dervishcarving

many coats is the key, especially if you included the heart wood in the carving

i use angle grinders to sand, plus a black and decker powerfile. gives a lovely smooth finish but remember to uyse a wire brish to clean the sandpaper regular to avoid burning dont use Lancelot and Squire Cutters | King Arthur's Tools tho lovely tool but inherently dangerous. im out of action now for probably 2 months as mine almost removed the whole of my left index finger. all guards were in place etc, think my glove got caught and pulled my finger against the chin. once the skin grafts and the nerve grafts (did u know they can graft nerves?) i should be back carving again but i will never use that thing again

I think ill have a gop at a pair just like that.....

Love the chair. Did you take out the wood in 1 piece?

Im in the same situation. I have a full time job and carve as a hobby. Mainly I do community-projects (free) for schools, playgroups and community sites. The private commissions i do tend to cover my expenses for the community work so i dont make a profit. If you do make a profit, just declare it and you are fine. The payback from the community stuff is seeing people who couldnt afford to get a private commission getting to enjoy my work and the 'doing a good thing' feeling. Oh, and if you make sure people know its your work then you might get a sale out of it too

i did a biiiig leopard carving from a eucalyptus tree last year, lovely wood for colours. i also lyke sycamore, love the creamy colour and finish. does tend to be a bit 'dusty' tho so your bar needs cleaning more often, same as beach i guess (my least favorite carving wood at the moment)

Hi welcome to the forum where are you based? if you earn money from carving then yes, you should declare it but not as self employed i dont think. you just have to submit a self assessment tax return at the end of the financial year

try the chainsaw carving forum (one above this). there are a few carving meerkats at the moment. I would offer but i have too much on my books at the moment sorry

i have tried a few different oils and varnish. On very smooth finishes (like the tops of toadstool seats) then exterior varnish (yacht varnish, satin or gloss) is fine. apply a coat, sand it back and repeat to get a good few layers. Have left some outside for 14 months now and still looks great. for textured surfaces i tend to use oil have tried a few different oils. linseed oil is great in that it dries to a good hard shell but its expensive and you need to build up layers. danish oil is fine if you want to darken the wood (i used it on my cat carving last year to darken the wood that made up the 'tree') but again its expensive and you need many coats to penetrate enough. these days i mainly use ronseal decking protector (i think Tom first suggested it). has a good oil content but also has a wax dissolved in it which remains on the surface. still needs a few coats but gives a good finish. one suggestion i would give is try warming the oil first. DONT boil it (kaboom) but if you heat it a little it will soak in quicker. to stop cracking you need plenty of oil penetration look forward to hear what others have to say on this. some of my carvings have still cracked despite oil, especially if the heartwood is still present

I did the same. shrooom (2) then Dolphin carved out of a big lump of driftwood ( ) and then i carved a cat for t'missus ( )after this and a couple of others i decided to get a carving bar as it was getting too awkward using a standard bar ( i was still using an electric saw at this point). As for finishing, i find oil is better than wax. lots of coats of oil. Ronseal decking protector is pretty good, has wax dissolved in it which leaves a surface coat. keep carving D

Dam, i could do with one of those for an underwater scene i have in mind. But they are soooo expensive! There must be a way of adapting another tool to do it... gonna switch on my brain

always tempted to drive a big metal pin down teh obvious cut-point to stop this happening. some people will nick stuff, hard to stop it but dosnt stop it being distressing

show us some photos for public derision

So what was the battery life? full charge gives how long at full power?

always a risk that somebody will see something and try their hand at it. is taking the piss when they start selling them on your doorstep tho. I didnt know you had another carver down your way? maybe i should start looking back over my old pics and see who has copied my shapes Ach, I'm not doing this for the money so much so i dont worry when people do it

if you are concerned call the police station (not 999) and report it.

not my most recent as I am in the middle of a 'secret' project for a local school. is a recent one tho

nice one

my dad bought me that book..... after i had carved a couple of soaring birds... maybe he was tryign to tell me something

Hi there. good form you have there, the head shape is great. as for feather details, remember that there are 3 layers of feathers if you want to get good detail (depends on teh bird of course). If you look back on this forum you wil see a few soaring birds. here was my first attempt http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/chainsaw-carving-forum/48021-gotcha.html on later ones i used teh saw to carve the feathers but on this one i used a sander to grind them in (had to keep the noise down that day). i find it helps to do 2 cuts for each feather. first one is straight in and then the second cut is on an angle to 'cut under the previous feather', it raises them out a bit and looks a bit more natural. if you then want to add fine details (the fine branches on each feather) you can go to town with a dremel on them. go with your instincts, they look pretty good so far feel free to ask more questions, we all have questions, its all part of the game

Yew mills perfect but does split a bit. Paint the end as soon as you mill it and it should be good. has a slight tenancy to warm too. worth it for the finish tho

Its between stonehaven and montrose. Getting it out to the roadside would be the issue. There are a few places that have some and access is a problem unfortunately. There are a couple of pieces that might be easily available tho, yell if you want me to say anything to them.

Morning all Im trying to get an estimate of the value of some Elm. Trunks are in the region of 18 inches - 2 foot diameter, was dead standing and now felled, streight lengths of 20 foot or so. wood seems sound and im thinking it would be milled nicely. i have been involved in milling some of it for charity-projects and it milles lovely. this isnt for sale, it belongs to a school and im trying to get an idea of the value of it for them. ignore any costs of getting it to the roadside for now any help appreciated dave

loads of advice, cheers chaps. Im based on Aberdeen, NE Scotland. Im at the 'right, lets think about this and figure out if its feasible, if i can arrange a workshop and what would it cost' stage so all advice and opinions are valuable. good to know there are so many helpful people on here

Hi I do quite a bit of pole-lathe work but i fancied trying some powered-lathe work as well. To do this i will probably stick another shed in the garden as a workshop and get myself a small powered lathe. Mainly i would be turning bowls so i guess i need the height etc more than a long-bed So, im looking for some advice on starter-lathes as i dont know much about them factors i have to consider are size (and be too big in a small shed), would only have standard domestic power and of course price i saw this on ebay, anyone got any comments? SIP 01488 40 Inch Wood Lathe Starter Kit 240v | eBay thanks for any advice dave