Superb!

Mike

Excellent

H

It's like a Bosch painting – an amazing piece of work, and as mad as a box of frogs.

A true craftsman in many ways.

Emgee

Or even four feet to spring out of the bottom of the chest !

What a superb build! … & all to lock up the last Rollo in the pack…

George..

Used to have to do better than that daily till 8 yrs ago to a lot finer tolerances.
Great end result and lock designs a work of art theres a few things wrong in other areas for quality work i could teach him.

Key to the close fit is working clean and sizing the two together. Trouble is hardening and tempering changes that, often a gaining in tolerance therefore needs fitting down after.

12" bastards the best we could find since 2003 would 3 days. Bahco wouldnt last the hour! Pre 2003 similar files would last two weeks, same with Vallorbe and all other producers quality went down the pan.

Would be hard to put a price on that as not everythings shown. Suffice to say at going rate that would warrant at least £20k, nice work.

Very clever but they would use an angle grinder to get in.

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 11/10/2018 10:15:51

Exactly.

The thing reminds me of the complex 16th century 'Armada' chests you sometimes see on the Antiques Roadshow.

Whereas a locomotive or traction engine model in such a cost range would have the capability to amuse and amaze thousands of children and adults in its working life, this casket speaks of secretive concealment and protection – paranoia executed in metal.

You have to wonder how many objects there are, that would fit inside it, that could justify such expenditure in their protection.

Especially since, as Richard points out above, there are so many effective ways of bypassing the ludicrously elaborate unlocking procedure that such protection can't possibly be effective in today's world.

That's why I think it's mad.

But it does occur to me that perhaps the real product here isn't the casket – it's the video – and the objective is a revenue stream associated with that; advertising wrapped around it, or suchlike. If that's the case, all bets are off – what we've been seeing could contain fakery and exaggeration at all sorts of levels that I don't know enough even to describe.

Edited By Mick B1 on 11/10/2018 09:01:18

If it wasn't made as a commission, it will end up with a rich American collector or in the Joe Martin museum.

You can be sure it wasn't the only thing he worked on for two years and that it will bring him plenty of future work.

Neil

(It's always possible that he made it for the Cenobites….)

To lift or not to lift will always be a debatable subject. When I did my time the instructor always told us " lifting the file and banging it back down was a waste of effort, Just remove all down pressure and draw the file backwards which helps to eject any chips attached to the file" " always finish on a forward stroke." ( no comments pls Whether this was right or wrong I had no idea at the time and still don't so I have followed that routine ever since. The use of a file card at regular intervals is the key to file life as far as I can see. With the advancement of modern methods I have no wish to find out whether a file can be worn out or not by my physical exertions.

regards

Interesting stuff!

penland.org/residencies/resident-artist-program/

One of my brothers runs a pottery studio at one of the Camphill communities.

Neil