Bar Carvings

[Duke Of Dystopia]

Hello,

I am new to this forum but I am hoping to be able to add some interesting pieces to the mix within the next week.

First, this is my first foray into the world of chainsaw carving. I am a furniture builder (strictly amateur) but I have a much more massive project that requires sculpture with my furniture.

I am building a bar. My partner and I had to move our commercial liquor license to another location and the process is nearly complete. We have done all the furniture (The dragon tables, bar, DJ booth, tables & seats, framing and drywalling).

The name of the place is "Odin's Ale Haus", and it does have a pre-christian scandinavian theme to the place.

I have gotten to the point, where I need to carve the dragon heads for the tables. In addition, I need to create some "friezes" for portions of the bar above. The last piece of furniture will also be a platform to display other sculpture within the bar.

My chainsaw is an electric, 1.5 hp McCullough, with a 14 inch blade.

My sister works for the City, so she can get me any size log from the park and rec department for a case of beer.

I have only spent 25 minutes with my chainsaw, on the first dragon head to this point.

Are there any hints on how to use the chainsaw.
1)what cuts are best made with the tip
2)what cuts are best made with the flat of the guide bar on the bottom
3)do I need a carving guide if I am using a really small electric saw

At some point my sculptures will need to be bigger than a single tree trunk size (I am thinking of a troll, 9 feet tall). This piece will be made of 2 arms, 2 legs, torso, head, and a club.
1) Has anyone tried to do a multi-part sculpture such as this before?
2) Any suggestions for creating the joins where the parts will be assembled.

I will be doing a series of friezes (Large carved plaques) for display on walls. I figure I can have the tree trunks sliced into 6 to 8 inch sections and carve them as a flat plack.
1) Has anyone got any examples of doing this kind of work
2) Will the wood warp or is there a way of keeping the slab flat/level/non warped?

What additional tools might I need other than a torch, grinder, and a hammer?

[brianh]

For the amount of carving you are talking about I think you will kill the mac in short order if they are built anything like remingtons.

Relief carving is bar tip intensive so a carving specific bar would really help out a lot.

If you really want to stay electric makita makes some really well built industrial quality saws, I own 2 models the 5012b with a manual oiler the chain speed on this saw is really fast, with a carving it is hard to keep up with enough oil.
The other makita is a uc3500 it has an auto oiler and is very smooth running you can put a quarter tip bar on it and run stock pitch 3/8 chain.

Carving bar information.

A dime tip bar must run a 1/4 pitch chain. The straps on 3/8 chain are too long to wrap the radius of a dime bar and the chain and bar will be ruined.

A quarter tip bar is as round as a quarter and will run 3/8 chain.

As for other tools I have an extensive assortment of hand carving tools and a pile of dremels and die grinders.

The saburr brand carbide burrs work well in my die grinders.

you can find a lot more info at this site.
Chainsawsculptors.com