2nd attempt at carving with new tools

[Kathy Marshall]

So I got myself some new carving tools. I bought the Foredom starter set and also the chisel handpiece :D.
It showed up Tuesday afternoon and I was eager to give it a try. I rummaged around in one of the piles of blanks until I found one with a shape I thought would work. In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best blank for my 1st try with the Foredom. The blank has been sitting outside for about 5 months and it was pretty much dry (even on the inside), and it was hard. Not positive on the type of wood, but I'm calling it some variety of acacia.

I still have a little to learn to get clean and consistent cuts, and design, I'm definitely not in Faust's league! It did get easier as I went, once I started getting a feel for position and how much pressure to use. On my next attempt, I'll try it on some green wood and something not quite so hard.

I went with this form because I thought it would be easier with the straighter sides. The length of the flutes probably isn't quite right, but it's what I went with. It's 6 1/4" x 4" finished with a coat of antique oil.

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Thanks for looking!
Comments and critiques are welcome.

[Michelle Rich]

yep, shorter or longer I think would have been better design -wise..but you can always lengthen the flutes. For a first try with new tools, I think you did a super job. (sonmetimes a little wave in the cuts, makes it look like areal person did it by hand & that is good)

[Steve Schlumpf]

Looks like you got the tool figured out pretty well - all the cuts look clean! Looking forward to seeing where you take this!

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Good start Kathy,
Spend some time figuring out how you are going to keep your cutting edges keen. I buff my carving tools including the Flexcut I own on a buffing wheel dressed with compound. You need a mirror finish inside and out with no wire edge. For the V shaped tools I use the same buffer on the outside but a felt wheel on a Dremel on the inside. Good idea working across the grain. No sense fighting tear out while you are learning the tools.
I love to turn but let's face it, everyone needs something unique to keep their interest. Embellishing your work with carving adds something not everyone may want to try. Let me know if I can help push you along.
faust

[Tim Rinehart]

Looks very good to my eyes Kathy. I have a Ryobi recip carver and have only played around with it, nothing like what you did here. What I did realize quickly, is that you have to strop those blades to razor sharpness to get and keep good control. For a first piece...I'd say you likely already figured that out! Well done and look forward to seeing what else you do with it. After learning some carving skills, I found it increases a pieces time to finish exponentially, so plan that in with size of pieces you do early.

[Bob Bergstrom]

Boy, nothing like the challenge of hard hard wood on your 2nd. try. Good tool work and form. Just need something like cherry to make things a little easier.

[Eric Holmquist]

Looks like nice clean flutes to me, a very good job technically.

I think you made a good decision to do the fluting on the tall flat section, consider that you would have a decreasing radius below the strait sides which would provide challenges of it's own to produce decreasing width flutes. If you give yourself too many hurdles to overcome all at once with a new technique, you could get too frustrated to get past the first couple pieces.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Looking good Kathy. Great start.

[Baxter Smith]

Nice work Kathy!