Silver Maple Staff

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It takes time and patience, go slow and always keep in mind what parts are higher on the relief and which are deeper, have to leave the higher parts to finish until after reaching the deeper most places.
That's what has me worried - don't want to cut off his nose to spite his face! :surprised3::laugh:
I want to have a good feel for the different planes, in 3D, before i cut any more

Been studying this guys videos, since his carving is similar to what I want to do.
 
Any progress? I picked up 3 more sticks today, just driving past the place I picked my first up from I just had to step in the woods and pick up the first 3 I seen, just in the woods 20' or so, the rest of that 8 acres is littered with them. In the evenings I am making carving knives, maybe this will turn into a new addiction...LOL
 
Any progress? I picked up 3 more sticks today, just driving past the place I picked my first up from I just had to step in the woods and pick up the first 3 I seen, just in the woods 20' or so, the rest of that 8 acres is littered with them. In the evenings I am making carving knives, maybe this will turn into a new addiction...LOL
:p No, I think I'm over thinking it and I'm skeered I'm going to mess up!
I was going to work on it this afternoon, but had to go somewhere after work (excuse! :laugh:).
Yesterday on the way home I saw someone doing tree trimming in their yard - almost turned around to see if there were any good limbs.
Today I did a double-take passing a pile of limbs near the side of the road.
Definitely, an addiction.
:cheers:
 
I feel I will soon have a truckload of fine walking staff stems hauled home as they are all over the ground on every spacxing job I check out. I seen perfect white birch ones, perfect dogwood ones, silver maple and poplar ones, alder and ash ones, OMG. This coming weekend I am opening up my place on the lake, there are hundreds of wild cherry saplings all around my place there, there is a beaver or two that visits and drops several stalks each spring. They remove the bark off the stems and just leave them in my yard or under my dock, I have 6 very nice stems drying in my woodhouse already from years past.
 
I feel I will soon have a truckload of fine walking staff stems hauled home as they are all over the ground on every spacxing job I check out. I seen perfect white birch ones, perfect dogwood ones, silver maple and poplar ones, alder and ash ones, OMG. This coming weekend I am opening up my place on the lake, there are hundreds of wild cherry saplings all around my place there, there is a beaver or two that visits and drops several stalks each spring. They remove the bark off the stems and just leave them in my yard or under my dock, I have 6 very nice stems drying in my woodhouse already from years past.
With beavers like that, who needs an ax? :laughing:
Dogwood makes a very nice staff - I bought one on ebay. It's very dense and supposedly very strong. Don't know how it would be for carving.
I guess this is when knowing the toxicity of tree species comes in handy, if you're making any spoons, or cutting boards.
 
One can never go wrong with birch for eating off utensils, I figure maple is fine also but any tree with oils or nut bearing trees could be bad for some persons with allergies. We use lots of ash for tool handles but I know many carpenters that cannot breath in dust from ash or oak, they are very allergic to it.
 
Now I have to learn a new skill, how to use a pencil to draw/outline a character in the round. All my carving has been done without drawings so its about time I took up the pencil, these characters are rather small and intricate so a layout of lines sort of become necessary. I am not an artist...LOL
 
Now I have to learn a new skill, how to use a pencil to draw/outline a character in the round. All my carving has been done without drawings so its about time I took up the pencil, these characters are rather small and intricate so a layout of lines sort of become necessary. I am not an artist...LOL
I wouldn't call myself an artist either - although I would say I'm very crafty and have dabbled in all kinds of arts.
I did the drawings because I wanted to get a good feeling for the subject before actually cutting on the wood... glad I did, I'm sure it helped a lot.
Also, I'm reading an old book I have put out by Xacto back in the 70s, it's more for wood carvers who use a mallet, but a lot of other good info. They say how important being able to draw is to good carving. They're right... unless you want to just make it up as you go along, and that's okay too.
But drawing my gnome from different angles helped with this project.

How's your owl?? :cool:
 
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