Carving With A Rotary Tool

I know that there are some carving purists out there, and that's fine. I know that there are some who will only carve wood with a knife, and that's fine too. And there are some that will only carve with mallet and chisels, that's great. Then there is the whole bunch that use power. Hells bells then there's chain saw carvers, and some who use hatchets and machetes. Do we want to forget about the dynamite that was used to rough out the faces on Mt. Rushmore! There's carvers of toothpicks, Cottonwood bark, Cypress knees, pine knots, and peach pits. Well yeah! then there is wood.

I some times use a rotary tool and a sanding drum to carve the animals for the Noah's Arks that I make. Some will say, "no! you don't carve them, you GRIND them". To those who say this, I'll not get into an argument. But I am carving; so there.

I am preparing a tutorial slide presentation of how I use the rotary tool (Dremel) to carve a Cheetah. Maybe I'll title it THE 5 MINUTE CHEETAH. I'll post it when it's completed. Yep! I said 5 minutes; but I may have to change it to.........3 minutes. Greed made me learn to do the animals real fast. Several years ago I was given the opportunity to make 5 Noah's Arks with 18 pairs of animals each. The only trouble was that the request was made at Thanksgiving, and the arks had to be done in time for Christmas. The requester was the wife of a well known music celebrity, and the prices were, well they were good. I couldn't say no! So, I learned to use the rotary tool very quickly.

Stay tuned.

Fun Challenge - I Took!

A while back someone challenged me to carve 5 gnomes to fit inside a one inch square. Here's my response to the challenge. Seven gnomes on a quarter.

This is a lot easier than it looks. It's fun, while still a challenge. Give it a try, you'll be surprised.

CARVING SWAP! cancelled!

Carving contest canceled due to lack of interest !

Rules of the contest are listed in other posts but these are the main ones:

TIME FRAME: If you are interested, you must let us know by Halloween (Oct. 31, 2009) . The carvings must be completed and mailed during the week of: Dec. 1, 2009. This gives you one (1) month to complete the carving.

Ya got nine (9) more days to sign up. But from over 50 followers, if there arn't at least 20 signed up, we'll have to cancel the swap.

Well folks it's 2 Nov and we got only 10 signed up members...

1. Hal Allen
2. scarnes
3. Kent perry
4. Robert perry
5. terry maker
6. ed hullett
7. rice-grinder jim
8. herb jakers
9. bill Anderson
10.Chris sea-more

Hope I didnt miss the other 10 in comments..

We left the contest hang in there until after the weekend hoping to allow it to gain interest on its own, but to no avail. And to be fair to me and Tom h. we got to kill this one!

Exacto Knife! (Custom Handle)

Don't know if any of you all have seen this kind of a set up before. One of the fellows I carve with (Bill Bauer) turned this handle for his Exacto knife. He's turning some that are a bit fatter, for me, and some others. More and more carvers (especially bark carvers) seem to be using the Exacto knife for some applications.

If anyone is interested in some particulars let me know. Bill will have some at the Dayton show, in November.

SIGN UP! For The SWAP!

Hey! I didn't mean to scare you all away from a simple little carving swap. All I did was describe what might happen if any participant failed to complete their swap. The name of this blog is BEGINNERS CARVING CORNER AND BEYOND. Actually, the "AND BEYOND" part was added.

If anyone thinks of themselves as a beginner, please don't let that keep you from swapping. This blog is dedicated to beginners. Shoot I've only been carving for about 5 years and consider myself an advanced beginner.

A typical carving in an exchange/swap such as this one will be a smaller carving 2 to 6 inches in height, and taking anywhere from a couple of hours to 7 or 8 hours to complete. Seein how the Holiday Season is about upon us, a Christmas tree ornament could be a real consideration.

Anyway, we need to see some more participants. Shoot! the carved Christmas tree ornament exchange on the WCI Board has the participants carving around 24 to send out. We're only talkin one (1) carving in this exchange. Plus, you got two (2) chances to win a really nice carving knife.

Swap In Danger of Being Canceled

OK guy's and gal's, I'm sittin here thinkin probably what Ol' Thomps sittin there thinkin. And that's that nobody wants to swap a carving for a carving. Well, we thought that earlier, but then added two hand made carvin knives to the swap. These knives are made from vintage German straight razors. You know the kinda knives I'm talkin about. Those that sell for $50 and up, (way up sometimes).

Ya got nine (9) more days to sign up. But from over 50 followers, if there arn't at least 20 signed up, we'll have to cancel the swap. Either that or I'll sign up Ol' Thomp, and he'll sign up me; then we'll draw our own names for the knives..

CARVING SWAP!

ATTENTION: Carving swap

FOR WHO: Followers of Beginning Carvers Corner

BY WHO: Beginners Carvers Corner (Thomp & Tom H)

WHAT IT IS: We will pair up interested followers. Each member of the pair will complete a carving and mail it to their swap partner.

HOW IT WORKS: If you are a follower and are interested just let us know. If you are not a follower, become a follower. You will have to let us know your name, address, and e mail address. Absolutely no Anonymous! We will make up the pairs, and send the names and addresses out.

TIME FRAME: If you are interested, you must let us know by Halloween (Oct. 31, 2009) . The carvings must be completed and mailed during the week of: Dec. 1, 2009. This gives you one (1) month to complete the carving.

CARVINGS: The carvings must be in good taste, can be any style, painted or natural, and should take between 2 and 8 hours to complete. They must be signed and dated.


TWIST: This swap will also be a contest. To become considered in the drawing, You will want to take and send us a photo of your carving. We will post the photos and everyone can vote for their


favorite. The follower who receives the most votes will win this hand made Straight razor carving knife.
(cherry rough out)

(Lace wood rough / detail)

Knife Specs: 2 vintage German straight razor reground into professional quality woodcarving knives, one larger detail knife and one rough out knife.
1st place chooses among 2 knives, 2nd place will get the 2nd knife...

CAUTION: If you sign up for this swap, you are obligating yourself to complete and send a carving to your swap partner. Failure to complete and mail a carving to your swap partner is an extremely serious matter. In most Internet swaps such an offender is referred to as a "Flake", as in flaked out. Some swaps take this so serious, that they have taken extreme steps to ensure that all participants complete the swap. Specially trained teams of thugs with secret cells in every state may be called in to "thump" the offending "Flake".

REMEMBER: All you have to do to be a part of this swap is be a follower, and tell us you want to participate, and send us the required information.

Whittlin Both Ends!

In a previous posting I showed how I leave a "handle" on the end of a piece of wood being carved. This "handle" provides a safety margin when carving. and also lets me carve "small", since I have something to hold on to. This "handle" idea also lets me make better use of the wood. After whittlin one end, turn the wood around and whittle the other end. I also whittle small owls and Santa's one after the other on a longer piece of wood. After the wood is all carved I cut the carvings off.
I try to make use of all the wood. Don't call me Cheap! Call me Frugal.

Pioneer Days At the Park

Our local wood carving group participated in Pioneer Days at the County Park this Sunday. We didn't sell anything, just demonstrations and display. Our purpose was two fold. First, to introduce kids (and adults) to carving, and second to get some more membership in our carving group (seniors). This photo is of my table and display. I displayed a Noah's Ark and Animals that were carved, Gnomes, and small Civil War Soldiers.

I also had numerous old timey hand made wood toys for the kids to play with. These consisted of Flip Toys (Grinch and Bear), Snap Toys, Whammy Diddles, Dancin Jack, Spool Tractor, and Snake In The Box.

I also demonstrated to the kids, how to carve the 5 minute owl. I ended up giving away a lot of the 5 minute owls. Lots of these I had done prior to the event. It was a really fun day. Lots of family's. And lots of kids. I actually had several of the kids looking for where to put the batteries in the old time toys. I am hoping that some of the interest that the kids showed today will stay with them.

Create a Defuzzer!

Last week I was at the Gathering of Woodcarvers (GOW), held in Sandwich Ill. In addition to having a great time and learning lots of new techniques I learned some very useful tips. Dick Allen shared an excellent idea with the group. He makes defuzzers with 3-M scratch pads and pop rivets. As he states, this allows you to make defuzzers and not depend on the mandrel and screw. And who can pick up that little screw anyway?

Tools needed: small hammer, needle nose pliers, wood block with a metal plate over a hole in the block.
Use a pop rivet with the shaft that will fit your rotary tools' collets. After the pad has been worn down, the whole unit can be discarded and replaced with a ready made new one.

To make the unit, place the rivet in the block with the shaft into the hole in the block. Select the pad desired, and place the center of the pad over the tip of the rivet. Force it down on the rivet. After the pad is in place, place a washer on the rivet and hold down firmly with needle nose pliers. Using a hammer. tap the rivet to fasten the washer in place and hold the pad firmly on the rivet.