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9K views 16 replies 9 participants last post by  wyeth 
#1 ·
The idea germinates

I have a new idea for the series of sliding lid boxes that I have been making for the girls for Christmas. So far I have completed four but my daughter is leaving for the Philippines and then Borneo just before Christmas and one reason is to fulfil a long dream of seeing Orang utans.My teenage grandson suggested I do an Orangutan for her box lid. I thought OK but how? First lets find some images and print them in monochrome off the net and then sketch a few images.






The idea of a whole animal seems too much but what about a head and one hand and the hand could serve as the handle for the lid locking pin?


I'm thinking as a novice wood carver I am going to need more than a few rough sketches. Some sort of 3D model seems necessary and then I am suddenly transported back 60 years to kindergarten and Plasticine but do they still make that stuff?
Maybe its been replaced by Playdo which is not the same - it dries out. A quick trip to town and the toy shops and Eureka !

Now the fun starts----

and again - the box was already made from a very old and very hard bearer from a 100 year old house.

My daughter will like it rough corners and all- because it is recycled- as long as I can smooth it enough to prevent splinters and fill some defects with araldite and carbon dust.
to be continued--
 
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#3 ·
Hello-I randomly came across your series of posts while doing a google search for orangutan carvings… and was stunned by your box. You've created something so beautiful! Well done!

Please have your daughter check out the Orangutan Outreach website… http://redapes.org

Just curious-do you ever carve with the wood from sugar palms (arengas)? Strong gorgeous wood indigenous to most of Indonesia…

Take care, Rich

Orangutan Outreach
Reach out and save the orangutans!
 
#4 ·
Model to carving

!http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2543/4186890746f85820eef7s.jpg(orangutan head as it will attach to sliding lid)!

The reason I quickly found the need to model the carving in plasticine was that I had to see how the idea I had visualized could relate to the size and shape of the box.
From the model I could take measurements of the size and shape that the blocks of yellow wood needed to be to accommodate the carving.



Just to show the rough sketches used to determine the outside dimensions of the wooden blocks I would need.

I could then construct these blocks and cut them on the bandsaw to fit the lid.

Here we see the small block for the hand which will also be the handle for the lid locking peg.



This will be a 3/8" dowel and this is the time to fit the dowel to the hand and drill through the lid and the box a 1/2" hole that can accommodate the pin of the lock. These holes must be perfectly perpendicular to the top of the lid and line up when the lid is fully closed and with the hole in the hand. This is best done while the hand block is in its uncarved form on a drill press so that it can be clamped flat to the press.
First I drill through the lid and into the box with the lid closed and held in position with blue masking tape. About 1" depth into the box seems to work. Of course this has to be positioned so that the hole in the box is well clear of any of the box cavity(s).This is done with a 1/2" bit and then the lid is taken off and inverted over the hand block to act as a guide to drill into the hand a 3/8" hole about 1/2" deep into which the peg is then glued. Any excess glue is wiped off and the locking peg is then inserted into the closed box so that it is held in perfect alignment while the glue dries.

So with the two blocks formed and fitted to the lid and the locking peg working, the wood was ready for carving.

To be continued.
 
#8 ·
now what are these sliding lid boxes all about

Just to recapitulate a bit here are images of the earlier boxes I completed over the last month that led up to this project.



Who is this? Well Chris Vesper is a maker of very fine hand made woodworker tools and the knives in front of him are marking knifes just like the one I had just purchased from him at the Brisbane Hands On Show recently. Most of this Orangutang carving was inspired by this purchase as I also bought a small carving knife with a similarly shaped handle and nearly all the carving done with his one little but rather expensive knife.







So I hope this makes it a little clearer. I have been making these boxes mostly from recycled hardwood. Very old,very hard and rather brittle but I like the old and battered look - at my age I have to!
And that way I can give it one more chance at a life.
The lids are various bit and pieces of Tasmanian Blackwood,Canadian Red Cedar,Decking hardwood,and Solomon Island Ebony.

Also I have been making the routed parts using my Torque Work Centre - but that's another story.


Just a sneak preview.

and there's more to come.
 
#9 ·
Nooooo, that's not fair !!!
I want to see more : )
Would like to know more about the knives you are using. Is there a website?
Your carving skills are fantabulous, nice work…
waiting for the rest.

Lisa
 
#12 ·
Tools and Rules- Part one

Disclaimer
I want to make it quite clear that I am a very raw beginner at wood carving and not much more at woodworking - this blog is presented so that you can share the adventure, mistakes and all (and I suspect there will be many of them).

So don't take anything I say or do as gospel or think you are learning from an expert!

I do have some background experience that may give me some advantages having performed in the order of 30,000 surgical operations over a 30 year period ending 7 years ago.
Let me warn you though that a scalpel cutting through fragile flesh is nothing like a carving tool cutting into wood even though both involve the use of very sharp and potentially very dangerous instruments.
Something I learned the hard way!


Just remember that the nerves that give feeling to your thumbs and fingers and the tendons that move them are very close to the surface and a fraction of a seconds inattention can mean permanent loss of feeling or movement. A numb digit or a stiff one is not a lot better than a missing one and Microsurgery can be less than perfect as well as very expensive or not readily available--- so take care!

I was just very lucky that the cut though quite deep was lengthwise rather than across the thumb and thus less likely to divide a critical structure- And I thought I was being careful but just a moment of impatience was all it took.

As for Artistic skills I have been a hobby artist ( watercolour, oils, acrylics, drawing and etching) for most of my 66 years so just out of interest here are some fairly recent examples.


acrylic

watercolour

Mixed media - charcoal and acrylic mostly

I have already learned some of the basic rules of woodcarving and will list some below but first let us look at some of those tools.


This is the Vesper hand crafted carving knife that I mentioned in an earlier episode - so far it has turned out to be the most useful tool although I don't think I have yet experienced it at its sharpest.

Then there is this set of carving tools from the Hands-on Wood show in Brisbane Qld Australia.
They are quite good but the interchangeable handle is a bit of a drawback and tends to loosen during use.



Now here are some old tools I have had for decades and rarely used except for occasional linocuts for linoprint artwork.

They are cheap and probably nasty. The steel is soft - notice that bent one which was straight before the woodcarving. Amazingly though I have found the middle one to be the best for detailed work and very useful in letter carving so far.

Remember - apart from Chris Vespers tool- I am definitely not recommending any of these tools.I am using them to work out what tools suit me and what they can do. later if I stick with this carving business I hope to buy some of those very expensive Swiss Steel tools - but only the ones that I find I definitely need for the style of carving I plan to go on with.

Now here we have a few of the others that I have been trying. Most are rubbish or I have not yet found out how to sharpen them properly.

but each shape has a use and if properly sharp and properly used could have its place.

Well we have not got far into the "rules" part yet but that seems to be enough for now and we will get back to the orangutan soon.
 
#14 ·
Tools and Rules-Part 2

Here are some of the rules I have learned for carving small objects - i.e. those that are small enough to hold in your non-dominant hand while you use a sharp carving knife of some kind. In my case this was the Vesper knife I had purchased.

  • The knife must be sharp - a blunt tool is a dangerous tool.
  • Cut away from your body parts - it is almost always possible to hold the object in such a way that the knife is cutting away from you so that any slip of the knife will shoot off harmlessly into empty space.
  • Use the thumb of your Holding Hand as a fulcrum - the Thumb can then be used to push the knife blade into the cut and at the same time the knife handle becomes a lever allowing you to rotate the blade through the cut with great strength and control.It is usually best to place your fulcrum thumb pad on the back of the knife handle just near its junction with the blade. Sometimes you may put it on the back of the blade but that is less comfortable.

Here is a picture that attempts to show what I mean.


  • If you have to cut towards yourself you must control the blade with the holding thumb- The picture attempts to illustrate this. The very important thing is that the Thumb of the Holding Hand must never stop guarding and controlling the blade.Otherwise an uncontrolled slip can do you serious harm.

Note - do not have your thumb pad against the cutting edge of the blade or you with end up with a lot of shallow to deep cuts in the skin of your thumb pad. Have the thumb pad firmly attached as if glued to the handle of the knife just clear of the blade. This gives you the best chance of not slipping the blade into your body.It also gives you a lot of control over the direction,depth and speed of the cut.

  • Always cut with the grain - or across the grain of the wood but never into the grain. Cutting into the grain will almost guarantee chipping , splintering or splitting the wood. This is of course more of a problem with some of the more "difficult" types of wood.

  • Never cut with the tip of the knife buried in the wood - If you can not see the tip of the blade it can suddenly surface anywhere and possibly into some part of your body.

Now larger pieces are usually screwed down or clamped in some way to a work bench - and there are all sorts of purpose made carving clamps. Simple jigs can also be made for individual pieces . Most of the above rules still apply - but for the orangutang carving the 2 pieces were small enough to hold comfortably in my left hand ( as I am right handed) and I have used a knife carving approach.

Here is another preview of the orangutang.


Next we will go in to more about the specific shaping of the orangutang
 
#15 ·
Good tutorial and excellent work David. Even though I know that what you are doing is wood carving, I have always likened that type of carving to sculpture. Most people can learn relief carving even if they have to use other's patterns while what you are doing requires artistic talent and a good eye in addition to technical expertise. The orangutan looks wonderful to me. Since you are fairly new at this it will be interesting to watch your progress.
 
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