First hicking stick with wood spirit carving

[jojo]

This is a hiking stick on which I carved a wood spirit on yesterday. I have made sticks before, but this is the first time I carved a spirit (or a face for that matter)

I have wrapped paracord for the handle, but I think I am going to replace it with wrapped leather instead.

He looks a bit grumpy, but that's because he's seen some nerk dropping litter in His Wood and He disapproves

Sorry about the poor pics. I really must get a camera with a macro facility soon. But the grass is perfectly focused
Thanks for looking.

 

[Bernie Garland]

Man of many talents Joel,lovely stick.

Bernie

 

[Pignut]

WOW that is a cracker!

cheers

Dave

 

[Eric_Methven]

Nice sturdy crutch there in the first photo, and the twig leaning on it ain't bad either.

Eric

 

[scanker]

Very nice indeed. Well done.

 

[Singeblister]

love it great carving

 

[Mungo]

Nicely done - I'm going to e-mail this thread to my friend at http://decadobushcraft.blogspot.com who carves similar hiking sticks like that... he gave me one in November - it is TERRIFIC!

Cheers,

Mungo

 

[Matt Weir]

I love it

 

[jojo]

Thanks for the kind comments I used the stick yesterday for a walk down the marshes. The paracord wrap on the handle is not particularly comfortable to hold, and also was not tight enough and slipped, so its got to go!! I can use either soft leather, or make some yucca fibres plaited cordage and wrap that as a handle. What d'ya think?? Anyone used yucca cordage for a wrap handle either on a stick or a bow?

 

[Simon H]

That looks great, I like that a lot. Very impressive if that's a first go at a face.

 

[Pantalaimon]

Wow! I hope that I one day will be able to do something like that.

Which tools have you used?

 

[Gailainne]

I really like that, the attention to detail is great, the wrinkles around the eyes and cheek bones....very impressive, especially as its a first attempt.

Regards

Stephen

 

[jojo]

I think I better own up here! It is my first one, and because I have never carved a face before, I followed some instructions in a book, to get the proportions sort of right. Now despite following those instructions, my face looks different from the one in the book. I have finished another one and that looks different again.

As to the tools, I have a set of 5 small Japanese carving chisels and I have used those, I'll post some pics tomorrow of the second stick, and of the tools. They are not perfectly suited though, despite being small, they were a bit too big for the eyes particularly. I tried to only use the tools to have a tooled finish but could not resist using a bit of sand paper! Only 220 grit mind you

 

[jojo]

Another couple of pics of the two sticks together. I have kept the bark on the second one. They were both cut at the same time, but still having the bark on made a lot of difference: the wood is still very wet compared to the first one.

These are the tools I used to carve the faces

 

[Simon H]

Looks even better with the bark on - a nice contrast.

 

[Cobweb]

Wow, they're fantastic, very nice work... Well done that man

 

[John Fenna]

I love the "bark on" one!
Beaut carving!

 

[redneck]

that is absolutely superb, would it be breaking copyright laws to show the plans you used? ( copyright allows you to copy 10% of a book or volume)

 

[jon r]

Frigging hell Jojo! thats quite amazing! well done! great!

 

[Matt Weir]

Frigging hell Jojo! thats quite amazing! well done! great!

[DADMODE]Language please Jon [/DADMODE]

Sweet carving Jojo.