[Capt. Bandaid]

Another twist: I am doing a relief panel about 1 foot by 2 feet. I am grounding a considerable amount of wood on three levels. I am using a dremel mounted on the Dremel router attachement to do this since there is a lot of detail to cut around. I will finish it with only palm tools. Is this hand carved? Yup. If you look in the book Classical Wood Carving which was published about a century ago in Britain, you will find the mechanical equivalent of a big dremel tool they recommend using to waste out the background on relief carvings. We just have the luxury of electricity!

[Ron D]

i think as long as the machine is hand held it is hand made but if you have a machine that all you do is push a buttom and it COMPLETES from start to finish it isn't hand made but machine made.as far as a duplicators that do rough outs or a fordom that is still hand made in my books.just what i think
ron

[whitecree]

"Isn't that cheating?" is a question I hear all the time when it comes to using anything other than mucle powered tools when carving.

Back in 92-93 when I first got seriously interested in carving, I was helping an 80 year old Elder carve a 42 foot canoe out of a single log. Some touristy type asked Samson (the Elder) that very question.

Now, Samson had up to this point built over 20 dugouts, starting when he was about 17. He built his first 6 using nothing more than an axe, an adze and a couple of large bent knives. The man who taught him, an uncle and a fella who spoke not a word of English, loaned Samson a brand-new chainsaw he had just purchased to help carve his 7th canoe.

Samson was born in 1910, so this was around 1927. His uncle was "old, older than he is now." So figure his uncle was maybe 80 at that time, making him born around 1850.

The point of all this? These two ancient carvers saw nothing wrong with using power tools, and thought anybody who avoided using them for the sake of "hand made", rather foolish.

Another point to consider - handicrafts. Nobody argues that a hand-beaded whatever is handmade. But are the beads and thread and loom hand-made? In this day and age? Ha! Yet, a beaded whatever, or a hand-made wallet (made from machine processed leather) is inarguably hand-made.




Boy, am I ever long-winded this morning.

[Kenny_S]

Personally, I don't think any carvers hands or anyone's hands are sharp enought to carve anything let a lone wood. So tools have to be used. YACK YACK YACK!

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

this gets beat to death!! who cares? put a power tool on the bench and a knife and see which one jumps up and starts carving without someones "hands" on it!

[Ashbys]

LOL
Dave
That is too easy , the grinder will .

Just turn the power on and it will start on its own.


But the knife wont.

LOL
Ash

[Old_Gord]

Obviously somebody cares because they keep beating the subject to death even to the point of resurrecting old dead threads.
Personally I think it's an attempt by some power carvers to "validate" what they are doing as I would venture a guess that most non-carving types think hand carved means just that and don't even think it has been carved with power tools.Thats just my opinion others may disagree.
If power carvers or those who use some power tools to assist in their carving endeavor want their carving to be known as handcarved then call them by what they are, handcarved with powertools.
Just as chainsaw carvers call their work just what it is, chainsaw carved, plain and simple, not titled hand carved, at least that's the way I see it.
On another note, those that insist on saying some artist from another era like Micheal Angelo would have used power equipment if it were available at the time, my question would be "how do you know?" So guessing at what would have or could have happened before you or your father were alive is pure speculation on your part. Lots of fun but not a factual statement.

Frankly I personally couldn't care how you arrive at the finished carving, it's your carving do it what ever way you want, it's your's to keep, give away or sell and if someone asks you is it handcarved then tell them how it was carved and don't be indignant because someone who is thinking of buying it just wants to know a little bit about how the item was created, actually it's a bit of Caveat Emptor on the buyers part.

.

OG

[Lynn O. Doughty]

Is this thing still Alive??? I've finished about four carvings and a vacation since it started!

Whitecree: That last post of yours was excellent. A real nice story that will, hopefully, drive a stake in this Zombie.

[Kenny_S]

Now who is beating this thread to death!!!!!! HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH
I agree with Hi Ho, WHO the heck cares! I am done with it. Hope you all are, !

Hope your hands don't get sore from grinding them to a sharp edge!
HAHAHAHOHOHOHOHEHEHEHEHE!

[santagibbs]

Gee, I just read this thread and have to put my two cents in..... don't read if you are tired of it..lol
I have seen Curtis make as many as five carvings of the same object.. ( I hate doing or painting the same thing over again) but the point is.. On the floor are thousands of little chips.. and with each chip of the knife, no two chips are falling the same..( sort of like snowflakes) He may use a sander to sand or just plain sand paper or sometimes take the excess off with the Automach, but when it gets down to the nitty gritty, he uses his knife and gouges. That's where the beauty of the peace comes in and the hand of the creator is in that peace. You have many other little pieces to use.. rifflers etc . but it's in the mind of the Artist to creat the carving not the tools yes, it's hand carved but mind carved more than hand carved.. so if the piece is what a person wants, then let them be satisfied with loving the piece and cherishing it for the beauty of the mind of the carver... let it be written... let it be said...lol Charlotte Now I better read what I wrote and see if this makes any sense...