An Anchor for a Chief.

I was recently able to dupe some of the people I work with into actually PAYING me to make a retirement gift for one of our Chief's who was retiring.  They wanted me to make a plaque, and other than that, I was free to do whatever I wanted.  Well, holding true to form, I waited until the last possible minute to start making it.  The real reason I started when I did was because another one of the Chief's asked me how it was coming, and I responded that I was almost done figuring out what I was going to make.  This was 10 days before the retirement ceremony.  He looked worried.  


Sooooo, I went to Woodcraft in Virginia Beach (one of my favorite places), bought some Cherry, and some Curly Maple, and a little Purpleheart, and started the process of figuring out what the dump I was going to do.  I decided that making a chief's anchor for the plaque would be ideal, so I went with that.  Here is what a Coast Guard Chief's anchor looks like:  

Easy enough.....except that the chain looks kinda important.  I made the main shield out of Cherry, with a Purpleheart strip in the middle, and the anchor out of Curly Maple.  I used a woodburner to add the Chief's name, and our department name, inlayed a few unit coins and a department patch, and life was good, except for that stupid chain.  In my brief delusions of grandeur, I decided to carve the chain from a single piece of Basswood.  After about five minutes I realized that I did not have the time, nor the desire for such an undertaking, so I set out to find a new way to do it.  I still made the chain from a single piece of wood, but I cheated a little, like a so.....

I hand drew the inside and outside dimensions of the chain links onto a single board of Cherry, which was one inch thick (actually slightly less than an inch.  It was 4/4 Cherry exactly one inch thick, but I used my Jack Plane and Try Plane to smooth it out, so it was a smidge thinner), I then used a panel saw to rip the board into more manageable pieces.  I then used a power tool I am comfortable with, my drill press, to clear out most of the internal waste.  

I them cut out the individual links with a coping saw, and then took them to my crappy Lowes miter box, quickly fashioned a way to accurately repeat my cuts, and ripped each link in half, instantly doubling the number of links!  It's Math!  

Now, I took the links and used chisels to clean up the inside holes, and shape the outside of the links a little.  Trying to shape the outsides really sucked, so I ended up pretty much leaving them alone.  I just told myself it would be easier to glue them this way.  After quitting on the shaping, I took the pile of links inside and enlisted the help of my 3 year old, Tave,  to make the chain.  

I simply snapped every other link in half, put two other links into it, glued it back together along its natural break lines, and put a rubber band on it to hold it till the glue dried.  This made it so that I did not remove any material while opening the links, and it also stayed lined up better while gluing than it would had I cut the links.  Tave handed me the rubber bands.  Once the chain was done and dry, I put it on the shield, and had to get all ghetto creative to hold it in place while the glue dried.  I was going to hold each link in place for the glues required half hour of clamp time, but I was pretending to have a life that day.  

 Just as soon as the glue was dry, and I was reasonable sure this thing would hold together, I hung it from the ceiling and started spraying it with 1# shellac (yes, I use canned shellac.  I have found that it actually works really well, and really gets into the cracks like I can never do with a brush or rag).  

 I let each coat of shellac dry for about half an hour, then I would sand the whole thing lightly with a 320 grit sanding block.  I didn't sand the chain, because it seemed hard, and I was tired.  after eight coats of shellac, I declared it finished!  (plus the retirement was the next day, so I was finished regardless of whether or not i was done).  

And, There you have it.  A Chief's anchor with a wood chain made from a single piece of wood.  Like they say, if you're not cheating, you're not trying.  By the way, the perfect joints between the Purpleheart and the Cherry....yeah, I jointed those by hand.