Block grain which side front?

[Mischief]

After my mistake of carving my sheep against the grain, I decided I better be clear what I am doing for my next piece. Behold! a picture of my block of wood. I understand that my grains should run from top to bottom for my carving. Second question is what do I want for the front when I am looking at the block from the top. You can make out the rings I hope. Should the front of the carving be AB, BD,DC, or CA based on the ring of the wood?
Or does it not matter?
Its going to be my toy lion sitting on a branch with his best friend. That is block I am planning for the head.


Cass
Would be carver without a GRAIN of sense.

[Plain_Ol_Ed]

If it was me, I'd have the lion's nose pointed at either AC or BD. My first choice would be AC. Noses are very easy to break/cut off and that orientation makes it more difficult. Plus, I think, it shows the grain better than way.

[Dylan]

I'm with Ed on this one. AC looks like the best face. If you where carving on the corner then I'd think that B would be good.

Dylan

[Paul_Guraedy]

Since I have not seen your design, I am going to disagree only in part with your post. The grain on a carving should run with the thinest part. This may be from top to bottom or it may be parallel with the base/top. For instance on a bear standing on its hind legs, I would run the grain from top to bottom. Yet, on a walking bear I would run the grain parallel to the base or from nose to tail of the animal.

This is why I use a lot of inserts on the birds I carve. It is hard, due to grain, to get thin wings, that are strong enough, out of a single block of wood.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Paul, if you ran the grain horizontally on a walking bear.....that would make the legs tend to break easy?

[Paul_Guraedy]

Hi Ho, you are right. A bad example I gave there; but, I was trying to stay away from birds (which are my usual carvings) and go with animals (which I do carve occasionally).

A better example would be an owl which stands pretty much upright. This carving would be strongest with the grain running vertical. Right now I am carving a baldie with a trout in its talons, with rocks as a base. The grain in this carving is vertical. But I am also carving a peregrine falcon on a cliff face and the grain is running horizontal. Again, these may be poor examples if wings are held out away from the body. Then I would use inserts (running the grain with the wing (but there are exceptions to this also) to make these features stronger.

Just goes to show that a person should stick with what they know best.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

lol....but some of us don't know much, we just guesstimate

[Claude]

If you need a flat face to start your head, then I think AC is best. On the other hand, if you can start your head using a corner for the nose, as it's easier to get the proper shape for the face, then corner B would be best. Trace around the piece of wood on a sheet of paper, and draw the top view of the head using a side (tip of nose would be half way between A and C). Now trace around it again, and draw the top of the head with the nose touching corner B, and see which of the two will be easiest to carve (have the least waste wood to get rid of).

Claude

[Mischief]

Dont have a scanner so I hope you can see this free hand drawing i made on the computer. Its close to what I want to make...front profile. Just a stuffed lion on a swing with his friend Totoro ( if you watch japanese animation, you know who this is). Hope that helps.
I am making the head,leg,arms and body separate. I am right handed and it will be basswood.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

This is an example of ....unless you are hungup about it being one piece of wood, where adding arms, legs, etc helps in placing the grain direction the way you want it on all pieces.