Please! No silly, gotta' hand it to you -- you're really handy!, etc. -- puns about this carving. I admit that it's weird, but spare me the puns.
So that you know, almost everything I've carved so far has been out of basswood. Jan and I, while driving around in the new neighborhoods to the north of us, stopped at a construction site and I begged a few pieces of construction grade 2"x6" studs, thinking that I'd like to try my hand at another wood. (Run on sentence?) Anywho, the worker who was there said, "Sure, help yourself." So I brought home a few short pieces.
Last week, I finally decided to *try my hand" at carving in one of the pieces. I sharpened a v gouge to within an inch of it's life, traced the outline of my left hand onto the wood, and tried to make a cut. I emphasize tried. I hardly made a dent in the wood. I decided that I wasn't going to get anywhere with my knives, so I transferred the work site to the garage where my power carving tool is. And, away I went -- Geez! What a mess!
I took the project - mid carving - down to Treeline in south Provo, where I have been buying my tools and wood and showed the grand experiment to the owner, Brian. His first comment was, "That's Douglas Fir. It's a hardwood. It's going to take you a while to finish that if you continue." Joy... He's the expert at power carving. He recommended one more cutting bit for my project. It can remove quite a bit of wood in a hurry, but it leaves a smoother finish. It also works well at rounding off corners.
After all the cutting, gluing on a small piece, adding a small application of wood putty (As you can see, I'm not a "purist" when it comes to wood carving) I painted and stained the surface of the wood and then applied a couple of coats of polyurethane.
And, I know, it looks weird. Just consider the source...
As you can see there is some writing at the top. It says "Kennzeichnis eines bundnis." The statement refers to the ring on my hand and you'll have to break out your German dictionary for a translation. For the rest you won't need a dictionary.
EVEN MO' STUFF!
I altered the handle of my walking cane last week, too. (Yes, cane... - my lower back has more problems than Carter's has Little Liver Pills.) The handle looked like the head of one of the battle droids from Star Wars when they fought on Naboo. Now, instead of a droid head, it looks "bearish" - no particular species intended. However, one of our neighbors said it reminded him of a Polar Bear. If you must know, it's a Teddy Bear.
This cane was made and given to me by Karl Larsen from Spanish Fork. It's from one of his apple trees (Delicious). We work together at the Provo temple. He grew up in Roosevelt and his father was a MD there. He's related to the Calders', Hackings, and a couple of other families in Vernal. I know many of his relatives in the Maeser area. Also, He and his wife were in the same ward with my brother, Aaron and family years ago. It's like old home week every week at the temple.
AND, LAST LEE
I'm pretty sure that I had a picture of this in an unfinished state in the last post. It has special significance to me - something that only my family would understand - so I won't go there. However, it's strange what happens in the wee hours of the morning while carving in the rocking chair in the living room.
No comments:
Post a Comment