power carving 101

I was given a flex shaft grinder/ carver for Christmas so two weeks ago we had a warm day so I grabbed a piece of pine knot and gave the new toy a try. I was a bit rusty carving with the power tools since this is an outdoor activity. I also needed to adjust to the difference in the handle from the Dremel and the carver shaft but I started to get comfortable with it after a bit of trial and error. So compounding this with the new bits I was given and the ones I previously used with the newest feature a foot pedal to control the speed of the bit I was happy that I walked away with something that resembled a carving.

I was happy with the facial features in the sense that I carved deeper than in previous pine knot carvings. I felt that this one had more realistic proportion and in power carving this was my best nose carved to date. I think in the next session (probably early spring) I will make more effort to layout the basics of the facial features before I try to add in detailing. I am finding that even though the process seems to be at a faster pace due to the power tool you still have to come into this with a certain level of patience. Like carving with knives and gouges first you have to set up the main layout of the carving then come back and begin the detailing process. So different tools yes but still the same concepts and process in carving.

On a side note, it wasn't my intent to carve the depth in the eyes but while getting used to the speed control and experimenting with different bits one of the bits simply carved better than I anticipate and with one fatal sweep of the bit an extreme amount of wood was gone. In time I will have a better feel for the bits and how aggressively they carve.

 

 as always happy trails

and

Carpe diem