Friday, October 25, 2013

Farewell Notice

 Farewell Notice



I have left Blogger and have moved to WordPress - all of my previous blog posts have been moved to the new site - I have moved my website also - come join me at my new locations:

WordPress Blog

Ancient Dreams

Friday, August 30, 2013

Pipe Refurbishing

I recently purchased 8 used pipe bowls with the intention of refurbishing them for reselling and for my own use.


This is the first candidate: an Italian Television Briar and a stem which I will modify to the pipe



First was to remove a piece of broken stem which was in the pipe, ream the bowl and buff  it with 000 steel wool.





Next: file and sand a stem to fit the pipe (top is the stock stem - bottom the one which is reworked).


 Next I place the stem in boiling water for sanitation and shaping a slight bend) - I then buff the stem with 0000 steel wool.





A final buffing and assembly - a usable pipe -  one down 7 to go

If anyone is interested I will sell this one for $30 which includes shipping.





Thursday, August 29, 2013

Shakespeare Recurve Restoration

A few weeks ago I found this fellow on top of a trash heap - seeing it as orphaned I took it home for inspection and though cosmetically hurting it was structurally sound.  A lot of sanding and steel wool later over the coarse of a week I found a beautiful zebra-wood recurve.  This is a Vintage Right-Handed Super Necedah, model X-30 54inch 45#.  One recently sold on Ebay for $190.  

this is the original ad




 “The Necedah” is one of Shakespeare Archery’s most famous and popular Wonderbow Models. Like all Wonderbows it was named after a famous hunting area, Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. Necedah is a Winnebago word meaning "yellow".  This bow is a sweet shooter and was a strong competitor with Bear Archery. Its design shows the obvious Ernie Root influences and resembles the Root Warrior Model. The Necedah had many incarnations; the X26 at 55 inch AMO and 58 inch AMO, the rare x28 at 58” in three varieties- brown riser and brown glass, brown wood riser with green glass and green dyed wood with green glass, and the x31 at 58” which had green glass and green dyed wood as well as multiple laminations in the riser. 


The last versions of The Necedah were two Super Necedah models the X30 and X32. They first appeared about 1968. They differ from The Necedah in several ways.
·         First, all other versions were called simply “The Necedah” but the x30 and X32 models are called “Super Necedah”. and also Broad Bow.Confused yet???

·         Its appearance and model name are different from The Necedah to the degree that it is considered a completely different model.

·         The Super Necedah uses  Zebrawood and Seduha wood, its limbs are 2 inch wide, its profile is different than the Necedah though it is similar to the x31, and its AMO is 54 which is very different than any other Necedah model (55” and 58”).

·         The X32 is similar to the X31 except that it is not green dyed wood (Wonderwood) but it is multi-laminated and it is 54”. Oddly the X31 is a Necedah while the X32 is a Super Necedah
 

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Osage Orange Carving


This is my latest carving from an Osage log - done with a chainsaw