Just wanted to share a little history!

[FrankEV]

This picture is of a piece my grandfather did before my father was born and he passed at age 98, so I know it is well over 100 years old.  It has always hung, in one frame or another with various backer materials,  in our family homes managing to survive all these years. 

I inherited it  in 1992 and it was in very poor condition.  I repainted the fretwork and affixed it to a very dark red velvet backing stretched over a hardboard panel and had it professionally framed.  It is approximately 34"X40".  The framing was of musiem quality done to seal and preserve the work.  Is currenly hanging in my daughters home and hopefully will be handed down to future generations. 

As you can see there is a number of individual pieces and I believe they were cut from very thin Balsa Wood, maybe 1/6" thick.  From what I understand, this was all cut by hand, I presume using a fretsaw.  

If you look close you may find there are two words that are different from the Lords Prayer I was tought in Sunday School as a young kid.   

Unfortunately, when my Grandfather was still alive I failed to learn more about how this work came about because I was young and had more important things on my mind.

[OCtoolguy]

On 9/6/2020 at 12:18 PM, FrankEV said:

This picture is of a piece my grandfather did before my father was born and he passed at age 98, so I know it is well over 100 years old.  It has always hung, in one frame or another with various backer materials,  in our family homes managing to survive all these years. 

I inherited it  in 1992 and it was in very poor condition.  I repainted the fretwork and affixed it to a very dark red velvet backing stretched over a hardboard panel and had it professionally framed.  It is approximately 34"X40".  The framing was of musiem quality done to seal and preserve the work.  Is currenly hanging in my daughters home and hopefully will be handed down to future generations. 

As you can see there is a number of individual pieces and I believe they were cut from very thin Balsa Wood, maybe 1/6" thick.  From what I understand, this was all cut by hand, I presume using a fretsaw.  

If you look close you may find there are two words that are different from the Lords Prayer I was tought in Sunday School as a young kid.   

Unfortunately, when my Grandfather was still alive I failed to learn more about how this work came about because I was young and had more important things on my mind.

I found the two words you mentioned. I'm editing this because I forgot to mention what a fantastic family heirloom you have and what a wonderful story to go with it. Your Grandfather must have been a very patient man. I would not attempt this on my scroll saw and he did it with a fret saw? Amazing. Thanks for sharing.

 

Edited September 8, 2020 by octoolguy

[dgman]

That is an amazing piece of work Frank! To think it was done with a fret saw! I don’t remember his name or screen name, but, there used to be a member here on the Village who does amazing work with just a handheld fret saw.

[trackman]

That is so great in so many ways!!  Thanks for telling the history behind it. 

[Foxfold]

Wonderful, amazing work.

[spirithorse]

Absolutely amazing!
What a tremendous heirloom for your family!
Thanks for sharing and God Bless! Spirithorse

[WayneMahler]

Truly amazing work, and to think by a fret saw. Add the history and this heirloom takes on a whole new dimension. Thanks for sharing .

[Norm Fengstad]

beautiful, 

[Rockytime]

A most amazing piece of art. Even more amazing that it survived so many years. Hopefully it it will survive many more years. Nice job of preserving it!

[Woodrush]

Can't imagine the hours put into this beautiful piece. True craftsmanship 

[John B]

The Apple sure never fell far from the tree.

[daveww1]

fantastic job

[NC Scroller]

Just amazing.  Truly an art treasure for your family.  For the record your grandfather might have actually used a scroll saw.  They have been around a lot longer than most of realize.  Check out this article.

http://scrollsawer.com/2010/10/14/the-early-history-of-the-scroll-saw/

[ike]

That is amazing and you did a great job of restoring it . That would be a job I wouldn't want to tackle todayy with the modern saw.

IKE

[Denny Knappen]

An amazing piece.  A family treasure.  Good that you got it framed by a professional.

[FrankEV]

1 hour ago, NC Scroller said:

Just amazing.  Truly an art treasure for your family.  For the record your grandfather might have actually used a scroll saw.  They have been around a lot longer than most of realize.  Check out this article.

http://scrollsawer.com/2010/10/14/the-early-history-of-the-scroll-saw/

From what I do know, I'm sure it was done by hand.  I can believe that some of the more straight line work may have been done using razor blades.  As I mentioned. it is all material only 1/16 inch thick.  I'm guessing Balsa. 

My Grandfather did a lot of different art/craft projects.  Don't know what ever happend to it, but I can remember when I was a very young child a sculptured eagle he made out out of hundreds of small pieces of layered Balsa wood.