relief carved deer antler...

[twitcher]

This is only my third attempt at relief carving.. love working with antler, takes great detail, when you can get bigger pieces... been carving for about 17 years
now, but never tried relief work, read about it, but never tried it...
its not perfect, but i am a really hard critic on my work, that's what makes you
improve & get better... a few questions, do i need to boil the pieces before carving to get rid of germs , or treat them in any way?
photos, are of same stick , carved either side, the background isn't the inner part
of the antler, it was done by myself....thanks,mark...

[Waitpinga Whittler]

Beautiful work Twitcher. I take it you are using carving burrs and power for this. I like the way you have used the roughing of the background to add the preception of depth and to highlight your priciple characters. Was wondering what you used to get the smooth shined surface on the principle characters?

[twitcher]

Originally Posted by Waitpinga Whittler

Beautiful work Twitcher. I take it you are using carving burrs and power for this. I like the way you have used the roughing of the background to add the preception of depth and to highlight your priciple characters. Was wondering what you used to get the smooth shined surface on the principle characters?

only carbide burrs were used, very sharp & very gently, the only downfall is, some very hard to get places with the bits, which did result a few times of bit
snatching the work ( i couldn't hold the handpiece well in places) I wont use scalpels, tried before...but i love my fingers ..mark

[ochiba]

Nice work Mark,did you smooth out the antler undulations and polish before you started the carving?

Norm Reeves.

[Marvin Little]

Mark, have you tried the dental burrs for your antler carving. My wife's dental assistant gave me a handful of their used burrs after she ran them thru the auto clav. You can buy a set of collets including one for the dental burrs anywhere you buy dremel tools.

Marvin

[Boydman]

Hey Mark,

I think that you have some talent! I like the duck hunter detail. I have found that the German bits that I ordered out of Rio Grande are the best for small detail work. Dental bits are great....basically same but, mine were used. I use a Foredom with flex-shaft for carving...We have lots of antlers here in Alaska. Some of my best deer antler...larger stuff was from Saskatchewan. Mule deer are not as dense as white-tail and less still than red-stag. The larger antler...moose, elk, and caribou will have more porous core material....keep up the good work........look forward to seeing more of your originals.

Greg

[twitcher]

Originally Posted by ochiba

Nice work Mark,did you smooth out the antler undulations and polish before you started the carving?

Norm Reeves.

yes, all smoothed over before i started... then i transferred the photo with carbon paper to antler...mark..

[twitcher]

thank you all, mark...

[SimonLawton]

Hey Twitcher, that is great work! All done with Burrs eh? I used to Fettle Turbo wheels in a Foundry for over 8 years, metal and stone Burrs, making the wheels pass inspection, the Tools were air guns and well fast, so I have now got a Dremmel type multi tool which I want to have a go with once I can get my workshop ready!
I want to do some Scrimshaw too, and Boydman is advising on that!
Happy New Year
Simon

[twitcher]

Originally Posted by SimonLawton

Hey Twitcher, that is great work! All done with Burrs eh? I used to Fettle Turbo wheels in a Foundry for over 8 years, metal and stone Burrs, making the wheels pass inspection, the Tools were air guns and well fast, so I have now got a Dremmel type multi tool which I want to have a go with once I can get my workshop ready!
I want to do some Scrimshaw too, and Boydman is advising on that!
Happy New Year
Simon

Cheers mate...yes all done with burrs, get the flexy shaft for the Dremmel, if you
not got one, if i can help in any way ,let me know...mark