Cleaning up a carving

It seems I spend more time cleaning up a carving, (getting rid of the feathers, cleaning up the stop cuts, & etc.) than it takes to carve it. Is this usually the case?

Thanks Ken in sunny SoCal 8)

With more practice, those cuts will be clean the first time. Â*Of course, there are always a few that will need cleaning. Â*I use a stiff nylon bristle brush and soap and water first. Â*
There are some carvers that use a torch to clean fuzzies - one good quick poof! Â*

I actually don't try to do too much 'cleaning' because it seems like I am overworking the piece. Â*If it's too bad, then refer to the thread about extra carvings in the general carving section ('where do all the carvings go?').

Â*

[Donna_T]

Hey Ken in Sunny Cal,
If I don't make clean cuts, I have whiskers on my carvings, too. Even when I get good clean cuts, I always go back over a carving and clean up stop cuts and spots that have gotten dinged while I've been working.

The best way I've found to do a quick clean up that doesn't do away with al the carving marks that I like to keep on all carvings (except those sanded smooth like decoys) is to use the little Scotch filament squares screwed onto a mandrel and used with my power carver. I even have a little battery-powered MiniMite (Dremel) that I use mostly for this--it runs slower than my Foredom or big Dremel. I just do a once over the carving with it to get rid of the fuzzies. If I have hair or beard, I make sure I go with the flow of the hair--rather than across which would round off the carving.

I haven't found a way to clean up stop cuts except just going back over them and doing some quick clean-up carving around them.

Someday, when I grow up, and get to be a better carver.....I won't need to do this....right?

Donna T

[Butch_Speer]

I've never tried it but, some carvers use a fine tipped woodburner to clean up fuzzies.

I have a small bit that fits into the dremel or Fordum in which I take three small piece's of scotch brite pad cut it in a square drill a hole in the middle. When rotated at a high speed it gets into all the cracks and crevises and cleans it up perfectly. Make sure if you do this though that you use safety glasses the small pieces come off at a very high rate of speed and could do some damage if you got them in the eye. You can buy this at most woodcarving suppliers there is a course one for wood and a finer one for bark.
Colin