Thread: Whittled Bead

Elegant design. Made by a hand far, far steadier than mine.
Thanks for pointing out that it didn't require 20 gouges.

Thanks RV. part of the reason I frequent this forum is exactly to show that very fine work IS possible with the minimum of tools & that money need be no bar to entering the endlessly deep & fascinating world of woodcarving.
There is , for me at least , a greater satisfaction in using a very basic selection of tools.

I appreciate that very much. The technique of the carver, experience granted, can and will make do with far less.
I don't own "one of everything." In most instances, I make do with what I have.
Of course, after 15-20 years, it looks like I have a broad repertoire of gouges.
That was most certainly not the case in the beginning.

I am still in a period of exploration of the common tools used in the Pacific Northwest by native carvers.
Crooked knives appear to turn up in all sorts of cultures, all over the planet.
With progressive sweeps and nearly scorp-like hooks, they are versatile.

Elbow adzes as roughing tools perhaps less so, but stone versions abound.
Just today, I have ordered a blade for a D-adze. Expensive, to say the least.

Damn software won't allow me to post a link to Kestrel Tool.
BITE ME

I cut and carved 4 possible handles to determine if buying the blade was worthwhile.
It was and it is.
I have some 60" carvings (western red cedar) in need of such tools.
I shall see what this winter's carving season shows to me.

Beautiful work. I'm curious how you got your smooth concave shapes like the inside of the mouse ears, with a blade. Did you sand afterward?

The idea of keeping on the stick till the last moment was a good one too. Very similar to the technique for carving golf balls which are same shape but I think your mouse is a bit smaller from looking at the photos. Well done in any case!

What are your plans for it?

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

I have some 60" carvings (western red cedar) in need of such tools.
I shall see what this winter's carving season shows to me.

Don't imagine that I don't know what that feels like.
A few days a week I walk through a large public wood , there are felled trees, large logs, & dead trees crying out to me to be carved & had I the tools , I most certainly would, regardless of the legal restrictions of living on a small over populate island !

Originally Posted by Whittling

Beautiful work. I'm curious how you got your smooth concave shapes like the inside of the mouse ears, with a blade. Did you sand afterward?

The idea of keeping on the stick till the last moment was a good one too. Very similar to the technique for carving golf balls which are same shape but I think your mouse is a bit smaller from looking at the photos. Well done in any case!

What are your plans for it?

I used a 1/8" ish whittled dowel with a saw cut down the middle with sand paper in to sand the inside of the ears but that is the only place that sand paper was used at all.
The mouse was carved from a 18mm/3/4" sphere , so it is a very much smaller than a golf ball , more like the end of my first finger, I just wanted to see how small I could go , although I did use a magnifier (5.oox).
Getting back to sanding - I think it's a mistake to sand a whittling , all those facets ,( however subtle) lend life to a carving & also make it a genuine hand made piece. Modern carvers I believe should be keen to differentiate their craft from mass produced stuff, to say nothing of a faceted subltey .

Nice job on this one. I enjoy netsuke and small scale carvings, thanks for sharing !