I usually post pictures of the finished (or near finished) projects I am working on. Several people have expressed interest in seeing more of the transformation from block to finished carving. For this project, I have included a short slide show starting with before and after pictures followed by a couple at the end of my first carving session and ending at the pre-cleanup and finishing stage.

Now that the secret is out, I found a tutorial on carving a Turtle on a log and thought I would base my next project on it. This is a fairly small carving, starting with a Basswood block measuring only 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 x 3 inches in size. Due to the size and shapes involved, roughing out was all done by hand using knives, no band saw this time!

Still have some cleanup etc. to do on the carving and then deciding on the finish. I am thinking about trying some Boiled Linseed Oil (BLO), which while that is a wood carver’s standard, I have not used before. Maybe a touch of paint will win out this time…