[herbd]

Hi,

I'm carving an owl - about 16 inches tall, and they've got lots of feathers. Any tips in carving feathers. I'm not power carving, but using knive and chisels.

herbd

[kitaye]

Welcome Herb. I can't help you with feathers specifically but I would suggest you get a scrap piece of the same wood and practice making them before you work on the real carving. I know it is a lot of time you could spend doing something else, but sometimes the extra practice will let you make less mistakes on the carving.

[Paul_Guraedy]

You have asked a simple question (one that cannot be asked too many times) with a big answer that is far more complicated than it first appears.

I guess the first consideration is to determine how much detail you want to put into your carving. You did not indicate which owl you are carving; but, 16" says you are at least approaching life-size and are probably going for a great deal of detail. But, I must ask, are you wanting to just indicate the presence of feathers? Are you carving in only the flight feathers? Are you going for a "realistic type" carving?

Since you asked about carving feathers, I assume that you already have them "laid out". The two biggest mistakes made with feathers are "soldiering" drawing and carving them like scales on a fish or a group of soldiers in formation rather than making them random. The second is to "stair step" them. To carve them so that they step down rather than blend into one another. The edges of the feathers should flow into one another so that they are not obvious.

You will also find that most "bird carvers" are also "power carvers". It is not necessarily that we prefer power over hand tools; but, that the realistic feather look requires it (or at least I would hate to undertake the task without it).

I start my feathers with hand tools. I "V" tool around each feather. I then go around the edge of each feather with a knife and start "blending" them together. At this stage, I also begin to form "splits" or separations in the feathers.

Once the outline is achieved, the quick answer to tips on carving feathers is that they come in two types: hard - those involving flight. soft - those covering the body. Generally, I carve (knife) the central shaft of hard feathers and burn the vanes radiating out from it. I carve a little bit of shaft on some of the soft feathers and then use a cylindrical white stone to indicate vanes. I suppose that you can do this with hand tools but it would take a lot of care and an awful long time to reach the same level of detail.

There has been quite a bit of discussion on feathers here on the WCI Forum. You could start with a search of past threads. I would also recommend that you obtain a book on bird carving that covers feathers. Lori Corbett has authored an excellent book, "Carving Award Winning Songbirds" that I go to for my birds of prey. Details applicable to songbirds work for owls.

Good to see another birdcarver on the forum. If I can help with specifics send me a pm or contact me at pdguraedy@yahoo.com

Paul