New or old way of rustication?

alexanderfrese · Post by **alexanderfrese** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 6:21 am

I tested a way of rusticating. Don't know if it's new, at least I never heard of.
I bludgeoned an estate stummel with the coarsest file I had. This gave it a strange look of somewhat being shot at with some fine shrapnel. Didn't look good, but gave great satisfaction as a revenge for all the pain some other briar gave me in the past…

Then I took the same file and rotated it firmly pressed to the bowl. The amount of rotation was only very small and repeated over and over in different places of the surface. So the file's teeth broke out small portions of the wood. After that I brushed it with a steel brush to get rid of the debris. Polished it once with brown tripoli, stained it dark, put some linseed oil to it. It's on it's slow drying process now.

It looks like this:

I like it, since it tends to look somewhat natural. I am not so much into carved looking rustications. Any comments? Or is it a well-known process, I only re-invented?

Alex

RadDavis · Post by **RadDavis** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 9:35 am

That looks really good!

Rad

achduliebe · Post by **achduliebe** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 11:03 am

Alex,

That is awesome looking rustication. Very cool!

magruder · Post by **magruder** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 1:00 pm

I, too, have tried twisting various tools to create rustication. Some good, some not.
Your results are very handsome. Nice job. :thumb:

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 1:05 pm

i actually like that a lot! Could you please explain 'bludgeoning?'

did you do this with file or a rasp?

alexanderfrese · Post by **alexanderfrese** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 2:21 pm

Oops, sorry for the wrong term: It surely was a rasp. No file could be that coarse. It is a plain (though not cheap), flat bar woodworking rasp about 25cm long and maybe 2cm wide. I have some cheaper ones, but their teeth are not that crsip sharp and evenly distributed.

For the "bludgeoning": I took that word from another thread (though pretty OT) somwhere here. It was about a violin and if someone bludgeoned somenone else with it, or why on earth the movie was called »The red violin«.
I simply took the stummel, put it on something soft not to let it break (actually I laid it on my thigh 8O maybe try some other underlayer next time…), and hit it with the rasp. The hitting was only to let the teeth of the rasp get into it. I hit it hard, so the small dents were rather deep. I tried some tangential hits to chip off some briar directly, but that did'nt work. So the hits were more vertical towards the bowls surface. It did not do any satisfying look (for me). Simply some briar with those small, sharp dents from the rasp's teeth. I wish I had taken some pics of that state of work, but I was too curious about what came next. But I think this pre-treatment is at least helpful if not necessary for the second step, since the rasp gets on the perforated surface more easily than without it.
I did not try any other rustication tools before. A coarse rasp makes nearly the same tip distance as some of those selfmade nail tools, I believe. But I think it is easier to handle, since you can apply the manual force more easily with that big metal bar.
Directly after the twisting rasp application, it didn't feel good, simply as if the wooden surface had gone to small, soft feeling, wood splinters that seemd to peel off. But after brushing it with a coarse, hard metal brush, it worked out more clear, developed that structure shown in the pic.

magruder · Post by **magruder** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 5:17 pm

Thanx Alex. That was a good, clear explaination.
The first step reminds me of learning to tenderize a steak with a barbeque fork before cooking - I'm sure it is a necessary step.
I must try this out.
Thanx again for the great posting :thumb:

BDP · Post by **BDP** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 12:21 am

Alex,

Hat's off to you. Looks very handsome! I like that the shape was left nicely intact.

Way to Go,
Brad

LexKY_Pipe · Post by **LexKY_Pipe** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 2:45 pm

You got some very good results.

alexanderfrese · Post by **alexanderfrese** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 6:09 am

This is what it looks like after the beating. The stummel shown above even had been beaten up more than this one.

But beware. The reason I stopped on this one is I ruined it. I think it might be necessary to use some sort of small, padded anvil for that. I bludgeoned a newly made stummel a bit carelessly and hit the shank while it was not supported by anything underneath it:

There goes my number 5. Looked pretty much like an elegant plain and pure billiard when I decided not to ignore those pits but try that rustication. I whish I hadn't even raised from bed this morning…

So please, test that on something worthless before you move on to a nice stummel on your bench, an estate or something you don't care too much about spoiling it…

BDP · Post by **BDP** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 1:32 pm

Alex,

Looks like a candidate for a bamboo shank! :thumb:

Brad

alexanderfrese · Post by **alexanderfrese** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 1:36 pm

I already thought about some barrel-tankard-style bastard. But my skills and tools would not even suite those needs, not to speak of a bamboo shank.
I won't throw it in the bin though. Who knows, what might come next year…

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 11:08 am

I don't care... I'll post on both :thumb:

I tried the beating, but it scared the crap out of me 8O ! So instead I tried what, I assumed, would replace that. If the beating caused little grooves to be dug into later (when twisting the rasp) then why not just go over the same place where you twisted the rasp more than once. That way you'd still have a place for the rasp to dig in, it's just the place where you rusticated earlier.

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 11:10 am

Alexander, I'm sure the answer to this is probably that you just have a different style rasp, but I'll ask anyway: How did you get the rustication into the narrow corners of the shank/stummel transition area? I'm not sure I would have done anything different on "Cascara" but I'm still noticed that it would have been an issue.

alexanderfrese · Post by **alexanderfrese** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 12:01 pm

The one I mainly used (flat square) will surely not be able to do this kind of work in some narrow edges on a more than halt bent pipe. I have used a second, round rasp, that is not so coarse (the nomenclature for the "coarseness" will surely differ from GER to the US). In fact on the pipe I tested it, the rustication is noticeable less deep in the shank/bowl juncton area, though not dramatically. I will try to get a detail pic from that piece and the rasps, too.

As for the bludgeoning and the fear factor: I think one could also try to let the rasp's teeth get into the briar by simply firmly pressing it into the briar. In fact you did similar, by just repeating the process, that was my "step two". It sort of really "tenderizes" the briar steak, and I believe the chips come off more easily. Maybe beating it first might preserve the shape detail a bit more, since the process that really takes something off the wood is only done once. I will go into that with another stummel.

Unlucky enough (at least for this subject), my actual stummel on the bench only shows some very very tiny sand spots and nothing serious at all, so I won't have to damage that surface…

alexanderfrese · Post by **alexanderfrese** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 6:12 am

So here are the detail pics I promised. Big ones, but I believe necessary to see.

No 1:
Detail view shank/bowl junction. In fact, the area seems somewhat lesser rusticated or at least has a different detail structure. I must admit I didn't really look for that detail, since I was just testing something on a stummel. I believe, it can be done better, but the smaller the radius (bent pipes) the more difficult.

Pic 1:

No. 2 + 3:
The flat rasp I used. It is a number 2 in our nomenclature. The bigger the number, the finer the teeth. Grey lines represent a 10mm division.

Pic 2:

Pic 3:

No. 4 + 5:
Another flat/rounded rasp I used. It is even more coarse. No number on it, but should be a #1. Grey lines represent a 10mm division.

Pic 4:

Pic 5:

No.6 + 7: A round rasp I used. It works on junction areas, but is not as coarse. Since it's diameter is slim, I fear that there a more coarse rasp with this diameter is not available. I don't know. Grey lines represent a 10mm division.

Pic 6:

Pic 7:

bscofield · Post by **bscofield** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 12:03 pm

I can see how you were able to get into the crack like that. It sounds like I just need another rasp, or a variety if I plan on doing this rustication frequently. I wonder if one could find a small enough one to get into the tiniest of cracks...?

My rasp teeth stop at about 1 - 1.5mm short of the edge of it's base so that's about how close I can get.

alexanderfrese · Post by **alexanderfrese** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 12:57 pm

Even if you don't do it frequently – I got me lots of files and rasps (mostly unused) on ebay. Things are not going too well over here, so there are a lot of small companies and craftsmen giving up their business. Got them cheap. On most of the sales I was the only bidder.