9 Comments

It sounds like you had fun.

That little guy is on the level!
Where did you get my picture from?:)

Thanks Abbas. You are much better looking than this guy. Luckily I didn’t have to steal any body parts to put him together with.

I hope you’re well proud of that. You took a step and he’s amazing. Well done!

I think I know that guy from school in 1966. Very very nice. What kind of wood did you use? The color tones and texture of the paint is amazing. Great job. I have two huge pieces of basswood so I might try my hand. Thank you for the inspiration.

Thanks Wolf and Jack. The wood is Linden which is the European version of Basswood, and within the same species. It is my understanding that Linden is a bit harder. It is very nice to carve with though.

Very nice. You seem to have enjoyed doing it. Will you be trying more carvings? This guy looks fantastic he even has an expression. That’s hard to do. Do you have a variety of knives to carve with? I have about 10 that are my go to. I have never used linden before, sticking with mostly pine and cedar logs to start with.

Mike,

You certainly are multi-talented, but I can’t pick a favorite!

L/W

Thanks Thorreain and L/W. I have a few good quality carving tools, but figure carving can be done mostly with just a knife. I used just a chip carving knife for this one plus a gouge for the top of the hat brim. One well known figure carver does about 90% of his carving with a utility knife, but he also uses a small thin blade knife, a ‘V’ tool and a small gouge.

As so many figure carvers claim, I found it very relaxing to do figure carving, partly, I think, because you hold the work piece in your hand which eliminates a lot of clamping and unclamping, and also because you don’t need to be constantly changing tools as in relief carving. Another aspect is that there is great latitude for improving your design or making changes underway, whereas relief carving is a far more disciplined experience.

Very good work Mike.