Bird carving question

[Clumsy Eddie]

I'm interested in adding bird carvings to my repertoire. Would you experienced bird carvers share with me your thoughts on where to start? I am especially enamoured of owls. Would a small owl such as a screech owl or a saw whet owl be a good place to start, or would one of the bigger ones be better?

Thanks to all who reply.

With best regards,

Stephen

[Orygoner]

I would think that the smaller owls you mentioned would be a very good place to start. Some of the reference books on owls will be a great aid. There is a recent article in Wildfowl Carving Magazine on a Saw whet. Also, Jerry Simchuk has a good booklet on carving and painting a Saw Whet. I have both and kind of prefer Jerry's...just better pics and more detailed.

Good luck with the owl...hope to see a few pics soon. ;-)

[torpidhummer]

Since you are venturing into bird carving,it depends on when type of tools you are
going to use,there are some bird carvers that use nothing edge tools and do excellent work.
Should you decide to use power tools,Frank Russell has an excellent DVD on the use of power tools and the use of different bitts and burrs he uses to capture the reality of birds and animals,
It's, Frank Russell's Power Carving,Fur,Feathers & Fins,I purchased this DVD when it first
came out and when I get stuck I refer to it. Then after familiarizing yourself with use of power tools, Randy mentioned some excellent projects that work very well.I hope this helped you out.
Oscar

[Magicman]

Hi Stephan
Moore's Rough outs has a snow owl rough out that is about 6 or 7"'s tall. This would be a good starting project.
Larry