New tools and a practice carving

[Doug Duffield]

I got the carving bug, and I tried some Pfeil chisels. Fell in love them. I have some scrap basswood, so I tried my hand at a grape cluster. The leaves look more like beetles, but other than that, I had a blast carving this. There is no finish, and the surfaces are sanded with 220. I just wanted to see how easy it was to remove the facets left when rounding the grapes.

Thanks for and any and all criticism!

[Frank Guerin]

I can't even carve the pointed end on a stick but after viewing your work I just may try again.
Thanks for posting.

[Brian George]

I'm very impressed...

[Doug Mason]

Hey--thats pretty good! You can hang it on your wall.

[John Timberlake]

Great job! Keep it up.

[Jeff Nicol]

They look good to me! I have been carving mostly letters on signs lately so your bunch of grapes inspires me to get busy on some things that are waiting for me to finish on some bowls that I turned.

Great first time, you are a natural!

Jeff

[Doug Duffield]

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I have carved a little with knives and short chisels, but after switching to full size chisels, I find that carving is much easier and safer. This basswood was more like balsa than the tighter grain of a higher quality basswood. Getting small detail was difficult - splits and chip outs - but all in all, it was a lot of fun.

This was also a practice carving for a project I'm going to do later this year. I'm seasoning out some soft maple that had to be removed during an expansion of the mission where I work. I'm going to build a worship table from the tree and carve grapes, bread, wheat, chalice and dove in the front panel. I need a lot of practice!

[Steve Vaughan]

You've done a great job with this, and it's an inspiration, I like it. If you painted that anywhere near the real colors, someone is gonna want to pick em and eat em!

And, I'm betting that you'll do just fine with the furniture you're talking about...be sure to get the pictures on here when you do!

[Dave McGeehan]

Great job, Doug. You have a good 3-D eye. Good depth shown in this relief, especially for a first attempt. You're on your way!

[Mark Yundt]

Hello Doug, surprise, surprise! After all the discussions we've had about your grapes I just happened upon this site and there you are . Now I finally got a chance to see just what you have been working on.
They look terrific and you have done an excellent job. Very clean carving. I like it very much.