[hruukki]

Hi Hooked, I'm a beginner as well - well I've been carving since august so not totally fresh. I've tried the following: mahogany, red alder, birch, and basswood (or linden, I think that's the same), and also cherry which is great but expensive. If I were to carve that head, I would probably use basswood for the actual head and birch for the antlers. Basswood might be too soft for them. Red alder is somewhere between birch and basswood, in my experience, but I suppose it tends to warp when drying. With mahogany, you'd want to avoid the sort with wild grain, or ribbon grain, I suppose it's the same thing. It looks great but the grain changes direction pretty much, so it's hard to get a smooth finish without sanding. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong at any of this, as I said I'm quite fresh.)

Also - with your apparent talent, why not try it as full sculpture, instead of flat like you have done now? I'm sure you would succeed at that. You'd have to make them smaller of course, to save material, but I'm sure the result would look great.

You gave me an idea: I'll make some 3-dimensional head like that, and use carved branches for antlers... won't be symmetrical but fun, I'm sure. In fact that's just what I need above our coat hangers - my wife messes the place up with scarves, she can hang them there!

[Hooked]

hruukki,
It's funny you should mention making some kind of hanging rack. This is actually going to be part of a bow rack. When I started I really wasn't sure how I was going to make it a bow rack and I am still not exactly sure. I think I am going to use another wood as a backing and glue the deer onto it. Hopefully, this will accomplish two things. First, by gluing it down to a more stable wood I hope to keep the pine from warping and cracking. Second, the backing will provide a place for me to attach hooks to hang bows (as in archery) from.

This will be going into my six month old son's room. Let me share with you what is special about it. I will try my best to keep it short.

Garrett (my son) was born with a heart defect (Hypoplastic Left Heart). Basically his left ventricle never developed. He had open heart surgery at six days old. He will have another open heart surgery in April and then another at 2-3 years old. There will almost definitely be more surgeries down the road. Fifteen years ago they would have told us there was nothing they could do and he would have died within a few days after birth.

While we were in the hospital, some guys that only know me from occassional postings on a traditional bowhunting website, conducted an auction to benefit Garrett. They all donated items and bid for the items. One of the items was a recurve bow. They came up with the idea of each chipping in $20 to buy the bow. They named the bow the "Little Garrett Bow" (LGB for short). They will pass it around and hunt with it until Garrett is old enough to shoot it. They are also taking pics and writing about the hunts they take it on. This bow rack will be the LGB bow rack and will hang in his room waiting for the day the LGB will find its place there. Along with all tales and pics from the hunts it has been on.

Here are some more pics, I think I am pretty much done except for staining it then finding the appropriate wood for the backing.



Here is a close up so you can see the hair

[Hooked]

I am going to use Walnut as the backer board, but have a few questions.

s for anyone:

Should I treat or stain the walnut before gluing the deer to it?

Also, the guy at Woodcraft told me regular titebond would be fine. He said it is just as strong but will clean up with water (not waterproof) which should be fine since this will be hanging on a wall. He also said it is alot cheaper.

Should I use the pretreatment stuff before staining the deer?

Will glueing the deer to the Walnut keep it from warping and cracking? I have already noticed a small crack forming so I want to get this done if it is going to help.

[hruukki]

Hi,

-Impossible to tell about cracks. They form when the wood is drying up, so the best is to use as dry wood as possible.
-Titebond is water soluble when fresh, but after drying it's harder than the wood itself, in general. I understand standard Titebond is fine for any indoor use.
-I think glueing the pieces together might hold off the cracks a bit - but just as easily, the results might be unexpected. Someone else may have more certain information.

For instance: I made a small door out of red alder, which wasn't dry enough. I glued some boards together. It didn't crack upon drying, but warped so much it's pretty useless.