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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Sydney
    Posts
    2

    Default Tool recommendation - Huon Pine Sculptures

    Hi

    I am completely new to wood carving.

    I would love to start carving small animals from Huon Pine. Things like life-size frogs and lizards.

    I am just looking at the Carba-Tec website at the moment, interested in getting some Pfeil tools.

    If you were going to recommend between 4 and 8 tools for a beginner who wants to do this sort of carving, what tools and sizes would you recommend?

    Look forward to hearing from those with more experience - thank you in advance.

    Regards

    Pete

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Perth
    Age
    50
    Posts
    728

    Default

    What about this Company from here in Perth.

    Arbortech Woodworking | Woodworking

    I own the mini turbo and it works fantastically.

    Cheers

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Hobart
    Posts
    5,095

    Default

    Good Morning Peter

    Your local TAFE probably runs a wood sculpture course.

    Also, there are lots of videos on the web - many free.

    My sculpting friends all insist that carving is all about technique. The tools then complement your technique.

    From my attempts at carving I have not achieved any level of technique. Cannot blame the tools!


    Fair Winds

    Graeme

  5. #4
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Central Coast, NSW
    Posts
    3,330

    Default 7/14, 5/12, 12/10 and 1/12

    I do a lot of carving of small animals - mostly birds - mainly to use for photographic purposes. A photo is attached, so you can see what I do - its probably concentrating more on the painting then the carving, though I do occasionally do detailed stuff as well.

    I have a set of 8 Pfiel tools and after the roughing-out stage the main tools I use area as follows:
    7/14 - (Shallow gouge) I use this for about 70% of the work, or maybe more.
    5/12 - (very shallow gouge) I use this about 10% of the time, when I need less curve
    12/10 - (Veining tool). I don't use it much but its necessary when you want to get into a groove - like frogs legs where they lie against the body.
    1/14 - (Flat) I use this occasionally, mainly when I cant get a rasp into somewhere to smooth out.
    The other 4 I never use.

    The other tools that are very important to me are in the photo attached.
    I use the fishtail gouge mounted in an old turning tool handle because it allows me to use two hands, well spaced. I use it on the blank to quickly remove the bulk of the waste (roughing out). I use it because using two hands it overcomes all resistance. It reduces the stress on my hands.
    The other thing is a rasp - more a riffler then a rasp. I buy these from Mcjings. Very crude, very pointy teeth. Removes timber and flattens amazingly fast. These do the step before sanding.

    I think with carving something like this, there are three things you need to get right, and once you get them right its as easy as.
    1. a way to hold the workpiece solidly - at any angle you want. You need a decent carving screw. I made mine from plumbing fittings - works OK but not ideal.
    2. compliant timber. I use jelutong, white beech and huon pine. For learning, get yourself some jelutong (eg. Matthews Timber or Trend Timber). Very easy to carve and very compliant - ultimate learning timber. I have found white beech a bit furry. Huon pine is nice, but a bit hard for learning.
    3. dead sharp tools.

    Then I have a bandsaw, for cutting out the blank. I usually print off a 2D of the image from my PC, paste it onto 50mm jelutong, and then cut it out roughly on the bandsaw.

    So to summarise, the process I follow is:
    1. Cut out the blank roughly using a bandsaw.
    2. Rough it out using the two-handed fishtail gouge - removing big chunks of timber.
    3. Carve it - using the 7/14 for most of the work.
    3. Detail it using the 12/10 and the 1/14.
    4. Go over it all with the rasp.
    5. Sand it smooth.

    cheers
    Arron

    carving tools.jpgdecoys.jpg
    Apologies for unnoticed autocomplete errors.

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Sydney
    Posts
    2

    Default Thank you

    Thank you all for your recommendations, really appreciate the guidance (especially from you Arron).

    Thanks all.

    Pete

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    McBride BC Canada
    Posts
    3,543

    Default

    If you look away back in the Woodcarving Forum, you will find a thread called "Star's Sharpening Journey."
    Star invited me to toss in what I was doing at the time. It's a bit windy but you'll get the idea. I do it all freehand with the kit that you will see.

    Most good carving tools hold a "carving sharp" edge for about 30 minutes. The implication is that you have to learn how to sustain that edge. Some tools from some bladesmiths will arrive sharper than others. You have to learn how to fix that.

    Sweeps range from 1 (flat) to 12 (deep U shape.) The second number is the width of the edge in mm.
    So a 2/20 is almost flat, a 5/35 has a distinct shallow curve to it and a 9/15 is very much a finger shape.
    Those are my 3 big gouges that I can drive with a 950g, lead core carving mallet.

    To start, a wood carver's mallet in the 350g-500g range is a good idea.
    Pfeil makes tools in 2 series, the 'D' series just has shorter shanks and slightly smaller handles. Their 8/7 is otherwise identical (as I have both of those).

    Any questions, the woodcarving forum will contribute well informed answers (like Aaron's post here)

    Lots of carvers working smaller projects use palm tools. Can't comment as I have/use none of them.

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