5ft Woodspirit

[Irishman]

I'm back doing more woodspirits as the request are coming in from cottage dwellers. A gentlemen from Newfoundland is dropping by Friday evening to pick up this latest 5 ft birch woodspirit. There is no oil on this one as the new owner wishes to treat it himself. Therefore the detail and grain does not stand out very well. Thanks for viewing.
Patrick

[chpster90bu]

Patrick.....I love it! Especially nice job on the face...nose and eyes are wonderful. I'd give my eyeteeth to be able to carve a face like that. Thanks for posting. Bonnie

[Mottles]

Looks good Patrick, all five ft of him. How do you like carving birch wood? I've only wood burned on it and don't oil it---sooo it would be neat to see one that has been oiled. Nice work.
Kathy

[Irishman]

Kathy,

Birch is my standard wood I use for carving and I always treat it with tung oil and thinner. The oil really brings out the grain and gives the wood a nice golden brown color. I did a very similar woodspirit (posted a short time ago) in birch and it was oiled. If you look in the woodspirit section of the gallery you will see the difference. This carving was dampened with water to bring out the grain for the pictures, however, oil works very well. You may have noticed that the eyes are burned in on the WS.
Patrick

Originally Posted by Mottles

Looks good Patrick, all five ft of him. How do you like carving birch wood? I've only wood burned on it and don't oil it---sooo it would be neat to see one that has been oiled. Nice work.
Kathy

[Banjo]

Boy, he's really nice! Those eyes are just haunting.....

[Thor]

dito what Banjo said. That scale must be incredible to see in person.
Thor

[chuckt]

Wow! Really nice woodspirit Patrick. So - at these sizes are you using a chainsaw to do the rough out? Or is this all gouge & mallet work? Just curious. You seem to be moving into Colin's scale with this one. ;-)

Cheers!
ChuckT

[Irishman]

Interesting that you should mention this...I had responded to another thread and made reference to this very topic. I really should be using a chainsaw for the size of some of my woodspirits. My large gouges and mallet are taking quite a beating. I don't live out in the county so that's one problem. Used a carving disc on occasion but it produces a lot of dust in my shop so I rarely use it.
Patrick

Originally Posted by chuckt

Wow! Really nice woodspirit Patrick. So - at these sizes are you using a chainsaw to do the rough out? Or is this all gouge & mallet work? Just curious. You seem to be moving into Colin's scale with this one. ;-)

Cheers!
ChuckT

[brianh]

A electric chainsaw would be a help and not disturb the neighbors, I have two makita saws along with my gas chainsaws, I have a 12 inch pruneing bar on my Makita UC3500 I use it a lot for detail work.

[Colin-Partridge]

Nice carving Patrick you keep carving them bigger and bigger. Love the birch I have never carved it but I think I will look for some to carve. You should try a chainsaw for the roughing out an electic is better than nothing and are really cheap in Home Depot.
Colin