The Rooms Harpoons and Tuktut Nogait Bow update

As the Parks work winds down I'm splitting my workshop time with some of the other pressing pieces that I need to make. I've started a Maritime Archaic Indian harpoon to be used in public programming at The Rooms, in St. John's. I'll post more on it when its finished, but here's a sneak peak at the harpoon head. I found out on Wednesday that a Groswater Harpoon that I made will be used in a future Rooms exhibit and the Thule Inuit harpoon reproduction (below) is currently on display in the Bob Bartlett Exhibit, Collecting the Arctic: Bob Bartlett's World of North . I'm glad to see this stuff getting used. I tend not to be able to get far enough ahead on my orders to be able to keep many of my reproductions on hand, but over the years The Rooms has amassed a nice collection.


The Tuktut Nogait Bow is moving along. I haven't done much on my own working copy as time gets a little more precious, but the Parks reproduction is getting close to completion. One of the interesting things that I noticed is that the short splice is made 'backwards'. Most bows are made with the back of the bow facing the outside of the tree, towards the bark. The spliced section carefully follows the growth rings of the yew, but its back faces inwards toward the center of the tree. In the photo with the inset, you can see how precisely the wood grain is followed in the artifact (the belly of the bow is facing up in both the photo and the inset photo). The body of the bow is very desicated and the growth rings too hard to see to tell if the rest of the bow is made the same way. It might be.

Remember all the trouble I've had bending wood? All of that was meant to be practice leading up to putting the bend in the limbs of the Tuktut Nogait bow. The last time I bent the kayak rib (which is doing just fine now that I built a stand for it) I put the bow in the steaming box and attempted to bend it with steam and clamps. It bent easily and when I took it out of the clamps the next day it flexed back into a straight line almost immediately. That sucked. A couple days later I was antiquing it with a blow torch and when it was good and hot I decided to try bending it using heat instead of steam. I held the torch on the point I wanted the bend for a minute or two and tried to heat it without burning or scorching it. I bent it on my knee. Given all the problems I've had with bending I bent it 2 or 3 times farther than it needed to be, expecting it to spring back. It didn't. It just cooled and held its new bend. I did put it in the same clamp set up as before, but I really don't think it was necessary. You can see the overzealous bend in the photo below, behind the artifact. After more than a week it hasn't moved. Yesterday I actually had to reheat it and bend it back. ugh.. After seeing how easy it was to bend a thin piece of yew, compared to the pine I've been struggling with all summer, I can definitely see why people say pine can't be bent.

Photo Credits:
Top: Tim Rast
Second: Elaine Anton
Third-Fifth: Tim Rast

Photo Captions:
Top: Maritime Archaic Indian antler harpoon head in progress
Second: Thule Inuit Harpoon Reproduction currently on display in The Rooms' Captain Bob Bartlett Exhibit
Third: Tuktut Nogait spliced bow limb showing the wood grain. Inset and photo both show the piece with the belly of the bow facing up
Fourth: Clamping the bow to bend it. Didn't work; clamps not really necessary.
Fifth: Tuktut Nogait reproduction in progress (background) and actual artifact (foreground)

Newly Completed Parks Reproductions

Here's a look at the most recent batch of completed artifact reproductions. These are some of the bigger pieces that Parks Canada is having me reproduce, so having them in the finished pile makes me feel like the work is almost over. At this point the bulk of the work is done and its coming down to some very nit-picky back and forth antiquing.

Wooden Handle: (Ivvavik National Park). This artifact (middle in both photos) has a few competing interpretations, including dog whip handle and gaff handle. My preference is gaff handle. There is a rust stained channel on one end with a squarish cross section that appears to have held an iron object, perhaps an iron spike modified into a gaff hook. There is a ghost of a cord wrapping around that channel which would have held the iron object in place. The artifact has a roughly octagonal cross-section and the end opposite the rust stained channel is burned. It looks like the rest of the gaff handle was burned away.
Probably the most challenging aspect of this reproduction was matching the ghost of the cord wrapping. On the artifact, the points where the cord touched the wood are light and the darker staining is in the gaps between the cord. So I couldn't just stain a cord and wrap it around the handle, because that would give me the opposite pattern that I needed. That would stain where the twine was, not where the twine wasn't. Instead I coated a length of twine in beeswax, twisted it to match the twist of the cord on the original artifact and then applied a water-based stain. The wax blocked the stain from penetrating the wood everywhere that the cord touched, but it could concentrate in the gaps between the twists in the cord. I put on a coat of wood conditioner before wrapping the cord and applying the stain to try to keep the stain from seeping into the wood grain too much.

Drilled Antler: (Aulavik National Park) I didn't really expect to get as close a match as this turned out to be. I've talked in other posts about all the shaping and bending that went into this piece. It was tough to create a natural looking antler surface on a piece that was almost completely modified from the original, but I'm happy with the results. There are many layers of antler dust, charcoal, rock dust, saw dust, carpenters glue, and wood stain to create the cracked weathered look. In the photo with the case, the reproduction is in the foreground and the artifact is in the background.

The main area that I wanted to leave natural antler was in the cross-section of the cut. Six holes were drilled through the antler and then it was cracked off through the holes. The best way to make that look real was to drill six holes and then crack it. I got lucky and it cracked just like the original. In the photo, the artifact is on the left and the reproduction is on the right.

Whalebone Adze Socket: (Ivvavik National Park) This is one of those reproductions where the raw material does half the work for you (artifact is in the center). There isn't any other material that looks or feels quite like whalebone. In the photo at the top of the post you can see the hole where the bit would have been inserted, probably stone. The narrowed section is the hafting area for the handle, which are often made from a section of caribou antler and tie on with skin lashings. An adze is a woodworking tool, similar to an axe, but with the blade mounted flat, like a hoe. It would also be very handy for working whalebone, which can be worked similarly to wood. There is very little antiquing here, just a bit of tea staining and then a smudge of charcoal to match a greasy black patch on the top of the original.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Photo Captions:
First: Whalebone Adze Socket (middle) and reproductions
Second: Wooden Handle (middle) and reproductions
Third: Wooden Handle (middle) and reproductions
Fourth: Staining the cord markings
Fifth: Drilled Antler reproduction (forground) and original artifact
Sixth: side by side comparison of drilled end, original artifact on the left
Seventh: Whalebone adze socket (middle) and reproductions

Chubby Boobies

Sunday was the Run for the Cure. It was chilly, but once we got going it was a nice day for a run. Between online donations, offline donations and our registration fees, Lori and I raised $280 - thanks to everyone who sponsored us. Lori was the star - not only did she raise the bulk of our donation money, she set the course on fire! She ran the 5 km in 32:37, setting a personal best time! She finished so quickly that I didn't even get a chance to photograph her crossing the finish line.

When I told her I'd missed her, she hid her disappointment like a trooper.

I got caught up in a race with my friend Miki for the last kilometre or so and finished in 25:44. Its probably tacky to talk about race times in a charity fun run, but I've been participating in this run for the last 8 years and its the only running benchmark that I have that stretches back that far. This was my second best time and 9 minutes faster than last year, which was my slowest time ever.

After a couple years of letting things slide, I started running again last fall to try and get in better shape. It was partly due to my personal worst time in the 2008 Run for the Cure and partly due to my nephew, Rhoan (seen here wearing Vulcan ears). A few minutes before I took this picture last September he climbed up on my lap and was about to tell me something. When he leaned on my chest his eyes got big and he said with some amazement and a little fear "Chubby Boobies?!". He was shocked to find a man with such chubby boobies. His Nan and I laughed and his shocked expression vanished as he realized he'd stumbled onto comedy gold. He spent the next half hour singing "Chubby Booby, Chubby Boobies, Chubby Booby". In case I didn't catch the subtlety of the lyrics, he choreographed a little routine that mostly involved making a taunting face and trying to pinch my tits. The photo pretty much sums up the performance (note the pinchy fingers).

The next month I got a treadmill. The chubby booby song was definitely a good motivator, but treadmills aren't cheap. As soon as that kid gets a job, he owes me $1100.

Photo Credits:
Top: Stranger at the 2009 Run for the Cure, St. John's
Middle, Bottom: Tim Rast

Photo Captions:
Top: Lori, John, Tim, Patricia, Elaine at the 2009 Run for the Cure, St. John's
Middle: Lori's reaction to hearing that she wasn't photographed while crossing the finish line because I was talking to a girl.
Bottom: Attempting to distract Rhoan during a performance of the original piece entitled "Chubby Boobies".

Accelerating Rust with Muriatic Acid

The Fort Garry Tobacco tin and the composite barbed point both have rusted elements to them. I've been experimenting with muriatic acid to oxidize the metal in these reproductions. Muriatic acid is dilute (20%) hydrochloric acid and can be found in some hardware stores. I picked this bottle up at Canadian Tire, but not all places have it. Its used for cleaning concrete and changing the pH in swimming pools. This is a much more potent chemical than the vinegar and miracle gro I was using on the copper. I only work with this stuff outside and wearing rubber gloves.

I've seen recipes that call for diluting the muriatic acid anywhere from 1:5 to 1:20 with water. More acid doesn't necessarily work any better - I've been getting good results in the 1:10 to 1:20 acid to water solutions.

One source that I found said that dissolving copper in the acid solution helps the rusting process. I dropped a couple pieces of heavy copper ground wire in the solution and the acid has been eating away at them. That seemed to work, but I'm finding that too much copper in the solution is bad. Instead of creating rust, its started depositing a sheen of copper on the surface (left, you can see patches of copper). Its an interesting effect, but not what I'm going for. The solution with the copper in it has turned a noticeable green colour (top photo, in the bottle with the metal lid - which was a dumb move by the way, the inside of the lid has a rubber coating, but everytime I open and close it, acid from my gloves corrodes the outside of the lid. Glass and plastic containers only with muriatic acid!) . By the time I noticed the colour change it was too late. I'll keep the solution as it is for the future, but I'll remember that a green solution has too much copper in it.

Temperature and humidity are important as well. The best rust forms on dry sunny days. I tried soaking a paper towel in the acid solution and laying it on the tin yesterday, but that turned the metal black. My guess is that it didn't get enough oxygen to oxidize red. I removed the paper towel and re-wet it with water and the black faded and went back to orange. On other occasions I have left it out in the rain overnight and it seemed to go more black than red on those occasions as well, again, I think it wasn't getting enough oxygen. The inset photo shows a before and after shot of yesterdays treatment. The copper patches are gone and the rust came on nice and orange. A little more tweaking and this piece will be done.

On another occasion, I tried covering the tin in sawdust soaked with the diluted muriatic acid solution so that I could clump it and control where the acid contacted the metal. That worked alright, except I used yew sawdust, which is very red and it actually stained the paint a light rose colour, which I've been working at reversing ever since. It didn't hurt the rusty areas, so on a piece without paint, the extra red would probably have helped. In the future, I may try it again with white sawdust, like pine or spruce. The sawdust seemed to work alright because it was still breathable and let oxygen get in and react with the metal, but for now I'm just dabbing acid on with a paper towel and leaving it exposed to the air.

So far, the rustproof paints that I used have kept the acid at bay. The rust only grows in the spots where I've scraped through the paint and exposed the metal. I'm not sure how many acid treatments the paint will withstand. There might be some cracking developing. So far its adding to the antiquing process, but I can imagine that at some point the acid will damage the paint more than I'd like it to. In unpainted areas, like the back of the tine, (right) the rust forms within a few hours on a sunny day and immediately give the metal an antiqued look. A couple weeks ago this was the inside of a new biscuit tin.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Photo Captions:
Top: Muriatic Acid and smaller conatiners of diluted muriatic acid, with and without disolved copper
Second: Too much copper creates patches of coppery sheen on the metal instead of rust.
Third: Before and after 1 treatment of diluted muriatic acid on a piece that previously had copper deposits.
Fourth: Using sawdust to hold the acid. Worked ok, but the red sawdust stained the paint.
Fifth: Nice rust!

A Bending Solution?

I think I've solved my wood bending problem. Softwood, like the pine I'm using, seems to be on everyone's list of undesirable wood to bend. The main problem I've had with bending the kayak rib reproduction has been that it won't hold the bend. It keeps straightening out. So, I've built a block that will hold the rib in the correct shape. Maybe in a few months or years the reproduction will accept its new shape and stop trying to straighten out, but until then it can live in this little display stand.

I was hoping to have a few finished pieces to show today, but everything that I compared yesterday can be tweaked a little bit more. If I have a couple good days in the workshop I really hope that I can get a bunch of pieces off my plate on my next Rooms visit. Parks is being really good about my deadline on the project, but I have so much other work to get done before the middle of November that I really need to get this project out the door.

I need to make a raw material run out to the west coast soon, too. I really want to get more chert for the winter and I was planning to try to pick up some whalebone along the way from a couple people who I thought might have some. I still need the rock, but I got a surprise offer of whalebone from someone in town who happened to come across some bones while hiking and snorkling. It was such a relief to get these. I used a lot of whalebone this past year and its not the easiest material to replace when you are desperate for it. This takes some pressure off. Thanks Alvan!

The Fine Craft and Design Fair is just around the corner and I have very little product on hand. I'll be there during the second week, November 11-15.

Photo Credits:
Top, Tim Rast
Second, Lori White
Third, Tim Rast
Fourth, Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador

Photo Captions:
Top, The display stand solution to keep the wood from straightening out again.
Second, Antiquing the hell out of the marrow extractor with the blowtorch.
Third, Whalebones!
Fourth, Mark your Calendars - the Fine Craft and Design Fair will be here soon.

100th Post and Canada Blog Friends

This is the 100th post for Elfshot: Sticks and Stones, which is a nice little milestone. I'm going to keep this post short and encourage you to visit Canada Blog Friends, where Elfshot: Sticks and Stones is the currently featured blog. Canada Blog Friends focuses on the people behind the blogs. Alexandra Highcrest and Rob Campbell interviewed me about blogging and put together a very flattering (and conveniently timed!) profile, which hits all the highs and lows of the last 100 posts.

I Grew Up in Vulcan

Only 10 days to go until the Run for the Cure on October 4th! Its not too late to register. Huge Thank-Yous to everyone who has sponsored Lori or myself in this years run. If you aren't able to participate yourself this year, please consider donating.

The B(.)(.)bies say thanks too!

My old high school made the news this week. Students at County Central High School in Vulcan, Alberta got to talk to Robert Thirsk, on board the International Space Station. I grew up on a farm near an eccentric little town in Southern Alberta called Vulcan. When the railroad surveyors were plotting out the towns along the rail line they had to come up with town names every 10-12 miles. When they got to ours they named it Vulcan after the Roman God of Fire because it was on the highest point along that track. Originally all the streets were named after Roman gods and goddesses; Juno, Minerva, Neptune, Apollo, etc. The town kept those names into the 1920s, until the churches decided that God would probably be offended by being reminded of the competition and all the street names were changed to numbers.

So when this spectacular tornado arrived in town in 1927, it was heading down Centre Street instead of Jupiter Street. When you look up "Tornado" in most editions of the Encyclopedia Brittanica from the middle of the 20th Century, you'll see this picture of Vulcan's tornado. If you flip the picture upside down, its like God giving a big thumbs-up to the new street names!

During World War II, there was a large airport built at Vulcan by the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, which was briefly used to train pilots between 1942 and 1945. Much of the RCAF Aerodrome Vulcan is still visible, although the last time I was home it was used as an auction mart and as a sales and storage space for livestock trailers.

Vulcan's claim to fame from the 1920s to 1971 was its unrivalled grain storage capacity. Nine wooden grain elevators along the railroad tracks were affectionately called "9 in a line" and if you bought a post card in Vulcan during that time those elevators would have been on it. For a time in the early 1970s, Vulcan was calling itself "The Wheat Capital of the World", because wheat from a local farm was judged the best in the world at an international competition, two years in a row! Everyone was proud, but by the 1980s it was getting tough to build town pride on an accomplishment that was more than a decade old.

We started putting up flag poles. Dozens of flags went up in clusters around town and we knew our destiny was to become the Flag Capital of Alberta, then Canada, and then the WORLD! After we'd put up dozens of flags someone decided to check out the current flag capital of the neighbourhood and it turned out that they had hundreds of flags. Maybe even thousands - just way too many flags. So we stopped that and went home to watch tv.

About that time Star Trek: The Next Generation was making Star Trek popular again. We needed something to set us apart from every other small town, so folks started working the Star Trek angle. I was a teenager, and seeing the local bank employees sporting pointy rubber ears and watching the mayor dress up like a Klingon was pretty embarassing. One of the first Star Trek stunts that I can remember was a contest held by the Calgary TV station that was airing The Next Generation. First prize in the contest was a trip to Universal Studios, second prize was a trip to Vulcan. All the second prize winners were loaded onto a bus and shipped to Vulcan for blue Romulan ale at the Legion. On route, just outside High River, the mayor and a bunch of other citizens wearing big rubber foreheads and Klingon uniforms pulled up alongside the bus in their mini-van and "beamed aboard the vessel", taking everyone hostage. We used to have a Canada Day Rodeo and Parade, but that was changed to Spock Days.

Despite my embarassment and to the credit of the organizers, alongside the Star Trek murals and space ships that started dotting the town, there was a new focus on science in the county. Science Stops were put up throughout the county at interesting points highlighting everyday science, like weather stations and water treatment plants. There was even one at the Carmangay Teepee Rings, so archaeology got a nod. This weeks Q + A session between Vulcan students and astronauts on the International Space Station is a fantastic example of the success of that effort. And when you drive around town, you'll notice that the old Roman street names are back up on the signs.

Photo Credits:
Top: Run for the Cure website
Second: Wikipedia, Vulcan Entry
Third: GenDisasters website
Fourth-Sixth: Photos from the Vulcan Tourism Website


Photo Captions:
First: Run for the Cure
Second: Roman Bronze of Vulcan
Third: Tornado approaching Vulcan, July 1927
Fourth: Nine in a Line, Wooden Elevators in Vulcan, Alberta for storing grain before being loaded onto railway cars
Fifth: Spock Ears sold in Vulcan
Sixth: The starship by the highway, Vulcan, Alberta