5ft Woodspirit

[Irishman]

I'm back doing more woodspirits as the request are coming in from cottage dwellers. A gentlemen from Newfoundland is dropping by Friday evening to pick up this latest 5 ft birch woodspirit. There is no oil on this one as the new owner wishes to treat it himself. Therefore the detail and grain does not stand out very well. Thanks for viewing.
Patrick

[chpster90bu]

Re: 5ft Woodspirit

Patrick.....I love it! Especially nice job on the face...nose and eyes are wonderful. I'd give my eyeteeth to be able to carve a face like that. Thanks for posting. Bonnie

[Mottles]

Re: 5ft Woodspirit

Looks good Patrick, all five ft of him. How do you like carving birch wood? I've only wood burned on it and don't oil it---sooo it would be neat to see one that has been oiled. Nice work.
Kathy

[Irishman]

Re: 5ft Woodspirit

Kathy,

Birch is my standard wood I use for carving and I always treat it with tung oil and thinner. The oil really brings out the grain and gives the wood a nice golden brown color. I did a very similar woodspirit (posted a short time ago) in birch and it was oiled. If you look in the woodspirit section of the gallery you will see the difference. This carving was dampened with water to bring out the grain for the pictures, however, oil works very well. You may have noticed that the eyes are burned in on the WS.
Patrick

Looks good Patrick, all five ft of him. How do you like carving birch wood? I've only wood burned on it and don't oil it---sooo it would be neat to see one that has been oiled. Nice work.
Kathy

[Banjo]

Re: 5ft Woodspirit

Boy, he's really nice! Those eyes are just haunting.....

[Thor]

Re: 5ft Woodspirit

dito what Banjo said. That scale must be incredible to see in person.
Thor

[chuckt]

Re: 5ft Woodspirit

Wow! Really nice woodspirit Patrick. So - at these sizes are you using a chainsaw to do the rough out? Or is this all gouge & mallet work? Just curious. You seem to be moving into Colin's scale with this one. ;-)

Cheers!
ChuckT

[Irishman]

Re: 5ft Woodspirit

Interesting that you should mention this...I had responded to another thread and made reference to this very topic. I really should be using a chainsaw for the size of some of my woodspirits. My large gouges and mallet are taking quite a beating. I don't live out in the county so that's one problem. Used a carving disc on occasion but it produces a lot of dust in my shop so I rarely use it.
Patrick

Wow! Really nice woodspirit Patrick. So - at these sizes are you using a chainsaw to do the rough out? Or is this all gouge & mallet work? Just curious. You seem to be moving into Colin's scale with this one. ;-)

Cheers!
ChuckT

[brianh]

Re: 5ft Woodspirit

A electric chainsaw would be a help and not disturb the neighbors, I have two makita saws along with my gas chainsaws, I have a 12 inch pruneing bar on my Makita UC3500 I use it a lot for detail work.

[Colin-Partridge]

Re: 5ft Woodspirit

Nice carving Patrick you keep carving them bigger and bigger. Love the birch I have never carved it but I think I will look for some to carve. You should try a chainsaw for the roughing out an electic is better than nothing and are really cheap in Home Depot.
Colin

[santagibbs]

Re: 5ft Woodspirit

Nice work Patrick, It must be very impressive to see one that large.. Charlotte

[Irishman]

Re: 5ft Woodspirit

Brian and Colin - Thanks for the tip on the electric chainsaw idea. It never occurred to me to consider electric. I'm assuming they make much less noise than a gas powered one...considering the neighbours that are nearby. We have a Home Depot not too far off so I'll investigate further. I considered a lancelot or merlin but I have not received a whole lot of feedback on these options.
Patrick

[gene-messer]

Re: 5ft Woodspirit

Great job Irishman ... good looking piece ...

Gene

[brianh]

Re: 5ft Woodspirit

I have a Lancelot after hearing all the horror stories over at chansawsculpters website I put mine away realizing if it ever did get away from me it could be really bad.

One thing about electric saws the cheap Remingtons are junk the chain speed is slow and the gears are plastic I got 5 hours tops out of the limb and trim model.
The makita saws are pricier but they have the power and feel of a small gas saw I have a few hundred hours on mine.

[Irishman]

Re: 5ft Woodspirit

I'm glad I found out about the Remington before I purchased one as I was at Home Depot just yesterday looking at them...but luckily they were out of stock. That particular Home Depot does not carry the Makita but I'll look again when I'm visiting another location.
I appreciate the advise Brian as I would have brought it home with me and experienced the disappointment.
Patrick