Nutcrackin owl?

[alexvoi]

Hey guys, just found this awesome forum!

I've alway been some sorta creative guy. I love drawing, making music and 3D modeling (which actually is my job). So I'm not completely new to shaping objects into new forms. I did some work with clay, which I really enjoyed, but I never really worked with wood (except for some carving what I guess every child once did ).

So I was thinking to give it a try since I'm standing in awe almost every time I see some of those beautiful sculptures made of wood.

Here's what came to my mind: As you can tell from my avatar - I got a thing for owls. Their shape is beautifully smooth and elegant yet powerful... I just love them. And I got a german background so I thought why not try to combine these two and work some Nutcrackers style in it - a nut cracking owl ;D. But since I'm completely new to this I would love to get some advice on how to approach it. What kinda tools would be best for this job? Are there any good teaching videos or texts about this? I've already seen a owl-carving video someone posted here, which was really great, but I haven't seen anything about Nutcrackers so far. What would be most important for me would be how to carve those "mechanical" parts so it really would work as a Nutcracker.

Any ideas?

[cut up]

Welcome to the forum and woodcarving, alexvoi.
I have made a couple of nutcrackers, but they were turned on a lathe.
I got the pattern from a book called "The Best of Fine Woodworking" and the author of the pattern was Fred Sneath. I don't recall the year of publication, but it shouldn't be hard to find.
Basically, the body and head were turned as one piece. The head was cut off at the neck and the cavity for the nutcracker mechanism was cut by bandsaw. The jaw was cut and fit to the body using a 3/16" metal rod and the head was glued back in place. The arms were turned as on piece, as were the legs. They were cut apart and glued to the body.
I would think an owl wouldn't be any different. If it was all hand carved, you could probably get it done with just your carving knife and a coping saw or band saw.
Hope this helps. If not, I'm sure someone else will be along shortly.
Michael

[Claude]

Originally Posted by alexvoi

...
Here's what came to my mind: As you can tell from my avatar -
...

First, welcome to the forum! I think your owl nutcracker sounds like a great idea.
But...you don't have an avatar photo. When you joined, you put your owl photo in your "Profile Photo", not your Avatar. Avatars show up with every post, such as my "Santa Claude" photo here. If you click on my name, then select Public Profile from the drop-down, you'll see the difference.

Click on UserCP in the green line above, then go down to Edit Avatar and put the owl photo there. Note: the Profile Photo can be slightly larger than the Avatar. Read the fine print carefully in the Edit Avatar section to find out the correct size. If you can't find it, send me a Private Message and I'll give you some specific directions.

Claude

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

Welcom to the forum!

Dave

[Robert Cahill]

Welcome to the forum. I would thinks a workable nutcracker would need a hard wood like maple and hand tools might make it a bit difficult to start with. just a thought

[jmischel]

You should be able to make one with hand tools: a coping saw and knives/gouges. You might try searching the forum. A quick search turned up these two threads, which should be of some use.

Here's a nut cracker Pattern

Nutcracker Toy Soldier

[STAR]

I am really interested in this Nutcracket thread. I hope you get lots of information and the best way I have found is to try to keep this thread alive for as long as possible.

Follow every thread and links given because everybody has something special to offer, but at first glance some might not seem so promising, but a closer look at their theme, often leads to the success you are looking for.

I am making a near life size Nutcracker Toy Soldier to stand beside the Christmas tree. Mine will not be a working nutcracker but will be built using a small working Nutcracker soldier scaled up 3.8 to 4 times. It is surprising how big something about 15 inches scaled up four times in all direction can become.

Rather then ambush your thread I will post some work in progress photos soon, as I have advanced enough to show some progress. The wheels in STARS workshop move very slowly.

Good luck as I also would like to make a much smaller working Nutcracker.

Pete

[alexvoi]

Wow, first of all: thanks for all the replies!

Originally Posted by cut up

Welcome to the forum and woodcarving, alexvoi.
I have made a couple of nutcrackers, but they were turned on a lathe.
I got the pattern from a book called "The Best of Fine Woodworking" and the author of the pattern was Fred Sneath. I don't recall the year of publication, but it shouldn't be hard to find.
Basically, the body and head were turned as one piece. The head was cut off at the neck and the cavity for the nutcracker mechanism was cut by bandsaw. The jaw was cut and fit to the body using a 3/16" metal rod and the head was glued back in place. The arms were turned as on piece, as were the legs. They were cut apart and glued to the body.
I would think an owl wouldn't be any different. If it was all hand carved, you could probably get it done with just your carving knife and a coping saw or band saw.
Hope this helps. If not, I'm sure someone else will be along shortly.
Michael

I wasn't able to find the book you mentioned but found this instead: Amazon.com: Small Woodworking Shops (New Best of Fine Woodworking) (0094115586863): Fine Woodworking Editors: Books

Do you think it's any good?

Thanks for sharing your experience, this gave me a good idea of how to plan this .

Originally Posted by Claude

[...] When you joined, you put your owl photo in your "Profile Photo", not your Avatar. [...]

Oh, thanks for the heads up! I think it should be fixed now.

@Gulf Coast Handyman: Thank you!

@Robert Cahill: What tools would you recommend then?

@jmischel: Thank you, those are really helpful!

@STAR: Wow, that sounds like a really big project . I'm really looking forward to see some!

Thank you for your help guys! I think this gives me at least something to start sketching and plan ahead.

cheers!

[cut up]

In my opinion, all of the Fine Woodworking books are good, but I didn't see the nutcracker listed in the index. The pattern I have is real close to the one in the link by jmischel.
The main difference is in the shape of the head, and the legs are beefier than the one in his pattern. When I mentioned an owl nutcracker to my wife, she wants one now. Maybe later. Have fun with it.
Michael

[Buffalo Bif]

The problem with a working nutcracker will be the stresses involved in the pivot and the jaw, if you really intend to crack nuts with it. If by working nutcracker you mean the jaw will move but you have no intention of actually cracking any nuts, then things get easier by a lot. A decorative working piece could be made with softer easier to carve woods, wood dowel pivot, grain direction in the jaw is not very important. I'm working on my first one now, decorative only. The figure has three pieces- left and right halves and the moveable jaw. Drill and a bandsaw to rough out, after that I use only a knife for whittling. Drill half the recess for the jaw into each half-blank, drill a little hole for the pivotinto each half, shape the recess and the jaw piece to fit and work properly, then carefully glue the two halves together around the jaw with the pivot installed- don't glue the jaw in place. The pivot will be hidden in the finished piece. Everything will be basswood. I may rough carve the halves in the head and chest area, and the jaw before assembly so I only have to put finishing touches on those areas afterwards. Arms legs hat will all be whittled after the glue has dried.
That's the plan anyway.