[Kenny_S]

Personally, I did not see any post belittleing anyone. Those replies are from carvers who do not sand their carvings, Me included. That is theirs and my preference. Nothing wrong with not sanding a carving.

No law saying you have to sand or not to sand a carving. I did see suggestions that were trying to help Vic or anyone else who have these problems, me included.

Best to you all

[Claude]

Vic:
If you want a relatively small sanding block that is very flexible, stop by the aisle in the supermarket where they have the crayons, pads of paper, pencils, and Pink Pearl erasers. Those little erasers are quite flexible, and you can easily wrap a small piece of fine sandpaper around one.

Claude

[Donna_T]

Hello Vic,
I don't like to sand either, but I regularly do it because I'm not a "clean" carver. A couple of things I use is a little pointed Guge sanders in a really fine grit on a slow micro motor or a flexible sanding drum with a really fine grit fabric swiss sandpaper. Both will get down in concave areas--one is wider than the other. Another thing I do is use a power carving bit, fine grit diamond or even a white stone to get into tight spots like nose and ear holes. You can actually turn them with your fingers or get a little manual tool called a Bobby T or Bo T that lets you put micro bits in either end and manually turn it round and round to "sand" the spots.

For concave spots like necks or cheeks, you can also use Scotchbrite pads on a power carver and it can clean up whiskers and splinters.

These are just some of the tricks I've used.

Donna T

[squbrigg]

Vic.... a great way to smooth those pesky corners and depressions are by using diamond files. They are inexpensive and come in a whole variety of shapes and curves. I find them great for getting into those tight spots.

Bob

[vic n]

Reg, Thanks for taking up for the new guy! Vic

[vic n]

All- Thanks so much for all the suggestions! I think I'm going to be a carver who will sand some and leave some as they are .... I'll let the carving tell me. I know that right now, I'm not the best at sharpening and I don't have the best selection of tools, yet. I am learning, tho, and (hard to believe) I actually seem to have a little talent!
I've tried some of the suggestions, some have worked better than others. Donna- Altho I don't have power tools,I never thought of just buying some of the bits and using them by hand or with a hand-held tool. Neat idea!
Claude- a pink eraser? How simple ....... elegant ..... effective ...... A tool that's cheap, firm yet flexible, pink, the list goes on. Thanks.

Hopefully I'll post a couple of things for critique soon, and you all can tell me if I'm worrying too much about the finish! Thanks again everybody!! Vic

[Kenny_S]

Vic, You might try finger nail emery boards. They come in various grits also and can be cut to shape.

[Bandaid]

Kenny-S...if you read my post you will note that I did acknowledge that some members did offer constructive suggestions to our fellow member.

Reg

[hruukki]

Hi Vic, you already had a lot of good suggestions. One untried idea occurred to me: a round-ended wooden stick attached to a power drill. I'm going to try that one. Different hardwoods should produce different results. Also some sharpening wax could be added (I suppose). Don't try this on any project straight off, try it on scrap wood first! This is just an idea that came to me when I read the posts. Hm now that I think a bit further - it seems that a wooden stick should break pretty easily. On the other hand, with a drill, you wouldn't need a lot of pressure.

[Kenny_S]

Kind of like brunishing eh?