Morko in all his glory!...can you dig it?

[thelionspaw]

Gary,
Apple sauce   I make mine the hard way with a peeler and cooking

Richard The Apple-Knocker

[Cat Whisperer]

Is that crabapple caliber?   

[Victor3]

 Finally got a piece of wood. Ended up ordering an $11 plain maple dowel. It ended up being a nice one. 

http://store.cincinnatidowel.com/36_-Maple-Dowels/632

 I wet it to show the grain here. Looks fancier in real life...

[gulfcoastblackpowder]

Beautiful!  That's a great start already, having a very nice piece of wood! 

I bookmarked that site - could be very useful at some point.  Wish I knew about it before I made mine!

[RocklockI]

well great minds must think alike ,I was working on my tiller today too .

It'll probably pretty simple ,just a handle really . 

The wood I found was ..... oh ... just a so so piece of uh pallet wood I think it was .

maybe I can clean the slivers off her and see how it goes ..........

shuffles feet in dirt , whistles ,stares off kinda toward the little dipper , yep just a little sliver to grab onto .

Gary

[Double D]

Great sight Victor, I am adding it to the link list.  Great source for sabot also.

[thelionspaw]

Victor,
Nice buy. Sometimes we eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats us. That's the thing of maple.

r

[Victor3]

Great sight Victor, I am adding it to the link list.  Great source for sabot also.

 The two dowels I received (one 36" & one 48") were very straight, near perfectly round and within .005" on the diameter. Hopefully all of their stuff is as good.

 I checked a bunch of places that supply dowels and they seemed to be the cheapest overall, even without figuring in their free shipping (on orders over $25). 

 Package arrived to the West coast in four days via FedEx.

[Victor3]

well great minds must think alike ,I was working on my tiller today too .

It'll probably pretty simple ,just a handle really . 

The wood I found was ..... oh ... just a so so piece of uh pallet wood I think it was .

maybe I can clean the slivers off her and see how it goes ..........

shuffles feet in dirt , whistles ,stares off kinda toward the little dipper , yep just a little sliver to grab onto .

Gary

 Yeah, okay. What did you really get?

 Is it that $150 piece of highly figured-spalted-curly-burl-crotch-tiger-claro snakewood from Bell Forest Products or what? 

[seacoastartillery]

     Although I've seen Gary's tiller stick wood and have been sworn to secrecy, I can give you all a hint.  It's not 'spalted'.

Tracy

[Victor3]

 That narrows it down some.

 Is it light or dark wood? Native to what continent? What letter does the name start with?

[gulfcoastblackpowder]

I know Gary had thought about choosing a wood native to Sweden, as did I.  In my research on the subject, I found MANY suitable species that are native, and therefore, that doesn't really narrow it down much either.

Here's a part of a message I sent to him, which will probably help to narrow it down a very little, possibly taking an exotic like purpleheart out of it:

I already did the searching for trees in Sweden, around the Stockholm and lower areas, and found that Ash is plentiful, and chose it based on it's grain structure, resilience (which is why it's often used for handles in high impact situations like axes and hammers), and most of all it's density (to offset the weight of the Morko), which in heartwood is one of the denser species of tree.

Interesting point, they also have a lot of oaks, spruce (including the oldest known tree in the world - a spruce dated to around 9550 years old http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080416104320.htm), and maple.

Here's a more extensive list:
Birch
Alder
Maple
Hawthorn
Oak
Ash
Elder
Hazel
Fly Honeysuckle
Linden (Lime)
Spindle
Yew
Alder buckthorn
Blackthorn
Aspen
European rowan
Swedish whitebeam
Juniper
Holly
Ivy
Beech
Dogwood
Pine
Goat willow
Elm
Larch
Bird Cherry
Wild Cherry
Honeysuckle
Spruce
Wild apple
Pear
Mistletoe

Any of these are potential, but I'd recommend sticking with a hard wood of sufficient density to balance out the gonne.

No question you guys are starting with a better piece of wood than I used.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what you all do with it!

[seacoastartillery]

From Victor3:

     "Is it light or dark wood?  Native to what continent?  What letter does the name start with?"

It's neither light nor dark, midway between, I'd say.

The continent that contains the country, that specifically, in song, stretches "from sea to shining sea".

Sorry, all I can say about the starting letter is what Dennis Nedry said (on the computer screen) to the programming administrator in the movie, "Jurrasic Park", when he tried to access the files to the park's operations program, "unh-unh-uh, you didn't say the magic word".  The genus of this species begins with a 'P'.  The name is on gulfcoastblackpowder's monster list.  THAT sure narrow's it down!

Tracy

[gulfcoastblackpowder]

Using that information, I've deduced what I think it is, which has piqued my interest even more.

[RocklockI]

Gotta get more work done on it today !

They wouldnt let me have the 9 thousand year old spruce . Narrow minded is all I can come up with !

So its back to the pallet wood for me . Life is hard 

Gary

[gulfcoastblackpowder]

Sometimes you can get some real finds in pallets.  I've seen all sorts of nice hardwoods with beautiful grain in them.  One of my friends made a bunch of really nice laminated tables out of them, so I know what you can find...but I'm not sure I'm convinced that that's your source...

[armorer77]

I once found a nice piece of Bird's Eye Maple  in a pallet , several knife and pistol grips later it is all gone .

[Double D]

Sorry to interrupt the haft discussion, but I just discovered something startling about Morko....

I think Spuddy's ancestors were involved with Morko.  

While working on the pictures for Richard the translator, I found this advertising panel on Morko.


http://www.fototime.com/58EAE4243EB1B28/orig.jpg

Maine Pt.---Maine potatoes!!!

By the way gents, that is engraving not casting script. Click on the link and check the details.

[Double D]

This panel really shows the engraving and not casting.



http://www.fototime.com/D2B3E90AB37CBCC/orig.jpg

[dan610324]

of course its engraving , but I still think the engraving was done in the wax before it was cast

[Double D]

Don't agree Dan, not at all.  The engraved flats have been smoothed and then the cuts made into them.  The cuts edges and bottom  are to smooth for a castings. The arcs have raised metal along the cut pushed up by the tools.  the straight lines also have raised edges.

The head is a casting that has had the features chased for sure.    The socket hole still has me baffled. One angle looks like a forging and one looks like a casting that has been cut.  

This thing is an incredible work of art...

[dan610324]

it sure is
I wish I had a better camera with higher resolution and a better close up limit
I cant go closer than 2 inch from the object when taking macro pictures

with a better camera and a few hundred pictures the result would have been much better

may I ask why you think it have been engraved after the casting ??

a good casting can catch detals finer than a human hair

wax is much easier to engrave so I cant find any reason to why they should have done the engraving in the bronze
I havent checked the pictures that carefully so I havent seen the metal pushed up , but Im quite sure that you could get exact the same when doing the engraving on the wax
if you got it in the wax original it will show on the bronze piece also

the pictures of the socket hole is of a very low quality , I got problems to get light in there when taking the pictures
couldnt use any extra light , and my flash on the camera is located so far away from the center of the optic so it is hughe problems when you are as close as only 2"
but I can tell you that nothing is forged on that piece , just cast

[RocklockI]

IMHO the marking were all cast in place . These lines are so tiny as to be unbelivably small and thin .

I used needle like tools to engrave my master , tiny and sharp . Theres no way they could have been engraved after casting The side would/could have been smoothed just to remove the raised portion around each line wax cast line .

I think the socket was just 'hogged out' (chiseled) of the wax positive . I could do the same thing to wax but why .

Who knows the guy may have had a set of tools , like a polygone hex tapered socket tool to build the gun on .

I can tell you this much for iron clad sure , You could get one for half as much if you didnt need the writing on it !



Gary

[Double D]

 By modern standards this is some pretty crude engraving. But this cut engraving.   I think if you compare your casting with the picture you will see the subtle differences.  



It would be interesting to hear what the museum has to say on the subject of how this item was made.

 

[Victor3]

 If the decorations were engraved in the broze not the wax, I'd be interested to know what kind of tool they had available at the time to do it. That's a lot of engraving and as far as I know no hardened steel was available. A stone or iron tool could used, but I don't think it's likely. The lines are too straight and uninterupted with many an abrupt endpoint for me to believe they were made in bronze with engraving tools available at the time.

 Who knows though. I've seen ancient items before where I had no friggin' idea how they could have been made at the time they were...

[Double D]

If the decorations were engraved in the broze not the wax, I'd be interested to know what kind of tool they had available at the time to do it. That's a lot of engraving and as far as I know no hardened steel was available. A stone or iron tool could used, but I don't think it's likely. The lines are too straight and uninterupted with many an abrupt endpoint for me to believe they were made in bronze with engraving tools available at the time.

 Who knows though. I've seen ancient items before where I had no friggin' idea how they could have been made at the time they were...

Engraving has been around way B.C. , and it was used to chase lost wax casting that far back, much like the details of the head on Morko were chased.  But if look at the flats on Morko you can see that they were polished. They are smooth, you can even still see polish marks.  Look at the hook on Morko.  It is not polished  and still shows casting lines and sprue.  The surface of the metal looks cast.  The texture of the flats is different than other nonengraved sections. 

You can see the incise marks and the edges of the cuts are raised from displacement.  You will see this same type raise along the edge of modern engraved rifles.  Saw enough of them in the shop I use to work in.  It's one of the reason engraved rifles are polished and then engraved.  It's what gives depth to engraving.   

I very well could be wrong, but in my experience and to my eye the sharpness of the marks says cut engraving.

Gary should put a picture of his casting up beside one of the pictures from morko so they can be compared.

 

[Victor3]

If the decorations were engraved in the broze not the wax, I'd be interested to know what kind of tool they had available at the time to do it. That's a lot of engraving and as far as I know no hardened steel was available. A stone or iron tool could used, but I don't think it's likely. The lines are too straight and uninterupted with many an abrupt endpoint for me to believe they were made in bronze with engraving tools available at the time.

 Who knows though. I've seen ancient items before where I had no friggin' idea how they could have been made at the time they were...

Engraving has been around way B.C. , and it was used to chase lost wax casting that far back, much like the details of the head on Morko were chased.  But if look at the flats on Morko you can see that they were polished.

Gary should put a picture of his casting up beside one of the pictures from morko so they can be compared.

 Yes, engraving in metal has been around a long time, but I've never noted any this old that's this fine of work (maybe I just haven't taken note until now though).

 I don't think comparing Gary's to the original will be helpful; with the mould release agent and silicone being involved, his didn't come out as sharply detailed as they might have. I imagine the original was a one-off, with the master being used to make it. That would retain more detail.

[Victor3]

 I've been studying the closeup pics of the engraving for two hours and I've come to an iron-clad conclusion............ It was done either in the wax or the metal. 

 Just some observations...

 Note the fairly precise depth control the artist displayed in making the cross-hatching across the entire piece, along with the smooth end-to-end uniformity of each line. If it was engraved in the metal it would have to have been done with great skill and a very durable (harder than bronze) tool that didn't wear or chip in the middle of doing a line. I don't see any evidence in the pics that there was an interruption to change tools anywhere and I'm thinking that a lot of engraving tools (or resharpening) would have been required, considering the material they must have been made from at the time. On top of that, there doesn't appear to be any evidence of the 'tap-tap-tap' of a hammer on the tool that I'm thinking should show as a somewhat rough edge along the surface at the top edges of the lines.

 I'm thinking that all of the engraving could have been done fairly easily in wax and would show pretty much as it does. Also, if the casting was indeed done via lost wax, why in the world would anyone spend all that time to engrave the bronze?

 On the other hand, we don't really know what skills or tools have been lost in the sands of time. The Morko maker may have had hardened steel tools for all we know. We're constantly finding out that people were more advanced than previously thought...

http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Baghdad_Batter.html

[thelionspaw]

 I've been studying the closeup pics of the engraving for two hours and I've come to an iron-clad conclusion............ It was done either in the wax or the metal. 

Very deep thought Victor. I think you should start to go to bed earlier

rc

[RocklockI]

I wouldnt be surprised if there was a wax mold used . It would cast a morko Then the engraving would begin .

Mine was cast in wax with the writing on it . If you look at the areas around the wall spike it is very smooth and squared off ,it doesnt look like something "hand done" .

A couple of travaling carts with a bunch of blacksmithing stuff , a mold or two , copper and tin .

He proly made his living off things other than gonnes . Along with the ol lady and a brother maybe a son too .

I think you could flood the market in an area pretty quick .

Gary