| 2002
| ScrapBook
Subjects
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Page
Index
Links
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Link:
Looking Ahead And Dreaming Sweet Dreams
Link:
Ron Landis' Aluminum Carving Of A Hobo
Link:
Lots Of New Stuff On The Way
Link:
Keep Your Eyes Open!
Link:
A Dramatic Difference In Lighting
Link:
[ Steve Adams' OHNS Aluminum Hobo Carving ]
Link:
[ Nickel Carver's Silver Signature Rounds ]
Link:
Taking Things On Faith
Link:
[ Progress... I guess... ?:-) ]
Link:
A Plethora Of Die Cracks
Link:
[ Another Wonderful Critter Carving ]
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Enlargement scans available on WWW and ScrapBook CD-ROM.
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| 10/22
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Looking Ahead And Dreaming Sweet Dreams
Last night I dreamed I found several wooden boxes in a storage building
containing all of Ron Landis' personal and museum display specimens. I
got so excited I woke up with my heart pounding and drenched in sweat. The
GMM archive of ten of each of their creations wasn't included in my dream.
Perhaps this is because Ron's non-COPY medals, tokens and other exonumia
are my first love while his regular coinage COPY recreations are my second
love. I suppose all this came to pass because I had spent several hours
just before retiring researching Half Dismes and Dismes and looking ahead
to Ron's recreations of same. I don't know whether Ron will be creating his
specimens in copper or silver but I sure am looking forward to seeing them.
Talk about RARE and beautiful specimens! The Half Disme was struck in
silver but there is one specimen struck in copper according to R.S.Yeoman.
The Disme appears to be the more difficult piece with 15 known in copper
and 3 known in silver as recorded in the same source. Speaking of sources...
just type "Disme" in your search engine and stand back. There are a number
of informative websites that explore this interesting coinage. The three
that I found the most interesting were;
1)
the University of Notre Dame's "The Coins of Colonial and Early America"
The Half Disme of 1792,
2)
the CoinSite's "Historical Reference from the NGC PHOTO PROOF Series"
1792 HALF DISME and
3)
the Professional Coin Grading Service's
The 1792 Copper Disme: The Story of the Finest Known Specimen.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 10/21
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A Kenneth Bressett photograph.
Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
1996 Landis Carving #131
133mm Aluminum Carving
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Ron Landis' Aluminum Carving Of A Hobo
I sure enough do have the oversize Hobo that
Ron Landis carved. My wife gave it to me as a birthday present and I
am very proud of it. Never expected such a wonderful gift. It was
carved over one of those stock aluminum "paper weights", with a drill.
It is 5.25" in diameter. Ron signed and numbered it on the reverse in
1996. "Berty" is my wife's nickname.
Kenneth Bressett...Sunday, October 20, 2002 6:13PM
I want to thank Ken for sharing this carving with us. I know many of
Ron's longtime fans have other interesting creations out there that
we would all LOVE to see. I sure could use your help in keeping this
ScrapBook interesting and expanding.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 10/20
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Lots Of New Stuff On The Way
Gallery Mint Museum Building:
I know it seems like we're not doing a whole lot, but in reality, we've been making great strides toward the museum project. We just paid off three of our loans from the money earned on the 49er project, and just put our current property up for sale. I am spending more time at the drafting table, designing the new museum and all the parts that will make it work, including the big drop hammer which will be installed in the lobby of the museum. It is coming along nicely, the wood gears are being made now.
1850 $10 Gold:
We have completed our part in the "49er horseman commemorative" - a reproduction of the 1850 Baldwin $10. Royal Canadian Mint is just now finishing them up, and you should see tons of promotion on it in the next few weeks. I don't have an image or example of the coin, but there should be good images on the web soon.
www.GalleryMint.com:
I am having a time trying to get the new web site going. The biggest holdup is trying to get decent images. I'm still not happy with the ones I get from my camera, so I may start shopping for a nice scanner, or just hire a professional coin photographer.
Jefferson Nickel Pattern:
Darrell Crane has instructed me to send you one each of the new Jefferson nickels, but I am waiting until we get the planchet size adjusted so I can send fully struck examples. You should have them next week. This was a monster project for me that took an incredible amount of time. Architecture is really difficult for me. It's like freehand machining, and very difficult to keep all the lines straight, and planes flat.
( Darrell sent me the photos, here on the right, of the original Felix Schlag plaster molds. )
First U.S.Mint Issues:
The 1792 disme and 1792 half disme is in the works, but is still a few weeks out.
Nickel Carvings:
I have scans of two recent hobo carvings that I would like to send you, but first I need to get permission from the owner. They are really quite nice, with #200 being a milestone piece, I ended up spending way too much time on it. It is a very detailed and exact steam engine, and #201 is another Indian skull, my fifth one to date, and the third in this recent series done under microscope and with an anatomically correct skull that I used as the model.
Hobo Tokens:
Next after that is to get all the new hobo tokens going.
( This includes the 2003 GMM tokens, the 2003 Original Hobo Nickel
Society tokens and the 2002 OHNS Publishing tokens for those authors
who contributed to Bo-Tales this year. )
FUN2003:
Then I must start gearing up for FUN show in January. I'd like to have a small handful of carvings by then since I missed the deadline for the OHNS auction.
Denver Coin Press Restoration:
I might be able to supply you with a few digital images of the Denver
coining press which is almost completely restored now.
Ron Landis...Saturday, October 19, 2002 2:53PM
I know that other projects are constantly vying for Ron's attention and
he is peddling as hard as he can. It is just that his adoring fans get
impatient for the wonderful creations from his bench and who could honestly
blame us?
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 10/19
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Keep Your Eyes Open!
I really need your help!
Please keep your eyes open for any advertisements or news articles
about the Baldwin & Company 1850 TEN DOLLARS - Horseman Type
recreations from the imagination workshop in Eureka Springs. I know
Ron has been working hard on a set of dies for recreating the $10
shown here (this is a genuine specimen and not Ron's modern recreation.)
If you can direct me to any online information on Ron's Horseman $10
it would be particularly helpful.
For those of you who may be interested in the history of the Horseman $10
here is some super material I captured from The Harry W. Bass, Jr.
Collection - Part III, 26 May 2000 catalogue,
Link:Lot 756. (This COOL research is NOT mine
but was done by the firm who sold the Bass collection. I can't put my
finger on which firm that was at this moment as the mainpage for the
online catalogue is no longer posted.)
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
Clifford Bolling just pointed me to
Link:Jewels of the Bass
Collection by Cathy L. Clark, assistant editor of THE
NUMISMATIST, which says (in part):
Upon his death in 1998, the collection was willed
to the Harry Bass Jr. Research Foundation, a nonprofit charitable trust,
which retained a care collection representative of its founder's numismatic
interests and activities. (The remainder was sold in a series of four public
sales conducted by Auctions by Bowers and Merena of Wolfeboro, New
Hampshire, that generated funding for the Foundation's various charitable
programs.)
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| 10/18
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A Clifford Bolling photograph.
Click for
Enlargement on CD-ROM
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A Dramatic Difference In Lighting
This is one of the best of the Gallery MInt coin
replicas, a limited mintage 1796 Proof $1, # 847 of 1000 minted. This
issue sold out very quickly and rarely shows up on the after market.
The photo shows this piece both in cameo and brilliant, shows the same
coin in two different lighting positions.
Clifford D. Bolling...Thursday Oct-17-02 20:20:05
It is nice to see Cliff offering this superb specimen on eBay as I write
this SBsubject. Cliff has provided us with many excellent scans of
Gallery Mint creations... THANKS Cliff!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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Click for
Enlargement
on CD-ROM
HUGE 131mm Aluminum Carving
with Nickel Carving on HatBand
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Steve Adams' OHNS FUN2003 Aluminum Carving
Day 1:
I got to thinking after your email about using
aircraft quality aluminum. That stuff machines well. The host token shown
below
{UpperLeft}
isn't that kind of quality, however it should machine I thought. After
hours of frustration, it was obvious I was getting nowhere fast. I had
to clean the aluminum stuck on my chisel every two or three cuts.
!!#!**!#!!!X/@!! Yeah it was that bad. So it was off to the milling
machine, where I locked the piece down and basically free handed what
you see below
{UpperCenterLeft}.
Two days work in one hour. Now I'm about to start the hand work. Probably
three to four days I'd guess.
Steven G. Adams...Saturday, September 21, 2002 2:18PM
Day 2:
Consider this day two of the project. Even though
it is only 6:30AM on Sunday morning, I spent a good deal of time yesterday
working on this
{UpperCenterRight}.
I am trying to squeeze three days of work into a two day weekend. You
can see chisel marks over much of the surface now, and some grinding
marks from using my flex shaft. I dipped into some die making supplies
as this was such a big piece. I am not ashamed to say it either. Sam or
Ron would probably understand the problem of material removal here. I
have vast experience in working on dies much larger than this, but I'd
pick steel over this gummy aluminum anytime. Right now there is aluminum
all around my pantomill, and on my work bench. I saved some scrap in a
small tube to send along with the piece. Might make for interesting
conversation. Perhaps I can get another 10 or more hours in on it today.
Why else would I get up this early on a Sunday. Fishing? No, the weather
did not cooperate.
Steven G. Adams...Sunday, September 22, 2002 6:38AM
Day 3:
Getting up early has paid off. I think this
{UpperRight}
has shown some progress today. Consider this the end of day three. I'll
stick another 3 hours in today, but there won't be a dramatic change.
Look for a day four scan by mid week, then I'll put the insert in.
Steven G. Adams...Sunday, September 22, 2002 2:57PM
Day 4:
This
{LowerLeft}
is half way through day four. A little refining in spots, beard in, hair
almost done, pupil to eye, hat band and bow started, more modeling on the
ear, and insert area milled out. Now it needs an eyebrow, detailing, and
of course finishing. It will be on to the insert carving then. Two carvings
in one. A unique purchase for someone. I hope these two combined carvings
do well. Even if a person doesn't necessarily like the big one as a carving,
they could still consider it a one of a kind Hobo Nickel display for any
carving they choose to put in it. The carving I send with it won't be
anything fancy. In engravers time this would cost about $1,600, so I hope
it is halfway successful at the auction. I think I'll stick with donating
actual nickel carvings from now on.
Steven G. Adams...Monday, September 23, 2002 3:46PM
Day 5:
This
{LowerCenterLeft}
is pretty much it as far as the aluminum carving is concerned. A tough
battle, and I'm glad its over. I'll do a simple hobo carving tomorrow for
the insert area. By the way, take notice of the nose job, as well as the
new detail.
Steven G. Adams...Tuesday, September 24, 2002 7:02PM
Day 6:
Shown both above and below
{LowerCenterRight}
is the final carving with insert. I told you the insert
{LowerRight}
wouldn't be anything fancy, but I left the date and LIBERTY. I considered
the fact that that you might bid on this puppy. It is pressure fitted into
the big carving, but can be removed if needed. The insert is placed so
that the date will be level when the larger sits in its stand. If whoever
buys this at the Fun auction wants to rotate it, they have that option.
They may want to ask me how to get it out though, I would hate to see it
get screwed up. Project hours are about 50, and I'm going to bed early
tonight for a change.
Steven G. Adams...Wednesday, September 25, 2002 5:30PM
Fantastic ear!
I've never seen a better one.
Click for
Enlargement on CD-ROM
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Project Overview:
I dare not tell the public my total experience
with the aluminum carving for fear I might be perceived as a person who
complains too much. The truth is, it was not fun, but at the same time
I knew I was probably best equipped to handle the job. As you know, the
material was poor, and that is not anyone's fault. Considering the holes
in the material, I'd have to say it turned out pretty decent. No one
should ever think about buffing this thing, because they would truly be
sorry with the results. I had it smoother at one time, but the pitting
was much too obvious. If you wish to tell the public anything, say it was
a tough and time consuming job. Nearly 50 hours were spent to create it,
and it is truly a unique piece. The largest hobo nickel carving ever? I
don't know for a fact, but unique for sure. It does however hold a real
hobo nickel carving with LIBERTY and the date remaining. And you know how
often I leave LIBERTY; only occasionally. My hope is that the work will
help bring in some money, that is why I am glad to offer my help, and
will continue to do so each year. I guess the main thing is for the owner
of this piece to enjoy it, and know that they will have a one of a kind
carving. No more aluminum carving for me, unless its high quality material.
Anyone buying this piece can put the insert carving in anyway they would
like it. If they can't get the piece out, email or call me. I'll tell them
how to do it. Or send it to me and I'll do it for them.
Steven G. Adams...Tuesday, October 01, 2002 9:04PM
I love the article on Steve Adams' huge nickel. I can really empathize
with him on the problems involved working with this gummy aluminum.
I carved one myself in 1996. It is carving #131. The first piece I
carved in 1996, and was done at the request of Ken Bressett. I believe
it was featured in an old Bo-Tales, and my title for this piece is the
same as Steve's - "World's largest Hobo Nickel".
I did not have a milling machine at that time, which would have made it
much easier to rough out. So, I opted to use a 4" Makita grinder with
some aggressive abrasive discs, and used a large chisel in my
Gravermeister to clean it up from there. As I recall, I think I spent
about three days carving this piece, but it was done over a period of
several weeks. Mine was not as nice as Steve's. I really like the accent
nickel carving he put in the hatband. It is a great way to illustrate
proportions in a photograph.
Just a footnote, but when I apprenticed with George Bickley, a now
retired jewelry engraver, he told me kerosene was a good lubricant when
carving aluminum. If I'd remembered that when I carved my giant nickel,
the job might have gone a bit smoother.
Ron Landis...Sunday, October 20, 2002 10:58AM
I am "pickled tink" to have been able to capture Steve's ongoing thoughts
as he worked on this project as well as his in-process scans (have you
ever seen a more magnificantly detailed ear on a carving?) I am of the
opinion that this information will add significantly to the value of the
carving for the lucky person who manages to purchase it at FUN2003. Maybe
it will be me...
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
Price realized for this carving:
Lot#96...$2,227.50,
which includes the 10% buyer's fee.
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SunRoom: A Six Week PLUS Project
Ozawkie, Kansas - 1 October 2002 -
No... I haven't died but my SunRoom contractor told me they would be finished
inside three weeks. NOT TRUE! ...but why am I not surprised? We spent
almost full time the last six weeks making sure the construction crew did
their work in an acceptable manner. This means we have a long list of everyday
tasks that has been put off so creating more SBsubjects will remain on the
back burner for a while yet. Don't give up on the old FatMan please!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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Nickel Carver's Silver Signature Rounds
One day when there wasn't anything special on eBay in either of my
two favorite search lists; 1) Gallery Mint and 2) Hobo Nickels, I
was poking around and ran across a series of one ounce silver rounds
with different locomotives on one side and a wonderful blank space on
the other side.
It occurred to me that the blank space was made to order for a cool
carving by a modern nickel carver. Why stop at just one... why not
everybody? So I sent out mail to all the carvers I had contact
information on asking for their interest in such a project. Out of
eight such contacts I only had one carver decline.
So I bought a couple more sets of blank silver rounds and sent each
carver two apiece. I think I have five signature pieces back now and
they are all really nice! One carver felt he "messed up" both of my
provided pieces so he purchased several replacement rounds on his own,
at his own expense, without telling the old FatMan. I wish he had said
something as I would have been glad to have had more sent to him.
Anyway... I wanted to share the three shown above and I will eventually
get any others I have received scanned and show them to you also.
August 28, 2002 - When I awoke this morning Sam Alfano had sent me a
replacement scan for his silver signature piece which was MUCH better
than the one I created. I have a dickens of a time scanning anything
with a bright reflective surface. Being of Dutch ancestory I just can't
stand to waste anything so I kept my original scan and am showing it
to you here on the right. This is not to say that Sam's isn't clearly
better than mine because it most certainly is... I just never throw
anything out, you can ask my wife! THANKS Sam... your graphic
was perfect in quality and precisely the same size as my original. It
was VERY easy to use to improve my webpage.
The main advantage of establishing a corresponding relationship with
folks across the nation who have similar interests is the continual
sharing of the good things that happen in our lives. The personal
photographs and shared jokes like those shown below add a lot to my
daily life. Steve tells me that this hefty salmon weighed in at 28#
and is his first trophy sized fish that he is having mounted for
display.
Along with that is the sharing of the difficult times of
course. Our friend nickel carver Arthur Hutchison lost his Mother this
week and we all think of him in his time of sorrow. The fact this is
something we must all face... unless we precede our loved ones into the
next life ...does not make this time any easier of course.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 8/24
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A Clifford Bolling photograph.
Click for
Enlargement on
CD-ROM
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Taking Things On Faith
I was laboring under the firm conviction that Ron Landis told me that he
created the 1794 Pattern obverse die, struck 794 copper strikes and then
added stars to it to commence striking the standard issue silver dollar
strikes. So... I never went and looked at the pattern and compared it to
the standard issue.
Cliff Bolling always has his eyes open and didn't have the handicap of
thinking he already knew something. As a result... he pointed out to me
that the pattern obverse seems considerably different than the standard
issue. I would agree with him. Even the LIBERTY lettering is smaller on
the pattern pieces! Besides, once a die has been hardened for production
it is a really tricky process to heat it to soften it, rework it or add
design elements, and then reharden it for production. I know in attempting
this a person can loose a lot of time and effort attempting to save some
time and effort. I'll have to remember to ask Ron about this on my next
trip to Eureka Springs.
Since we are talking about GMM 1794 dollar creations at the moment I
think this would be a good time to challenge you a bit. Below is the
reason some of us are more than half a bubble off plumb... on the left
is a cleaned up version of the scan an eBay Seller has posted with his
offering of a GMM 1794 dollar. On the right is the result of Cliff's
hard work trying to warp the original scan around so he can decide which
die pair was used to strike the piece. Hummm...
you tell me... is there a berry below the A of STATES or not?
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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Progress... I guess... ?:-)
I now have a new 60GB hard drive installed which brings me up to a total
of 100GB of storage... a bit less actually considering how they do their
figuring. Of course most of the space used is duplicates of the stuff on
the old 40GB disk copied to the new 60GB disk. Two long hard days working
to restablish most of the tools I had gotten so used to having at hand.
Anyway... my Netscape and WindowsME were in a knock-down and drag-out fight
with each other and I had to do something. I couldn't send more than a single
EMail message without rebooting my gonkulator. So... the result is that I am
a total MicroSoft user as far as Browsers and Operating Systems go anyway.
Now I can get back to the important stuff!
By the way... I have always tried to design my ScrapBook webpages so that
they would display well for those folks who might be running computer
systems with video resolutions of 640 by 480 pixels. I'm just going to have
to move on... sorry! From now on I'll only be testing my webpages at video
resolution of 800 by 600 pixels and my system will be running at 1024 by 768
pixels.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 8/12
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A Clifford Bolling photograph.
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Click for
Obverse 5
or
Reverse 6
enlargement
on
CD-ROM
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A Plethora Of Die Cracks
What that means is a superabundance of die cracks. This great dollar strike
has three almost identically formed cracks on two separate dies. I love it!
The only way I can think of for this specimen to get any better would be to
throw a CUD or two into the mix. Large silver pieces with dies falling apart
is one of my weaknesses as you all know. Cliff tells me that this specimen is
a pairing of his Obverse5 and Reverse6 numbered 1796 dollar dies.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
Clifford Bolling photographs.
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Click for
Obverse Die
3:00 die crack
(top
scan),
Reverse Die
7:00 die crack
(middle
scan)
or
Reverse Die
2:00 die crack
(bottom
scan)
enlargements
on CD-ROM
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Another Wonderful Critter Carving
This is "Clark" (L-61) an African Elephant. The "Clark" is for Clark Kent
because this guy thinks he's Superman. Don't say anything about the Lion
being king of the jungle, as Clark gets irritated very easily, and while
he can't fly (even with those ears), he is very strong. He doesn't think
much of Tarzan either. "With all the yelling and boss like attitude, who
put him in charge anyway?" Clark once heard that at a political convention
someone said "I'll kiss your Elephant if you kiss my Ass!" and is just
waiting for someone, anyone, to come and try it. While there are lots of
elephants, there is only one hand carved "Clark" and with all his
modifications and alterations he is still hosted on a beautiful 1913 T-1
XF buffalo nickel. Here's your chance to own an Elephant.
Clifford L. Kraft...Sunday Aug-11-02 14:08:55
Cliff's comments reminds me of something I heard once while attending an
exotic animal auction (where they sell bears, big cats, buffalo, camels,
zebras, etcetera) and I overheard a fellow say; "There are only two happy
days in a bear owner's life... the day he buys the bear and the day he
sells the bear!" I've told Cliff many times that I think his niche in the
nickel carving avocation is Wildlife subjects. His bears, moose and
elephant are stunning. Now he has extended the definition of wildlife a
wee bit by carving a distinctly different sort of
Link:mammal.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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