Carving a mushroom in seasoned pink ivory wood BY HAND

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GGTBod

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 28, 2014
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I let slip in another thread the other day whilst admiring forginhill's spoonage that i was torturing my hands and blades by carving some seasoned hardwood, well it was a piece of ethically sourced slow seasoned Pink Ivory, i've had it for over 2 years with both ends waxed to help it dry evenly, so then i decided to get stuck into it by hand after analysing the grain repeatedly and seeing a mushroom in there, the more i looked the more i seen it until it was all i could see, so i started carving using my Mora 120, my Wilderforge Invincible beast and my Mark Hill Crow, 2 carpenters gouges and a titanium tipped scribe and a hell of a lot of time on the wetstone and strop with all edged tools

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continued in the next post due to pic limits per post
 

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GGTBod

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 28, 2014
3,209
26
1
Here we go with the completed item in these pictures it has had it's first rub with walnut oil, I am planning to hang it on some braided leather thongs with a horn either side of it

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For anyone unfamiliar with mushrooms i was trying to emulate this type of fungi the Psilocybe Semilanceata

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I am quite happy with the end result
 

GGTBod

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 28, 2014
3,209
26
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Thanks gents, hands are proper sore, full on baptism of fire back into carving, thumb pads are really tender and blades are looking shabby even though i have been honing and stropping after every 20 minutes of use for each blade, loads of micro dings, need to get on them on a 400 grit stone and then the 600 n so on n so on until i am on the 3000, all i've been doing is reviving them on the dc4 and a leather belt, think i might do a bit of greenwood carving this week :D
 

Muddypaws

Full Member
Jan 23, 2009
1,094
313
Southampton
Nice mushroom! It looks to be a labour of love. I've never used pink ivory wood before, but from what I have read, and your experiences that you have posted, it is not something that I shall be looking to carve for myself.
 

GGTBod

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 28, 2014
3,209
26
1
Thanks folks, I am glad to say I don't have any more pieces of pink ivory kicking about, got a lovely soft thoroughly seasoned slab or African Oroku and another slab of Indian black Ebony that has been slowly seasoning over the last 3 years that is completely covered in wax to try and ensure it doesn't warp as it seasons, that should be nice n soft comparatively
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
You could not have done better with a bench covered with Pfeil carving tools.
Wise choice of tools. Clearly a daft hand at sharpening and honing. That's half of it.

Enjoy the carving holiday with green wood!

Look after your thumbs. Carpenter's salve is useful. Mine have dried and cracked to the point
that it hurts too much to button a shirt.
 

GGTBod

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 28, 2014
3,209
26
1
You could not have done better with a bench covered with Pfeil carving tools.
Wise choice of tools. Clearly a daft hand at sharpening and honing. That's half of it.

Enjoy the carving holiday with green wood!

Look after your thumbs. Carpenter's salve is useful. Mine have dried and cracked to the point
that it hurts too much to button a shirt.

Drools at thought of a bench covered with Pfeil carving tools, i learnt the art of blade edge care after carving a cutlery set out of seasoned African black walnut wood, this Pink Ivory made that seem like carving green willow
 

forginhill

Settler
Dec 3, 2006
678
74
51
The Desert
Nice choice for the piece of wood....I like how it came out....And now, like you said, everything else is going to seem soft and easy.... :)
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Probably a misery similar to carving Tagua nuts = vegetable ivory. The smart money is on a Fordom or hanger Dremel and power carving.

I have carved some birch (Betula papyrifera) which is pretty stiff but very nice to carve, seasoned.

Mostly, I stick to the carving woods of the Pacific Northwest = western red cedar (Thuja plicata) and yellow cedar (Chamycyparis nootkatensis)
Practically every pole and box you see from here is either one of those 2 woods. Masks are commonly alder (Alnus sp.)

I understand when you said that you saw a mushroom in the wood. That happens. Maybe in a minute, maybe in a month or more.
I never know what to carve until I see it in the wood. The rest is easy.
 

GGTBod

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 28, 2014
3,209
26
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I think it was Michelangelo who said, the statue is waiting for me there in the marble, all i have to do is remove all of the pieces that are not part of the statue
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
True. Inuit say the same thing when they study steatite soapstone.
My grandmother told me that I would see things in wood to carve. Really rattled me the first time it happened.
I was splitting cedar in an abandoned block-cutter's pile to find myself holding a salmon by the tail.
Now I just enjoy it when it happens. Many piles of wood indoors and out.

Because the carvings are all so different, it has come to mean that I find that I need maybe one more gouge.
Fast forward about 20 years and it is 3 tool rolls and more.

You show the tools that you use for the mushroom. Yes, it can be done, everybody should take comfort, looking at the tools they already own.
Plus, you describe the never-ending repetition of honing. "Carving Sharp" isn't a philosophical concept.
 

GGTBod

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 28, 2014
3,209
26
1
How you describe noticing you were holding a salmon is just what it is like, can't force it but sometimes i just see something.

I genuinely believe I have all of the hand tools i will ever need for carving wood, i have more tools than i use but i always go back to the same 3 knives and 2 gouges and my little scribe, my gouges are older than me made by Marples, they served at least two craftsmen before they came to me, i like to think they left some spirit in them tools waiting for me to restore them and put them back into the use they were created for.

When i eventually get out of the city and get a garden i plan to have a lathe, the only question i haven't solved yet is will it be engine powered or man powered, i quite like the thought of making one with a half a bike and a fly wheel as the pedal power, once i have space to do it i think this mad idea will naturally expand ro scale into reality somehow
 

GGTBod

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 28, 2014
3,209
26
1
Nice choice for the piece of wood....I like how it came out....And now, like you said, everything else is going to seem soft and easy.... :)

Here is hoping so, once the thumb bruising heals they will be tougher for it i reckon
 

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