Well well good afternoon everyone! Wow what fun gator school was, my oldest and I learned so much from how gators come about, how they numbered way back in the day to how they were almost extinct to how they are so many now and where they are located. We learned that of course that stuff you see on TV's Swamp People is alot of dramatized filming and such and what we will be doing is nothing like it. Our state has adopted a more strict method of harvesting and very very controlled! There will be no dozens of gators in anyones boat, no one firing rounds across the water hoping for a good shot, no taking advantage of Mother Nature! This is going to be so much fun and I can not freaking wait! The instructor for the class is the guy who setup and implemented the season in the state and he showed us a pic of a bug male that was tagged and released that measured 13.5"L, belly girth of 71" with a tail girth of 51", this massive beast was tagged several years ago and is still out there. Only 11 more days left! Have been quite busy the last few days doing this and that and working in this and that, have quite a bit for show & tell, will post up below!
@CrazyJustin Wow my man, you have been watching for a while then! Glad you got in that piece and hope you are still enjoying it! As am I part Scottish, half to be certain! Love it there for a visit but aint no place like home here in the US, gotta love some Dixie bro!
@FlyingLow One more day or so my man, I am really not trying to get in a rush with your piece and thank you for your cooperation, when I get rushed things tend to go to hell really quick and that aint cool! Like the way your piece is shaping up though, keeping my fingers crossed til the end!
@beach bum My lady thanks for stopping by! As I said wont be long got 11 more til start and 21 til the end, so will be frying fresh tail nuggets soon enough with pics to show for it! Am thinking about getting some sausage made as well, think that would be awesome, have never eaten any that way but surely it would be great, will let you know!
@TeeJay1952 Ahhh you have stumbled upon their versatility, well done! You are very correct, the SS bushing acts as an oven and thoroughly vapes the loads completely. I like that and hate when ABV gets stuck in a chamber, really hate digging it out, these stems can be packed and vaped, then just blow through to discard the ABV then load and go again, works very well for me. I am glad you are enjoying the piece and thank you for stopping by bro!
Now for show and tell, a little of this and a little of that with a little something new to spark a little interest!
First off, heres a couple numbers I did for a good guy, he wanted to longer piece initially, had him give me a call to talk species and all that, he went with Cocobolo, so I had his # and I texted him a sneak peak, lol was back at the lathe turning some more, took a break between pieces and had 4 texts and a missed call, as it turned out he had to have another and he was lucky enough to get the second piece from the same blank as the first, matching! Its so hard to take good pics of these pieces, they are so vibrant with many colors, the streaks, the twists, wow they pop in the hand! You know who you are my man, thanks for the work!
Now if anyone is interested these couple pieces need a home, top piece is a 3"L 18mm Afzelia Burl Nano Wong, bottom piece is a little piece I did with the new beading tool that I wanted to try a new design and I think it turned out well, its I wanna say a little over 2"L 14mm Cocobolo Nano Wong. If anyone is interested in either please let me know and we will go from there!
Here is a 5x5 Walnut Solo Base with a nice feather crotch accent on one side, the stems are pieces I added for the shot!
This piece is a Big Leaf curly Maple Nano stand, wooden stem holes on one side and glass stem holes opposite
Both the above stands were fun to make, I hope you all like them!
Now this piece was a little tough, my guy put me to the test, it has the dual turquoise bands and as you can see 3 small turquoise inlay-ed dots getting smaller in size the father back they go, there is 4 large dots at the bigger end away for the MP with 2 descending from the larger on the opposite side for a total of 8 dots, quite a task, also made from Cocobolo!
Now to something that has been on the bench for quite some time and for some reason I had it in my head I needed to do it this way or that way and all the ways I thought of doing it just wasnt working out, I had even thought, wow I may need to get a small welder for the job. Well if it hadnt been for my guy to say WTHeck I dont think I would have been here today with this new creation! I am so dumb at times and overlook the process at times and try to figure it out the hard way when the easy way has been there the whole time. Like I told my guy, was like a light went off in my head or having a bolt of lighting hit me, he mentioned why not try this, well well, why didnt I think of that??? So I thought about it for a little while and had to get right on it! Remember this is still in design and mock up so it will change slightly but for the most part I feel it is what it is and how its going to be. You will see the SS WPA has that groove in it, I had just gotten some HT Orings so I slide one up and into the groove after having measured the OD, seems I have a bit that it just over it at .003" OD, the WPA with the Oring fits nice and snug within the downstem now and easily removable for cleaning and such. I bored the longer draw stem hole at a slight angle that will probably angle upward a little more in the final version of the downstem. I put a taper on the end on the draw stem so it fit really tight in the downstem and gave it a few accent beads then tapered it quite a bit to the MP. I am really excited about how this looks and how it doesnt look, I hope you all feel the same! Check it out
@caphector
Pls let me know what you think about the Lotus I am super anxious to hear what yalls thoughts are and suggestions!!!