Cherry Pie Rolling Pin

A commissioned piece I just finished, a maple rolling pin. This originally belonged to the customers mother. They wanted a tribute to her, and said she loved making cherry pies. I also carved her name on the other side.

There was a brand name on one end of the roller, Munising.  With a little research on the internet, I discovered Munising Wood Products existed from 1917 - 1955 and was located in Munising, Michigan. They created kitchen wooden ware and advertised their products would last a lifetime.. The rolling pins were made from 'Selected Northern Rock Hard Maple'. Believe me when I say this was not an overstatement!

I started with a quick sketch and transferred that to the rolling pin. I used my Automach and Ryobi power carvers to rough in the design and finished with hand tools. Added color with thinned acrylic paints. The painted areas were sealed with a water based polyurethane, I fine sanded the other areas and applied a coat of Howard's Feed-N-Wax.

Trapper Wood Spirit

He is hand carved from Montana cottonwood bark. He measures 12" in length and 3" - 4" wide. This piece of bark was 2" thick before carving. The back of the carving is flat with drilled hole for hanging on your wall. Finished with lacquer and wax.

Cecil Update

Here's the latest on Cecil. Still working on the hair and beard.

Progress on Cecil

More pics of my latest project. In these steps I removed wood and rounded the top of his head. Roughed in the nose and mouth. Created the eye mounds and carved the eyes. More detail on the eyes later.

Cecil

Started a new project in butternut. I want something different than what I usually carve, so I start with a quick sketch. Then lay out the face proportions on the wood. I start removing wood to bring the nose out and begin to round over the top of his head. The piece of wood measures 12' x 10" x 4".

Butternut Wood Spirit

Carved this guy from a cut off piece for a larger carving. One advantage of carving from large logs, you end up with big chips. I use all of the log that I can, especially butternut. I really like how the heart wood and sap wood look in this carving.

Primitive Bird Relief

A commissioned piece I just completed. I usually don't do relief carvings, but this was requested by my drawing instructor. She is also a great painter, so I suggested a barter. A carving for one of her paintings. I delivered this to her yesterday, and she loved it. I will post the painting when I receive it. The bird was a design she found in an old church being demolished. The corner trim on the door frames are usually rosettes, this one had birds. She tried to purchase one, but all the wood was sold. She was allowed to make a mold, and from that a plaster casting. I worked from the casting and her drawing with a few minor changes. The wood is butternut approximately 9 3/4" x 9 3/4" and 7/8" thick. Sealed with several light coats Deft lacquer and a coat of Howard's Feed 'N' Wax.

Bench Hook

A great holding device, especially for relief carving is a bench hook. Simple to make, I put this one together with scrap wood I had laying around the shop. You can build this in whatever size works best for you. Mine is 14 1/2" x 19" because that's the size of 3/8" plywood I had. I added 3/4" x 1 1/2" cleats on the bottom and 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" on top. It's called a bench hook because it hooks on the edge of your table or bench. You can then carve on your piece as it butts up to the top edge board. You can add non slip padding to it for better control.

Stumpy

Here is my second attempt at a portrait carving, actually carving from a photo. As you can see it is suppose to look like Walter Brennan. Stumpy is carved from 2" thick basswood and measures 8" wide and 9" tall not including the cherry base.

Lone Elk

Lone Elk is carved from butternut. He measures 13" long. First photo shows the carving before being sealed with Deft lacquer.

Home Sign

I don't carve a lot of signs because I don't like to do lettering, and most carvings don't last long outside. But, I carved this one, out of pine, for our well. Mom & Dad bought the home place in 1962, Dad named it George's Lil Acre. We were in the country in 1962, but progress has changed that over the last 51 years. When Dad passed away 10 years ago, the wife and I sold our place and moved back home. I carved this as a tribute to Dad, I'm sure he's looking down, smiling.

Here's Merlin!

Here is the completed Merlin. He was hand carved from butternut 7" x 15" and 3" thick. He has a finish of 50/50 mixture boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits, and two light coats of satin lacquer. I love carving butternut, but it is getting harder to find. It holds detail well and has a beautiful grain. I am pretty happy with how Merlin turned out.