[lee B.]

Hello,

My name is Lee, I live in Wisconsin in the U.S.

I build ship models, the kind with all the carvings (hint at the reason I am here! )

I am 39 years old, and have a wife, and also a beautiful daughter who is 8 years old.

As the years have rolled by, the types of ship models I build have gotten more and more complex. When you first start this hobby of modeling, you find yourself deliberatly avoiding the truly hard, yet truly beautiful ships. You start with baby steps, then its up, up, up from there. I suppose its exactly the same with any pursuit.

Well, now I have to learn to carve. I can no longer get by with poorly shaped blocks of wood that when viewed in the right light with squinted eyes almost look like something.

I have lurked here for quite some time, trying to pick up what I can from all of you. The work shown is fantastic, and true inspiration.

Thank you,
Lee

[Janel]

Hello Lee,

Welcome to The Carving Path forum. I hope that you will find some good guidance here.

Where in Wisconsin do you live? I live in Minnesota about 18 miles from St. Croix Falls, WI.

Janel

[lee B.]

Hi Janel,

Thank you for the welcome.

I live near a little town called Weyauwega (why-ah-we-ga), its about 45 minutes east of Stevens Point, and 45 minutes west of Green Bay. Get the magnifying glass if you look to find it on a map- they surely did not waste a lot of ink marking it.

Lee

[JP Anderson]

Lee,

Welcome. My family is from your area before they homesteaded to Montana about 90 years ago. Neat hobby you have. Can't wait to see your work,

John

[lee B.]

Hi John,

And thank you also for the welcome.

I wish I lived in Montana! I visited once long ago on a family trip, it was very nice out there.

I have no carving work to show yet, but someday soon something has to happen. I am not going to get away with a big square and a small one glued together- and calling it a horse!

I have an awful lot of questions. As I read all the replys on the forum they are slowly being answered.

I have made a couple of "Steve and Mary?" scrapers, and am now working on the handles. I know the handles will be very nice, I am not sure about anything else. I chose Ebony and brass, kind of "ship-modelish" I guess.

Lee

[JP Anderson]

Lee,

I like making tools almost as much as carving with them. I make all my handles out of scraps and each a bit different. They don't look as good on the rack but when your carving it's easier to find the tool you want in the pile.

It's all good clean fun,

John

[lauri]

Hei Lee, nice to see you here. When I was younger I also made some models but not your standards. It just was not my hobby to follow instructions and to do what somebody ordered. Soon you will find yourself willing to be wild and free and you will create things that we others are just dreaming of. You will see, this is bad neighborhood ! You have been warned ! Nice to have you here. Lauri.

[lee B.]

Hi Lauri,

Bad neighborhood indeed! I can see it when I navigate the site, an awful lot of creativity my hobbie does not really allow. You are absolutely correct, the way I build is very strict. I build at 1/48 scale (one inch = 4 actual feet). I build every piece of the ship, the exact way it was built when new, including trying the very best I can to reproduce the size and shape of the fasteners used.

There is a huge amount of research that goes into this, and I own an awful lot of archaic books.

I know there are ship model "kits" you can buy at a hobbie store, but this is not what I build. I build from scratch, in the "dockyard" style. I do everything, including milling the lumber myself. I started my current project in 2008, and hope to be done in 2015 or so. I figure an honest 7000- 9000 hours of time will be spent on this ship.

I think I was cheated out of the creativity genes when I was born. There is no way I could see myself doing what you people do. Take for instance the figurehead of this ship. I have a copy of a graving that was done in 1728 showing the figurehead- but not to close up. I know it depicts a roman warrior, wearing a laurel wreath on his head. He is using a scepter to impale a dolphin (at that time dolphins were thought to be sea monsters and are really ugly and mean looking). The scepter is in his right hand, left hand is holding the dolphin to the trailing boards.

As you can see, its not like I just pick a subject and go with it. I am limited by whats historically accurate as to what I can and cant do. I just have to learn how to carve what was there!

Thank you Lauri for the good welcome, this seams to be a very friendly site.

Lee