About a week ago I posted something about carving a big catalpa bowl and indicated that I considered this an ambitious project. Well, it has turned out to be WAY more ambitious than I first supposed.
I didn't realized it while I was turning the bowl but when I applied a knife to it I immediately realized that I wasn't dealing with catalpa at all. What I have is a large chunk of pecan. Man, this is like carving a rock, well, more like a piece of mesquite. This thing almost brought me to my knees. This is all end grain carving, too. I came close to putting the bowl back on the lathe and turning off the started carving. However, being a stubborn Kraut, I decided to continue. Anyhow, this is the beginning of it and it is still very rough. You can get a good idea of what the finished product should look like. The female face will be on the opposite side and the inbetween parts will be all leaves.
This is so intricate, I can't do much power carving; it is 95 percent hand work. My sharpening machine is getting a real good workout and my knuckles are really getting skinned. I tried working with gloves on but can't do it. I carved something similar a few years back (on a much smaller scale) on a piece of mesquite and I swore I would never do that again. So much for good intentions. This hard stuff is great for stylized stuff (just flowing lines with little or no detail) but sucks for intricate work. Only good thing is this wood really holds detail. Oh yeah, it weighs 16 pounds.....
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