dervishcarving

the 180 makes a great detailing saw, enough grunt to run a 10 inch dime bar with ease and light enough to play with all day However, its not got much grunt for 'general use' to be honest. I tried one with a stock 14 inch bar (or 12inch, cant remember) a good few years back and it was lackign in 'poke' cant comment on teh echo, not tried one

friday was teh first day i noticed this thread, firday was international 'talk like a pirate day' so my first response was... Take what you can, give nothing back. (pirates code according to jack sparrow) but on a serious note: 1- your prices are comparable to what other 'sites' charge for school-garden furniture so you didnt rip-off the school (thats the main thing) 2- your pieces are not bad for the money either unfortunately 3: Your wife was part of the fund-raising and then the money went to you!!! shock horror! unfortunately this means that morons will assume " dodgey deals!! self serving barstewards! ripping off the school!!" etc etc. cant be avoided mate. you could try statign the bleading obvious "if she hadnt raised the money there would be no effing stools! if she wasnt married to me she probably wouldnt have thought about raising money for bloody stools! and if I hadnt carved the effing things then you would have just had to pay for some other saw-jokey to carve them for the same price or more and THEN you would have to look after them yourselves". problem is, even if you state that (might want to use your own words of course) you will still not convince some people. Of course the people who are muttering will be the ones who dif eff-all to help raise the money or they will be people who get PAID to work there...and paid well (headteacher) compared to the ordinary teachers my advice? fk em ok, seriously, my advice woul dbe to chalk it up to experience. make it clear that the comments of the headteacher has soured you against doing further work for the school unless you get a public acknowledgement that you went above-and-beyond to help out on this and previous occasions and simply become like any of the others parents... take and give nothing back (as i said in the first section)

nice piece (he was my favorite) and welcome back mate, good to be carving again? I went crazy during the months i was unable to hold a saw!

Another day, another lesson learnt. makes it a good day. For me, birds/angels are all about teh wings. I try to get as much detail into them as i can. undercut each feather and they pop-out (Scott dow does soem great pieces taking this to extremes), elongate the primaries a bit (the flight feathers, the 'fingers; at the tips of the wings) and they draw the eye. Main thing is to keep carving and develop your own style until you are happy with it, then try to make it better

came out good eh? the form was good when you finished. you happy with it?

I grew up in N wales and there were a lot of barn owls about, I kinda like the screeching up here in scotland i havent seen any barn owls the most common owl up here I believe is the teet owl

yes, you can put a reserve but of course that means you need to be able to transport it. Maybe next year ill just do a bunch of mushrooms

i was just as nervous as last year and during teh morning session i was even worse!! relaxed in the afternoon (once i started carving teh wings i was laughing with joy, really love carving those)

i am given to understand that is what a section of the crowd were suggesting, but i suspect that that suggestion is made every year (I heard it myself 2 years back when i was just an observer, not a carver) . The decisions are made by local business people i think, companies that sponsor the event maybe? dunno. thats for 1st 2nd and 3rd place. then there is peoples choice (vote by public) and carvers choice (vote by the carvers). they rarely agree but dont suppose that means anything personally i think that the competition-side of it is irrelevant. i dont care who wins. I didnt think the best piece won this year BUT does that matter? for me its a great event, a chance to show what i can do, a chance to see what others can do and a chance to meet and chat with fellow chain-addicts last year my piece sold for kust £150 and i was a little disappointed. this year it sold for a lot more but i have no idea why some carvings sell well and some dont. certainly ones further down the field might have a harder time of it (like Ronis) but some of the early ones also sold for less than 150 this year. i guess, like most competitions, its hard to know what will sell and what wont.

depends on who you ask Friars.... most blame the weather. it was very wet and that meant that the numbers were down and so less people buying and so less bidding wars and prices were lower thats how it seemed to me unfortunately i recently heard from people who were in teh crowd (i didnt hear anything of course as i was in the middle so i cant offer an opinion, this was just related to me from a few sources) that there were very strong mutterings after the results were called and too many people were unhappy and declined to bid. thats all i was told so i cant explain it. i prefer to think it was just the pishy rain that caused it fortunately I just go along to carve, no expectation (or hope) of placing so I didnt feel any disappointment. I did think the price of many pieces were way too low though. given teh quality it was very dissapointing did you remove the offending gall bladder yourself???

carve the wood you have seriously, sounds trite buts its true dotn worry what the wood is at the start, anything will do assuming you have all the safety kit then the more time you spend with the saw in your hand the better you will get. go slow, start with simple shapes.. yes mushrooms are a good start to learn basic controls, then try twisty-stem mushrooms to get better and to learn how to hold the 3d image in your head. then try more complex shapes (dolphin, owl etc). before you know it you will be knockign out some good bits and you will have lost most of yoru free time there must be no-end of pieces of advice on this forum by now, slowly trawl through the chainsaw carving threads and you will find some gems

Thank your daughter for me jim and yes, you need to do something 'different' these days it seems but i think thats a good thing or the scene will stagnate that competition is a beast though. I was aching today still and thats despite doing 4 hours or so of carving on monday to try to work out some of teh aches.

come try a competition no way you can notice people. besides, being behind teh fence feels like being in a cage

lovely form. I use decking oil. shouldnt change the colour like linseed does

Some of the pieces from the competition recently. hopefully somebody will upload some more. was a great day terrible weather and its a bit of a brutal competition (4 hours, chain only, 30 minute break for lunch) but great fun the angel was mine

i bet he felt a bit of a swat ttanding there did i mix up a couple of letters then?

looks slightly Jesus-ish. i like it

"for the kids".... ya right. raise the roof a little and it will make a great beer "storage and sampling" area

aint no disrespect there Steve, this is an amazing pice

I use Sugi bars, fantastic bars and great value

great piece Simon

nah, he just needs to stick a first class stamp on it and post it up to me in scotland

Hey! now those are lovely. well done mate, there is true artistry in those. I can see how you did it but i really dont think i would have either the patience or the accuracy!

nice one tom, definitely 'in your style'

loved it, till you painted it. I much prefer natural wood