Another walking stick

[DrPhill]

I feel a little presumptuous doing a work-in-progress - I am self taught and and still learning. My method and techniques may be poor, and the stick may turn out to be a disaster, but I guess you can ignore the thread, or laugh at me, or even (best of all) point out where I could improve. I may also take a v e r y long time to finish the project as we are hoping to move house, and I am not a fast worker. With that out of the way, here is what I started with (photographed in what we call our 'rotting shed'):

First I trim it and flatten one side of the shaft, aligned with the axis of the stick. I do the flattening with a small axe:

Then I use the flat edge as a guide to flatten four faces to the shaft. I find an inch and a half a natural diameter to hold, so I squared the shaft off to two by two.

Shortened the stick and 'chamfered' the square edges of the shaft ready for rounding. Coated in PVA while I order a spoke-shave...

That is all for now........

 

[DrPhill]

Spokeshave arrived. What a fun tool. I wish I had bought one a lot earlier.... Slimmed down the shaft a little:

Now to start some shaping. My method is to stare at the stick for long periods, imagining the finished shape, and then remove some wood that definitely does not belong to the finished product. As I remove each bit the finished item comes into focus. This work is mainly done with mallet and chisel.

 

[DrPhill]

Now some tidying up. Mainly removing lumps from the stick that are not part of the carving. I said that I would be working slowly.....

Before	After

 

[DrPhill]

So the next stage is cleaning up what I think of as 'construction lines' to make the shape more realistic. This is a slow process because I need to remove some timber and then smooth off the result before I can see the next bit to remove. I am also cautious because I know that I can't replace timber if I make a mistake.
I use mainly mallet and chisel, with some spoke shave, palm-plane and carving knife.

Even after the images below, the bird is too chubby. More work will be needed.

My apologies for taking photos before the glue has fully dried - that is what the white stuff is. My apologies as well because the glue causes a shine that does not photograph well. I have many more intermediate images, but they only show subtle differences. I don't think folk would be that interested.

 

[Max Power]

Looking forward to see the end result, the bird gradually emerging from the wood is really interesting.

 

[DrPhill]

A little more work - this time on the legs. And a couple of pictures of my workshop. Good natural light and ventilation, but not so good when it rains.....

 

[DrPhill]

I guess it is hard to see the changes, so here is a bit of 3-D magic from my phone. The rendering is a little skanky on the back, but it does give more of a feel...

 

[DrPhill]

Unfortunately for a whork-in-progress each iteration is less different from the previous as I slowly bring the carving into focus. I have been working around the legs and the head.
The piece has developed a couple of splits (checks?), which is disappointing but not disastrous. I will probably coat the stick with plenty of pva for a while while it dries out.
I am not sure how long this will take - anyone have any suggestions?

Here is another video.

 

[DrPhill]

Another update. The changes are getting more subtle each time. Again, the video rendering is less than perfect (It is built from a 3d scan of the carving):

 

[DrPhill]

Some more work done - I spend 2 hours and don't even make enough sawdust to fill a match box.
See if you can spot the differences:

 

[DrPhill]

I have now moved house and got back to a little carving. I ave freed the beak and cleared a little around the legs. I have some finishing and detailing to do, but I think its nearly done: