Before Their Gone

Here is a picture of the bench & two music boxes I finished before they are gone, nothing I seen to make sticks around here long, everyone want a one of a kind something or other. The loon will now be painted with some help from my better half & the bench I give a few coats of spar varnish.

Loonies Bench

One of the cottagers from the lake down the road had a white oak tree cut down beside his cottage. His wife & him love that tree but had to cut it down before it fell down, so he asked me to carve him something out of the trunk. His cottage has a sign that says the Loonie Bin & thats what they call the place, I could only imagin why?? lol. Well I came up with this idea, a loon on a bench (a loonies bench)

I started by cutting the trunk in half with the chain saw leaving a chunk where a branch grew out of it for the loon.

Next I brought out one of my early carved smaller loons for a model and with a wooden chair seat cutter that mount on a grinder, I slowly cut away at the loon. With this cutter I pat away at the loon, stopping to feel the shape of the model, then taking the grinder and petting out the shape of the loon. I also use a large roughing gouge to take off large chunk of waste.
Thats all I could do today! I will have to now take it into the shop, where I will draw it's wings and tail feathers with a thick black charcoal pencil then carve them with a V-chisel under the magnifier best I can. Last I'll flipped it over, drill out four - inch and a half holes for the legs made from oak limbs with the tops turn to fit the hole. I'll put up a picture when I get it finished, I have a few old pieces of furniture to strip & refinish first for the cottagers.

I cut the biggest piece of stock that would fit on my lath & tried to get it centered best I could. When I started the lath it started dancing all around my shop, the base on my lath is like a saw horse & the piece I was trying to turn was too out of square & off center, so the thing started dancing it's way around the shop.











I I then straped a heavy tool chest to it, to calm it down till I turned it round. When I was turning it I came across a wood worm, there was two holes, so I followed them & came to the worm. It was white, about an inch long with two hooked jointed legs & a crab claw like teeth "ewwww" The wood is half in a stage of decay & when I capture this stage it becomes a work of art, as the rot transforms the wood's colors & grains.










With my little sight I make random shapes, no measuring, just what ever shape fits the blank & resembles a bowl.














Next I sand them, then I burnish the blanks with fresh cut shavings at a high speed holding handfuls of shavings & rubbing then into the turning bowls till the shavings heat up, it gives them a polished finish.

















The two bottoms & lids I made out of this piece are now cut apart by hand & the bottom mounted on a face plate to turn the insides out. This process has become very difficult for me now & I will not be able to do many more bowls that I need to turn the insides out on the lath, but I like danger.



The second day I carved at one of the lids & sanded it. Next I dilled out a pocket on the bottom to fit a wind up music box player. Ones now ready for laquer & one to turn, I have enough of this wood for a couple more of these & a few more smaller boxes & next I will try a couple large carved bowls.

Great Grizzly Bear

I've been waiting a while to carve something out of this chunk fo red oak tree that looked to be an entrance to some critter's home. In this piece I seen a bear and today was nice bright sunny day, so I took my magnifier outside & carved this bear out of it.

I started by sawing out the shape, then I screwed in some studs to hold little end pieces of white tail deer antler witch I then glued them onto.

There really wasn't a lot of carving to do to it, as it already looked like a bear and all I wanted out of it was to act as a mask with a handle on it, so a person could hold the mask up & tell stories through it. Now all I have to do is find some great grizzly bear tales & short stories that someone could read with the mask.

Turnings

I band sawed off a 4 inch chunk, after it's square I mark the end centers, then beveled the corners off on the jointer the hardest part was following the thick black charcoal line with the band saw.
















Mounted on the lathe I find it easy to round, I've turned many things & it's all in how you hold the chisel & with the white wall behind my lath I can see the shape form with lots of light to watch how much to take off at a time.















All these turned boxes are random shape just what ever shape brings out the most bling in the grain, the only part is the outside rim of the bottom that has to be an exact size & for this I have to keep taking fine cuts & keep checking it, then finish with sand paper. When the boxes are shaped I use a parting tool to make deep cuts to separate the lid pieces from the bottoms then box & lids are cut apart with a hand saw.















Next I mount them in a vice on the drill press & drill out the insides of the bottoms & lids because I am unable to see well enough to turn them out on the lath anymore, so I take the fast & easy way.













Now with the centers turned out I mount them back on the lathe on spindle plates I turned to fit the inside diameter of the lids & bottoms. Mounted this way I finish the bottoms & tops of each & sand out any vice marks to a fine finish.

I like to carve odd little features into the lids & boxes, but the wood is too pretty these, so I only added some carving to the lid handle on one so far, these two are now ready for a lacquer finish.

The past two day I started to carve a burl bowl first I squared the burl's edges on the table saw so it would clamp snugly in the vice. Then the hammering of the chisel begins, I Hammered in the morning, I hammered in the evening, I hammered all day long. Hammer, hammer hammer, starting in the middle I make a deep dish and work my way to the outside of the burl's out side shape.











I leave a good inch thickness when hammering out the bulk, this piece was red cedar and very dry, so when I start to carve the last inch I soaked it over-night in water. Working with a freshly sharpened large gouge chisel, I like the eadge razar sharp, after the I get it sharp I buff it with rubbing compound to a mirror finish.
The blade of the chisel easily cuts eighth of an inch shaves of wood, I can easily feel the direction of the grain, which tells me the direction to angle my chisel on the cut.






Different chisels are used to get it as flat as possible on the inside, then it will be sanded with different power sanding disks then bye hand. Once it's dryed out I finish the last two sides last, after the vice is no longer needed along with the finish sanding. Day three was spent sanding, starting with 30 grit and working down 60, then 80 grit all bye hand to remove my chisels marks. Another day of sanding with 120, then 220 grit and it will be ready to be finished.

From Dead Oak To Boxes & Bowls

As this great red oak tree began to die the veins turned blue & gray staining the remaining living fibers making colourful grain patterns, the timeline to harvest these blanks is short I must collect them & start drying them as soon as they are cut out before they start to go punky & lose their solid fiber structure.




From the sections of the trunk & crotches of the tree, I chainsaw out square & rectangle blanks of wood, sections of wood with splattered grains & burls that grow on the trunk make great bowls from the swirled grains & colour patterns. I then place the blanks into a plastic bag, so it can dry slowly & it will not split & crack apart. Before I can start to carve & shape them, they must dry slowly for a couple months so check back for up-dates on this project.