Rose and scroll by any other name is...

[SamW]

I'm having MUCH fun Mr. Sam, with the exception of working around those 6 uprights. What a pain! What does not show in the photo is that the engraving goes under the worm gears as seen in this progress photo. Lots of improvization to get the cutting and sculpting done. And the shading was even worse! But the results verify the means.

 

[rayf24]

No words

TOS
I have just spent over an Hour looking at some saved images of yours zooming in and out studying each and every cut and sculptured section were possable and I have no words to discribe your work :bow::bow::bow: only true top shelf I am sure the photo's don't do it true justise and how I would love to see it first hand.
Thank you for showing and hope to see more
Ray

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi Sam

Looks great and I'm looking forward to seeing it all in Reno.

So what masochistic thought gave you the idea to engrave the tuners???

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Roger Bleile]

Sam,

Outstanding! Did you use a specially sharpened or bent graver to work between the uprights?

Thanks,

Roger

 

[SamW]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Andrew, would you believe just to prove I could? That's my story and I am sticking with it. If you look at tuning machines available from several countries, the "embelishment" on them is woefully inadequate or worse. I shopped around and settled on this set of Erving Sloane tuners made by Waverly in Bozeman, MT. They are unplated bronze and yes, I did have to mill off the cast-in leaf pattern (which certainly would not go with the planned rosette). There was enough metal for that and I did call them for an estimate of the thickness before ordering. They are expensive. For the guitar I am building to go with my Model A the German made tuners by Shaller have a pattern in them that is much like a flame pattern so will go well with the hot rod theme.

Roger, I made several bent tools, left, right and vertical to get to most of the areas though not comfortably. As I said, some of it closest to the posts were forced in with a scribe, will power and a good vocabulary.

 

[Mike Fennell]

Excellent, original work. That will be a beautiful guitar when finished, Sam. Will it be completed in time for Reno?

Mike Fennell

 

[SamW]

No Mike. I will have the engraved parts for display. The rest of the guitar has a long way to go. In fact the tuner goes to the next guitar that I plan next summer but the rosette goes on the one I am building now and when I return from Reno I can mount the rosette into the top and start assembly as the parts are just about ready for that stage. I should have one or the other for dispay in 2013. The way time is flying past that isn't all that long.

 

[Peter_M]

More WOW !

This is something else Sam, wonderful work.
Those uprights do seem to add an extra degree or two of challenge. I am not sire how you got so close to them and kept it all looking so nice.
Wonder of it would be possible to make one of those brackets where you can attach the uprights after it is engraved.

Peter

 

[SamW]

Hi Peter, the brackets are cast integral with the base. There are inexpensive tuners with rivited uprights but they are not as solid as one-piece bases. The uprights or posts added a huge difficulty factor which is why it took some 60 hours to engrave an area 3 1/2" by 1/2'. Not what you would call economically feasible! Thanks Peter.

 

[Peter_M]

Sorry Sam, late getting back to you.

Those rivet jobs are generally not very sturdy. Just trying to think of an easier way of doing the job, suppose one could cut the uprights off and then get them welded back on by your friendly neighborhood jeweler with a laser welder.
But then it seams you are doing real well without all the workarounds mere mortals would need to get close to what you can come up with

Peter

 

[SamW]

Peter, I like your term "mere mortals". When I was first introduced to gun engraving by my neighbor in 1967 the first thought that came to my mind was 'you mean mere mortals can do that?' and when he asked if I would like to learn how I jumped right in and been at it ever since.

 

[Peter_M]

Probably around 67 I was busy mastering to ride a bicycle without training wheels

Thank you for posting your work and for the inspiration.

Peter