Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!  May the warmth in your soul find a permanent home the year around, from day to day, hour to hour, moment to moment.

 Art

How I do it.

Frequently I’ll get emails from folks asking how I make my tampers.  They’ll ask questions like “How do you do shapes like that on a lathe?”, or, “How do you bend acrylic to get shapes like that?”.  Those are the most frequently asked, and each time they are asked the answer is “I don’t “.

 

The bottom line is that you can’t produce the vast majority of the shapes that I do with a lathe.  The lathe is a wonderful tool, but its limitations as to shapes are great.  If you are interested in variations of barrel or spindles, the tool is well suited for the task.  As it was very clear to me early on, going on nine years ago, that the shapes that were in my head were not possible on a lathe, the tool never became part of my craft.  While some of my shapes could be produced on a lathe, like a Pug or Pocket Model, they would be lifeless compared to what I produce now, which are pieces with small asymmetrical variances that make each piece truly one-of-a-kind, each with far greater visual interest.  You may pick up a Pocket Model and think that it might have been made on a lathe, but upon just a little closer inspection it becomes clear that the piece was carved by hand with the subtle variances to show for it.  The lathe is a fine tool, but it is a poor match for my style and artistic sensibilities. I consider what I do to be sculpting.  For my craft the lathe is not a sculptor’s tool.

 

Another factor that encouraged my current methods is the importance of sanding.  When a pen or a tamper is produced on a lathe it can be sanded and (to a degree) buffed as it spins.  I’m a little envious of that as it is a great time saver, and is much easier on the hands, but the fact is that for me sanding must be done differently while holding the piece.  For my craft that is crucial as with some pieces upwards of 25% of the shape is accomplished by hand sanding.  Contours can be sharpened, or softened, refined and defined, by meticulous sanding via pinpoint pressure.  I have the calluses and bone spurs to show for it, but for shape refinement I have found no other way to do it.  I also sand most of my tampers while they are underwater, and that would prove difficult with a spinning electric motor. So, as you can see, a lathe was never an option for me.  The photo above should be proof of that.

 

But what about bending acrylic to get my shapes?  The answer is simple:  it ain’t happening.  Acrylic doesn’t bend like that.  No, my shapes must be carved to their shape.  I have never bent a tamper to shape and am not foolish enough to try.

 

So, if I don’t use a lathe or bend my tampers to shape, how do I do it?  The answer is simple.  I use three tools for shaping.  If I am starting out with a sheet material I use a bandsaw to cut away as much material as possible.  That often isn’t all that much material as cutting plastic on a bandsaw can be very tricky.  For rod and bar materials I trim away as much material as possible with a disk sander and then carve the tamper to shape using a Dremel with sanding drums.  In essence, I sand a tamper to shape.  My left hand is my lathe, holding the work, while my right hand with the Dremel is the tool doing the cutting.

 

So, there you have it.  In the past I’ve said that my choice of tools defined my style, but in retrospect that isn’t really true.  Right from the beginning I knew the type of shapes that I wanted to create, so the lathe was never the right choice for the task.  The path that I followed was arguably the tougher path, at least for me, but it was the only way to accomplish what I have accomplished.

A quick look…

Here’s a quick look at some pieces that have been in the works for quite a while, that will soon be offered once I get around to sanding and buffing them.  Right now they are basically shown rough carved.

From left: The first one is a KazeTamp freehand in Bali.  It’s sort of a modified Predator. When the tamp is used to tamp straight down the tamp surface is at an angle to the ash.  This is a design  that has been in use since the turn of last century when two friends of mine (Greg Pease and Toren Smith) separately suggested the angled tamp.

Next is a TouchStone called “Owl” in Caneel.  The shape suggests a ghostly owl much like the ghostly predator that they are.  Owls fascinate me.  I watch them hunt the woods behind my house catching glimpses of they’re silent death.  Owls are the possibly the most deadly predators on the planet.  As you may know TouchStones are miniature sculptures not made to tamp but are created for art’s sake.

Next we have another TouchStone called “Rock-n-Roll”.   This is one big hunks of Caneel that has been carved into a shape which is a stylized guitar with a bit of a flare towards a musical note.  It still needs some shape refinement, but I am anticipating an extra special piece.

Next in line is a smaller Bluto in Cumberland.  Two classics in one tamper.  What more can I say?

To the right of that is a KazeTamp Whisper in Caneel.  Unfortunately the angle of the photo is  bad.  Some Ming collectors consider this to be my best shape, one that is sleek, graceful, and understated yet full of visual interest.  Typically a Ming shape, this is a transition to KazeTamp and is the first of it’s kind.

Next to that we have a Ming freehand internal pick tamp carved in Voodoo, a light blue pin stripe on a darker blue.  This one has a decidedly Egyptian flare and is unlike any internal pick tamp that I’ve done before. (Sorry, this piece is now reserved)

To the right we have a tamp that I haven’t done for quite some time:  the Excelsior.  This one takes the Ming shape, tweaks it quite a bit, and brings it in Caneel to KazeTamp as a very different piece.  The Caneel material in this shape appears differently in pattern, a nice change.

Finally we have a long (probably 4.0 to 4.5” long, I have to measure) KazeTamp Arashi in Bali.  The Arashi was to be the Ming version of the KazeTamp Torune-do, but I have some ling slender pieces of Bali that cried out to be an Arashi, so I made it so.

So there you have it, some of what you will see in coming days.  If you have any comments, just drop me an email at mingkahuna@aol.com or below at this blog.

I’m Still Here

Yup, I’m still here!  Things have just been a little nuts with the holidays.  We had family in from out of town, and business has been……busy!  I’ve also been slowed up a bit by my tendonitis.  This latest event is just a bit of a residual from a month ago.

I’ve also been working a lot on special orders.  For quite a while I backed off from taking special orders due to an eight month plus backlog.  It was getting a little too stressful and that’s no fun and not the best environment for creative pursuits.  But as time has gone on I have slowly returned to special orders, and word got out.  Well, that’s fine by me as I am now better able to control this aspect of production making it the enjoyable experience that it should be.

Here’s an interesting aside.  As I have said my tendonitis flared up a good bit around Thanksgiving.  At about the same time I made a visit to the local shooting range to warm up my .40 caliber Walther P99 (and a few other toys).  The problem was in my right arm (my strong gun arm) so I wasn’t sure how I would fare.  As it turned out the pain after shooting was almost entirely gone!  Forty caliber is a rather snappy round, so maybe the force generated had some kind of therapeutic effect.  Okay, I’m not medical doctor, and I don’t play one on TV, but that is certainly food for thought. 

Hmmm, I wonder if I could get my medical insurance to pay for a new HK and a couple thousand rounds of ammo.

Note:  That’s not my P99 but one just like it.  For wonderful gun potogrpahs go to http://www.praxagora.com/lunde/firearms.html