Learning to carve!

Hi Everyone!

I went camping last weekend for my wife's family reunion in a cool place called Kootenay plains near to the North Saskatchewan River Crossing just outside of Banff national park. The place is frequented with campers and is pretty much the last place I've been that still does not have cellular connectivity or any other utilities in that area. This was a great opportunity to experiment with wood carving chisels and some Basswood!

Basswood is an interesting species because of its resistance to tear out when you carve across the grain or change directions with your carving path mid cut. So long as your chisels are sharp, the wood handles newbies and experienced carvers remarkably well with positive results. Check out my carvings from camping this past July long weekend!

I carved two patterns, one of a tree image that I found online and adapted to suit my caving interest and of course, Darth Vader!

Both carvings turned out really well and tested my skills using chisels that I first had to figure out how to sharpen. I found an old set of Marples chisels that had been sitting in my shop at work that badly needed some TLC. Once I ground the edges and honed them following the angle of the cut as best I could, I stropped them with my leather strop which made them exceptionally sharp! Then cutting the profile and hogging out material went pretty smoothly!

More projects work is coming! Thanks for continuing to check out my work and support me by clicking on an ad or two. It goes a long way and I really appreciate the support!

HAPPY BELATED CANADA DAY! And of course, to my American followers, I hope you had a safe and productive Independence Day!