Well, team, I’ve totally and completely screwed up one of my lovely final sanded teak running light board panels with an amateurish and devestatingly unskilled wood carving hand. The worst is that I didn’t even know it until after I had ordered, received and read four authoritative books on the subject of letter carving in wood (although I suspected my carving effort was dubious at best). Is this not utterly hideous?

 

Yes, you guessed it – an excuse to buy more high quality wood carving tools. Goes to show there’s a silver lining in every afternoon’s thunderstorm (she’s out there grumbling as we speak, but so far, only one brief power failure this afternoon – and before dark!).

Back to my tale of woe – dug too deep on my first Olde English “S”, faked my way through some serif and swirl cuts, tried to correct, used the wrong tool (in other words, the tools I had on hand), gave up. And rather than cobble what is supposed to be an elegant touch of brightwork, I’ve ordered more (and thicker) teak for the rear panels of my sidelight boards.

Further good news: By the time the next batch of teak lumber arrives (actually only one foot long by five inches wide by one inch thick, i.e., thirty bucks worth), I will have not only researched proper and historically anchored carving technique for this project before wasting wood further, I will also have progressed through several critical practice exercises on wood cheaper than freakin’ teak with my new 1-1/4″ flat carving chisel, my new 1/2″ fishtail chisel and my new number 4 x 5/8″ fishtail gouge – all from the wonderful family owned and operated British hand tool company known as Ashley & Iles. Yummmmmm….  There is always a sweet taste left by knowing you own the very best of something – anything! I only own one Ashley Iles carving gouge now, and it truly feels sweet to the hand. Isn’t she a beauty?

Unfortunately, as you can see it laying on the current botched job, it is clearly designed for much larger three-dimensional sculpting projects,  not for artsy-fartsy micro-letter carving. It was wonderful when I carved Sojourn’s dolphin ship’s figurehead, however!  A few others on hand – hand gouges ‘n chisels suitable for whacking with a carver’s mallet:

And really fun, but not very traditional are my set of POWER carving gouges:

You don’t whack these with a mallet. You chock them into a reciprocating (“jitters” forward and backward so fast you can’t believe) power head, like this one, and the edge tools above go through wood like a twelve year old pre-pubescent boy through a waterslide:

Or you can put a rotary head on this thing to do the “dremel-tool-on-steroids” things:

Jeez, I guess so I don’t punish y’all, I should start a separate wood carving blog. Well, maybe not until I gain more confidence (and a few more tools!).

By the way, for those of you who know Doug and Marti aboard Tara, as of yesterday, they’ve returned to the U.S. (east coast of Florida) from a few months in the northern Bahamas. Welcome back, guys!

And other Minnesota friends, Art and Jean aboard Samana, who have spent the last several months cruising Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, and most recently, Rio Dulce in Guatamala, are in the midst of a five to six day sailing passage from RD to KW (Key West). Heard from them mid-passage and winds were light, but not sure if that would last. They were getting a nice ride from the gulf stream, which aided their rate of progress. Since they only communicate by SSB (Single Sideband radio), which supports VERY slow email, we only hear from them very occasionally, and they don’t get the opportunity to update their blog as frequently or as copiously as some (like yours truly). Hope you guys are safe and well!

On a lighter note, the economy must be jumping back outa the abyss – in downtown Punta Gorda yesterday, I followed a black Rolls limo as it departed from the River City Grill!

Oh, and one more parting shot on a slow news day like today (the boat is doing very nicely drying out in the shed, sooooo…), here’s our front yard “condo garden”. Note a couple ‘a things. First, the plant on the left is basil for our bruschetta (think “tomato sandwiches on toast”). Next, in the middle is an orchid that was beautiful when it was given to us. Now I just keep the stems and leaves greenish. And to the right is something else that I have successfully blocked out its name. Pisses me off. I follow the directions, the flower on top falls off, and now it just demands water. I think it’s a behaviorial issue, but what do I know! Last thing I’d draw your attention to are the two director’s chairs, intended for us old retired folks to leisurely repose and watch the nice plants grow (or die, as the case may be – colorful metaphor, no?). BUT, not yet. Unused chairs so far. Too damn busy!

Lator, ‘gators…

Later, ‘gators…