First Woodcarving Ever!

gmacolton · #1 08-30-2007, 04:18 PM

Hello everyone!

I'm a new to this board and to carving in general and I just finished my very first carving. One question I have that I hope can be answered is that how dose one make the wood to look textured to mimic fur? Any help on this or advice in general would be greatly appreciated.

Gregg

kitaye · #2 08-30-2007, 05:38 PM

Congratulations. He's pretty cute.

Thor · #3 08-30-2007, 05:51 PM

Cute bear, and welcome to the forum. I'll let someone more experienced answer the fur question since I'm just learning chainsaw carving myself.
Keep it up!
Thor

jillsy · #4 08-30-2007, 06:55 PM

He's really cute! I was going to suggest gouges for the fur until I saw how big he is! Someone with more experience in this area would be better qualified to answer. Great job!

Lightningbolt · #5 08-30-2007, 09:05 PM

Glad that the carvin' bug has bitten you and thank's for sharing your first piece. He looks very huggable! As for the fur technique I'm also still a student of chainsaw carving but you might want to read this Small white pine bear thread where I got some very good advice about how to do it. The advice was short and forward, but it made a lot of sense the way it was worded... something that I can apply and experiement with on future bears.

Keep at it!

gmacolton · #6 08-30-2007, 09:57 PM

Thanks to all for the words of encouragement!

Lightingbolt: Thank you for the advice...Are you using a 1/4 inch carving bar to simulate fur? I have a 20 inch chainsaw with a standard bar. Is it possible to achieve that look with that or would I have to upgrade to a carving bar?

Thanks again for the help!

Thor · #7 08-31-2007, 07:53 AM

I did the technique with the standard bar on an MS170 Steil chainsaw. It looked like fur after I just bumbed the chain bar sideways against the bear.
The carving bar looks better I think, because we had a couple of those here when I was doing it too, but mine worked ok.
Good luck.
Thor

Lightningbolt · #8 08-31-2007, 09:18 PM

Gregg: Unfortunately,

I'm still waiting on another shipment of donated logs which were promised this week, but my friend didn't get to it... hopefully soon. Soooooo, I still anxiously await trying the fur making technique. Looks like Thor has got it down though! I'll report when I get back to it so keep at it!

gmacolton · #9 08-31-2007, 10:01 PM

Thor: Thanks for the advice... I'm going to try my luck again this weekend and I will keep you posted on how I faired. I did find it hard though getting those tough to reach places with a standard bar though! We'll see what happens next time!!!

Lightingbolt:Thanks again for your insight and I hope you get your logs soon!!!

Thanks again everyone!!!!

brianh · #10 09-03-2007, 06:26 PM

I do the fur and texture on my carvings with a saw with a 12" sprocket tip pruning bar mainly I use my dime tip on hard to reach spots.
Just use the lower part of the tip tapping in dips and for variety drag some longer cuts and blend with smaller ones.

I use a sanding flapwheel when I am done on the fur to give it a soft look.

This website has a lot of good advice on it by carvers that have been doing it far longer than me http://www.chainsawsculptors.com/