tonights results..

Little excited last night I guess, worked on the cook all night or from 10pm till 9am cramped hands for my Efforts is what i recieved..
wore my gloves and new thumb protector wrapped with veltrap, and am amazed no sore spots even where the back of the blade rubs mt index finger usualy its sore and feeling abused from 11 hours of carving.
i didnt get as much done as i expected. played on the computer for a break several times so it wasent a full 11 hour session..
results// in photos

Chuckwagon cook Underway....

Finely on the way to getting stated,

I got the blank cut out, as it was 3 inch stock, my scroll saw max is 2.5:"

went to a cabinet shop-mill right who had a bandsaw only cost $5.00 to have it half-assed job sawing it out, but it will make it somewhat faster than hogging it off with a chip knife.

his better bandsaw was on the fritz and he had a 1 inch blade in the saw he used so he was really limited as to what he could do as to removing all the tight areas he could.

new carving instructional web blog, Lynn Droughty is teaching how to carve a chuck wagon cook and related accessories come see...

1long train 3 box card 2 tank cars 2 flat cars 1 gondola engine & coal car and caboose. 1/2"x1/2"x12"

2

3

4

Entree into WCI Jinga Block Challange

This little train was carved from 3/8"x5/8"x6"Scrap of basswood
the wheels were the hardest thing to accomplish, here not painted yet,
difficulties arose when using a soldering iron type woodburner wilt a loose nib very hard to control as it would take off in its own direction


jinga train2 southbound

jinga train2 northbound

jinga train Southbound

jinga train northbound

finished power hone, for use in electric drill

New construction items for powerhone to sharpen carving tools.

Louisiana Welcome basket. the wife makes one of these every several years for folks that visit from out of state.

front

front

Experiments & New starts

Experiments & New starts

Starting a new blog for restarting charters on this blog above.

LOD COWPONY

Guess I'm HORSE THEIF! or pattern shape theif

Patterned in the likeness of lynn o droughtys horse, in the open wide vet and horse. carving he produced ....

Still pretty much in the rough , i needed to practice making animals, and Lynn's turn on animals among other old west charters tickle me..

Well lynn hasent got a thing to worry about me taking his job or over using his pattern, this one was tough to reproduce,,,,,,,

still not finished

cut from a quick growth slash pine 2x4 to carve out a pony.

the delicate legs somehow i managed to break the front right leg under the knee while trying to carve the hoof. but its all glued back and clamped

Most of the work was done with power tools, i cut out the shape with a scrollsaw. then worked the block over with a power rotory carver with a small sandpaper drum, just to work shape,
then on to the knife, to work detail into the carving....

The corse grain of slash pine makes it one of the most hated woods to carve by me, as i usualy get hurt more often as the grain splits and my knife or gouge will follow the split........

The wood is fragile. dry and will split break off or just be difficult as possible

Smithy shop other views....

dockyard micro gouges arrived... Hopefull better details will result, small "U" gouges 5mm down to 1.5mm for close quarters.

Smithy feb06 sepiatone.

Smithy feb06

Smithy feb06

Smithy feb06

Decisions Decisions Eagle

Thom's Carving: March 2006

Thom's Carving: March 2006

Veriners and v grove blades i recieved lately, one is less than 1/16th inch and 70+ points carbon steel

harbor freight set , after great amount of wer grinding these hand chizles gouges and v grouve tool. they cut well for a bit, but you spend more time honing, i suspect if a carbon test "Rockwell" was done on them they might go 10-20.points...

Small V Grove and verner.. Walnut hollow brand with bigger round knob push chizle handle, Long thin handle is some soft steel junk gouge set i got from harbor freight for $4.oo you get what you pay for..

sharpening the brass tubing was accomplished with diamond burr or drillbit. thinwall tubing wont take much sharpening, but to use these eye and button tools you just press on then as you spin them.. they make micro cuts, you remove stock away from the indentation of the circle and make 1 or 2 very small "v" shape cuts to indiacate a button hole..

Homade, Button - Eye puple- Ear shape helper Made of brass pen tubing from hobbieshop. drilled and pressed into a section of dowell.

Old Tex near finished

Old Tex, After eye sergery last night, just a Few chips removed and a new coat of acrilic wash, made a post and rail fence and printed up a backround. hes looking some better im starting to like him 

OLD TEX

OLD TEX: A Elderly Cowpoke in his early 70' or 80's.
Resides in Crook of the road. Tx. A small dust bowl cow town community in the panhandle, He's seen the snow on the Rockies and the cactus of Mexico, en' wasn't impressed!
He's now happy to make his daily rounds to the local watering hole for 2 fingers of sasporila, Then down the boardwalk to the bench out front of the general store, where chews the fat with the locals. as he spits and whittles he don't call it keeping up with the local gossips,
such as that's what the old hens do. as they point and snicker..
His normal rounds take him to the cafe for the daily special before his 2 pm nap.
He's an old cowpoker that has been rode hard and put up wet on many occasions, and finely showing some wear and shrinkage around the edges., now in the sunset of his days on the range. he's just happy not to hurt too bad when he rolls out of the bunk every morn'in.

Most recently Being inspired by Lynn's Droughtys Cowboys, I just can't get them out of my head, they fill my dreams them, as well as other situations cowboys come across in their daily lives that would make good subject, cattle drives, branding, split rail corrals , riding fence, hitching posts, watering trouts, and the occasional bordello, saloon & adobe jail house of course.
but not every carving can or should be turned into a full blown diaharama ether. So in an attempt to settle this notion.. I decided to make a cowboy first out of the patterns I have received and sketched... I Been working on old tex, as I call him, for a while as my prescription medication keeps me dazed and confused half the time plus the 2 year old grand kids get to moving things around on me, so shifting the concentration from doing to hunt for it and then wonder what I was doing before the hunt.? ....
i'm having difficulties with the face, among other things, one hand bigger than the other and fingers went south on the other. guess all along I was hoping that face paint would do cosmetic surgery on this dude and cover some of the defects, or a elf would come and do it while I slept.
Im now faced with some grim options. the wood now around the eyes is pulpy like cutting hair. it seams to move instead of being sheared off. the detail around the eyes is fading fast, one possible solution is just smoothing it over and painting on a face, or cutting off the head, and starting again. "but the hat came out So dang good!" I think my downfall arrives from working on a 6" tall figure, with 1/4" gouges and knife tips modified for better use at carving steak than trying to make fine detailed eyes, never the less I painted the first 'very thinned down coat' last night and im not impressed with the face at all. It shows every mistake, now in my thinking a carving should stand on its own merit without paint. the paint is just a hint of a finish. maybe my standards are too high for my methods. but I pressed on hoping for a miracle. I do like Lynn's method of painting wet wood and very thin layers as it gives you some leeway in the depth of color, and a chance to remove some of the color if it gets too dark. also aids in the showing of wear patterns, and such.Old tex is a AFTERTHOUGHTS: one hand is bigger than the other and the fingers on the left (smaller) are funky looking.

4 pics old tex

1 block 2 After removing waste with scrollsaw, slow process.and almost finished carving10pmlast 2 photos in this collage

11am started on scrollsaw. carving cowboy. forst block out the scrap with scrollsaw