I know I’m kind of into a few different hobbies but I think wood carving is my favorite.
Love making furniture & the carving spring from wanting to add something special to the pieces I made.
Then I got into Blacksmithing so I could make hand forged pulls, hinges & accents pieces for the items I make.
I try to combine my hobbies and this one is kind of the direction I’m thinking I’d like to go in preparation for a retirement job / hobby.

Some on here might remember the sign I carved for a winery that friends of my wife & I own.
https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...090015934#9090015934




Well I wanted a project & they needed a restroom sign....
So I offered to make one & have it hang from a Forged bracket I would make in an attempt to combine the Blacksmithing & carving hobbies.


Started with a sketch like most ideas.



**** also if anyone else is currently carving anything please share ****


how much does a forensic anthropologist make per year

Was that carved in poplar?

Outstanding effort, worthy of Guild membership! An $8,000 sign in any boutique. Now you will want a 325 sq. ft. shop with front counter and display area just off the tasting room of your friend's vineyard. Packed with all of your fun tools and projects. Tiny and packed, with the work visible to clients over the front counter.

During tastings, you'll work the shop in appropriate period artisanal garb. Waxed mustaches optional but copper strands woven into beard would be a plus. A couple of stout-wristed apprentices under your direction.

People will flock to buy your handmade $122 bottle openers, marveling over scales made from wine barrels of Napoleon's cellar.

My current thing is mixing spirit varnishes with tints and pigments from another era (1880 - 1920, probably). I've bottled half of them; more mysteries await discovery in the box. Recently I picked up a scrap of timpani skin *** from a 6th generation European-trained luthier. He remarked that he had six such boxes of pigments in his basement. When one of the old luthiers died, the widow would bring the olds'n'ends to Steve's shop.

*** a properly thinned, moistened, and glued scrap of timpani skin or parchment on a maple violin bridge under the E, and maybe the A, can extend the life of your perfect bridge.

I like the options that dyes give you with wood.
Probably will only wind up making gifts.
I work to slowly & am not accomplished enough to make carving profitable.
But god I love the feel of a razor sharp tool moving thru wood.
Weird I know but satisfying.
I like watching a two dimensional drawing become 3 dimensional.

These two posts are perfect examples of the vast wealth of knowledge here at Sig Forum. The wood carving is exquisite.

On to the letters

Wow. That’s pretty nice !

Very nice carving.

I’m just doing spoons and bowls as well as hiking staffs.

Nice work,

Some of my past projects

The varnish project, emptying out all these paper-wrapped packages of tints and pigments into little jars so I can look at them in the light, goes in hand with this 1914 Todt restoration I'm bumbling through. Trying to match a century-old varnish is near impossible. But before the varnish, some repairs:

A bit of violin top lip repair, about a double nickel width [1,2]; some missing c-bout tips replaced [3,4]; new ebony pegs shaved to fit [5]; a dovetail end block shaved to fit (from a previous project) [6]; ebony fingerboard planed for install, with final shaping in place [7,8,9].

Scrolled ends are carved out & the lettering relief is almost done. Two more letters to go.

 
The only carving I got to do in 25 years of millwork was fixing screw-ups coming off the shaper, usually for radiused or oddly shaped workpieces that had to be worked freehand on the machine. Once I took over the shaper work, there were fewer, but then I had only myself to blame. I did get pretty good at working a radius molding freehand (face of the molding against the shaper fence, rotated freehand against the cutters, following the radius). A bobble there could be anything from a small oops to having the workpiece flung across the shop. I never flung one, though.
 
GrumpyBiker, as I mentioned in another thread, those grapes are extraordinary.

Always enjoy the talents of both GB and Woodman! I'm proud of them!

In truth, I spend 80% of the time fixing mistakes and correcting dunderheaded decisions. Biker is the real deal.

Maybe a photo spread on how you keep your tools sharp?

Did you make the plate / candle wall hangings as well?

No those were purchased from an Amish craftsmen.
The ones inside the hutch are just a craft store item.
I did make the hutch but I’ve never worked on a wood lathe doing any turnings.
I always preferred the simple Shaker style furniture. So I never bought a lathe.
And yes the wood is Poplar. I find if I’m going to attempt to dye & stain multiple colors or hues a lighter wood is easier to get the color to stand out.


Letters are done. Time for some clean up with the rifflers and start working on the forged mounting bracket.

I thought I had replied earlier.

What amazing work. Extremely impressed with your skill. Wow.

Well, thank you but I feel little better than a hack .
I look at some of the old carvings at the Biltmore estate on my last visit and was blown away.
But I love how it requires very little space and only a couple sets of carving tools to get into it.
I think I have more in my table saw than invested in carving tools.

Woodman, do you make violins ?

This has always been one of my favorite images of the carved design. Sorry Grumpy, I didn't know how to post it here without using my host to display it. Just a great photo of an amazing job!

No, I do not make them. But I do repair and refurbish them. The older the better. Generally, on top-off jobs, I want to work on pre-1930s instruments. C. 1880-1905 seems like a niche for me.

Last year I came across a couple of 1860-1880 wrecks, roughly carved scrolls, played to splinters, beyond even classification as wall hangers, true trade instruments played for one's bread and pickles. And managed to get them both together and playable. Only worth a few hundred bucks because of 1] the tone and 2] no label of consequence. Loved regardless by the purchasers.

That dovetailed end block was made for a 1850s wreck I bought at an estate sale, the old endblock cracked into splinters. You might recognize it from this thread. I was SERiously amazed it looked like a violin when back together. Even played like one. And sounded amazing. Somewhat heavy, at 463 grams, and rejected by a world-class instrumentalist looking for a fiddle for a 'friend'. A young tenor bought the finished violin and treasures it like you wouldn't believe.

Those other pictures are from a current commission restoration I'm severely screwing up. I'll muddle through somehow, with the help and advice of a handful of real experts. This one will probably come in under 400 grams when completed.

It takes me 4x as long to do some operations; others seem natural and proceed quickly and without complication.

I can't begin to tell you how impressed I am with your carving work on that restroom sign.

It did turn out better than I’d expected.
There’s one grape at the bottom I kept expecting to drop and lose but it’s safe & sound.