watched the fan carving episode on Woodwright

[CarvedTones]

And despite having a bunch of unfinished projects going already, I decided to give it a try.

That's from a little cypress board Robert (Sawduster) gave me a few days ago. That is one piece of wood, all still attached; nothing glued and no hardware. My splits are way too thick, but I got the basics of the technique down.

 

[Ray Martin]

Had the show on DVR and just watched it. I was thinking I needed to try this too. Did you use the same tools? How difficult?

 

[Charlie]

Very nice work Andy:thumbs_up

 

[CarvedTones]

Ray,

I used the little gouge I mentioned in the "gratifying hand tool thread" - Warren 3/4" 4 sweep fishtail - to do the shaping and a fairly standard carving knife (a "Whittlin' Jack") to do the splitting. It was really not that difficult, but I split too thick. Something with a thinner blade would be better to split them thinner and then I think the difficulty would go up a notch as well.

 

[nelsone]

Nice! I've wanted to try one since seeing that episode too. Saw a few at the carving show yesterday too.

 

[Dragon]

That's just too cool. :gar-Bi

 

[Travis Porter]

WOW!!!! That is way better than I could even THINK about doing. Andy, you need to give lessons!

 

[CarvedTones]

WOW!!!! That is way better than I could even THINK about doing. Andy, you need to give lessons!

Travis,

Thanks :embaresse, but you need to look closer and think harder; you could easily do better with careful stock selection (a huge part of this) and practice. That one has some splintering, rough uneven surfaces and ragged edges on top of having splits that are too thick. For a first attempt just using what I had on hand I am not disappointed, but there is a lot of room for improvement.

The wood I used was a little drier than optimum for this. On the show they used wood from a log but mentioned it is best if it is neither freshly cut nor dried out. The splits are across the growth rings. My board had tangential grain and wasn't as happy about splitting straight across; hence the rough surfaces. The dryness and grain both contributed to the thicker splits; I tried a couple of thinner ones and they split off.

You just shape the board to a profile that has some sort of notch near the top to interlock. A clock hand profile will give you the peacock feather look. It has to be really thin at the bending point - about 1/8". You split down to the bending point and then boil the wood for a few minutes. Work quickly and keep it wet and it will bend into shape easily.

 

[Gofor]

Good job, especially for the first attempt!! I saw that and also plan to try it. Need to go thru the wood pile and see if I have anything appropriate. I have a dull bread knife that I thought I would grind to a smooth edge and put a second handle on for the splitting.

Go