KazeTamp “Sky Captain” nears completion.

When I began KazeTamp back in November of 2004 and had carved the first piece, Genesis, I then sat down and began to carve some very unusually shaped tamps that I felt would show the future path of the endeavor.   Then, early on, I decided to take an alternate path and to slowly introduce KazeTamp by offering some more identifiably Ming shapes by borrowing back and forth between Ming and Kaze.  The initial piece were set aside for the proper time down the road.  That time has now come.

Recently I have introduced shapes more unique to KazeTamp offering tamps that are full-blown Kaze shapes: Angry Beavers and Deco.  These tamps were begun early on in 2004 and 2005 and have sat incomplete since then.  Now, with Sky Captain, I am offering the first tamper begun back in November 2004 after the initial Genesis piece was completed.  Deco came along about the same time and Angry Beavers a good bit after that, but Sky Captain was really the first time I sat down and decided to have some fun disregarding the envelope.

The briar portion of the tamper has been added in the past year as I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go with the bottom of the piece.  As it turns out the gnetleman who has the first option on the piece prefers that the bottom remain all briar.  As luck would have it the gentleman who has the second option on the piece (should the first gentleman pass on it) would like to see an aluminum or brass tamp surface added, so an aluminum tamp surfce will be added if things should get that far.  But in any event, this is quite a tamper, a real showpiece, currently at approximately 7.5 inches long.

 The shape of the tamp is a stylized wing with strong layering almost giving it an Art Deco feel.  I gave myself the freedom with this piece (what KazeTamp is all about) to do something rather unorthodox having a lot of fun.  the shape will become more refined as the sanding continues.  I figured I’d show the piece now after some initial sanding as the contours will be largely lost in any photo taken after the piece is finished.

While there are two gentlemen currenly in line for the piece a waiting list is not entirely a waste of time.  I anticipate the price of the tamp to be between $225 and $300, give or take.  It all depends.  That’s just a guess based on my current impressions.