended to try this on another banjo that I am building but it won't be ready for a couple of weeks and I 'm not sure I can wait that long.
trapdoor2 - Posted - 12/30/2009: 06:32:51
quote:As I recall, I rode PART with you and Austin to the Mexican place. Them hybrid subway cars are smoooooth.
Originally posted by DanKnowles
Marc
Have you ever ridden P.A.R.T.? You never want to ride it twice. Ah perhaps we could end a tour or two with you performing some of your geat classical pieces on this banjo!
DanKnowles - Posted - 12/30/2009: 17:33:48
Copper Hills
Today I continued on adding more and more detail to both the neck and peghead.
First I routed for the horizon line on the peghead, inlayed the abalone stripping and began cutting spaces for the water and background hills.
Glue is applied in the cavity, copper filings fill the cavity.
A small chasing hammer is used to pack the filings.
Here copper is being scraped level on the fingerboard.
These photos show where I stopped today. Tomorrow I hope to inlay my fella on the skiff, trees, riverboat flags, flagstaffs and other details.
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