Planning to make a wrongko

[Gustav]

Two more.

[Johan van Zyl]

Guys, this is all the help & advice I could ever wish for. I am truly indebted. Thanks to one and all!

A few remarks:
1 - I have read & considered ALL of your kind inputs and I study your pics in detail. If you should find I have here or there not responded to your specific hint and not executed my new wrongko as you suggested, please do not think I did not agree. As I wrote to Alan, I need to do it in the way that works for me. Oftentimes one's work, as it is progresses in the workshop, dictates to one how the next step needs to be taken to ensure a good end product.

2 - Having procured a good enough piece of wood from a friend for the remake (2nd try) of the gambar, I found myself better able to work the wood. You will all know: practice makes perfect. I'm sure if this 2nd try does not work out and I have to do it once again, the 3rd gambar would be even better! Imagine if I had to make a dozen Bugis gambars, how well organised I would be after the last one! For this 2nd try I made a cardboard template for the opening in the top of the gambar where the blade is inserted. Although I was quite satisfied with the first try without the template, this second one is just about perfect! I laid the template over the top and scribed its outline on the wood. Then with my new-found expertise with the angle grinder and a motley assortment of special bits in my vertical drill stand, I removed the wood required and was met with a truly beautiful fit.

3 - I'm not really very impressed with the wood I got from the friend, as it is a bit too grainy for my liking. It looks a lot like Bluegum wood to me! But I have come quite far already and can't turn back now. Pics will soon follow!

4 - To be very honest, those tongues and side-mounted tenons some of you described, which go between the gandar & gambar sound terribly hard to carve. I am intimidated, and I still have to go there...

[Johan van Zyl]

I have indicated how reluctant I am to post pre-completion pics of the wrongko project, but David felt that it would be good, so I respect that.

This pic shows how far I have come. The blade goes in deep enough, the fit is satisfactory. The wood is a bit difficult to work with; I have used various tools to reach this stage. From here on it will be carving knives and files, then sandpaper. (The angle grinder's work is done!)

[A. G. Maisey]

Johan, you might find that scrapers will be useful in shaping the contours.

The typical cabinet scraper is a piece of rectangular steel about 6'X3", but for concave and convex surfaces you can make your own scrapers from pieces of heavy tin can, just cut the needed shape with tin snips.

I use old pocket knives a lot as both carving knives and as scrapers, the castrating blade on 3 blade stock knife makes a very good detail scraper.

Pieces of glass are also useful as scrapers.

[Gustav]

Johan, just one remark regarding the line you have drawn on Gambar/Sampir with pen - if that's the line you later intend to carve - it shouldn't be parallel to the central axis of the whole sheath (the sheath will then look stiff), it should fall a little bit inwards. At which angle - you should esthetically decide it, considering all other angles of outlines of your Sampir, and also hilt of your Keris when sheathed. They all as ensemble should be in a state of a floating harmony.

[A. G. Maisey]

Second attempt.

For comparison.

[Gustav]

Yes, three sheaths in Sulawesi style.

[David]

Originally Posted by Johan van Zyl

I have indicated how reluctant I am to post pre-completion pics of the wrongko project, but David felt that it would be good, so I respect that.

Well, perhaps you see now how that suggestion was meant that for your own good, not simply our curiosity. It allows our members to help you adjust and "correct" before your sheath takes its final form.

[Johan van Zyl]

David, my scabbard is taking form on its own, disregarding my strict and demanding supervision! It has a mind of its own. When I lay down my tools upon completion, we will all be able to see what the result was. You might exclaim: "But why does it look like THAT?" Then I'll have to answer: "Beats me!"

Kai, you ask what the crosspiece is made of. My "supplier" (bless his motley woodpile) self-assuredly proclaims it to be "saligna". To my knowledge that's wood from the Australian bluegum tree. It's the very devil to carve. I'm now trying to make a scraper a la Alan.

[A. G. Maisey]

Not a good timber for carving Johan.

The up side is that when you complete your wrongko out of that stuff you will be able to carve anything.

One of my floors is made from blue gum parquetry. Its a real good flooring timber.

[Johan van Zyl]

Sigh - yes, the house I grew up in at Simonstown also had such a floor. In Afrikaans we called it a "blokkiesvloer" (block-floor). My mom polished it regularly with an electric Columbus two-brush wax polisher. I'm sure any self-respecting mranggi would have stoked his hearth fire with it.

The wood is quite unyielding, and to get it as far as is shown in the two newest pics, took some doing. The pics also show the wide end of the gandar with four bambu pins inserted and epoxied in place. There's going to come a time after the gandar is affixed to the gambar, when the final finishing of both together must take place, but then I'll not be able to use much force, for fear of straining or even breaking the joint. (The wrongko's joint, not my own....!!!)