Ed Twilbeck

Looks like our first Tropical Storm is coming our way. For those of us who live here it's just a nother storm,,, good time to carve. i have some in the works, will let you know.

Welcome Lyle,good to see another wood person here. This is a good site to see a lot of great ideas on art and wood carving.

http://take64.wixsite.com/musi/blank-10?lightbox=dataItem-j38dfolr found this site and the works are Fantistic . Check it out. If you like cicadas ,dragonflies, butterflies , or any other insects you will like this site. It is a little slow when the pics come up but it is worth the wait.

Yes you are right walnut is sometimes to carve and will hide details in the grain. Many years ago I built furniture and made boxes, walnut book matched always came out great. Did a box with a walnut top and carved a dragon in the top. Back then I would work to make my boxes a pleasure to touch, well the top with the Dragon did not want to come out and shine, so I finished the box with the super smooth silky feel and the dragon was very dull finish but the contrast came out unusually good. I was pleased and the lady that purchased it was very excited about it and loved the story of how the box got its different look. Thes 2 pieces are from a walnut crotch area and were for knife handle blanks ,, which finished out smother and silky, to nice for a knife to be used, it went to a friends collection. i think I will be doing leaves ,,, as the wood talks to me ,, when I carve it.

This is left overs from 4 or 5 years ,,walnut to pretty to throw away, thinking of doing a new Cicada, or a leaf ,pendant ,, or combine the 2 ...Any one got any IDEAS , will consider all suggestions.

Base ,Purple Heart. The finish is min wax wood sheen with just a little stain mix, then a wax with carnauba. A small Boxwood cicada on a leaf, table top sculpture or a necklace, to wear.

The cord is adjusted useing a Chinese sliding knot cord comes out of the stem end of the leaf.

Thank you Janel , the Cicada and Leaf was planned to be a pendant , I wanted something different.

Andrew I use a chamois wheel on a foredom, it has about 5 layers of chamois, each one is cut so it works into the cuts and around all of the carvings, I spin it on the wax and then spin it on what I am waxing, it heats up enough to bring a good shine to what I am working on. Check out the pics.

A while back somebody asked about favorite carving tools here is some of mine. The box of chisels are from the early 80s they come without handles, one handle and change the blade ,,they are Warren carving tools , in fact all showing here are from Warren Cutlery and Carving ,,,, I turned the handles from walnut they were the first set of chisels I have , use them regularly ,,, the knives are also Warren made the one in the pic with the carving is an LK5 blade this is the 2nd one ,, this one I use a lot and is one of the best knives I have ,,,, they can come with a handle and you change the blade or to the chisel ,,, I like to make my own handles. The rest of the knives all have Warren Blades. On top of the box is the handles you can get from the company I don't like them due to the weight of the Brass to hold the blades. Any question or comments all are welcome.

Very nice , it is always good to get some fun. Mice are always difficult to carve ,,cause the move so fast and won't sit long to be a good model. Thanks for sharing.

Another welcome back ,, your work is excellent and very pleasing to the eye, will be watching for more beautiful art . Thanks for sharing.

Welcome Peter, there are a lot of very. Good information on this forum , there are some good leads to Netsuke carving. Will be looking to see some of your art.

Very nice well done out of Deer antler,,,thanks for sharing.

Very nice well done . David I agree with you about the simplicity of the carving. Looks good, thanks for sharing.

Some past talk about power chisels for roughing out your carving. I have 2 types one is a motor with the chisel attached it is made by Auto Mach ,, the other is a flexible shaft made by Wee Cheer ,,that attached to a rotary tool , Dremel. Janel said about hands being tired with carving. The Auto Mach has some weight with it and does get warm holding it. The Flexable shaft made by We cheer is lighter and easy to work,, but does not have as much power as the Auto Mach. The flexible tool was very satisfactory with its power and flexibility , carving ligustrum and Boxwood. The chisels made by Flexcut work in both,, but with the Auto Mach you need a brass spacer. I have attached some pics. Will answer any questions , and I like them both, they both have good and not so good qualities.

Bonnie it was not to delicate yet but the grain was from front to back on the wing ,, clearing the space between the wings and the left wing just broke in half, this was also where the grain was changing color ,,just starting spalting.

A while back I was talking about roughing out with a reciprocating power chisel, instead of rotary power ,with a lot of dust ,,, you have a pile of chips. I am not finished with the power chisel carving, but soon I will go to hand tools. Got this want to cave a new cicada out of Ligustrum.

An off the wall question. Why the corner with the fold of the dollar bill. You don't have to answer if you don't want to.

One more hits the firewood pile. Carving the wings useing the grain of the wood ,, the grain of the branch that was going to be the cicada ran just almost the length of the wing , with just enough pressure I broke it ,, and it was easy. Was hoping to use the grain with the wing, it had some nice color changes. I should have known better , I did but went for it any way. new one tomorrow .

Fabulous . Great carving. Thanks for sharing. ,,,,, did I say I like it?

To keep small tools from rounding over with stropping ,, use your stropping compound on wood. will take picture and post if requested .

I have this for over a year, look at it looking for some idea , looking for the wood to show me, what to carve. The out sides are very busy with lots of openings, twisting grain .etc . I am hoping someone will see something that I didn't. I'm almost ready to cut the outside to flat so I can do some carving. I hate to cut away such interesting grain, but I can't seem to find something to work with. Any and all ideas ,suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

No it is a small carving about 2 1/2 inches long.

I am also partial to hand tools . When I am caving I prefer to listen to some good music and carve. The power caving is only when I want to attract attention at outdoor shows. That is what I was doing when my friend Mark said I was just cheating, all in good fun. We were both at the same show, selling and caving.