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[Steev]

My neighbour cut one of his mature apple trees and gave me part of the trunk. This is the first carving I'm working from it.
The trunk is nowhere near dry, I'm leaving it outside in the damp air between carving sessions.
Roughly chain-sawn.

A bit more sawing.

[Steev]

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Can't put 5 images in a single post.
After mallet and gouge work.

[JJF]

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I look forward to see more

[joepaulbutler]

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Will be following this post with interest . . .JoeB

[carver33]

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Nice choice of wood. I think that you'll like the look of the finished piece.

A word of warning: green Apple will split and check to a degree. What I did, was save shavings and use those to fill in the cracks when I was nearly finished. I shaved pieces of matching color to fit the cracks, coated them with wood glue and forced them into the cracks as hard as I could. They're still in place and tight decades later.

[copeau]

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Can't figure... how big is it ?

[hstrick46]

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Looking forward to seeing your progress.

[Steev]

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Can't figure... how big is it ?

The steel rule in the 2nd picture is 12"

I know apple is very prone to checking, there are a couple there already that I worked around when laying the carving out. The weather at the moment is cool and very damp so I leave the piece outside between carving sessions. I plan to remove a lot more wood and eventually have only quite thin sections which I hope won't be able to have enough stresses to cause further checking. I have put aside the offcuts in case repairs are needed.

[dme253756]

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It's coming right along! I'm excited to see some more!

[Steev]

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My family is getting sick of the thump thump thump!
I think I'm going to be filling some cracks in this one. I'm saving offcuts for it.

[dme253756]

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Wow! Looking good! I especially like the grain movement on the lower half of his torso!

[bowinhand]

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Very nice put it in a plastic bag with wet chips and it will help with the checking before you get it thinned down.

[WestCoastCarver]

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What a great action pose! Even now it conveys so much power and movement.

WCC

[Steev]

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It is well over a year since I worked on this, I have good weather and a bench for mallet work outside the house. Time to break pieces off, I mean keep carving. Apple wood checks something horrible and I broke off a leg along one check and her head along another, but I have glue and clamps.

[joepaulbutler]

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It has been awhile, still following with interest
. . .JoeB