dervishcarving

Great work Kim, excellent face details

If anyone does come up with a vid please post it, i would love to see the process. Im a scientist, i cant help but ask 'why/how'.... its what i do

Lovely work. You planning to sell it? will it be dear or cheep??

Came out great Tom! Wasn't too sure how the snake would work but you were right, it does work! Good finish on the 'fir' too ( i assume the purple spines are purple?) Was great to see it before and after. More use of the wood-stains? will have more questions for you tomorrow

lovely work, i really do like the smooth-finish, prefer it to the more 'natural' look that some use. each to their own i guess. Us smooth-boys have to stick together how did you do the joints? Bolts? Hard to see from the pics

probably.. and for that i would need to find a skilled eye

At the moment i am paying the bloke where i do my carving about 50 for a tonne of Beach.... not that i will use a tonne v quckly and i destroy a fair bit learning. if its a lot of good wood and you think you want a partner to split the cost a bit let me know. Im always looking for some nice pieces but i dont have that much storage or transport and eventually might not have a place to carve...its being sold Is the farmer willing to sell part of the lot? or only willing to sell the whole lot?

bring some sections closer to home and Im sure we could carve a few things out of it? Otter perhaps? i have a few nice iedas for 'rings' of wood. You have seen the size of my car tho, wont fit in a lump of wood that size

i love the idea of getting a couple of sections of it for carving but... I live in Portlethen (south of Aberdeen) and i cant transport such a massive lump of wood seems a shame to chop it for wood

sounds simples I will give it a go. Once i have managed to get the detailing done that is.... once i get a detailing saw that is....

Hi guys, looking for opinions again. carving a barn owl and want to bleach parts ot it. wood is poplar so quite pale anyway. Heard hydrogen peroxide works but no idea how to do it. any thoughts/ thanks

sounds good. will allow me to get the owl finished so i can move on to the next piece

i see what u mean now, works well. did u finish the gruffalo? i managed 30 mins or so on my owl at work and soon will want to do detailing on it.. for that i wants a detailign saw order your new one, ill take it

ah.. i looked about but could only see a top-handled one. sorry 'bout that

have to go with chazzer on this, can you get decent control (fine control) with a top-handled saw?

Thanks for the dealer-name Splinters. And its just doon the way from me as i bide in portlethen I may however have sourced a splendid second hand saw with the bars that i want form a top bloke who might even give me some carvign tips He may regret the offer when my questioning-sessions become regular but i do make some splendid homebrewed beer and am always happy to share

excelent piece, lovely flowing lines

i would have been worried i might cock it up..

Some excelent points there, thanks to all that have replied. Hopefully it will also be useful to other new carvers. some repleis... Im not putting oregan bars as 'no kick' and husky as 'lotta kick', i only have experience of these two bars and so far all the oregans i have used have been very low kick. This could very well be due to the chain, the oregan chains i have (and have previously used) are lovely thin chains but i am in work so i cant check exact size. teh husky allegedly has this chain (from the website advertising it.. world of power) : CHAIN PITCH 0.325 SN The bar/chain combo i have on my husky is lovely for cross cutting and most of the carving work so i'm not complaining about it It only kicks when the top of the bar-end comes into contact with the wood and to be honest that isnt a common thing for most of my work except for penetrating cuts. I find i use penetrating cuts (is what i call it, dunno what you call it... when you push the saw into the wood, right through) occasionally and with teh husky this is a scary experience. Something i have to avoid. with the old oregan bar/chain it was simpels, no fuss at all. Thanks to you splinters Good advice on the hollowing out technique. I am self taught and so i learn by experimentation (as a scientist its my usual approach) and advice is a rare but valued commodity. I will try to focus on only using the bottom curve of the bar-end As for the solution... well, Rob you have teh nub of it. I need a carving saw Now i just have to convince the wife i should spend MORE money on this hobby! I guess a saw is going to hold some of its value (he says, trying to form arguments against she-who-must-be-obeyed) and so i could always re-sell one if i gave up. A carvign bar for the electric would work fine but i can only use that at home. If i am away from home carvign i cant reply on electricity. its gonna have to be petrol. Stihl by preference but their distant-selling policy is a complete pain as there are no stihl dealers close to me oh..i wouldn't usualy advertise things but if you do find yourselves wanting a cheep electric saw, this is what i use B&Q - Performance Power 2200W Chain Saw Pcs2200 customer reviews - product reviews - read top consumer ratings i dont know if they still sell them but i have had it for a couple of years, have had hundreds of hours of use out of it (carving, felling and logging) and so far (touch wood) no problems. Drinks the oil a bit but otherwise its great

As part of an installation-piece thingy i made a load of mushrooms (liberty-cap style mushrooms) with long stems and a spike on the end that i just 'planted'. I found it easier than messing about with drilling etc

It was the efco i was wondering about, have contacted them to ask. Thank you for your advice Joe, it is much appreciated

I agree with you completely Joe, the stihl bars taper nicely as do the oregon bars, at least compared to the husky bars I quite like the saw you mention, especially at 150, i am now looking if its possible to fit a carving bar to one. Not immediately, but eventually i think i will want to. Power is not an issue for detail work, for power my big 'un does fine. I am hoping that a few of the experienced carvers will post their opinions as this might be a useful thread for any new carvers who join

Thats a very good point. Its the chain that came with the saw/bar.

Hi peeps. hope yo are all enjoying teh wet weather? Its rubbish up here in scotland, barely got anythign carved in the past 2 weeks. So i have a question about saws. I use my electric at home and i completely love it (B&Q brand, 2200 wat, 18 inch oregon bar, cuts like a dream) For bigger work i recently bought a husky (440e with 18 inch bar) and it cuts even nicer BUT i notice the husky bar has horrible kick whenever i get close to the top-side of the bar end. WAY more kick than the Oregon bar (i used to have a petrol saw with an 19inch oregon bar). I think i am going to struggle doing much detailing work (hollowing out etc) with this husky bar but of course i wil get used to it eventually I'm sure. I want to compliment it with a small, lightweight saw with a 10 inch carving bar but Im not sure which to go for (and having spent a lot on the Husky). So... 2 questions: 1- is this normal for the Husky bars? this extra-sensitive nature? 2- Can anyone advise on a cheepish carving set-up? More for detail work and so dosnt have to put out that much power as i have the Husky to do the dog-work Im hoping splinter or other more-experienced carvers will be able to give me some advice and even some websites to buy from cheers, Dave

Hi Dave. I dont have all that much carvign experience either but i like your hand, it shows you have the right 'eye'. I dont know what it is that you are not happy with but from a biology point of view the finger joints between first and second metacarpals tend to remain slightly bent when the joint between the second and third are bent (hold you hand and see what they do) plus the hand dosnt tend to go quite so 'flat' (ie rightangle to the wrist) but these are minor things. When i try to carev soemthign 'realistic' (and most of my stuff is animal realism, smooth-finish not rough so you cant hide things quite so easy) I spend a while looking at the bones. Use the interwebs for this and you can get nice anatomy pictures so you can understand the framework. Don't go kicking yoruself tho, i think us beginners all tend to do that and its daft. As a first piece its great, be proud of it. Personally i would think about removing the wood on the base to make the arm longer, cut the end of teh arm into a 'spike' and plant it amongst the flowers in teh garden just to freak out the postman