Gargoyle Cane

[ve3rin]

My daughter saw a pattern of a gargoyle by Shawn Cipa and had to have it. I found the article on woodcarvingillustrated.com so I down loaded it.
Dad who is always up to a challange decided to follow the pattern step by step, fat chance. I found a nice piece of cherry and began carving it. When I finished carving it I realized that I did not drill the wood for the attachment to the shaft while it was still flat and easy to drill.
Well after many different setups to see which one would hold the handle properly in order for me to drill it with out damaging it I was able to drill a straight hole centered in the handle. By this time I decided to drill the shaft sleave (Ash) and the shaft (apple).
I found a 1/4" threaded rod in my work shop and was able to use epoxy and wood glue to fasten all three true cut pieces together and used Shawn's web tip on how it was held together while the epoxy and wood glue set.
Once this was accomplished I continues to carve and blend the three pieces together. After the main job was finished I added a few wood burned Celtic images

[Inadv]

Re: Gargoyle Cane

Ve3rin,

Very cool! Great job!!

L.P.

[Ron T]

Re: Gargoyle Cane

Very nice cane. Thank you for the photos and the explanation.

[Old Codger]

Re: Gargoyle Cane

Nice cane Ve3rin...very nice indeed! Thanks for sharing!
Kenn

[DiLeon]

Re: Gargoyle Cane

That is a super cane, really like it!

[aulddiy]

Re: Gargoyle Cane

Thats a great design and you've met the challenge.
I made two canes from the same pattern, one I sent in sections to my ill friend in Illinios. He needs it daily and the other I use when I take the dogs out, the old legs are no what they were.
So a job well done - keep it oiled.
John

[tnartist05]

Re: Gargoyle Cane

Outstanding work on this neat Gargoyle cane!! Really has nice style about it. Keep up this nice work cause you sure did a super job on this one.

Forrest

[ve3rin]

Re: Gargoyle Cane

I think that I may be getting in over my head on my second attempt at the gargoyle cane.
A member of the club gave me a couple of pieces of wood that I thought were special. I decided to join them together as each one was was smaller than the pattern called for, and make a new gargoyle cayne.

I knew that the woods were hard but I didn't expect them to be like concrete. The two pieces of wood were Padouk and Purpleheart. Using a knife on any part of the carving was not going to work. Then I found that power carving, unless done very slowly would only tend to polish or burn the wood even with the harshest bur.

The pictures of the gargoyle that are attached took over 6 hours to get to this stage. I have now spent an additional 8 hours and still have not yet gotten any where near roughing out the project. I will post the next few photos when I get new batteries for the camera.

I took a cut off from excess of the blank and pollished it and I just couldn't imagine the beauty of the wood in this state. I will attach it with the next photos update.
Gary

[[email protected]]

Re: Gargoyle Cane

Sorry I'm late but I loved that cane head. Very well done. fred k

[ve3rin]

Re: new Gargoyle Cane

My last post should have read New Gargoyle Cane.

I now have batteries so I will include the phtos of stage 2. With each of the photos I have included the polished offcut hopefully you will be able to see the colour blending. On the gargoyle and on the offcut you will see a different colour on the sides this Wood is Padouk and the centre wood is Purple Heart.

You may also note the rough appearance of any areas that have already been carved. That is the state of these 2 hard woods after so many hours of slow carving. From the amount of hand sanding on the offcut to get it ready for polishing I expect it is going to be a labour of love and sore fingers before I can polish.

And I thought that Cherry Wood was a hard wood!
Gary

[ve3rin]

Re:New Gargoyle Cane

After many sheets of sand paper of different grits and weary fingers I have now completed sanding the finished Cane Head and uper portion of the wall. I forgot to take pictures of the polished head and the carved upper wall.

The photo 1 is of the cane head attached to the upper portion of the wall which is carved out of Walnut. The portion has already been sanded and is waiting now for the clear semi gloss varathane.

You will probably wonder that the heck is the piece of worm wood doing taped to the top of the cane head! Well from experience on my first Gargoyle trying to clamp the cane head to the shaft, I found that it was difficult to do but I followed the pattern info and the bonus web tip and completed the project.

Remembering the amount of fun I had doing that, I decided to try some other way to clamp the head to the shaft. A little quiet time and many different experiments I found that if I want to clamp the 2 pieces together I would have to have 2 flat surfaces for the clamp to hold on to without damaging the cane head.

I found that if I used the cane head for the pattern for the flat block for the head it would allow a place for the clamp without damaging the head.

I tried many ways to fasten this block so It would hold without sliding off of the head and came up with hollowing out the underside of the block to match the contour of the cane head. I cut in a couple of tapered steps photo 2 and with a piece of rubber shelf cover between the 2 pieces I taped them together in the manner shown.

Photo 3 shows the cane head but also shows a weird piece of wood. A friend of mine found a young apple tree that had a vine wrapped around it forming what apears to be a giant screw.

Photo 4 is a temporary view of the full cane (lousy picture though) When the entire project is fully completed I will post a good picture.

Photo 5 is a face that only a Mother could love!

Gary

[gumbyteeth04]

Re: Gargoyle Cane

Gary...FANTASTIC JOB on BOTH of them!! You've really captured Shawn's style there. Keep up the good work & thanks for sharing.

Dan