A question regarding plier construction

[SpiritSock]

I got a bit of a query and am wondering if any of you could help me.

First off,a little about me.
I've been whittling whimseys and wood spirits for a lil while now and have completed some interesting pieces...ball in ball,several ball in cages,captured rings,captured cubes,ball in ball in ball (my tuffest to date....until now,I'll get to that ),spirals and wood spirit staffs (inspired by Shawn Cipa's fantasy wizard staff....thanks Shawn !!!).

My latest whimsey project has me stumped....
I am in the process of whittling pliers and am having a BIRD of a time.
Broke the first 5 pairs and the learning process has been painstakingly slow.
I did manage one pair,it does work but not great,as the joint is WAY too slack.
My book that I've been using is Walter Faurot's The Art Of Whittling
Bassically,the pliers section is kind of vague and I am having a hard time following the instructions.

Was just curious to know if anyone here does pliers and wouldn't mind giving up a secret or 2
*smiles*

Thanks in advance
Peace Ed

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

If you do a google search you will find several sites that have whimsies and one really good one that has numerous pliers examples...sorry I can't remember where...........

[SpiritSock]

Thanks....Yup,did Google and found some splendid examples.
Unfortunately,I haven't been able to actually "Google-up" a set of online instructions tho
Alas,could be just a continual trial and error thing...
Maybe,sometimes,there are no shortcuts
*grins*
Peace Ed

[Hisart]

E.J.Tangerman has a slew of books out on the whimsey but this is one of my favorites!
Whittling and Woodcarving {<<--Amazon link}
Has all the secrets as it was written in 1936.

[SpiritSock]

Thanks...I'll have to try and find that one.
Peace Ed

[GILLY]

You have me thinking now!.............ever since I was a youngun, I've wanted to carve a chain, but never finished anything I started, I think I'll give it another go. picks of your pliers when they're done, I'd be really interested in how they turn out.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I just did a quick look and found several chain and or whimsy sites....www.carvingpatterns.com by Lora Irish has a good tutorial on chain carvings and this site has a number of things on it, including ball in cage http://www.folkartisans.com/sup/howtocrv.html

[AlArchie]

Here's a set of instructions I picked up at the Mooney Werther museum in Ohio for a simple set of pliers. They are a mite re-done, as I've had to draw up my own diagrams as the originals were pretty illegible, but the instructions are still intact. Hope you can make sense of my sketches.

Just found another link to some of Warther's work, and there is also a set of pictures on some models of ships (same page, different artist) that might be of interest to some.....Bob!
http://region3.us.mensa.org/Pictures...arthertour.htm

I don't think I'm trodding on any copyrights, here....if I am, PM me and I'll send the instructions to your email


Al

[Canopener]

Ed,
I don't know much about whimseys, but my wifes Grandfather liked that sort of thing and I have his knife, which is just a small pocket knife. The one thing I can tell you is that his blades were very thin and sharp. The blades are 1 1/2 and 1 1/4 long, and the smaller one is 3/8 wide and about as thick as several pieces of paper or maybe an exacto blade. Really quite fragile looking, I Hope that helps some.
Jim

[SpiritSock]

Thank you,thank you,thank you !!!
That's EXACTLY what I was hoping to find and was looking for
Can't wait to get started,prob going to try tonite
Pretty sure I have some scrap straight grained cedar still kicking around.
Oh,also...if anyone's interested,I did get some pictures of some of my best whimseys uploaded to PictureTrail
Here's the link:http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/...05&uid=2026295
Hope to get some close ups done and also some of my wood spirits.
I'm looking forward to you guys and gals peeking at them and offering pointers and critiques
Thanks again

Peace Ed