whittling away the time.

Something New to Me

     Basswood has been around for a long time but to me I never made the attempt to buy any to carve, because I have all kinds of wood available to me and it seems kinds stupid to buy something, when all I have to do most times is bend over and pick up a piece, if I so desired to carve on anything. But there is a huge difference in this type of wood, and how it lends itself to carving. It is expensive and available through most major art suppliers, and for small intricate carvings isn’t bad at all.

     In fact in researching basswood I come across several references where it is the preferred carving material when it comes to intricate carvings, allowing the carver to provide detail only limited by his/ her ability to create. I had wanted to try a piece since I was to the Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus about 8 years ago. While there  I watched a carver who was working on carousel horses carve away on a block. It cut like butter for him and then he allowed me to carve on a piece he had. I was impressed enough and finally took the plunge and purchased me a 4x12 inch block 2 inches thick. This I ripped lengthwise and made approximately 4 blocks of equal size. This I easily did on my band saw. The cuts were clean and easily produced 4 2x2x 6 blocks of equal size.

     So far all I have worked with is just one block having carved on it for a couple of hours. More or less whittling it down to what I intended to do in the first place. Basically a head as I do often with my chainsaw, only when I do it with the chainsaw it is much larger. The most finishing I usually do is  limited sanding with a 4 ½ in. grinder.

    With this small basswood block I sit in front of my puter and just carve. Imagine if I wanted to, I could do a live feed if you would like and arrange ahead of time. It really isn’t nearly as impressive as using a chainsaw, but still I like it because what else was I going to do with my time. I have no desire to carve in this frigid air. The chainsaw chases the blood out of your hands due to vibration, your feet freeze, and it is counterproductive whacking big chunks of wood off a hunk of tree, just to throw in the wood burner. The cold kind of messes with your creative side, when your nuts are freezing and falling on the ground. 

      This will allow me to enjoy carving in peace and solitude, like maybe at a craft fair, as I make little noise and just a mess of wood shavings, except well maybe an occasional grunt or groan and then you might also hear a sonny itch once in a while when the knife slips. I currently have a nice little Band-Aid on middle finger of left hand and it is my typing finger, I have 2 typing fingers (peck method of typing) , and I am usually fairly fast at typing , but with the hurt factor after I sliced the outermost tip off with utility knife and bled like the dickens, it is a sore painful task now. I learned right away those knives are sharp and one needs to always point away from myself like my grandpa taught me. 

     The head I am working on will look nice atop a walking stick. My old stick, Mr. Stick, as the dogs came to know it , will be retired and I will need a new stick as I have been trying to get some walking in and could possibly use a new stick. As for the rest of the block I plan on doing a dragon and some other figures and will show you the work as I make it available. These will all be for sale. Also I also would be interested in helping you get started whittling if you like. Set you up and help you work through your first carving. Of course I also would like to get paid, as I am sure you would like to if you were in my position. I love carving, and could possibly do it for free; it’s the putting up with people that gets a little hard. Just being sarcastic folks. Have to add that disclaimer otherwise people might begin to think I am antisocial……..Well?

      Anyhow I would suggest basswood and I read some on the wood and apparently it is around our area and can be propagated, in fact settlers when establishing orchards planted the trees as a windbreak to protect the more tender fruit trees. And this area of the Great Lakes region is prime land for growing the bass wood. I will add a bulletin describing the wood when posting here:

Ohio Trees - American Basswood

        So if you happen to have some dead trees in your backyard, then give me a yell and in the meantime I plan on starting a bunch of young seedlings to plant in our area for the future generations of sculptors coming along. Well back to whittling with my sore finger, the things I go through for my readers.