A New Journey - "Cooling His Heels"

I thought it might be fun to take you along on a creative journey with me.  I hope you will join me as I begin with simple inspiration and see it through, until that idea is realized in a finished carving worthy of a special place on the mantel.  In doing so, I hope to share the creative process that I go through as I start with an idea and develop it into a concept.  Once the concept is understood, you will observe how it evolves and develops as creativity and, on occasion, serendipity, take over.  I’ll share with you the successes and the mistakes, for there are sure to be many, that I have along the way.  You’ll likely see how I struggle to rise above obstacles and perhaps how ingenuity and utter tenacity can overcome almost anything.

I hope this will inspire some of you to move away from the cookie-cutter patterns available out there in books or on the web, and carve something truly original, something you can claim as your own.  Now, please don’t misunderstand.  Carving someone else’s pattern or following a tutorial is a great way to learn technique and practice your carving skills.  But, there is nothing more satisfying than coming up with an original idea and seeing it through to a completed work.  The whole process is euphoric and all consuming.   Let’s get started.

The inspiration for this carving concept came to me as I attended my first carving show over the summer in Provo, Utah.  There was a beautiful piece on display depicting an animal walking in a steam of water.  The water was so realistic and well done, that it inspired me to make an attempt at incorporating water into a scene with one of my caricatures.  The vision of a cowboy sitting alongside a stream, dangling his feet into the water to cool his heels, began to take shape.  Thus, inspiration struck and a concept began to take form.  Ideas can come from anywhere.  You simply have to be open to new possibilities.

The Idea:  “Cooling His Heels”

The Concept:  A caricature cowboy, lounging on the bank of a stream with is feet dangling in the water and a look of ecstasy on his face.  His hat and boots will be cast haphazardly on the side of the bank.  Great care and attention will be given to the landscape to make it as detailed and realistic as possible.  Some other fun elements will be incorporated as inspiration continues to come.

With a solid idea and a concept to work from, it’s time to give the mind a bit of a rest and put the hands to work.  I’m not one for fancy patterns and detailed drawings.  For one thing, I’m not good at pencil sketches.  For me, a simple pattern that I will use to cut out my carving blank will suffice.  Ideas for the details will come from my imagination, personal observations, and research photographs as necessary.  As I stated before, my cowboy will be relining back on the bank of a stream.  After deciding that my figure would be around nine inches tall if he were standing up straight, I sketched out the following pattern.

As you can see from the photo, my pattern is a simple outline which I will use to cut out my blank.  The figure will be made up of four parts: the head, two arms, and the body/legs.  I prefer to carve heads and arms separate from the body.  Carving them separate gives me the flexibility to get the positioning of the limbs correct and the tilt and angle of the head just right.  You will see what I mean as the creative process continues.

After a trip to my workshop and the wonderful aroma of basswood sawdust, I returned with my blanks cut out.  You can see in the above photographs that I have left an excessive amount of wood for the hands, feet, and shoulders.  The extra wood at the hands and feet will give me the opportunity to get the shape and angle that I need to make the figure look natural.  The extra wood at the shoulders will also allow me to attach the arms at the correct angle for the position of the body.

Tip from the Stump:  When cutting out blanks, always leave yourself “extra” wood.  This excess wood can be removed easily as you refine the shape of the object, but adding wood onto a piece if you run out is a much more difficult process.

With the parts cut out, it’s time to put steel to wood and begin the carving process.  The following two photographs show the progress of my carving.

Take note that I have only “Blocked Out” the carving.  Don’t rush the details!  I know that the fine detail carving is what most of us carvers live for, but you must first get the basic shapes correct before beginning detail work.  If you are not patient, you may find yourself carving off premature details as the carving takes form, wasting valuable time and effort.  Take things slow and allow the general shapes to form before moving on to the fun part.

Thank you for joining me on the first leg of my journey.  I hope you will come back often to follow along with me.

My Shop-Made Tool Sharpener

I mentioned that I made my own sharpening system a few weeks ago on the Woodcarving Illustrated forum and was inundated with questions about it.  I thought that I might take some time and share it with you.  Here’s a photo of the overall sharpening unit.

First of all, let me say, I made this as a prototype with the materials that I had lying around my workshop, so it's not as pretty and polished as it could be.  I built the box out of scrap 3/4" MDF and the front from a piece of 1/4" underlayment, all held together with wood screws and no glue so that I can open it up for maintenance.  I really made it as an experiment to see if it could be done and it worked so well that I never got around to making the finished product.  Let's take a look at the parts.

Here's the meat and potatoes of the sharpener.  I went to my local thrift shop looking for a motor that I could use for this project.  I found a foot massager that had a DC motor in it that looked like it would have enough power to get the job done for about $8.00.  After stealing the motor, AC to DC transforming circuit, belt, bearings, and pulley with spindle, I mounted them in the configuration that you see here.  The spindle protrudes through the top table of the unit to give me a place to mount my sharpening disks.  It's not very technical, I just adapted the equipment that I found.  I also used the power chord and wiring from the foot massager too.  Now that I have the mechanical system in place, I needed to add some controls.

Here's the front face showing the sharpener's controls.  As the prototype developed, I kept asking myself questions like, "what if I did this?" and, "I wonder if this would work."  I started with a simple on/off switch, the toggle switch in the upper right corner for about $3.00.  I wired in the switch and gave the unit a test run.  It spun around in a circle just like I though it would, which was very encouraging.  In retrospect, the original on/off switch is redundant after adding the additional controls. So, if you decide to try your own version, you can skip this switch.

Now the questions started coming into my head.  I wondered if I could switch the direction of spin.  With a DC motor, if you switch the polarity to the motor, you change the direction in which it rotates. 

Tip from the Stump:  You have to use a DC motor for this to work.  Switching the polarity on an AC motor will not change the direction of spin.  It's just the nature of Alternating Current power.

After a trip the local hardware store, I returned with a switch called an on/off/on, the toggle switch in the lower right corner, which I purchased for about $5.00.  After a little head scratching and testing with my multimeter, I wired the switch in place and fired the unit up again.  SUCCESS!!!  Flip the switch to the right, the motor spins counterclockwise.  Flip the switch to the left, the motor spins clockwise.  Now I can sharpen both sides of a knife without any trouble.

Next, I really wanted to be able to control the speed at which the motor turned.  After another trip to the store, and another $5.00, I returned with a dimmer switch used for lighting.  The dimmer switch changes the resistance and effectively the current and voltage to the motor.  I squeezed the dimmer into the the box and wired it in place.  SUCCESS AGAIN!!!  I was on a roll.  It worked perfectly.  Here are a couple of photos of the "guts" of the sharpener.  The first picture shows the switches wired in place.  The second shows the AC to DC circuit board that I used from the foot massager.  It looks kind of complicated, but it really wasn't too bad.

With the unit working, it was time to mount the sharpening disks.

Here's a picture of the mounting disk.  I cut this mounting disks and all of my abrasive disks out of a piece of melamine shelving that I picked up from the hardware store for about $10.00.  Melamine is nice and flat, smooth, and very stable, all the characteristic that I was looking for in my sanding disks.  Using my circle cutting jig that I built for my band saw, I cut out 5 inch disks and, using my disk sander and another jig, I trued them up so that they would spin without vibrating.  They aren't perfect, but the vibration is minimal.  The two pins sticking up from the disk are finishing nails and are for mounting the abrasive disks which I'll show you in the next photo.  A little 5 minute epoxy, and the mounting disk is fastened to the spindle below.

This is the bottom of one of my abrasive disks.  The Left and Right holes are drilled to accept the mounting pins from the mounting disk below.  It's a primitive, yet extremely effective method for mounting and interchanging disks as I progress through the sharpening process.

Here are my abrasive disks all lined out.  I cut circles out of progressively finer grit sand paper ranging from 150 to 1500.  The sandpaper costs around $1.25 per sheet for the good-grade wet/dry paper.  To attach the paper to the disks, I simply use rubber cement, the kind you used back in grade school.  It holds the paper in place, and is easy to remove when it's time to change out the paper for a new piece.  The last disk is my strop.  Using an old piece of leather that I had lying around from recent craft projects, I used rubber cement to attach it to a disk, smooth side of the leather down.  After charging it with stropping compound, it's ready to go.

This last photographs shows the stropping disk mounted in place.  The finishing touch was to attach a dowel to the unit to give me a place to wind up the chord when it's not in use.

There you have it.  The shop-made tool sharpener that I build for about $30.00.  It works great!!!  I've sharpened a bunch of my custom knives with it and it just keeps on going.  I think it works just as well as the commercial sharpeners that you might spend $200 to $300 and offers extra controls that they may not.  Not too bad for $30.00 and a lazy afternoon in the workshop.

The Ramrod

I thought I would get back to my roots for a change and carve myself a cowboy.  I wanted to give him a stern, almost mean look, and I think he turned out alright.  I chose to keep the colors dark to keep with the somber mood.  I'm sure those cowboys on the spread would scatter when this old boy came around.  I'm quite please with how the whole thing turned out.  I love to know what you think, so leave a comment if you please.

There are many more photos in the Picture Gallery.  I hope you will stop by and have a look.

Sometimes, It All Comes Together

Every now and then, a truly beautiful knife comes out of my shop.  I mounted this Katana-shaped blade at a slight upward angle to add to its versatility.  It comes to a perfect point and can be used as a skew knife, or as an all-purpose Katana.  The handle is an amazing piece of olive with absolutely gorgeous color and grain pattern.  The blade and the handle go together in a perfect combination.  I almost kept this one for myself, but I thought that I would make it available for some lucky customer.  There are more photos on the Knife Gallery page.

The Lineup

I took a group photo of six newcommers to the carving game.  They all turned out really nice.

These knives were fun to make and turned out terrific.  The woods are plumb, cherry, wormy plumb, and peach.  A nice assortment for a variety of tasks.  Stop by the Knife Gallery page to view some more photos of each with a full description, or to purchase your favorite.

Study Stick Tutorial - The Mouth

Well, after taking an extended vacation from the Study Stick Tutorial, I finally found the inspiration to finish the second part in the series.  Part two covers the steps of how to carve a simple mouth.  I believe that if even the greenest of carvers will follow the step by step instructions of this tutorial, he/she will be able to understand the complexities of two of the most difficult facial features to master, the nose and the mouth.  So, go out to your shop and get yourself a block of wood and let's make some chips.

Any and all feedback from this tutorial is both welcome and ecouraged.

Black Bart

Here's a sneak peek at my current carving endeavor.  He's a scowling old cowpoke that still needs his hat.  I plan on keeping the colors very dark to give him a mean look.  He should be a great looking little bust when he's all finished up.

I've had a recent run on my knives which has depleted my inventory, but fear not!  I currently have half a dozen under construction right now that should be ready by this weekend, so check back soon if you're in the market.

Man, I need a new camera!!!  To show how off the colors are in this photo, the background is supposed to be blue.  Oh well, maybe Santa will come through this year.  Well, I'm off to carve Bart's hat.  There are a few more photos in the Carving Bench page is you would like to take a better look.