1-14-2012-click on image -chainsaw carving 2

 you are asking yourself ,' now how does that crazy farmer  think he is going to tie in a horse on a treadmill and a pretty girl and the amish mafia all together , and relate it to chainsaw carving.'
   well figuring you might ask that question i guess i will have to tell you since i figured you probably would ask , since i put you up to it. and here is how. i was carving at the tusc. co fairgrounds in dover, ohio , and took a break and walked on down the fairway and noticed the treadmill and the horse. trying to leave the amish out of the pic i took a pic of the horse just as the girl walked by, and later thought how strange the pic was. im a big person and the horse totally ignored me and yet was watching the girl walk by as if he was scoping her out. i could have walked up and thunked him on the head and he couldn't of cared less  the amish were there for a good purpose to raise money to donate to charity. the horse was plodding along on the old treadmill turning the drive shaft that is making home made ice cream. this they sold in containers. really neat green answer to getting things done. horse seemed content to just plod along, people were happy and ice cream was good. way life should be.
     anyhow as much as i like to wander when i did these carvings i needed to get back and carve. was really neat carving in public, and i did it for awhile. to say i made a bunch of money would be mistaken as when you consider how long it takes to get ready for a show, spending time with customers explaining what it is you do , and how you do it. actually carving watching for people to make sure you have a safe operation and trying to put on a show for them. after all that is what they come to see. its kinda like a stock car that continually wrecks knocking off a fender here and a fender there until he has one of those little clown cars , and with this analogy you will see that as a carver we do the same thing . we knock a little wood here and make a wood chip shoot across parking lot, make a lot of noise look like you know what you are doing. this is the thrill of carving in public. big money to be had by some person, man or woman who chooses to take up carving as vocation.
    there is a lot of art to the craft . as with any art form different styles are as numerous as the tools used to carve with. and when you are done , is it any different than hand carving? sculpting is sculpting , irregardless of whether you use nothing but your hands as they are tools themselves. a tool being anything to facilitate or ease the toil  of the job needing done. you need to eat , your hands help you. you can eat with out your hands , but this would be harder. so hands are a tool , and everything  else would be equal .whether a sculpting knife or a chainsaw, you are still easing the burden of  creating what ever.
    chainsaw carving is used by a lot of major artists to create beautiful works of art. it wasn't the tools of michaelangelo but i am sure if the technology was around he would have had an apprentice hacking away at some log. some of the fine art museums , and some artists think that chainsaw carving has a carnival like , folksy  feel to it. and there are a lot of guys carving some bad stuff out there. and i imagine some may say the same about me. i try hard and as katherine hepburn would say" i give it my best and if that isnt good enough then they will just have to wait till i can do it better", would hope that other chainsaw carvers feel the same and a lot do.
    imagine a little about logs tonight before i go. i like pine. oak is nice but it is hard, wild cherry is fun, but still like pine around 2 feet to start , and another big buttt log to sit it on and at a convenient height, so that you can reach the chainsaw to the top of the sculpture and not have to lean to low. to carve the  base of the carving. this wood should be relatively free of knots. i need to warn you about knots as knots will be harder as the wood is turned perpendicular to the normal grain of the wood. in stead of cutting across the grain you are now ripping lengthwise  to normal grain causing the saw to be more likely to pop out of saw cut.and this bouncing could lead to kickback. knots can be carved and as with knots and any carving , you go slow and be safe till you can get the feel of the saw.
    and what is the feel you ask. figured you would ask that. well it is a confidence that you would have all facets  covered . you are safe and confident.  you know what you are carving, others around you are safe , and you enjoy what you are doing. you are creating , turning firewood into bears, and trees into toothpicks.
     and in summary of what i most want to impress upon on any'wood be' carver or anyone who wants a carving done. do not carve on live trees. and don't cut a tree down to make a carving. anything you create could not have been as lovely as what you just cut down. stump jobs do not last as long as individual statues. all my wood i use is recycled wood. or wood from trees that had to be taken down . and let it age before carving. a couple of years is good . stand on end if possible or lean against something. but make sure it is secure. and kid proof. a log can kill if it falls on a child. it takes about forty years to get a log big enough to carve, be conservative with your wood, and make beautiful product.