Post #401684 by TikiTres on Sat, Aug 16, 2008 4:26 PM

Lee, thanks very much! I started out pretty wimpy on the burning for sure, I've been hitting it a lot harder lately. It's surprising that you can really torch the heck out of wood and it doesn't burn more than the outer surface.

Mieko, thank you! I like those scales too, I've been messing around with carving different shapes/ patterns to see how they turn out. In most cases I can't even tell what it's going to look like until it's burned and brushed though!

Tikilizard, ooooooh purty wood :) I haven't tried burl, so far I've just been using what I can get at Lowe's. Where do you get big blocks like those?

Here's a few new pics:
This is the same fish I posted earlier (1x cedar carved one side), this is after letting it lighten in the sun a bit and sealed with clear lacquer. Also it now sports a marble eye.

Here are a couple of new ones, the bottom one is a whale that I patterned after a Witco whale. The middle one is the same one posted earlier after a couple of days of sun lightening. The top one is one I just finished today, it's the first one I've done out of redwood. The wood handles the same as cedar. The biggest difference is the grain (ring thickness in section) is a lot wider.

Here's an angled shot of the above showing the thickness. They're all 1-3/4" thick, carved both sides. These will suspend from wire in our gazebo.

There will be 2 or 3 more fishy "companions" to the above, but I've got another project brewing. My Van Tiki skull tiles finally arrived and are going to get built into a table. Pics to follow!