stuckinthemud

Awesome carving, really like that. I've been working my way through the seminar talks they've posted on YouTube, definitely worth a watch if you ever get a spare hour or two

Sorry to be naive, but don't log carvings usually split? Lovely carving by the way

When I can carve that well I will be a happy bunny, but, the tail is adult sized on a baby fawn, and, although there are excellent reasons to carve them this way, the ears flat back make it look scared when ears forwards look cute and cudly

Hi Everyone, I normally work from home (I'm a carver) but I have to do one big commission after Easter, may be 3 weeks on site, the area is off limits, no access to staff or public. Will be chainsaw carving a large old sycamore (4 or 5 feet diameter stem, branches have been lopped back to about 10m height by the tree surgeon. Depending on the clients final design I may or may not be working at height. I do not carry any form of insurance at the moment, but presumably it would be a good idea for this job? Any idea on what I would need, who to go to, and how much I am likely to have to pay?

As I will be doing quite a bit of fairly heavy cutting, should I forget a dime tip and just run a quarter tip?

Hi Everyone, me asking stupid questions again - what are the merits of these chain sizes as far as carving with a dime-tip sugi bar goes? Thanks All Andrew

evening everyone, I have to carve a story chair from a new-felled hardwood stump about 8 feet tall with lots of detailed deep relief work, along with 25 mushroom seats. The job may well be a one-off. I need to tool-up - saw, chain, dime-tip bar and safety gear. I do fancy a stihl 171 but the internet shows some suppliers nearly £100 more than others. I'm totally confused. Two questions - best saw under £200-ish inc vat suitable for the job (£250 max): decent supplier? I am in South Wales. Thanks in advance

I always found Interesting Timbers near Shepton Mallet, Somerset, really helpful

I dunno about no money, the costs of a saw, carving bar and safety kit for a story telling seat? If it takes 3or4 days to do the job then that's about 100 a day?

No, the school is not expecting a freebie, and in fact schools have a pretty healthy budget for grounds maintenance and improvement. I'm pretty sure the tree wasn't felled for free! I am glad to do this just for the advertising as it would fill a gap I have between contracts but I don't want to be out of pocket either.

Thing is my daughter's youth club is run by the headteacher.....suppose I could suggest I do the job for my (tool) costs

Ok, so suddenly the goal posts have moved. Up until an hour ago I was only interested in occasional home carving and seriously considering a Stihl compact cordless. Now, I've been asked to carve a school's story chair on-site and I'm guessing that's not up to the job? The echo carving kit looks tempting but still, its £100 more and that would cover all the safety gear.....

Ewe lot are baahmy ram-in this full of puns I wool d be ashamed if it was me fleecing a thread for cheap laughs. Don't go bleating if it all goes wrong

No worries thanks for letting me know

Is any of this still available?

Hi Everyone, this question has been asked before but not for a few years (I trawled back to check, might have missed something though) and since technology has been galloping forwards, if you wanted a quiet chainsaw, not too expensive for carving small stuff in your garage/back garden, what would you go for? Any recommendations as to make and model? Could be hydraulic, battery, petrol or mains electric - something for home use that won't upset the dog/wife/nay-bour/council.............

Big help! Really informative, Thanks!!

Sorry guys, been really tied up. fen01 could well be interested, Alec, dimensions are finished, block must not have shakes across sound-board so may well need to start off longer, green is good for this project, sawing out of a log is not a problem. Wouldn't want to drag you out of your way if your based in Essex! Could meet in one of the M4 Service areas near Cardiff?

So, if you don't mind me diverting the thread a little, why knock off the heels of the teeth and how do you do that?

if you work on small enough details then eventually you gonna need to use hand-tools- v-tool and a couple of medium gouges (No 3, No 8) and a skew-gouge will sort out most detail work

Big improvement all round! Well done. I always apply a finish but the Finish depends on the timber and the location, the job of a finish is to reduce the speed of drying-out, reduce the impact of rot/insect attack and to enhance appearance. Pine can be scorched, for example and the natural resins seal the wood most effectively. Oak needs nothing, although oil can slow down drying and reduce the number of splits/shakes. Varnishes and paints are particularly valid for certain carvings but can impact on the natural figuring in the grain while wax is fine on its own for indoor carvings.

One lesson I learned the hard way is to never outline features - lips, nose, face, none of them have lines, they are marked by changes of slope and pigment so if you can arrange to carve in strongly raking light it makes your job much easier as the shadows that show the changes in slopes as you carve are that much stronger. My carving area is next to a window with no additional lighting for this very reason. Eyes are the hardest to carve in this respect as you think they actually do have lines but they do not! The eye ball is just that - a ball - you need to carve the skin as a sort of up-side down bowl as the first step. You do this by deeply cutting the eye-brow ridge and side of the nose and cheekbone which you run in a straight line from the wing of the nose to the temple. This raises a three sided block which you round over. Once you have this dome you can mark in the upper and lower eyelids and cut them in strongly - skin is actually quite thick - then dome over the surface of the eye. Course with a totem, you don't always carve the eyelids - they are often shown with paint but if you check the totems, the eyes are still carved as domes before they are painted.

I like those, how long did they take?

I think the biggest problem is, where would you cut? If you take a slice big enough to mount the owl then the face will have no head.... At the risk of causing some offense, and none is intended as I love to see people having a go at carving, don't be afraid of carving really deeply, owl eyes are dished almost half way into the head, and the head is round like a fluffy ball, I would also consider re-working the human head as eyes should be halfway between the skull and the chin - you do have the wood available in the block. I wonder if you started carving with the nose and eyes and worked out from there? It is a good idea to get the overall shape right first and add the details at the end. All the best, Andrew