Wood carvings

[Micktoon]

Good evening all , I have been having a go at woodcarving. I went to a wood show in Harrogate that has all things wood related going on, one of the stalls was a local woodcarving club , I have always fancied having a go and already had some carving gouges so went along to the club, its all very informal and friendly , One of the people involved in the club called Alan sharpened my tools and showed me how to sharpen them myself and set me away on a Yorkshire rose, for those not from the UK A Yorkshire rose is the symbol for the county of Yorkshire in Northern England Lancashire also has the same symbol the difference being the Yorkshire rose is a white rose and the Lancashire one is a red rose, there seems to be many variations of both and this is just how mine turned out rather than a sample of what it should look like. Before anyone asks how do I know mine is a Yorkshire Rose when its wood coloured ................ well Alan is a Yorkshireman ............. so its a Yorkshire Rose :thumbup:
I only took a couple of photos of it getting done as I was too busy consentrating on doing the carving :dremel: The wood is lime wood , I think in the USA it might be called basswood or that is a very similar wood.

This is it half carved before any sanding took place.



It then gets sanded , partly with small rotary bits in a dremel type power tool , then hand sanded starting with say about 80 grit and working down to about 600 grit, just refining the shape and form until its ready to finish.



This is the finished thing , it was finished with a cellulose sanding sealer then a dark wax applied to highlite the deeper areas and make it have the old used look , then finished over that with clear wax. Here are a few more views of it finished, I am quite happy with it but there are bits that can be improved on................... keep scrolling down to see the next project :thumbup: I have been taking photos as this carving progresses :clap:














The next project was partly chosen because of the size of wood I had and also I wanted images from all angles of something to carve so this skull fitted the bill :thumbup:

The first stage is to draw or trace the image onto the wood and bandsaw out from the side profile and the front profile. I have done a rough cut along the front of the skull here so I can remove that section and get into the various shapes along the front of the face area.




Once its cut one way you tape the waste bits of wood back on so it remains in a block form then bandsaw the front profile out too.



You end up with this type of thing , I have started to round the corners off here, its hard to get your head around what is safe to remove , once its cut off there is no going back :palm:



Then its just a case of carving away and refining the general shape at first, double checking everything as you go and also trying to work with the grain as much as possible.




Its starting to take shape , you can see where I have held the image over the carving and spiked the outline of eye sockets etc to make it easier to see where things need to be.



I have started to get the basic shape here, Its just a case of keep holding the images up beside the carving and going steady.



I have started to sand parts to get a better idea of what looks right. Then its just more carving followed by more sanding and just keep going always trying not to take anything off that needs to be there :scratch: , it sort of gets easier as you go as you can see what looks right and wrong more clearly as it starts to look like a skull.







This is the stage I have it to at the moment, there is still plenty tricky bits to do and lots of hours left to do yet but hopefully it will turn out decent, I have made a portable carving horse that I take to the club but find the bench vice more solid when I am in the shed working on it. I will put a photo of this in my next post, Some of the carving tools I am using are from the mid 1800's you can tell from the makers marks on them, they are real quality and amazing to think that they will have out lasted a few carvers ! I am still looking for more tools as there are so many different shapes and sizes , the more you have the more chance of finding the exact shape/size you need.





I hope to get more done tomorrow so will keep taking photos and post the progress, I hope its of interest to people :coffee:. I would like to say a big thanks to Alan for all his help and advice so far :bow: :bow: :clap:

Cheers Mick.

[f350ca]

Mick, incredible work, especially if these are your first projects, the rose turned out beautiful.

[stevec]

Unbelievable! beautiful work Mick, I don't think I'll be able to post here again.

[EdK]

(02-10-2013, 07:42 PM)stevec Wrote: ... I don't think I'll be able to post here again.

Why is that Steve? Does that second carving look too much like you?

Ed

[f350ca]

No the carving is smiling.

[Mayhem]

Excellent work Mick. Is that Jelutong that you are using?

Just for a laugh you should bleach the skull and then let it fall from the rubbish bin as you put it out for collection - would be fun to see the reaction you get from the neighbours

[TomG]

Excellent job Mick, and a great write up as well.

How long before you start on your first piece of Chippendale furniture? I've always wanted to carve a pair of those ball and claw feet.

Tom

[sasquatch]

Very nice work Mick!!

[doubleboost]

Hi
Mick
That really is very nice work you are doing
When you mentioned wood carving i had no idea how detailed it would be
John

[f350ca]

Hope its alright to post these here Mick, don't want to hijack your thread.
Tom was mentioning ball and claw feet. Go for it Tom, if I can whittle them out anybody should be able to.



The top of the table took a lot more time than the feet. All the edge was hand carved to get into the points.