# Cedar owl.



## Scottart (Jan 8, 2015)

Rarely do I get wood other than spruce, birch or cotton wood here in AK. But a fellow left me some 4' thick cedar slabs last summer. This is the first carving today. 68 minutes to rough, 96 minutes to finish with 1/4' ball nose, than an 1/8' recarve just on the owl, also about 55 minutes. Some under cuts with the Dremel to lift it out from the panel. And the lovely big old crack was there at the start.

Not sure how you all model of shapes like this. 
I lay a ruler across one dimension. Snap a photo. Load that photo in aspire, and scale the photo to the width indicated on the ruler.

For this piece I dropped an oval on it 24 " wide (widest part of the slab). Than used node editing to contour the oval to match the image. I set an easy to find cross section on the slab over dead center of the work area. Finally I rotate it to get an easy alignment mark for horizontal alignment. In this case, the bottom of the burl is ran on my X axis.


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## gtsharp (Mar 10, 2014)

Sah-wheet!


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## Daikusan (Apr 12, 2013)

Really really really NICE


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## Multiwood (Feb 24, 2013)

AWSOME as always Scott


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## honesttjohn (Feb 17, 2015)

Hooooo da thunk?

Another better than good one. Other than the usual outstanding paint job, that one could just weather naturally or do you have to put spar on it up there? Wouldn't even think of using stain of any kind unless it's different shades for the log and bird only. One of a kind for somebody to take home. Room to carve something with Alaska and a date if a tourist gets it.

Did you undercut the log too, or just the bird?? Never thought of doing that. But ceativity ain't one of my strong points, either.


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## Shop guy (Nov 22, 2012)

Very nice, Scott


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## kp91 (Sep 10, 2004)

i am sure that will sell very quickly!


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## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

kp91 said:


> i am sure that will sell very quickly!


That was my second thought to


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## woodknots (Mar 7, 2012)

+1 Scott, what everyone said and then some - amazing


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## Knot2square (Jul 11, 2015)

My MIL would go nuts over that. She absolutely loves owls.
Fantastic work.


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## MEBCWD (Jan 14, 2012)

Scottart said:


> Not sure how you all model of shapes like this.
> I lay a ruler across one dimension. Snap a photo. Load that photo in aspire, and scale the photo to the width indicated on the ruler.
> 
> For this piece I dropped an oval on it 24 " wide (widest part of the slab). Than used node editing to contour the oval to match the image. I set an easy to find cross section on the slab over dead center of the work area. Finally I rotate it to get an easy alignment mark for horizontal alignment. In this case, the bottom of the burl is ran on my X axis.


Scott using a picture of a special piece you will be carving scaled in Aspire helps tremendously to make sure you place everything in the correct location so you have enough material to cut the models. 

I also have pictures of end grain cutting boards in the bitmap files so I can show a customer what a custom inlay will look like in a cutting board before they place their order.

I like the fact that you are under cutting behind portions of the model to make it stand out and add depth to the overall project. Another great carving!


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## kp91 (Sep 10, 2004)

MEBCWD said:


> Scott using a picture of a special piece you will be carving scaled in Aspire helps tremendously to make sure you place everything in the correct location so you have enough material to cut the models.
> 
> I also have pictures of end grain cutting boards in the bitmap files so I can show a customer what a custom inlay will look like in a cutting board before they place their order.


What an awesome tip! I feel foolish for not figuring that one out, and wasting time 'cutting air' over a piece to see where the image would land.


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## Scottart (Jan 8, 2015)

have done that cutting air thing. You can also use the Bit Mat tracer in Aspire. the down size is it wont work well if the picture does not have stark edges, and it creates a horrifically large number of Nodes... slows down design and carving time.


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## Scottart (Jan 8, 2015)

honesttjohn said:


> Hooooo da thunk?
> 
> Another better than good one. Other than the usual outstanding paint job, that one could just weather naturally or do you have to put spar on it up there? Wouldn't even think of using stain of any kind unless it's different shades for the log and bird only. One of a kind for somebody to take home. Room to carve something with Alaska and a date if a tourist gets it.
> 
> Did you undercut the log too, or just the bird?? Never thought of doing that. But ceativity ain't one of my strong points, either.


undercutting on the bottom of almost any component will add depth and shadow. The photo i showed is directly under single light source... which helps the eye better see Values, and depth.. 

Many painters will do what they call a ReMarque, painting on a print. it adds value to collector prints. I like to touch all my CNC work with some carving tools. mostly to do what I can't make the CNC do... that being, carve the underside or around an edge.


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## Scottart (Jan 8, 2015)

MEBCWD said:


> Scott using a picture of a special piece you will be carving scaled in Aspire helps tremendously to make sure you place everything in the correct location so you have enough material to cut the models.
> 
> I also have pictures of end grain cutting boards in the bitmap files so I can show a customer what a custom inlay will look like in a cutting board before they place their order.
> 
> I like the fact that you are under cutting behind portions of the model to make it stand out and add depth to the overall project. Another great carving!


I had not used it that way Mike.. a grand Idea.... that might get stolen..


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## JFPNCM (Dec 13, 2009)

Superb piece.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

That is a real beauty! Much better than nice. 

You mentioned cottonwood. I didn't know you could use it. We consider it a trash tree, more like a bush really. How does it work out


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## Scottart (Jan 8, 2015)

DesertRatTom said:


> That is a real beauty! Much better than nice.
> 
> You mentioned cottonwood. I didn't know you could use it. We consider it a trash tree, more like a bush really. How does it work out


yes, it is rather trashy, i have done many test carvings out of it and a few benches. but it does not hold detail, has little physical strength.. but I can get 35 " wide slabs 3" thick.. I will post a picture some time.

It is still good for Chainsaw carving, and I sometimes use it for larger pieces. It dies standing up on the river near here. so drys completely ..


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