[Baldy]

This has been a great blog if that is what you call it!!!. I got as much out of this series of lessons as I would out of many of the carving books I buy. It is information like this that I am looking for in my daily look at the message board.
This project brought together not only the carving of a figure but creating a scene with all of the things that make it realistic. We often see in the magazines things such as this that CCA members have carved but seldom do we see anything that we as less experienced carvers can try. You did all of us a real service!
I will be eagerly looking foreward to your next project, when and if you do one!!

Dick

[Thomp]

lynn,

dont know where i posted it but i ran out of blades for the copeng saw about 3/4ths done cutting out the main body, i broke over a dozen, and I finely had to resort to going to a cabinet shop - mill to have another blank cut out. on a bandsaw.

my coffee pot is too squatty becuse the top isent small enough, ill recut one later, and my design of a shovel wont work ill do one from your pattern.
the arms i cut out of 1 1/4th thick stock ...
i got all my parts except the bean pots fire irons (QUESTION:how big is the wire to make the fire irons and s hooks?) is it gas welding rod? or bigger

i dont mind constructive critizusm without feedback from others we might all get vain bitter and think we knew it all.
i know i dont know a lot about carving, other than you keep cutting on a block until your project pops up...


i still think this project was a blast. and if you took the time to publish this carving project with just a little more basic pointers i bet it would sell, I sure would buy one even though this one so far was free for the instructional part..

[Lynn O. Doughty]

The metal rod is 3/16" I think. S hook is just 18 guage.

[Tom H]

Lynn, Somewhere in your blog you stated that the Chuck wagon Cook project was for at least the intermediate carver. Well, that didn't scare me off. I hope it did not scare any other Beginner carvers off either. I am not a brand new carver, I have been carving for about one year, and I found that your instructional blog was just what I needed. True I did shrink the cook down to 3 inches, and it turned out kind of crude, but I gained a ton of enjoyment and excellent pointers. I have already started another one to help me improve. Thank you for your efforts. Tom H

[Claude]

Originally Posted by Lynn O. Doughty

...
I see things all the time on various threads where the carver asks for comments. Sometimes I would like to say somethingabout how he or she could improve a certain area, completely in a positive way, but I hold off for fear of offending.
...

Lynn:
One way to provide an honest constructive comment is to send a private message to the person who asked for the comment, assuming they have Private Messages enabled in their profiles. In a private message, you can be honest and not worry that you appear overly critical to someone who didn't read the original request for comments.

I've enjoyed reading your blog and seeing the photos and descriptive comments. I probably will never attempt this pattern, as my wife doesn't care for cowboy carvings, but I learned a lot of techniques that can be valuable on other carvings. Example: I never would have thought of having the straight arm carved separately and then attached; I'd have worked and worked to get the narrow area between arm and body carved smoothly from one piece of wood, and probably would have ended up with it less smooth than I wanted anyway.

Thanks for taking the time and effort to show us your techniques.

Claude

[Thomp]

claude,
I was supprized the first time i seen a professional carver make add on hands, not sure but i think it was pete leclair or harold enlow

pryor to that i was under the impression carvings had to be one piece of wood for some reason,

then lynn droughty came along and blew that theroy out of the water,

now i guess there are many carvers that have made carvings with add on pieces in the past but not being able to see them first hand we would never know,

---

i remember seeing some of (i think?) janet emile or tygg's carvings, real old carvings, where he used peg ends as buttons on one of the whimsical sites or on rick-in-seattles site.

now before i seen a button missing i remember thinking that it must have been a very hard thing to keep all them buttons on especally crossgrain, thats where i loose noses ears hands and fingers, on my carvings


i think it was the who made this coffee that i first noticed lynns charters head was repositioned from the initial pose, so i asked was it an add on.. yes he said then explained why...

[Shimmy]

On Lynns Cook carving ,trying to figure out the sizes ofthe coffeepot and other utensils.If you have the free program Irfanview,Copy Lynn's picture of the whole thing,open it in Irfanview.Put the box on the top of his head and the bottom of his shoes.and hit crop selection.Then resize in inches to 11inches in height.and print the picture.It will show he is 11in. tall and the coffee pot is 2 1/2in..If you have Irfanview you will understand what I am saying.You can probally do this with other such programs.
What I mean about the box,you make it with your mouse.And it will crop and leave whats in the box.I hope somebody understsnds this.

[Thomp]

PROGRESS REPORT....

ok here is my progress report...

and im not afraid of constructive comments
i admitt im never going to be as fast as lynn,,, he must eat his spinich before every carving...

ARrrrgh toot-toot!

I know im too thick, lots of chips on there that need to come off. in the legs and pelvis area, basicly i have a good rough out at this point...

! I cut out another shovel and got it too thin and wrecked it , but it was good practice.. will make another, my grandson will have fun as he distroys them, 2 when i watch him this week....


! havent tackeled the other coffee pot yet, will have to get on that but i wanted to get the main carving closer to finish but will probobally work on the throw off projects of the dutch ovens and other coffee pot.


FYI
the band holding the arms on is one of them bracelets that is so popular with the kids now days, hope it dont stain,
I didnt have a innertube handy, i did have that band,. i guess a big rubber band off brochli would work as well....


Shimmy,
one comment about using graphics as patterns,
only if the graphic photo was taken directly dead center of the lense can you use it as a pattern,
the camera distorts pinch and pull due to elevation and angle to the subject,
now if you had a auto cad program, and could vector in elevation and angle you could 3d wireframe the item and rotate it then come out with exact measurements, but im not smaret enough to know how to go about that.

intraview is one of the best programs for printing graphics or patterns out there that i know of becuse it has many possibilitys in the printer output alone that earned its place in my computer. and it being free,,, thats right down my alley.

[Shimmy]

Thomp, your right.But I find it very helpful in choosing a pattern to fit the size I wish to make it. Also if I do not have a piece of wood thick enough I can make the pattern to fit my size of wood.I am not talking about exact measurements but I can come to I/16 to 1/8 of inch.That beats having to cut out another piece.

[Thomp]

Correct,
i use it to size patterns all the time,
its easier on the hit and miss sizing usualy it takes 3 printings for me to get it close in intraview usualy in psp it may never get right, i usualy loose the preserve raito in psp and i wind up with something totaly weird, i think my bought copy of psp4 had a bug in the print driver
no other program has a better print function that intraview as you say.