Waste wood

[Strotis]

I have a 32" long pear tree trunk that has now dried enough for me to begin carving. I intend to carve myself as a nude figure full length. I have been an artist - mostly painting portraits for over 20 years. I have done the calculations (layout) and to carve a full figure each body section (sections being: head, neck & upper torso, lower torso, waist & groin, thighs, lower legs and feet) will be around 4" in length 28" in total with a bit of a base. The trunk is 10" in diameter and it will be a squeeze to get three heads width for the shoulders - but I will manage.

Taking a good look it seems there will be an enormous amount of waste wood that will fall on my studio floor. I will be roughing out with a chainsaw and an arbour blade on my hand grinder. Does anyone else have a problem with the amount of waste that comes from carving. I can not complain about cost as the trunk was given to me. I hate to think what problems I would be having if it was marble at some enormous cost. Maybe I'm just paranoid about getting started. Somebody tell me to shut up and get on.

Strotis

[chisler10]

There will always be a pile of chips on the floor, don't be afraid, part of the fun is removing all that extra to find what is hiding inside.
Patrick

[mdallensr]

OK, shut up and get on with it; carving is a subtractive process. One old carving saying goes: I started with a tree and carved away everything that didn't look like my pattern. Regardless, I feel your pain. I've been carving a dragon out of what was a big hunk of mahogany, and note that now it is probably less than 20% of the original weight. My wife mulched a flower bed with the chips I've made so far. BTW, you may find you have to remove even more wood than you plan to keep your sculpture from cracking. Mike

[rcurtism]

Some nights you will find that it is easier to tell how much you have accomplished by the depth of the pile of chips then by the look on the carving. And there will be other nights where there will be hardly anything on the floor but the changes in the work will amaze even you. That is the joy of carving.

[mpounders]

Here is my waste from a small egg I carved from a block of wood! Just kidding! This is actually from planing 3/4"boards down to 1/2" for a couple of drawers I was replacing. The piles created from carving aren't much smaller but I clean them up before they get this tall! I have often considered larger pieces but I can only imagine the piles of chips and sawdust it would create in my driveway!

[TreeWizard]

Mike: Just a tip I found useful to cut down the cleanup time for the surface planer. I stick a waste basket in front of the outlet side of mine and it catches almost 90% of the shavings.

[Caril Chasens]

There could well be usable chunks in the waste from chainsaw roughout, especially if you plan it that way

[Whittled Thumb]

Carvers turn big pieces of wood into little ones! Don't fret just do it!

[chipmunk]

carvin is like making a amlet u have to break a egg to get to whats inside some carvers would carve the shell not to waste anything if u carve away big pcs. from the stump u can make some smaller pcs. of work from it not to waste as much if u look at a past thread u will find some uses for the chips that way u not throwing away a lot of the wood with no use it has a use maybe not in the carvin but for other things
i hope this helps with waste not want not

[Strotis]

Thanks for the comments guys. I will be finishing the sketches by the end of the week and start carving this weekend. I'll post a pic or two as I go. Again thanks.

Strotis