Fan bird - from 'A fun challenge'

[Elines]

This is an amended version of an original post in 'A fun challenge'. I have copied it here as it may be of interest to people who look at this thread.

My challenge which was from Taffy63 and it was:
" ....a carved wooden fan bird"

I spent quite a bit of time researching it and Taffy63 and Kepis gave me some good stuff.
Anyway here are the pictures:

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I won't bother putting up any pictures/description of how to do this because it is all fully explained in these sources:

This video gives a general idea but is not really a tutorial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=xDYS_PLV4NI

This IS a tutorial-type of video and is interesting to watch. The joy of the presenter is palpable and gives an idea of what it feels like when you start opening up the 'fan'

http://flash.unctv.org/woodwrightss/2800/wws_2808.html
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This is a step by step written guide, with pictures and is excellent

http://www.woodworkersinstitute.com/page.asp?p=950
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and some pretty advanced stuff is at
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http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fan-Carvers-World/256564622919


Kepis has some fans at:
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http://kepisbushcraft.blogspot.com/2011/02/more-wooden-fans.html

Perhaps the only points to emphasise are:
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• I made it out of a scrap piece of pine from the garage

• I used a kitchen knife and a lump of wood to tap it when making the feathers (see the 'sources' to understand that), and not a special woodworking tool

• I boiled the wood for 90 minutes, then left it in the water overnight (makes the kitchen stink like spilled retsina)

• I froze the wood because I didn't think I would be getting round to trying it out for several weeks. In practice I did have time and after thawing the wood it was fine.

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So - a really good challenge from Taffy63 and thanks again to Monkey boy for starting the thread.
I had never seen the birdfans before and would never have made one but for the 'fun challenge'.

 

[robin wood]

That's the best collection of links on fan carving I have seen well done for compiling. I first got interested in these after seeing them in the ethnographic museum in St Petersberg in 1998, they have some old ones with 3 foot wingspans there. Owen Jones the swill basket maker was the first person I know of making them in the UK but they are a nice project and nice to see them getting more popular.
This is the thread on the green woodworkers forum about them http://www.bodgers.org.uk/bb/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=330&hilit=fan

 

[eraaij]

That's great! Thanks for sharing!

-Emile

 

[dwardo]

Great project idea thanks.

 

[Elines]

Thanks for the comments.

On reading around the subject it seems that they can become addictive - certainly I want to make more - if only because I have been searching for something artistic I am good at and this might just be it!

 

[Whittler Kev]

Brill. ::
Here's the main man (Sean Hellman) in the UK for fan birds IMHO
[video=youtube;xDYS_PLV4NI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDYS_PLV4NI&feature=pl ayer_embedded[/video]
Here he is at the Bodgers Ball
[video=youtube;dLve-y--M6s]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLve-y--M6s&feature=player_embedded[/video]

 

[Jaymzflood]

Wow, that first link is excellent (the youtube vid) gonna have a crack at that I think,.

 

[Elines]

Good luck - but be warned, they can be addictive!

 

[Jaymzflood]

The big question is...do they sell? haha

 

[Kepis]

The big question is...do they sell? haha

only if they are really good like Seans ones

 

[Jaymzflood]

Whats the knife called hes using to push through the feathers?

 

[Mesquite]

On reading around the subject it seems that they can become addictive - certainly I want to make more - if only because I have been searching for something artistic I am good at and this might just be it!

So we'll soon be seeing creations like these then Chris

Fan Carvers World

But teasing aside I'm well impressed with the bird you did, perhaps you could bring it along to the next RC meet you're at and talk to us about it?

 

[Mesquite]

Whats the knife called hes using to push through the feathers?

A straight handled draw knife.

Frosts do a reasonably priced one if you want to get one. Bison Bushcraft sell them for £22.50 (no connection etc) but if you look round you might find them cheaper

 

[Jaymzflood]

But teasing aside I'm well impressed with the bird you did, perhaps you could bring it along to the next RC meet you're at and talk to us about it?

Its awesome aint it for a first go. The only problem im thinking about is constantly messing up when creating the feathers and wrecking it, having to start again.

What type of wood have you used there?

 

[Jaymzflood]

A straight handled draw knife.

Frosts do a reasonably priced one if you want to get one. Bison Bushcraft sell them for £22.50 (no connection etc) but if you look round you might find them cheaper

Thanks for that ill pick one up in the week, ill have a scout about. My boss may even have one.

 

[Taffy63]

Hi Jaymzflood,
The cheapest I've found these is here:
http://www.clasohlson.co.uk/Product/Product.aspx?id=164052006


Cheers
Nigel

 

[Elines]

............ I'm well impressed with the bird you did, perhaps you could bring it along to the next RC meet you're at and talk to us about it?

More than happy to do that - but I can' t make the next one in January.

I could see about bringing some in various stages of preparation, as it (currenlty) takes me too long to do one from scratch.

Also - in the instructions in the tutorial in the OP it says to boil the blanks for 90 minutes. I am currently experimenting with boiling the wood after carving, but before the feather are 'rived'- so if I decide to stick with that method then a full demo wouldn't be possible.

I have to say that I am flattered - almost embarrassed - by the impact the first one has made - both on the forum and with friends that I have shown it to. Kepis - who makes much better ones than me - knows that I still have a long way to go. I have since made a few more and whilst they are still not perfect (in particular the feathers are too thick) they are still way ahead of anything I thought I was capable of, only a few weeks ago. (At school - 50 years ago - I had only one year of wood working tuition - and none since - and made a garden dibber, scissor rack and a dovetail box with really crap dovetails.)

Its awesome aint it for a first go. The only problem im thinking about is constantly messing up when creating the feathers and wrecking it, having to start again.

What type of wood have you used there?

You will probably find - based on my very limited experience - that you will lose a few feathers but that doesn't matter - if you watch the American video you will see that the guy there loses one when he has a go. I have been using a kitchen knife and want to try with a different one and if that doesn't work then I will get a draw knife - like the ones in several recent posts on this thread (and thanks for them Steve and Nigel )

You could always practice by doing a rough carving to create the hinge and then just doing the 'riving' (I think that is the technical term for creating the feathers.)

The wood was soft wood I had spare in the garage - pine I guess - I just chose it because it was about the right dimensions and the grain was in the right direction. By which I mean that if you look at the short end of the wood the growth rings are parallel to the longest side (about 2") you can see. If you look at the Sally and David Nye tutorial you can see where they say the wood should come from and this may help to make it clear.

 

[the interceptor boy]

any reason why you boiled the wood for 90 mins. cheers.

 

[Elines]

any reason why you boiled the wood for 90 mins. cheers.

The main reason was that this is what it said to do in the instructions , and in making the fan bird I was just followed orders.

In practice boiling the wood increased moisture content and so makes the fibres more flexible so that when you come to bend out the wings they are less likely to snap off.

However I find that compared with unboiled wood the boiled variety is more difficult to draw an oultine on and also more difficult to carve cleanly. This is why - as mentionned above - I am experimenting with carving up to the point at which the feathers are rived, and THEN boiling. In fact this is the one I am working on at the moment (not yet boiled):

When the wood is boiled you (I) cannot draw such a clear outline.

Incidentally:

• the slope is non-standard - I am experimenting with it to see what it looks like (not yet sure I can create feathers from this shape)
• the chip at the top of the slope is not important because when you carve the back of the head all of the wood from (more or less) the end of the pencil line to the chip will be removed

Also ......I should emphasise /remind everybody that I am still very much a beginner so if folk with more experience than me want to comment/disagree/give opposing opinions then that is fine with me.

At the moment I feel that it is a case of 'in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king'.

 

[Elines]

And this is what it turned out like:

This is the fourth one I have made but still getting there. It is more advanced than the first one because the feathers are further forward and I have varied their length.

You can see that I need to improve on the riving (splitting of the wood to create the feathers):

because although they are generally thinner they vary in thickness quite a bit. I lost quite a few - maybe 7 or 8 - but I had been told that this would not matter as I would still have plenty left - and this is how it turned out.

I might invest in some specialist tools - a draw knife and a gouge. Currently I use a (sharp) Mora bushcraft knife for carving (thanks Lee for the sharpness), a folding saw, a thin kitchen knife for riving and a mini cheapo wood carving set off ebay - the mini gouge is handy for finishing off the gooves, but most of the wood is removed with the knife.

As regards the draw knife there appear to be two available:

Mora, described as:

"c) Frosts Drawknife
A lightweight two handled drawknife made by Frosts of Mora. Draw knives are generally used for cutting towards you, they are a good knife for stripping bark and making the preliminary shapes prior to turning wood on a pole lathe. Our drawknives are also a great aid in larger carving projects.
http://www.bisonbushcraft.co.uk/page15/page15.html "

and

Flexcut, described as

"Flexcut 75mm Draw Knife with Sheath

This handy little draw knife was developed for fan carving* but works great for skinning bark and roughing-off corners.

• Great for skinning bark and roughing-off corners

http://www.greenmanbushcraft.co.uk/cutting-tools/flexcut-75mm-draw-knife-with-sheath.htm "

("My emphasis)


The cheapest delivered prices I have found are

Mora - £22.99 (Amazon) (Chas Ohlson is cheaper if you are near a shop)

Flexcut - £32.99 Axminster (includes leather sheath)

To do fan carving the blade needs to be thin - so the Mora may be too thick - but I haven't actually seen one so does anybody know if it is ok for doing this stuff?