Structures for my freelance modified Pidgeon Creek layout section will be made from scratch. All of the wood for buildings will use spruce driftwood that I gather from the cobble beaches of West Jeddore, Nova Scotia (you can Google Map/Earth this location) less than an hour drive from my home in Dartmouth.
West Jeddore is a lovely little lobster fishing village on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia along the Atlantic Ocean. Here is a picture I took this morning while gathering more driftwood.
Here is my gathering bucket and a very sharp and lightweight Japanese saw. It was a good day to gather because we had rain recently which helps to wash off any salt crust on the surface of the wood. I also do a freshwater wash at home. Most of the salt has leached out of this wood because the driftwood has been tossed high on the beach by storms, out of the reach of normal tides. My rail ties are also made from spruce but from trees on my property in Victoria Harbour on the Bay of Fundy. No salt on this wood. (I can also use birch from wind-fallen trees on my property.)
Two of my favourite wildflowers grow on this beach in the summer. The beach pea (Lathyrus japonicus) and the evening primrose (Oenothera biennis).
Several months ago I experimented with West Jeddore driftwood and made several walls with different treatments, timber frame interiors, even a round clock for the wall. Cut one stained glass window with a shale sill on the inside. The shale is from Walton, Nova Scotia and will also be used for roofing and bedrock.
Most of my scratchbuilds will be from designs published in MR and RMC from 30 to 60 years ago - old school. I hope to start one this evening as an example in this thread. DJ
There is a lot more to these walls than meets the eye. For example, take the timber frame wall. The outside is like the other two - small HO-scale planks of West Jeddore driftwood held together with fast-drying wood glue and cracks filled with red sandstone from Cape Blomidon, NS. Finally, a polyurethane coating. If the inside wall is not treated, the wall bends permanently. On the inside wall of the timber frame is a layer of gypsum from Windsor, NS (my invented HO version of Gyprock). This balances the stresses on both sides of the wall so it won’t bend - even if there is no timber frame structure on the inside (like the other two walls shown). Takes at least two weeks to build one small structure but for me, it’s the last hobby of my lifetime so I’ve got time.
The wooden clock on the wall is a small cross-section of West Jeddore driftwood and the hands are also driftwood. The black spots for the hours 3, 6, 9, and 12 are pieces of coal from the mine in Springhill, Nova Scotia.
I am much better at making windows today than that first attempt. I cut my own stained glass for all my structure’s windows with the proper tools now, and I have read articles like Joe Kunzelmann’s on windows: Model Railroader, Vol. 31(4), April 1964, pp. 51-53.
Each piece of driftwood is cut into 4" lengths in order to fit across a 12" mitre box.
Like this.
Then I use my belt sander to flatten one side of a log so it won’t roll around in the mitre box.
All ready to slice off boards.
Like this.
A little more sanding and then into The Chopper.
And there we are. One slice off one 4" log provided 12 boards ready for the wall. The thickness of the boards is sanded down to HO scale after the wall is fully glued together. This is how I make rail ties as well but not from driftwood as I mentioned earlier.
So, is that the world’s softest wood or are you using a mono-molecular blade in that chopper?
My chopper III, even with a fresh blade, would not make it thru a slab of wood that thick without skewing off noticiably (IIRC the instructions do specify a max thickness for material to cut).
It’s well-aged spruce softwood. I have cut several hundred this thick with the same original blade. Hundreds more thinner pieces. When the blade wears out I’ll sharpen it or get a new one. When/if The Cutter needs repairs I’ll do it myself. Not a problem for me.
P.S. The cuts along the grain of the wood go through easily.
In the last 1 hour I cut the rest of that 4" log. The yield was 45 boards and useful scraps that I save up to puree in a blender for scenery material.
So that’s it. Taking a break from this community forum for the rest of the summer. I have an RC aircraft to turn into an air-driven catamaran.
Outstanding !!!
Just kidding. You see, that’s how my former defence and intelligence company worked. Easy to bring out the worst! Lol
You can look up my company - Intrinsic Defence and Intelligence Enterprises on Nova Scotia businesses. Gone only on paper. 