ScottRoush

Oh. Oh! This is wonderful.

Much nicer than my plastic basket. Sand paper gets out of control on my finishing bench.

Thank you very much Janel... I agree that part of my issue might be the very first lines that I put down. When I first started the work in the first image.. I used a tiny straight chisel using downward pressure to l lay out. But I've since bought a 1/16" v-tool (from Hida Tools) that might end up being a big help. However... I think part of my issue might be the conceptualization of the theme BEFORE putting the lines down. That is something that is probably not easy to get help with. I think that now that I'm planning to participate in this forum... that maybe the design sub-forum might be a good place to bounce ideas before I commit things to wood? Also.. I'm very much learning the lessons on the wood choice. This current project necessitated the use of ancient bog yew.. and past projects keep involving a Lake Superior salvaged white oak that is very much like bog oak. These woods have an appeal due to their history.. but .. now that I've tasted boxwood... well, they don't carve easy. This bog yew for example.. I've never met a wood that is more finicky with regards to tooling and grain direction. I also suspect that since many of my tools I make myself... that the edge geometries might not be optimal and most likely not sharp enough. Anyway.. thank for the note.. and I'm looking forward to better utilizing this amazing resource you have here. As I alluded to above.. my aspirations are starting to shoot higher and higher. Likely I need some help. :-)

Oh I should include this boxwood treefrog... very much inspired by Janel. :-) And also.. my first serious attempt at carving.... an attempt at an utsushi of a classic netsuke. Looking this now... I realize it's lacking in life and I should dig it out and work with it again:

Hi folks.. I'm a swordsmith and I've been utilizing this forum on and off for years but have hesitated to contribute as I haven't been certain as to whether or not I want to commit to carving. Well I'm now getting to a point in which the carving is all I really want to do. :-) The works of Janel Jacobsen, Natasha Popova, Jim Kelso and Jake Powning keep me up at night. Right now I feel like I'm at a sort of turning point.. but am stuck with my current methods. I feel like I'm lacking the 'cleanliness' that I love in the folks that I just listed. Intuitively... I feel like my original 'plan' may be lacking.. which gets me off on the wrong foot. And then I get confronted with what seems like an endless finishing process.. where I'm always finding something 'wrong'.. and then addressing it and causing a cascade of issues. I'm also really frustrated with making thin, clean, curvy lines! My main tools are small Sloyd type knives, chisels, scapers (one style I learned from Tom Sterling) and the hisage scraper used in Japanese metal work. I use very fine burrs on my rotary tools for some tasks.. but at this point... those things get me in trouble. Here are some things that show where I'm at right now. The first is a current project in which I'm stuck. Not happy with the cleanliness of the lines. Anyway... I have pretty high aspirations for this endeavor and am hoping this forum can help point me to the next level....