Nautical Research Journal 181


8. Finished hearts. Construction 9. Finished grooves.


First, draw the top view of the heart on the stick. (Figure 3) Prior to drilling, use a sharp needle to poke indents into the areas that can have excess wood removed with a drill. Make the indents deep and wide enough to contain and control the drill point and keep it from wandering. T e drill holes really speed up and simplify the carving process, so take care to place the drill accurately, use a sharp drill, drill slowly so as not to bend the drill and put in as many holes as you can. (Figure 4) Remove the wood to the inside of the top view pencil outline in the drilled area. (Figure 5) We are just rough cutting here so do not try to be overly accurate, but be careful to not remove too much wood on the fi rst go-around.


You will need some very small chisels for carving hearts. Refer to my Shop Note in NRJ 63:3 for details about making your own. I do all my carving under magnifi cation (about 7x) and recommend you do the same.


Refi ne your inside cut to refl ect the fi nal interior shape. Carve the exterior outline of the heart and fi le in the grooves for the lanyards. (Figure 6) Carve the groove around the outside a little less wide than the diameter of the rope and a little less deep. (Figure 7) Relieve (round off ) all the square edges and reduce the square lanyard grooves to a slightly pointed shape. (Figures 8 and 9) Cut the heart from the stick and round off the saw cut. Use a round needle fi le to fi nish shaping the square perimeter groove into a half-round groove for the rope. Apply a little matte varnish and polish it off .


10. Assembled hearts.


T e hearts shown in Figures 8 and 9 were made from box (middle) and chakte viga (outside). T e color of the chakte viga is reddish and its grain is a little more coarse than the grain of the box, but I like a variety of colors in my models so I will live with it.


Figure 10 shows two hearts assembled on a jig to assess lanyard size and lacing schemes. T e lanyard size, lacing scheme, and colors shown in the photograph were not used as shown because I did not like the overall appearance of the combination, which looks bulky and clumsy. Everything was reduced in size and made to look more proportional when applied to the model.


Lanyard diameters were usually about one half to


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