African blackwood and lignum vitae.
Afzelia xylay and cocobolo.
Padauk and pear.
Here's a close up look of the spring loaded brass connector inside of the pear wood bottom. I really like how the springs are totally hidden, giving a clean look.
A closer look at the bottom carving. I carve the concave surface on the bottom by hand with a power carving bit, followed up by a lot of hand scraping and sanding. Each bottom carving takes me anywhere from 1 hr - 1.5 hrs to complete (depending on wood species). That's at least a week a non-stop carving for a batch. Unfortunately I have not figured out a faster method for this process yet....
I thought about getting rid of this feature, since it's only aesthetic after-all, but it's just such an integral part of the over-all design, I just couldn't imagine the Nomad II without this little detail!
Dantastic!
Some super classy pieces there
Re' the bottom plate recess:
Could you mill out a rectangular recess fractionally shallower than the final target depth (and smaller in size), leaving only the 'roundover' and subtle curve of the edges to be hand finished?
I sometimes use a spherical tipped diamond dremel bit clamped in an X-Acto style craft knife handle to rough out rounded groove detail in wood (I mostly drag the tip, some shoving and/or twisting in tight corners). I then finish/smooth with scotchbrite wrapped around a tool that I made from an old screwdriver that I cut the tip off (and then rounded over the tip into a hemisphere). I also have some fine metal mesh wood abrasive that seems to work well used in this way (sorry, can't remember the name of the product) and is a lot more durable than the scotchbrite, but I've only used it a couple of times so far.
I also have another modified screwdriver that I cut the broken tip off (straight, flat cut across the shaft) and then mushroomed the end in a similar way that a rivet is formed (just a mm or two wider than the starting diameter of the shaft is sufficient) I then sharpened the edge of the mushroomed portion on my Tormek sharpener so it can be used like a tiny circular cabinet scraper.
When nice and sharp, gently dragging the tool can produce shavings so fine they almost float in the air and you have to be careful not to breathe them in during really close work!
I use SUPER cheap screwdrivers for this as I think the properly hardened shafts of e.g. a vanadium driver would be too hard to 'planish' to produce the mushroomed edge.
This tool leaves a super smooth groove/surface that is finer than any typical abrasive paper or scotchbrite process and need only be waxed/polished/danished or whatever to finish.
It needn't be a screwdriver if you dont have one, I've also made them out of mild steel rods. You have to make your own handle, but this can be as simple as a bunch of tape wrapped around.
It also allows the rod to be spun in a cordless drill (once 'mushroomed') which makes keeping a nice round profile while shaping/sharpening on the Tormek (or other smooth bench grinder of your choice) nice and easy.
Have you any experience with cabinet scraping?
(sorry for the wall of text!)
