[slivers&dust]

You could call this guy a cousin to Black Powder because he was modeled after Mark Gargac's Mt. Man.
I think I'll call him "Hawkeye"

I still need to carve the feather that will attached on the hat, and carve down the back some. The finish will be oil and wax, maybe a bit of color.

dimension; 9x6x3

[Doug Ridley]

Man, that is a really good job! I like it.

[SpiritSock]

Awesome and incredible photos,Tony.
The marble ones just amazed me !!!
Great work

Peace Ed

[AlArchie]

Tony, the carvings are beautiful, but I was absolutely enthralled by the marble statue restoration! Could you please give a little background on techniques and materials used in that process?

Al

[gene messer]

Only one word to describe it .. Excellant... Excellant ... Excellant ...

[wood-whittler]

slivers&dust


excellent work i like it.

bart

[feb]

Tony, great job. What do they mean by marble one's, or is it a joke. feb

[slivers&dust]

FEB, what they are referring to are the marble statue restoration projects I did. You can see them on my Webshots. (Link under my signature)

Originally Posted by AlArchie

Tony, the carvings are beautiful, but I was absolutely enthralled by the marble statue restoration! Could you please give a little background on techniques and materials used in that process?

Al

The way I repaired the marble statues was to first soda blast and pressure wash the piece to remove dirt, calcium and staining. The damaged areas were then built back up with crushed marble and epoxy, a 90/10 mix, until there was enough to reshape the area using diamond rotary bits in my Fordom, riffler files and sandpaper. Some of the larger areas required a wire frame or pins to support the built up areas. Harder then wood but technique is the same as power carving wood.

Another way to repair the damaged area would be to carve a new piece and pin it in place. I’ve not tried that yet though.

I guess my boss figured I could repair the statue of Mary since I carved (wood) on my breaks at work. He took the piece on before he asked if I could do it.

After it showed up he said, “do you think you can fix this?” “I told them we could”
After I got over the …WHAT were you thinking!…I figured if I could get a marble-epoxy mix to bond to the damaged areas I could carve it down to shape. They had nothing to loose so I gave it a try and it worked and has held up for eight years now.

The statue of Christ was brought over from Olympia WA. the other side of the state. From what I was told the cemetery that it came from had unsuccessfully tried to find someone in three states to repair it. They had all but given up on it when a board member was in town and heard we (I) could do it, so it arrived on a flat bed trailer a month later. It took me about fifty hours to build up the damaged area’s and some area’s of natural deterioration like cracks and voids.

I also repaired an angle that had lost a hand and finger. I was able to attach the hand with pins at the wrist and most of a finger but I had to rebuild the fingertip.

I recently had another piece come in that wasn’t from a cemetery but an antique sculpture. They wanted the wings repaired but they were so thin and OLD that the marble was just too brittle. The only solution there would have been to carve new wings. I found someone else to do that, but the customer didn’t go for the cost…yet

[Tom H]

Great Job Tony. I just might print out a photo of that fellow, and use it as motivation to practice , practice, practice.. Thanks, Tom H

[bygeorge]

Tony, very nice job! If you decide to add a little color, Marks' technique worked very well for me. Really liked the work on the statue too. I believe you are going to keep yourself very busy producing results like that.

Chuck