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Description
This carving is cut from a hundred pound block of Catalpa wood. It is more than two feet wide and three and a half feet tall.
This is the first time I ever cut into a block of wood.. without trying to make anything specific. I laid the wood on the floor and made a sweeping cut into the wood with a chainsaw, I rotated the wood and made another, and another. I turned it over and upside down and kept making cuts that tried to relate to the other cuts without forming anything.
Once I had cuts going everywhere I made secondary cuts to widen and deepen the ones already made, all the time turning it and flipping it.
At some point I stopped making cuts simply because things started to form up, before I knew it I saw a face, and then a figure.. and another. No more new forms and from there began the clean up process.
First up in the cleaning was a grinder with an arbor tech cutting head, this rounded and hollowed all the chainsaw cuts.
Chisels were then used in deep areas, gouges were used to help blend curves and refine intersections. Rasps were then used to even out or 'fair' surfaces. Finally a power disc sanders used in open enough areas and then hand sanding finished it to the point it is. It is sanded to 100 grit.
Tool marks, wood defects, natural color variations all give the thing a wood feel. Places it is sanded extra smooth offer great grain patterns. I suppose it could have been worked down and sanded more but I'm not sure the carving would be any better. It has several distinct views and is mounded on a turntable for changing the view. Once the thing was sanded it was given a good soak in raw linseed oil to seal it up. It is a blend of hard and soft,with contrasting areas both rough and fine.
Thanks again to Mr. Jack Hoover for the lead that resulted in my having such great blocks of catalpa to saw into!

Description
This carving is cut from a hundred pound block of Catalpa wood. It is more than two feet wide and three and a half feet tall.
This is the first time I ever cut into a block of wood.. without trying to make anything specific. I laid the wood on the floor and made a sweeping cut into the wood with a chainsaw, I rotated the wood and made another, and another. I turned it over and upside down and kept making cuts that tried to relate to the other cuts without forming anything.
Once I had cuts going everywhere I made secondary cuts to widen and deepen the ones already made, all the time turning it and flipping it.
At some point I stopped making cuts simply because things started to form up, before I knew it I saw a face, and then a figure.. and another. No more new forms and from there began the clean up process.
First up in the cleaning was a grinder with an arbor tech cutting head, this rounded and hollowed all the chainsaw cuts.
Chisels were then used in deep areas, gouges were used to help blend curves and refine intersections. Rasps were then used to even out or 'fair' surfaces. Finally a power disc sanders used in open enough areas and then hand sanding finished it to the point it is. It is sanded to 100 grit.
Tool marks, wood defects, natural color variations all give the thing a wood feel. Places it is sanded extra smooth offer great grain patterns. I suppose it could have been worked down and sanded more but I'm not sure the carving would be any better. It has several distinct views and is mounded on a turntable for changing the view. Once the thing was sanded it was given a good soak in raw linseed oil to seal it up. It is a blend of hard and soft,with contrasting areas both rough and fine.
Thanks again to Mr. Jack Hoover for the lead that resulted in my having such great blocks of catalpa to saw into!