One hour carving

[Colin-Partridge]

Hi gang,
A lady called in yesterday and wanted a carving for her garden. She was a nice lady but wanted the carving immediately. Now I am quite backed up with commissions and have crossed out the "Eat" and "Sleep" on my WCI T shirt so all it says now is "Carve". But being the accommodating guy that I am I consented to do the carving right away for her. I was picking out a log to do it in when it occurred to me that I should see how long it actually takes me to carve one of my woodspirits. I never give it much thought but now with all these dead lines I decided to time it. This carving is about 9 inches wide and a little over five feet tall done in Eastern White Cedar. From start to finish it took me exactly 56 minutes with two coats of stain. All I have left to do is sign it and that should take about two minutes. I was wondering as I did this how long do you take to carve something. I am pretty fast because I know all the cuts and one face is pretty much the same as another I just change the expression a little. I know if I carve a Santa it takes me a whole lot longer because of the detail and I cant use my chainsawSmile but this was the first time I ever timed myself carving. Just curious thought it would make a good thread anyway.
Colin
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[Jim OH]

56 Minutes. I carved a Cat in the Hat with mallet and chisel and it took me about two months. I'm guessing something like your wood spirit would take me about 56 daysTalking If I am in a class I can usualy complete a roughout in three days. The faces on the corner of a block usually take me about 4 hours to carve. You are obviously a lot faster than I am but I am carving strictly for the fun of it and speed is not a major concern.
Jim OH

[Irishman]

Well I don't use a chainsaw so roughing out a log takes me that much longer...and depending on the detailing, it can add several more hours to one of my carving. Factor in the type of wood, the sealing of ends, as well as the face...hmmmm...I would say it takes me on average about 6-8 hours to carve a woodspirit. If its a female woodspirit, you can add another 2-4 hours as I fuss a lot more trying to get the features just right. Given what I charge for a woodspirit, I'm definitely not in it for the money.
Patrick

[kitaye]

Wow, 56 minutes. It took me 12 hours to rough out a wooden 3/4 inch heart. I'm pretty sure I would cut something off if I was moving as fast as you did on this one.

[Joy]

I'm a very slow carver. It took me a month to carve the large Santa. It's a good thing I don't need to carve for my supper.

[Lightningbolt]

It's amazing how repetition can dramatically increase speed in carving a particular project with years and years of experience.

I've gotten quite fast at carving woodspirits myself, but of course if I accounted for the "thousands" of hours spent learning how to work my chisels in previous decades, then an hour for completing a nice woodspirit certainly seems like a well-deserved moment of gratification. I carved this woodspirit in just over 45 minutes in a small live tree, but he's a little smaller than your's... http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11861
Click me!

I suppose that when you begin to depend on the extra income generated from carving you tend to get really good at what sells. Pretty good incentive in my opinion but I guess that we can "stretch the envelope" and learn new techniques while sitting around the winter fireplace!

[susieq]

My husband used to get after me to keep track of the time I had in a piece. I wasn't interested in doing that because if I did, it would depress me so badly I would probably quit carving.....

The large black Thomas Nast style santa I did for the state fair last year, I know I worked on for 6 months. Not every day, not all day but a lot of hours. I work slowly. I wish I could work faster but I can't. Late last year I had a piece in progress for the state fair this spring but I could see that I was going to have to really hurry it to finish in time and that means making mistakes or bad choices, so I put it down. It just wasn't going to get done in time so I picked up another project and worked on that instead.

Now I am working on the first piece again and hope to get finished for the gallery event in November. It might happen, might not. Ever since I got my copy of Ian Norbury's book, I have been inspired to do more detail, add more things to the piece..... I am pulling out all the stops on this piece. Heaven only knows when it will be finished..... It's a good thing I don't carve for a living, I would starve to death.
susieq

[Kenny_S]

That is a question most people ask, how long did that take you? Well till it was done.
How many hours do you have in that piece? Enough!
I have no idea how long it takes on most of my carvings. Some are completed faster than other but I don't know how long. I am like Suiesq, That would depress me and there is enough stuff in this world that can make a person depressed.
I carve for the enjoyment of it and if a piece sells, Ok, if not, ok! Makes a good present.

[Ron Davidson]

Colin you have carved enough of your spirits you could do it blind folded. But promise me you won't try blindfolded. I remember the last time you carved my way. But that is a good time.
Ron

[Lightningbolt]

Kenny S said it well and I agree. I would have to say that the No. 1 question asked about a carving is "How long did it take?"

I do a lot of carving each year at work which are used as gifts for friends of our program and/or fundraising so management is especially inquisitive about how long it's gonna take me to carve X amount of something. On some items I can give a rough ball-park amount of time because I've carved it so much, but still it's only a fuzzy guess at best. Like Kenny said, I'll be done when I get done.

Over 10 years ago carving small "desk top" totem poles became my specialty after I'd spent so much time studying them in southeast Alaska during the 80's. As usual, I got plenty of the how long did it take questions so I decided to time myself on a four character totem that I had designed. All together it took 12 hours to completely finish.

I then put it on display along with a zip lock bag full with all the shavings from it to satisfy every curiosity of the observer. Even if I thought that I was only worth $10.00/hour that totem would have had to bring $120.00 just to break even, in my opinion... and I sure wouldn't carve them all day-every day for that unless I was pretty hungry! Granted, I have seen similar small totems on sale in southeast Alaska for three to five times that as the norm, but non-tourist folks in my part of the south just aren't gonna pay that.

Needless to say, that's also about the time that I discovered woodspirits which are a lot more practical for selling-vs-time involved. During the last couple of years I'm also discovering that chainsaw carving (especially bears) are quite popular AND profitable verses time involved.

That little experience in timing myself probably had a lot to do with the future direction of my carving.