David,
The flame temperature on that engine is about 5,600 degrees F, so it would make short work of drying any finish I am aware of.
Thanks for the compliments.....I sat down at a bench as a dental technician for my Dad when I was 6. I did articulations, denture set up, gold castings for crown and bridge work, etc., etc. I loved to work with him and did so almost every weekend and week nights after I did my homework. He had worked as a jeweler in New York when he was a boy during the depression and before he joined the Navy in World War 2 and we did a lot of jewelry work in the lab as well. I worked like that with him until I left for the Naval Academy when I was 19. He is 90 now and still does some incredible jewelry work....and he still makes his own teeth when he needs to...
He has also always been a great wood worker. So the metal and wood work, as well all of the manual dexterity skills, comes from him. The engraving I can attribute completely to Jerry Huddleston.
And, as you correctly point out, driving destroyers around the ocean, shooting missiles, guns, and torpedoes did not do much for sharpening ones fabrication skills, but it did defend the nation. And now, building and testing rocket engines does add some very sophisticated manufacturing techniques to my repertoire , but I don't use chemical vapor deposition (etc.) too often building 18th century weapons.
Working quietly in my tiny shop is, however, much quieter and less nerve racking than testing spacecraft engines.
Thanks again.
Dave C
