Oldman 5 - Wood Spirit

Oldman 5 starts from a length of Live Oak tree branch.

Remove the bark from the desired area.

Using a V-tool, cut the brow and nose lines.

Cut the nose sides.

Cut out the eye sockets and excess wood.

Smooth the cheeks and face.  Cut in the upper eye lids.

Cut the lower eye lids.

Cut in the beard and mustache.  It is easier to cut the whole beard and mustache as one area, then cut in the mustache line and mouth.

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Fisherman

What to do with left over wood from other projects?  Start a new project of course. Originally, the fisherman was to be a dog catcher but, as time went on I changed my mind.

As usual, I started off with a plain block of basswood, 2 x 3 x 12 inches and rough cut the initial figure on a band saw.

The hands for this piece will be carved separately and added later.  Start carving the various parts to shape them to the desired size.

 

I had forgot to take some pictures of the rock carvings for the base so I’ll re-create them using a separate block of wood. Draw a rough pattern for the rocks.  Nothing has to be exact.  Actually, the rougher the better.

Using a V-tool carve out the groves of the rocks.

Using a gouge, deepen the groves and round off the edges until they resemble rocks.

Join the figure to the base.

 Paint the fisherman and base separately the glus the fisherman to the base.  Add the fishing rod and string.  The fishing rod is a twig off of our peach tree cut to the desired length and soaked in boiled linseed oil to keep it soft and preserved.

After much consideration I determined that his right hand just didn’t fit the scale and theme of the carving.  Therefore, I carved a new right hand and replaced it with one holding a bottle.

Painting
All acrylic paints are Ceramicoat from Hobby Lobby.
The head and hands are painted with “Fleshtone”.
The jacket and boots are painted with a 4:1 wash of “Burnt Umber”.
The pants are painted with “Navy Blue” then highlighted with a dry brush of “Sand”.
The bottle of Bull is painted with “Iron Oxide”.
The stones are painted with a base of “Gray” then highlighted with a dry brush of “Black”.
The grass is painted with a base of “Leaf Green” then highlighted with a dry brush of “Burnt Umber”.

Finally, the whole carving is painted with a mixture of Boiled Linseed Oil and a one inch extrusion of oil based “Burnt Umber” mixed in a quart can that can be sealed when you are finished with it.  The excess is wiped off with a paper towel and let dry for several days.   Then, after the carving is completely dry it is sprayed with a “clear non-gloss” or “clear satin” polyurethane.

Copyright © 2011-2018. All Rights Reserved.

Continental Soldier

The colonial period, the birth of our nation, has always fascinated me.  In my younger years I had the opportunity to apprentice under my uncle and eventually became a colonial period gunsmith.  The flintlock firing system for rifles and hand guns started in Europe in the early 1600’s and continued until the mid 1800’s in America.  The percussion cap firing system was introduced in the early 1800’s and continued to be in use until the 1870’s when the metallic cartridge style ammunition was widely adopted.

The flintlock rifles known as the Pennsylvania Rifle and Kentucky Rifle were the most commonly used by the Continental armies in the 1770’s.

The Continental Soldier carving below was inspired by the book “Continental Infantryman of the American Revolution” by John Milsop and can be found on Amazon.com.

Initially, the block of basswood is shaped in preparation of tracing the pattern onto the wood.

Several sample pictures were found on the internet on the Land Of The Brave web site and a composite drawing was made on the wood block.  Excess wood around the drawing was removed using a band saw.

The block is rough cut along the various lines to establish the legs, arms, head, and hat.

 The various portions of the figure continue to be refined by carefully carving away excess wood.

 Details of the uniform and accessories are carved into the figure.

 Gradually, more details are carved into the figure.

Painting is always fun. I use Ceramicoat paints from Hobby Lobby.  Here I used Royal Navy Blue, White, and Black for the body and hat.

 Making the flintlock rifle was a bit harder than I originally thought.  At first I tried to make it with basswood, however, the basswood was too soft and would split along the grain very easily.  I finally settled on using walnut.  You need a very sharp knife when working on small objects so that your cuts will not tear the grain and splinter the wood. The metal parts were made from a large metal paper clip that I pounded flat with a small hammer and anvil. The bayonet is also made from a large metal paperclip pounded flat.

Copyright © 2011-2018. All Rights Reserved.

Uncle Archie

Uncle Archie’s figure will be a challenge to transfer the picture to a block of basswood.
Uncle Archie Cole was quite a character.  I’ve heard a few stories about his antics plus he was a peanut and citrus farmer down in the Texas Valley area in the 1930's.

For you Genealogy buffs, Archie Cole comes from the Cole line which dates back to William Cole, the governor’s Council (1675–1692) and as secretary of the Virginia colony (1690–1692), founders of William and Mary College.

I’m not the greatest artist in the world so the drawing will be rough.

 Remove the excess wood using a band saw or coping saw. I used a coping saw to remove the excess wood from the side view just to show you that a band saw isn’t really needed.  Yes, it takes more work and time but, for some objects the coping saw is preferred because of the small size of an object. In future projects I’ll show you how to use the scroll saw.

 Now the carving fun begins:

Start carving the hat and face. Make sure you are wearing your safety glove and thumb guard when using the carving knife.

Quiz Time:  What is the most used item in a wood carvers workshop?
Answer: The band aid. Yep…there isn’t a wood carver out there who hasn’t cut themselves with their carving knife or a carving tool.

In this picture I’m using a small gouge to make some very small detail cuts.  Typically, the glove isn’t needed, however, make sure you wear the glove if you decide to make larger cuts where the gouge could slide off the figure and into your fingers or hand.

 Eventually, once the figure is painted it will be joined with the Gas Pump to complete the project.

I use mostly Ceramcoat Acrylics by Delta Creative and Duncan Bisq-Stain Opaque Acrylics.  I typically find Ceramcoat at Hobby Lobby at a much more reasonable price than ordering them on-line.  I prefer Ceramcoat because the colors appear to be of a finer blend and all of the colors mix well when I’m creating alternative shades.

I create a wash of my colors using 1 part color and 4 – 6 parts water.  I usually start with a darker base color in each area such as the shirt or pants then add white to the base color to dry-brush a high over the area.  Lastly, I dry-brush white over an area to create the aged effect.

After painting the basic areas, step back and take a long hard look at the figure.  If you don’t like what you see then you can start over by just painting over it.

 Paint the eyes and add any miscellaneous hardware.

Brush-on the antiquing mixture, 10 parts Boiled Linseed Oil and 1 part Burnt Umber or Minwax American Walnut stain.  Brush off the excess after several minutes the discard the rags in a sealed container.

 Create the base and paint it.

 Join the Gas Pump and Figure to the base using SuperGlue gell.

Copyright © 2011-2018. All Rights Reserved.

Old Gas Pump

The Old Gas Pump is a replica of those iconic pumps from the early 1900’s circa 1935.

This project is part 2 of the Uncle Archie posts.

Searching the web using the term “Gas Pumps circa 1935” brings up many images of some great pumps of that time.

Here I used a 2″ x 2″ x 12″ basswood block to layout the basic outline of the pump.

Next, use a band saw or a coping saw and cutout the pump.

 Redraw the center lines.

 Round the base and container using your bench knife and sand paper.

Add the container supports and super glue them in place.  I cut the sticks from shop type q-tips.

Finish gluing the sticks in place and check to make sure to wipe off all dust left over from any sanding.

Paint it with your favorite colors.

Once the paint dries, antique it with a 4:1 mixture of burnt linseed oil and burnt umber stain.

Now it’s time to make the attachments: fill pipe, pump handle, and hose coupling.  I used some of my scrap walnut to hand carve these.  Walnut is much harder than basswood and doesn’t tear along the grain thus making small pieces like this easier to make and assemble.

Paint the fill pipe, pump handle, and hose coupling black and antique them by dry brushing antiquing stain lightly over them.

Next, I used the circular attachment for the Dremel tool to make the round base for the pump.

Attach the pump and base with super glue gel and then dry brush the antiquing stain on the base and blend it into the pump.

Now it’s time to make the last item, the pump nozzle.  Draw the nozzle on a scrap piece of wood. Rough out the nozzle with the band saw. Once you have the nozzle roughed out you will need to use a drill to make a hole in each area to be cut out. Use the scroll saw or coping saw to rough out the inner open areas then, use sand paper and needle files to finish the nozzle. The nozzle should be painted a golden or bronze color to make it look like brass.

Copyright © 2011-2018. All Rights Reserved.