One of my bronze chariot planes

[george wilson]

I cast several of these planes years ago when I had an out door casting outfit that I made.

Now I cannot find a decent picture,and for some reason cannot delete this post. So,I'm stuck with this picture.

The engraving was done with the hammer and chisel method,but the reflected light makes it difficult to see it.

The casting was made of 90% old copper pipe fittings,and 10% pure tin. The wedge is rosewood.

The front sole of these type planes is always steel,attached with 2 steel screws,as seen. It helped to make the mouth very small.

[Brian Holcombe]

That is incredibly gorgeous.

[george wilson]

Thank's Brian. I reported my own post,asking it be deleted. I did not see how bad the picture was until it got enlarged. What happened to the "delete" function?

[Judson Green]

Nice work, George!

What's the size of it?

[Steve Voigt]

Very nice George! I'd love to know more about how you did the casting.

[Mike Henderson]

Wow, that's beautiful, George. You are a master.

Mike

[george wilson]

The casting was done from a wooden pattern I made. I used Petrobond sand. It relies upon a little motor oil instead of water to hold it together. It is much easier than
green",or water based casting sand,and is pretty fine in texture. It makes a little smoke when hot metal is poured into it,but that is not a problem especially when used out doors.

I got tired of trying to work out doors,and after a few Summers stopped casting. While I still have my shop made casting flasks,sand,and other tools,I left the furnace when I moved years ago.

The furnace was made by taking a 5 gallon container,and making a tapered plug that looked like a bucket for the inner form. I bought rather expensive high temp refactory clay and poured it into the space between the form and the 5 gallon can. The heat was gas. I even managed to get enough heat to melt cast iron,but only as an experiment. It's a bother to break up small engines to get iron for making castings.

[David Weaver]

I sure hope the original post doesn't get deleted. We'll take whatever picture we can get.

[george wilson]

Looks like it's too late to delete it now.

[Jim Matthews]

Exquisite work.

Care to guess how many hours invested
in the engraving, alone?

Kudos

[Kent A Bathurst]

George -

You slay me. Seriously.

Every so often, you just pick out any-old amazing thing you have done, out of what must thousands, and drop them on us so casually......... Almost like a shrug and - "Oh yeah - there was also this one."

Keep 'em coming, Kemo Sabe.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Now that is incredible. I really need to learn to engrave metal.

[george wilson]

I only have a few hours in the engraving,IIRC. But now it would take me 3 years.

[Mel Fulks]

A guy who could make that would have no trouble carving a couple of horses ,a Roman charioteer ,...then making a stop
motion Ben Hur film!

[Jim Koepke]

Wow!

Wow!

jtk

Had to say wow twice to have enough letters to post.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi George

Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all! :)

I would really love to see an album - web or paper - to collect images of your tools, furniture and musical instruments. Each would need a description of build and related methodology. There is so much technique to pass on.

Incidentally, did you do the engraving on the sides - it does not look like it was cast (the image is too small to see much detail).

Regards from Perth

Derek

[ian maybury]

Lovely work George, and based on skills that are likely at risk of being lost. Begs all sorts of interesting questions - how in a more egalitarian society where the elites that bought high end stuff and the low cost labour that made it possible don't exist in the same way any more can such skills be kept alive?

[george wilson]

Derek,the engraving was done with hammer and chisel. The casting itself was quite rough,and metal had to be milled away on all surfaces to begin to get it smooth. Then,surfaces were filed and sanded smooth with wet or dry paper.

I have no drawings of the engraving. I usually just drew C,S and other curves on the metal,so as to fill out the spaces. Then,added details like leaves and went to engraving. Many engravers worked like this in the old days,though they frequently smoked the work afterwards and took rubbings on paper. The main aim of the design was to evenly fill out the surfaces so that no place was "busier" than another. The same applies to planning 100% surface inlay work,as on the marquetry guitar(though I did pre draw that work on paper). It was a larger surface,and I wanted to make sure all the surfaces went together harmoniously. I.E.: The body,neck and peghead.

Ian,I can't recall what happened to this plane. I did have several collectors buying from me at the time.

[Don Rogers]

George,
Your work is incredible yet you make it sound so easy.
Don

[John T Barker]

Fantastic work. I would love to own one of those or say that I made one. Very nice work.

[Jeff Wittrock]

Just a beautiful little plane George. Were you inspired by a particular plane from the past?
I have always thought it difficult to make a small short plane like a chariot plane look graceful. Something about going from the high heal to the low toe in such a short distance. I have been playing with the idea of making a small chariot plane, but every time I start sketching things, it just looks clumsy to me.
There is a grace to yours that I really enjoy seeing.

Jeff