[Mottles]

Wonderful carving job there Matt and interesting process. Thank you for sharing your bear with us. I have a Cottonwood limb I've carved a mountain man and grizzly bear into. I'm now into the process of burning in the fur texture of the bear. I think the extra step of pyrography will make the grizzly fur look more realistic and interesting. Will post when finished.
Kathy

[Sketch]

Thanks for all your encouraging responses. I can't tell you how much I've learned from reading the posts on this forum. The talent represented here is outstanding.

The bear is 9 1/2" x 5". I can't take credit for the design. I found the profile of the bear in a book called A Woodcarver's Workbook #2 by Mary Duke Guldan. I can say I printed out many resource photos from google images to try to get it the way I wanted.

Mark, I would love to know more about how you prep your wood for gluing up large pieces.(ex. use of jointer/planer?)

Thanks again for all your responses and I will post more pics when I start wood burning.

Matt

[santagibbs]

Very Very nice bear Matt.. Thanks for showing it to us and I look forward to seeing the progress you are making..Charlotte

[Coffeeman]

Matt, Great job so far and from the looks of it, you'll do just fantastic on the detailing too. Looking forward to viewing more pics as you get into it. Bill

[mark yundt]

The scale was deceiving,,I'll tell you anything you'd like to know.You've basically hit it on the head,,careful use of the planer and jointer is basically it.At times the blades on either can have little nicks in them so I use a scraper to ensure no ridges are left before glue up. Also making sure the fence on the jointer is absolutely 90 degrees so the sides are perfectly perpendicular to the faces.If it's off,,the block next to a piece won't fit tight,,so either adjust the fence or alternate faces to compensate for the difference so they fit tightly together,co-tangent angles are self cancelling.Also you'll know when the pieces are right,,especially on larger blocks,,that when you put them together they almost want to stick just by vacuum,,,if that happens ,,you know they are flat,,you can feel it.Also they won't rock or wobble at all when placed together.One thing I've noticed is most people use way too much glue,,and end up with obvious joints. Be sure to wet both faces,and use card stock or something to evenly spread the glue,,but you should have just the thinnest film of glue on the surface before joining,,you shouldn't have alot of squeeze out after clamping.Actually I've seen too much glue act as a hydraulic cushion,,oh it will come together,,but it makes clamping more difficult,,and if the glue gets trapped,,can cause problems.Good glue will bond with a surprisingly little amount.Just this past week I prepped a piece,,started to add glue,,changed my mind,,used a cabinet scraper to remove the still wet glue,,wipped it with a damp rag,and set a block of wood there not even giving it a thought,,not 5 min. later I had a dickens of a time getting that dry block of wood off the cleaned up joint,,I was amazed,, I thought there was nothing there to even consider.I've used this example before,,put a drop of water between two plates of glass,,you will find it almost impossible to separate them without sliding them apart,physics says two perfectly flat surfaces ,,put together,,would be impossible to take apart,,,neat! So keep them flat and square...does this help ,,or did I miss something?,,just let me know

[bygeorge]

Matt, really nice looking carving going on there. Looking forward to some progress pictures.

Chuck

[Sketch]

Thanks again for all your responses. I started burning the fur last night and it seems to be coming along. I'll post pictures soon.

Mark, Thanks for your wood prep explanation. It was very helpful. I don't own a planer or a jointer at this point, but I see having the need to owning them in the future. Excuse my lack of knowledge, but could you explain if a jointer is a more important tool to have or if they are equally important? If they are both used, what order do you use each tool. (for example, do you plane the lumber first and then put the wood through the jointer to straighten out the sides of the boards. Sorry if these are lame questions, but I'm just a little fuzzy on the process of these two tools.

Thanks again for your time and knowledge.

Matt

[GeorgiaCarver]

Nice job, the bear turned out really good. You should be proud.

Greg

[mark yundt]

Not a lame question at all! We all have to start somewhere,,asking is a good thing.The jointer is the first step of the process,and if you're only doing glueups two boards thick you could really stop at this tool.It's function is to flatten a board,,either the faces or the edges.If you have a board that is twisted,warped or bowed you can make it flat using the jointer,,the opposite face will most likely still be warped,and it may be different thickness one end to the other,but you now have one flat surface to reference from.You can use this surface against the fence of the jointer to make one of the edges exactly 90 degrees to the now flat face of the board,,but you may not have the opposite edge parallel to it,,the board could now still have a taper over it's length.At this point I run the board through a table saw ,with the clean edge against the fence to make the edges parallel,,and do just a light dressing of that cut edge on the planer,,now you have one flat face and two parallel,,perpendicular and smooth edges,,the remaining face can be most anything at this point.Here ,if you're only gluing up two boards you can go ahead and glue them up,,the unfinished faces will be on the outside,and the finished ,flat faces are put together.If you need to make multiple stacks of boards,,the outside faces will have to be trued.Here is where the planer comes in,,with the prepped face down the planer will make the entire board a uniform thickness as well as flaten it.The planer is not used on the edges of the boards.If a piece is not jointed first,,you don't have a reference to plane from,,you can try to put a warped,twisted board through the planer,,but you'll probably end up with a smooth,,but.warped and twisted board,it may not remove the curves,,just follow them.If prepped properly,,the boards will have perfectly parallel sides,,perpendicular to the faces and have both faces flat and parallel to each other end to end,,and side to side.In other words,,a perfect rectangle if viewed from the end and sides.The first tool needed would be a jointer ( between the jointer and planer) though they really work in tandem,,but if you're not doing multiple stacks,,you can get away with the jointer. A table saw will also be necessary to make the edges parallel from end to end..for example,,the board might be 5 inches at one end and 5 1/2 at the other,,the saw will make it the same at both ends.In some carvings,,as long as they aren't getting too big,,these variations may not matter too much if your only goal is to make a big block since any variations will only get carved away,,there is no need to make a perfect cube for example,,only enough wood to find your piece in.It takes more words than it would to show you,,and some concepts might seem vague or confusing using only words. If this isn't clear,,just let me know and I'll try again,,maybe using a couple of pics to clear it up.

[Sketch]

Well, here are a few photos of my progress on the bear. I'm not totally happy with the way the fur is turning out, but I think, with a some more burning, I can get it looking a little better. The first photo shows my first round of burning. I stippled the inside of each gouge mark leaving the peaks untouched. This looked too reticulated, so I applied more burning so as to get the fur to flow a little better. It will need more work in this area. I'm also planning to darken some of the indented and recessed areas to enhance the shadows. Using the burning pen is fun, and I'm learning a lot.

Mark, Thanks for your explanation. It cleared up a lot for me. I now feel like I have a good grasp of the process. I appreciate you spending the time to write it all out. I'm probably a ways off from doing large pieces that would require such equipment, but it gives me a goal to shoot for.

Thanks again for all of your comments and encouragement.

Matt