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The next project I wanted
to follow was the decanter and four whisky glass boxed set. I was
most impressed with the sheer amount of work needed to complete this and
the attention to detail that goes into it. I can well understand why
some companies take a number of short cuts but due to the standards set by
Billy he simply doesn't allow anything but the highest standards and I'll
show you what I mean as we work through this process.
Billy first needs to set everything up on the
computer to interface with the laser that will cut the glass and put on
the shield. As you can see he needs to protect other parts of the glass so
a special covering has to be applied before the laser work starts.
The depth of cut is also important and here
you can see work in progress and then the complete design at the end of
the laser process
You can see how it is critical that the
decanter is positioned perfectly for the cutting process and this took
some time to set up correctly
Now this totally surprised me as I thought
with the laser cutting complete that was it but far from it. Billy
actually sands the cut to produce a smooth finish. You can see he needs to
wear special protective gloves for this and you can likely just make out
the decanter being sanded in the picture on the right. Billy tells
me that most engraved glass is in fact just laser cut and if you run a
finger over the engraving you will feel a slight roughness. This
sanding process makes it totally smooth.
Of course you do need to adjust the pressure
so that the job is done correctly. Billy showed me how easy it was to cut
a hole in the glass with this sander and it didn't take long at all so you
do need a special kind of skill to do this correctly.
And to my astonishment Billy also makes his
own boxes! He uses the hardy Aspine wood.
Debbie gets on with removing the masking tape
from the glasses and decanter and getting them sparkling while Billy gets
on with the presentation box. Here he is ensuring the box is at the
correct hight to get the perfect cut.
You can see the laser cutting in progress here
but again there is another surprise. To get the right depth of cut for the
box Billy does this in two passes. He found that when cut to the correct
depth with one pass of the laser you got a very slight scorching on the
wood. Due to this he decided to do a first cut to half the depth and
then repeat again to get the final cut. On the upper right you can see the
complete first cut and below the final second cut.
Billy now sets things up to engrave the
history of the family onto the inner lid and again it is essential the
right hight is set to get the best result.
By being engraved into the wood it should
last for generations unlike other products where they simply put it on
paper and stick it onto the lid. Just another aspect of those
special touches that make Billy's products ones to be handed down to
future generations.
The above three pictures show how the insert
for the box is done and of course will hold the glasses and decanter
firmly in the box.
Again another special touch. Billy uses
3 hinges where others use just two and even more impressive, 8 wee nails
are used to secure each hinge whereas many would use four. It's these
little details which make the finished product really special.
And a final wood polish to complete the job
And as you can see the work was not yet
complete as the product needed to be dressed and you can see the steps
above taking you through to the complete presentation.
And as you can see this presentation set was
heading for New Zealand so it had to be packed well to ensure it arrived
in tiptop condition. It was then down to doing the paperwork for shipment
and son Donald was acting as postman and was taking it down to the post
office for shipment.
So by the time you've gone
through all those steps I'm sure you'll be as amazed as I was in seeing
just how many processes you had to go through and all these extra wee
details that Billy puts into the finished product. It truly is a family
business and of very high quality.
If you would like to order
this set then do visit
www.familycrests.ca
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