OutWestWoodCarving: The Out West Challenge - The Rules

I will be throwing my hat into the ring on this contest.  Check out the link below and see what the prize will be.  I am really a big fan of Lynn Doughty's western characature carvings and although I probably have a snowball's chance in Hades of winning, I know that the challenge will be fun and push me along in my carving abilities.  I will document the design and work-in-progress photos after the contest is over.

OutWestWoodCarving: The Out West Challenge - The Rules

Look what Santa brought me.

Family Home Sign Post #3

The sign is almost finished.  All of the carving is completed and it has been sanded, sealed and stained.  The stain is Minwax Ipswitch Pine and as soon as it dries, I'll do two coats of exterior verithane just in case they decide to put it outside which I will advise against.  Overall I am satisfied with this project.  I have only done three releafs prior to this one and I'm finding that I really enjoy them.  Hope you do too.

Unfinished

Stained

Family Home Sign Post #2

Well, didnt have enough time to order from Heineke and I really felt more comfortable with the idea of carving basswood, since I already know what to expect.  So, I went with the Walnut Hollow basswood from Michaels.  It's not very good basswood.  Very brittle and I keep having to glue small pieces back on.  I'm told that the sign will be kept outside, but protected from the weather in an enclosed entry area, so I'll seal it really good.  Still trying to decide weather to paint some of the features or go all natural.  Leaning toward painting the letters, backgound and house, leaving the borders natural. The plaque measures 12" x 18" an is about 1" thick. Not much time left to finish this one, a couple of days.  Got to kick it into high gear.  Here's some pics of the work in progress.

Family Home Sign Post #1

My Sister in-law and the some of her coworkers have asked me to make a Famly Home sign for their boss for Christmas.  So I google mapped their house and did the streetview thing and got a pretty good picture of the front of their house.  Pretty scarry how easy that was.  So I did a screen print into MS Paint, drew around all the edges with black and erased all the other colors and this is what I ended up with.  The fonts were done in MS Power Point using the Word Art function and I put it all together in MS Visio, grouped them into one object and saved them as a bitmap.  About an hour to do the whole image.  Someday I'll have to step up my game and get Photo Shop.  But for now, I use the tools I have and do my best.  Today, I'll pick up the wood to make the sign, I'm not very impressed with the board stock at either Lowes or Home Depot, so I'll probably go to Michaels and see what they have in basswood.  Their prices are a bit high, but I have a 40% off coupon and I don't have enough time to order online from Heineke.  And so It begins.  Stay tuned for more updates as this project progresses.  Please, If you by any chance know the family who's name is going to be on this carving, keep this a secret until after Christmas.  OK?

What's a Latte Stone?

My wife's friend, who is Guamanian, asked me to make a wood carved replica of a "Latte Stone".  I know, you're probably thinking about coffee and milk.  That was my first thought also.  So, having never been to Guam, I had to do some quick research on the subject myself.  Thank God for the internet, although a fact finding trip to Guam would have been really sweet.  Not enough time, not enough money.  I don't want to deprive you of an educational opportunity by telling you what a Latte Stone is, so Google it now......I didn't keep track of the hours I put into it, but it took me about a month to complete it.  This was the largest carving I have done to date and it was intimidating for a number of reasons.

1. I'm not from Guam.  My biggest fear was that I might in some way dishonor the Chamorro culture.
2. Where to get wood that big.  (Turns out I have a friend who is an arborist)
3. I don't have the right tools for a large project.  (Bought some)
4. The wood is really green, won't it crack and split (Yes, but it looks rustic that way)

Setting my fears aside, I laid tool to wood and mallet to tool and the chips began to fly...

Green Wood

Roughing out with the chainsaw

As my chainsaw is not set up for carving, I opted to go for...

NEW TOOLS, YEAH!!!!

Finally taking shape...

Now for some FIRE...

Details...

More FIRE...

And, FINISHED...

Satisfied "Undercover Carver"

Satisfied Customer...

Welcome to The Undercover Carver Blog

Welcome to my little corner of the internet.  My goal here is to use this blog as a place to archive my accomplishments as an amature woodcarver/whittler and to journal a little bit on issues that matter to me.  Simpe as that.  So please feel free to poke around and check back now and then as I plan to add some of my favorite links and upload some photos of past carvings as well.

Regards,
Rojo