Tips
Jim, Here is a post from October 16 , 2006 that I put under the chainsaw section on another forum:
" The main thing, is to carve safe. Wear protective gear,and realize that wielding that saw at arms length and head and chest heighth is fatiging. Take breaks often,and step back and analyze your cuts before you make them.
To save your back when carving, try to work at waist heigth. A lot of times I set the log on 12" to 24" cut off logs to put where I'm cutting at a comfortable heigth.
To keep your workpiece from moving around, I'll run a few drywall screws through some flourescent surveyors tape and then into an edge of the workpiece into the stump. The tape reminds me where the screws are so I don't hit them with my saw! "
Since then, while helping out at the Loghoggers shows here in Wisconsin, I have seen a few of the carvers pound about three sixteen penny nails through a piece of 3/4 plywood in a tight (about 4" apart) triangle, then flip the board over and drywall screw it onto a two foot tall "stump" .Then, all they do is literally drop the log into the nails and the log is held in place. Obviously, how secure the log is anchored is going to depend on how far the nails permeate the log. Most of the carvers have the length of the nails cut back and reharpened with a grinder so they stick up only about 1&1/4" high. This serves two purposes: the log can be seated all the way down to the plywood, and when not in use, you can make a safety "sheath" out of a piece of 2x10" that drops over the exposed nails.
Some of the carvers also use the new hydraulic clamping Workhorse to hold their work, but it is made in Communist China, and I'm old enough to remember that they were military advisors for both North Korea and North Vietnam, and taught them unimaginable ways to intimidate and torture our men fighting over there. I do everything in my power to avoid buying their products and supporting them.
An alternative to the Workhorse is to find an older (made in America!
) Black and Decker Workmate, and use it to hold a board that has your workpiece screwed in through the bottom -ken