hair question

[hen]

what is the best way to power carve
animal and human hair in a relief carving?

thanks,hen

[dnstehly]

I find the best way to power carve hair is with a diamond (or ruby) cylinder with the flat end ground off to give a sharp cutting edge. Use short strokes for fur and longer strokes for longer hair. Best results are obtained by adding some curvature to the stroke. For long hair make a figure 8 with your strokes.

[Donsexton]

Make tight "S" shapes and "C" shapes the C shapes should not stack but cup the other C shape. This is what you wanted to know? Do this for most hair make the shapes tight or loose close together just play with it. Don't try make it perfect it takes practice to get a good feel for carving hair

[susieq]

Greetings, Hen.
I was fortunate enough to take some power carving classes with Frank Russell a few years ago and learned to carve hair/fur from him. Frank is a top notch power carver and has books and DVDs out on the subject. I know he covers some of this in his books and DVDs.

First, carve the clumps of hair. Then texture them. White stone inverted cones and small cylinder shapes are both good for texturing. The higher the rpms you can go with your unit, the better off you are.

Holding the bit almost on it's side, make random back and forth motions in the direction of the hair flow. You will be cutting with the edge of the inverted cone or cylinder. You might put a couple of pencil marks on the piece, showing the direction of the hair flow...

Start at the tip of a clump of hair and work your way back & forth, width wise, then move up so that your strokes just barely overlap what you just did. It takes practice so grab a piece of scrap wood and carve clumps, then texture them. You will get the hang of it in no time. There will be more fuzzing going against the grain than with. I use a small, soft brush wheel to clean those out afterwards and also those 3M bristle wheels in the very fine grit.

I do highly recommend those DVDs by Frank. Describing how to do something doesn't begin to convey what I mean but actually watching somebody to this is so much more enlightening...good luck and happy carving.