Four New Knives

It sure is nice to be home again.  I've spent some time out in my shop working on a few new knives that turned out really nice.  Stop by the Knife Gallery Page and take a look.  If you click on a picture of a knife, it will take you to a photo album where you can see a few more photos of the knife.  Thanks for stopping in.

Centering Pins

After a long and grueling couple of months of working out of town, I am finally back home where I can get back to carving.  I hope that everyone hasn't given up on The Old Stump completely.  I really do appreciate all of the support that you have given to my blog.  Here's a little gadget that you might find useful.  I call it a "Centering Pin".



It doesn't look like much I know.  In fact, all it really is is the tip of a small finishing nail snipped off and sharpened at both ends poked through a tiny piece of sheet copper and a drop of solder to keep it in place.  This is how it works.



 Here I have a carving that I need to mount to its base.  I take a centering pin and stab one end into each of the points where I will be putting a dowel that will attach the carving to the base.



Now I position my carving on the base the way that I want it to be and push down.



After lifting up, I have three little holes positioned exactly where I want them.  Now, all that I have to do is drill the appropriate size holes using the small holes made by the centering pins as pilot holes, insert my dowels and some glue, and I have my carving mounted exactly where I want it.



A simple, yet effective solution when it comes to lining up dowel holes.  It also works great when attaching add-ons to your carvings too.  The piece of copper keeps the brad from going too far into one side and makes it easy to remove.

Farmin'

It's been awhile since I've posted anything, so I thought that since I have had a little time to carve over the past few days, I would post my progress on a simple bust that I have been working on.  I think I'm going to call this piece "Farmin'".  He's an old, weathered farmer in his bib overalls and I envision him in a warn flannel shirt which will show up when he gets a coat of paint on him.  I'm thinking that a pair of round glasses might be a nice touch, but I haven't decided yet.  Let me know what you think of the old guy, and I'll post more pics when I get him finished.

There are a few more pics on the Carving Bench page.  Stop in and take a look

New Custom Knife

I'm still working away from home all week, so I'm not getting the carving done that I would like to do.  I hope to get started with the Study Stick Tutorial in the next week or so, so keep checking back.  In the mean time, here's a little something interesting to look at.  It's an order that I filled this last weekend for a repeat customer with a custom blade shape.  He sent me a pencil sketch of the blade shape that he wanted and here's how it turned out.

 

I'm sure with that long point and that up sweep at the tip, this little guy will get into some awful tight spaces to get the job done.  The handle is peach and it looks real nice too.  I'm sure that my customer will enjoy it and I hope you enjoyed looking at it too.

Masking Tape

It's been a while since I posted a tip from the stump, so I thought that I would share this one.

Tip from the Stump: When I sharpen my knives, I wrap a small piece of masking tape around the handle like the picture below:

The tape is enough to keep from damaging the handle during the sharpening process.  It's a simple solution to a simple problem, but hey, I'm a simple guy.  So, protect your knife handle with a piece of tape and keep that glossy finish looking like new.

The Winning Knife

This working out of town is really cramping my style.  I haven't had a minute to carve anything new, but I did get a chance over the weekend while at home to make the Custom Knife for our contest winner Keith Stewart.  As he requested, it's a 2-1/2" scimitar blade mounted in a stubby-style handle made of cedar wood.  It's a nice knife and turned out razor sharp and very comfortable in the hand.  Here are a couple of pictures of it:

Thanks again to everyone who submitted their ideas for the next project.  As soon as the dust settles from this new job, we'll get started on the tutorial.

Contest Results

First of all, I need to apologize about not having posted in a while.  I have just started a new job that takes me away from home for days at a time, and I have been very busy.  I hope that things settle down soon so that I can get back to posting, and more importantly, carving.  I hope that you will stick around in the interim.

Next, I would like to thank all of you that sent in your ideas for a beginning-carver project.  All of the ideas were fantastic and it was difficult to make a choice, but in the end I had to make a decision.  After considering all of the entries and the benefits that each project would give to a beginning carver, the idea that I settled on was carving a study stick, an idea sent in by Keith Stewart. 

CONGRATULATIONS KEITH!!!  YOU WIN!!!

For those of you who may not know, a study stick is a practice piece where one carves multiple faces in the blank at various stages of completeness.  It is a step-by-step study of the needed cuts to complete the details of the face.  I believe that this project will give a beginning carver the confidence and practice that he/she needs to tackle what is arguably the most difficult part of a caricature to carve, the face.  It will also give the more seasoned carver some great practice and a chance to maybe try something different with faces.

I hope to get started soon on this new tutorial and I hope that you will follow along.  No, I take that back.  I hope that you will CARVE.