Aw, shucks-- it's nuttin. :-)

All done with a standard wet saw... and alot of patience.

I don't know-- I guess I have a knack for it. I never saw it as all that difficult...

Until I saw my stepson try it. For some reason, scribing comes pretty easy to me.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about, that pyrotechnic work right there :). So did you just do it with a series of straight cuts into a drawn line and then chip them off and file? What size saw? The trusty 10"?? Please, if you would share your wisdom, it may make a DD who wants to see vitreous birds in flight cut into large tiles very happy (and a mom very relieved)...

Not a series of cuts. I'll usually make 2 cuts from different angles to take out "the meat", and then grind the rest of it down with the edge of the blade. It's much more controled that way, especially if you keep the blade "dressed" with something like a concrete patio block. And yes, I usually use my Target, although I DO have a Felker TM-75 with an 8" blade that's seen more use lately, because I can carry the whole rig with one hand, as compared to that Target that needs its own room! :-)

As for "vitreous birds in flight"-- although I DO have a diamond band saw now (Short you-tube vid below) for cutting most of my silhouettes, this one was cut LONG before I got that band saw-- completely with a 10" wet saw and 4 1/2" grinder:

Here is a link that might be useful: DL5000 in action

Bill, you do the most amazing work! flyleft is right, your stuff is pure genius.

Ah, o.k., thanks very much. I get what you mean. That's even doable :). Although if DD makes me make birds as complex as that one I am quitting the job LOL -- she can find another tile setter! (the birds themselves will be out of the vitreous mosaic, so there will be lots of tiny edges to cut...ugh...)

That one was easy. This one, if I didn't have the band saw, I'da been stuck!

Bill...how long have you been doing this?

This past july made 29 years as a full time job. But I've been around the tile trade all my life. My father and grandfather were both tile contractors, and I actually set my first tile when I was 10 years old (I just turned 52).

I can cope joints with crown and quarter-round.

Gotta admit that doing it with tile is pretty slick. Go Bill!

Bill, don't read this -- it will just make it difficult to get your head through those tiny New England colonial doorways :)

(Bill is a National Treasure, IMO, cees -- and seriously, I'm not entirely overstating the case...although maybe I should say he's a "regional treasure" because I just wish he had come out to the west coast when we needed our work done. I would gladly have paid the cost for work of his quality. Lucky east-coasters! But then again, because of the generosity of his sharing his knowledge all over the country on various boards, I think he does qualify for National status :))

Well, what does someone say after something like that, other than thank you. :-)

Bill...well I knew you had to have been in the business a while. The pics of your work look amazing and all your posts I've read have been extremely helpful. Thank you for sharing.

Holy cow Bill, that is amazing!!!! I'm just speechless, you are an artist.

Thanks for sharing the pics,
Kiran

Bill, you deserve it. I figure you've written at least a book's worth of advice over the years, here, on FT and JB...and who knows where else :), and you don't even get royalties. Just for newer folks who may not know, I know you ask only that people donate to a fund for bulletproof vests for police dogs if they learn something useable from your posts -- which really is a kind of decency we just never see enough of anymore.

(and I've still got mongo's amazing dissertation on kerdi from a couple of years ago...you and he are the Dynamic Duo here for sure :))

(and the odd thing is that I *may* have gotten out of having to produce most of the cuts that occasioned this thread in the first place! They may be limited only to a dry wall on the other side of the bathroom [I'm thinking of continuing a simple band all around, and then letting it fly loose on the opposite wall...)]

Flyleft- was your bathroom the one with the beige herringbone subway, great tile cuts, octagon floor??

If so, would be great to see the pics again!!

Nope-- that was johnmari's, and the floor was an almond hex, not octagon:

I am using white 4 x 12 subway tiles in an old NYC bathroom with numerous vertical edges (90 degree turns) around windows and tub. I don't want sharp corners. The tile has no bullnose in that size; it has 3x6 and 2x8. It also has quarter-round in 8 inch lengths. Would you recommend using long quarter-round tiles on those edges? Or doing something with the bullnose tiles? Or something else?

If it were me, I'd use the 3x6, so that it could still line up, in a manner of speaking.

Love the detail work Bill.

How often do these bird details and such break when installing? Is there any special care needed in the install process? Do you make a back up just in case?

Looks like one of those birds could take a day at least to bang out...

It took me about 4 hours to cut the bird and the field tiles above. That was just a sample board. I had one of a duck landing on water that I hadn't quite finished yet, and had the piece sitting on the gunwhale of my boat in the garage, and before I could finish it, I walked by and knocked it off. To say the least, I was pissed as hell. That's the only one I've broken, though. Here are a few other samples I've done, as well as one moose I installed in a friend's front entry:

Loon:

Loon with baby "hitch hiker":

Salmon:

And last but not least, "DA MOOSE"!

John-- Sorry-- forgot to answer the tech end of it. I have templates that I use-- some are wood, some are sheet metal. But all cutting for any I install is done right on site, so if something WERE to break, I could make up another piece right then and there.

Amazing work Bill...you ARE a talent!!!

This is a skill I think I will never have as I don't think I would trust myself with stock that long in my hands. I can see myself dropping it at hour 6 when my hands are cramping and fingers all pruned up.

I'll just Fed Ex you a drawing and bill my client the freight.

Nice work Solider...

Have you ever send some tile pieces out by mail?

John-- I wouldn't trust shipping pieces like that. They'd be way too fragile. My wife, when I first got the DL-- made the suggestion that I put some of my designs up on ebay. I declined for the same reason.

Marlene-- thank you. :-)