Traditional Woodspirit

[Irishman]

Each year I donate a carving to our daughter's band auxillary for their annual Christmas fundraiser. This year they wished to go with something that would be good for all seasons so I ended up going with a traditional looking woodspirit. He is smaller than my usual log carving and stands over three feet tall. The birch carving is treated with double boiled linseed oil and then sealed. I added extra pics to illustrate the carving stages.
Patrick

[Irishman]

More progress pics.

[johncarves]

Great work! I likes it.

[Merle Rice]

Good job Patrick. Merle

[Ashbys]

Pat ,

Did I hear you say you needed my address ?

Nice !

Garry

[Mark N. Akers]

Excellent job Patrick.

[JoeVM]

Patrick, I sure do like your woodspirts in birch logs. I'm sure you have been asked this many times before but -- do you work with green wood or is it dried? If dried -- how long do you dry it? My little experience with birch is that when dried it is quite hard and I was wondering if it might be carved green without cracking.

[Bill V]

Patrick,
Excellent woodspirit, I like him.

[Colin-Partridge]

Great job as usual Patrick love your woodspirits if only I could get that kind of detail. Is the fundraiser by silent auction or how does one bid on it. Just curious I may want to bid on it.
Colin

[Irishman]

Hi Joe,
I've carved birch both green and dried. I have found if I leave the mature logs drying more than a year, it starts to show spalding. I don't mind the spalding but the fibres start breaking down and can flake off when carved. Carving them green...as this latest one...has much softer fibres as they are still full of sap and water. The down side is that the fibres don't take up the oil as well as the dried...and I find I need to seal the wood soon after carving because the face will show signs of checking. The other thing I find with the green is that you can get some discoloration in parts of the face when the surface is left uncarved for a while. I think I heard people refer to it oxidizing. In otherwords, you get parts starting to brown...and the areas you just carved are pailer because you have new fibres. The last think about he green wood is that the water tries to release somewhere's, which means it will try to come through the exposed wood (if not sealed well) and show signs of molding. Hope that helps Joe.
Patrick

Originally Posted by JoeVM

Patrick, I sure do like your woodspirts in birch logs. I'm sure you have been asked this many times before but -- do you work with green wood or is it dried? If dried -- how long do you dry it? My little experience with birch is that when dried it is quite hard and I was wondering if it might be carved green without cracking.