“As I gazed on the turbaned crowds, the flaunting robes, the huge umbrellas, the passing palankeens, the black sentinels, the strange birds, and even (pardon the climax) the little striped squirrels, which gambolled up and down the pillars of the custom-house sights so new and strange to me, I almost began to doubt my own identity, and to think I had fallen into some new planet.”
— “Memoirs of a Griffin, or a Cadet’s First Year in India” by Capt. Ballew (Wm. H. Allen, 1880)
Did you clock the screws before filing them?
Make the countersinks slightly shallow and run in screws until bottom of the slot is at the same level as the wood?
Basically. Yes.
A bold look.
I like it. Did you drive a steel screw first? I’ve worry brass will snap. But maybe you have other precautions and methods for dealing with brass?
Sean,
If you size the pilot and clearance hole properly – and use a good screw and good driver – it’s no problem.
Chalking your file. Good move.
Sorry, heard stripped squirrel and got distracted (as usual). Did you use paraffin on these? What size did you use on pilot, same size as the shank?
filed brass gives me serious wood.
LMAO!
“Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,
Where there aren’t no Ten Commandments an’ a man can raise a thirst;
For the temple-bells are callin’, and it’s there that I would be—
By the old Moulmein Pagoda, looking lazy at the sea.”
Friend of Rudyard
Anybody else feel bad that poor Fursoot is going to become tiger kibble because the guy with the rifle isn’t even trying to use it?
Most likely the guy with the rifle is using it to make sure Fursoot doesn’t climb any higher.
Now that you mention it, it does look like he is using his right leg to kick him out of the tree.
yeah, kid’s gonna loose a leg or two. guy with rifle probalby is losing his bowels instead of trying to fend off a hungry 15 food tiger…
Reading your posts about this new book had me looking for campaign furniture all summer while I was in India. Unfortunately, only museums preserved any examples, and those were few at best. My suspicion is the value furniture like that has in India is low due to it being relics of British colonial rule. Whats worse is I also couldn’t find a single carpenter who would (or could) take on pieces with any complexity. Not to say there aren’t skilled craftsmen in India, but, like here in the west, the vast majority of traditional skills have been given up for lower quality work that can be mass produced quickly.
I did meet a few furniture design firms that are trying to rework traditional techniques into their products. But even then simple joinery seemed absent from their skill-sets. So getting to trade techniques with them was a great experience for me and highlighted the possibility of educating woodworkers in India.
All that to say, your blog now has more readers in India and I look forward to this next book.
It’s certainly sangfroid to describe a tiger as a ‘little striped squirrel’…