[BLSHIMLA]

Hi All, it is another rainy day here in N.S. I bought a piece of cyrpress knee wood and would like to know if anyone has a pattern they can share with me, would hate to have to buy a whole book and find out I cannot carve them. Any help would be appreciated.

[Doug Ridley]

I don't use patterns on Cypress knees but if you are interested send me a private message with your address and I'll e-mail you my Beginner's Tutorial for power carving a Cypress knee. It might help a little and should help even if you don't use power.
Let me know.
Doug

[Doug Ridley]

Here it comes. Let me know if it is of any benefit to you. Hope it helps.
Doug

[Doug Ridley]

To Thomp and Varicature carver--
I am e-mailing you the tutorial. It is a pretty long download if you are on dial-up so be prepared to wait. Let me know if you think it helps you.
As to what type power tools, they are nearly all good. I use the Foredom and the Optima micromotor, but I also like the Master Carver and the Ram micromotor. There are others that are good, too. I think the choices of bits are probably more important than which brand of power tool you use. A Dremel with a flex shaft will do just as good as all the higher priced tools, but it is just not as handy. Hope this helps.
Doug

[Thomp]

Doug,
i got the tutorial, its fine.. hope to try some of the ideas it sparked as soon as i can put out some of these little fires which needs to be taken care of usualy the wives projects she seen somewhere..
i got a foot tub full of small cypress knees my son dose landscape design and installation. and he did some homes down near the swamps had to clear out knees in flower beds, they should be about dry now, ill get a boiler going soon and get them peeled then see what i get for my efforts, it may be fall before i get going but i finely got a use for them small 4" knees

i have a dremel with flex shaft and a harbor freight central electric veriable foot controlled powercarver w/flex shaft.
thanks again
thomas

[Blake Lunsford]

Hey Doug! I got it too! Great tutorial on the Cypress Knees! I'm considering a foredom to do some larger projects so I appreciate your advice. I think it would also work better on the cypress. Now I just have to boil the bark off of them! Thanks again for your help!
Blake

[Doug Ridley]

Blake, I just did this in hopes of helping someone (and to see if I could do it). I hope you get some benefit from it.Keep in mind that it is not professionally done and is primarily for beginners. Hope it helps.
Doug

[bbeery]

Originally Posted by Doug Ridley

I don't use patterns on Cypress knees but if you are interested send me a private message with your address and I'll e-mail you my Beginner's Tutorial for power carving a Cypress knee. It might help a little and should help even if you don't use power.
Let me know.
Doug

Hey Doug, I would really appreciate getting a copy of that tutorial also. I have several large knees that I picked up in the swamps of South Carolina last winter i.e. about 3 plus feet long/tall, whichever. Never carved one but want to get started soon. I power carve. Thanks for any help you can send me.

[Doug Ridley]

Bill-- On your 3 foot knees you might think about cutting off 6 or 7 inches off the bottom and carving a head out of it as shown in this pic. I do a lot of that and you get a medium size Cypress knee Santa plus a Santa head. Two for one.
Just a suggestion to make your tall knees go further.
Hope you got the tutorial okay.
Doug

[bbeery]

Doug, thanks for the idea. May give it a try..although getting knees is no problem. I hunt on a private 50,000 acre area in low country South Carolina. Virgin cypress with some knees reaching 8 to 9 feet tall. I pay one of the local residence a small fee to use his chain saw to remove them.
I brought home 3 last November. They cracked slightly when curing. Probably tried to dry them to fast.