Tuesday 13 August 2013

Final clean up before the carving starts

So I must have spent 4 or 5 hours in total, cleaning up the chain saw cuts and getting the wood down to the heart wood as instructed. Not having anything better for the job I was using a good old chisel from the toolbox. And honestly, I was finding it hard to tell if I'd gone deep enough because the wood does start to have some colour as you get close to the heart and you don't want to go too deep now, do you? At least that's my story. So when Rick, my woodworking guru, called and offered to come over and demonstrate the use of a slick, how could I say no. Even though I was tempted. And OH MY GOSH, there is nothing like the right tool in the hands of a master. I'm still marveling at how fast he got that done. And for that matter, how much more wood he took off. I'm not even going to show you my paltry little pile of wood chips. Or the giant pile after he finished.






The resulting surface is gorgeous, almost completely free of knots, and ready to go. And by the way, it smells heavenly! I'm a little reluctant to touch it. Only a little.



Now I'm studying up on carving technique cause the rubber hits the road on this project pretty soon and I want to be ready. By the way, I'm getting lots of good ideas for future projects; I could barely sleep last night thinking about them. I hope my friends like wood gifts. Is this gonna be like gifts from your 2 year old I wonder?

Sunday 11 August 2013

Getting Started

Before you start carving, there is some prep that needs to happen. I hate that. I wanna get going... First, as the log dries it will split. By slicing into the heart of the log you reduce (eliminate?) this splitting. I misunderstood the necessary cut initially and my able assistant cut off the bottom; first mistake. Oh well, I can work with that. The photo shows the proper cut, as I understand it.You have to cut into the heart.
It seems like this amount of cut should be sufficient but it may be that we should have done a bigger 'v'. When I learn more I'll share it.


The other thing I learned after the fact was that you cannot take off the bark and  immediately start carving. Well you can, but you may regret it in the finished product. You need to take off the top layers, right down to the 'real' wood. I think it's the sap wood you're removing but maybe I'm wrong. Anyway, I'm working with Western Red Cedar so it looks pretty obvious at this point. Later on it's less obvious, to me anyway but that's for my next post. Have I mentioned how lucky I am to have acquired a mentor guiding me on this adventure? I really lucked out.



Two ways to get down to the workable wood. Chainsaw or hatchet....chainsaw is faster.



Ready for final cleanup







Saturday 10 August 2013

Introduction

I'm writing this blog because I've just started my first major carving project and I couldn't find a source for the most basic information on how to proceed. In fact, this is only my second ever carving project so I really could use some help. Luckily a local artisan has just offered to help me out and I'm off! So I'll try to post regularly as we proceed, sharing all of the tips as he shares them with me. I started work on Wednesday, before I spoke with him, and already I have made mistakes. I hope my postings will help someone else in the future.