Thread: First attempt at carving - loggerhead turtle

Looking good.
Regards

Wow, that looks fantastic! You're a natural!
Good to see a young aussie carving....and so beautifully.
Look forward to seeing more pics as it progresses.
Well done!

Great to see someone your age having a crack at carving and you obviously have some good skills, your doing a great job, look forward to seeing the finished piece.

Very nice work so far, and a great choice of a subject. This turtle should look really good when finished. I'm definitely pulling up a chair for this.

What sort of finish are you thinking of?

Good design, technique and result. Don't stop now.
Good tools & wood make so much of it less of a puzzle, right?

It looks nice.
Are you going to hollow the inside ?

Thanks for all the kind replies im looking forward to the finished product as well, only problem is school is taking up my time

As for the finish im going to use, im not sure at this stage. I prefer oil finishes as i reckon they look more natural. What would u recommend?

The good tools, yes haha found the hard way, sharp chisels make the carving a million times easier.

Probably not going to completely hollow it out. I will probably just hollow out housings for the flippers and head.

Originally Posted by justi227

As for the finish im going to use, im not sure at this stage. I prefer oil finishes as i reckon they look more natural. What would u recommend?

I think that's up to you. Oil would look good.

I use a couple of coats of sanding sealer with sanding in between coats with sponge back 240 grit paper then Danish oil.
Usually comes up quite nice. Oh yes, that's AFTER going through all the sanding sequence.

Originally Posted by Robthechisel

I use a couple of coats of sanding sealer with sanding in between coats with sponge back 240 grit paper then Danish oil.
Usually comes up quite nice. Oh yes, that's AFTER going through all the sanding sequence.

Does that produce a glossy finish or a more natural finish? Or does that depend on the number of coats of danish oil?
also what sanding sealer do u use?
Thanks.

justi:
I think you have some choices to make for finish.
Loggerheads look dull to me unless they're wet.
How much of the wood grain do you imagine that you want to see?
I've done a Green Sea Turtle in western red cedar which got 4 coats
of MinWax Tung Oil Finish a week apart. Every bit as glossy as you can hope for.

May I suggest the following (if you've not already done so
Google Loggerhead and look at the poses, the postures when swimming.
Turn the head at a natural angle. Swimming action for the legs, they're never
symmetrical like the beat of a butterfly's wings.
I learned that the essential defining species identification has to do with a unique pattern of scales on the head, between the eyes. In the case of the GST, that is a pair of hexagonal plates. . . . that's as much as I did on the head.

Justi, RV makes a good a point about the wet or dry turtle, the finish I described gives a glossy wet look, I use Feast and Watson sanding sealer and at the moment Cabots Danish oil, you could try sanding sealer then just wax for a slightly duller finish.

Yeah I'd looked at that. I think the Loggerhead has the 4scales between the eyes.
Thanks for the feedback guys, definitely something to think about. Will have decide on wet or dry.

Originally Posted by justi227

Yeah I'd looked at that. I think the Loggerhead has the 4scales between the eyes.
Thanks for the feedback guys, definitely something to think about. Will have decide on wet or dry.

If you want a real wet glossy look with little effort, aerosol gloss polyurethane, (Estapol), is hard to beat for a tricky, undulating surface like that.