[mark faggion]

i am haveing trouble doing the berads on my walking sticks what do you think any help would be great. thanks mark.

[whitecree]

You could have a look at the current WCI magazine. There is a project in there about a shelf-sitter that is all hat and beard. Take a good look at how the beard is done there, try it yourself.

I hope this helps.

[Canopener]

Mark,
I have had a beard for most of my life, but when I tried to copy my beard with lots of tiny cuts with a fine v-tool, it never turned out right. Then I got Dave Maggards tape on how to carve woodspirit walking sticks and it helped a lot. Basicly, he makes a few long, sweeping cuts fairly deep, with a larger v-tool to outline a long flowing beard, then makes a few accent, cuts here and there to finish it off. I know this is like only eating a few peanuts, but sometimes simple is best. When you are comfortable with this then you can start adding the fine detail.
You might want to check out Colin Partridges site to see how he keeps his beards fairly simple for a great effect. He is off being a grandpa right now, but is good for advice.
You might try to find some of Carole Jean Boyd's work on cypress knee Santa's. She carves some very intricate beards.
Good Luck!
Jim

[wood-whittler]

mark,

i have found that when doing beards stay away from the small v-tools and use a good sized v-tool or #11. them go back with smaller tools or just a knife and cut some shadows in it not many just a few.

hope this helps

bart

[Mark Gargac]

Hi, Mark, I have some sugestions that may help you some on carving beards on your walking sticks. A woodspirit walking stick was my first attempt at carving and I still enjoy carving them to this day.
The first steps I like to take when carving beards is to break up the mass some you have established for the beard. Depending on the size of your carving, lets say it' a woodspirit with a long flowing beard...1.5" in width and about4" long. I would then take a #9 or 11/10mm gouge and think long lazy "S" and "C" shapes and carve these in a random pattern in this area you established for the beard , keep them flowing, carve maybe about three or four of these but try to break them up some, what I mean by this is dont take one and run it from top to bottom, doing so creates stringy looking hair, were after soft flowing lines. Next switch to a smaller gouge say for instance a #9 or 11/7mm and retrace your previous cuts this will add some more depth. Now take a #9 or 11/4-5 mm gouge and carve on top of the rolling mounds taking the cut into the crevices and then coming back out to create some flow and interest. After these cuts , (its easy to overdo this next step), take a small V- tool and carve into but not all the deeper cuts for detail. After this last step the antiquing medium, if used , will really show the detail in these areas, hope this helps yopu some.

[rick-in-seattle]

This is a pretty good article on hair.

http://carverscompanion.com/Ezine/Vo...s/BTravis.html