Heads up - Wood carver on TV

[AES]

As per my on-line TV listing:

Tonight, BBC4 (London) - 19.30 for 30 mins "Made on the Silk Road" - about a bloke in mid east who carves doors chests, etc.

I see from the listing that this is Episode 2 of 3 tonight. I don't know if that means total 3 episodes about this one bloke, or 3 separate episodes about 3 different blokes making 3 lots of different stuff (I missed it last week).

Maybe worth a look?

AES

 

[Adam9453]

Thanks for the heads up AES, i'm interested in getting into a bit of power carving so i'll be keen to see what this program is about

 

[AES]

OK mate. I hope it's some good, but remembering that this carver is apparently based in somewhere like Azerbijan (sp?) or somewhere like that (on the old Silk Road like it says) this may not be what you're looking for.

Anyway ...........

AES

 

[monkeybiter]

1/ Chinese weaver
2/ Uzbeki carver
3/ Iranian potter.
1's on iPlayer now.

 

[AES]

thanks monkeybiter. Can only have radio, no TV on I player here.

AES

 

[Student]

Episode 1 was very interesting if you are into craft work. There was even a bandsaw being used at 9 mins 30 secs in. Didn't recognise the brand but definitely not Axy, Record Power or Startrite etc.; Axy probably don't deliver to NW China although they may get their tools from another part of the country!

 

[AndyT]

I've now watched the first two and was rather impressed. Both had a nice slow, unfussy style where you could see what was happening. Clearly not meant to be a how-to presentation but there was enough detail to be interesting. Good sense of the exotic too.

The carvers had a very 'blended' approach mixing chainsaw, adze and electric plane.

Worth a look.

 

[AES]

I agree, I've only seen the wood carving one tonight, and as AndyT says, it's clearly not a how to, but IMHO, clearly much better than that "silent silly" a few months back about knife making where we spent seemingly hours looking at the tattoos on the back of one of the maker's neck!

What I particularly liked was the comment by one of the masters about my work's gone all over the world and I'm proud of that. None of it was my style (and I've never tried to carve anything) but in his shoes I'd be proud too.

And not one word about sharpening either!

FWIW, I'll probably watch next week as well.

AES

 

[BearTricks]

And not one word about sharpening either!

Slightly off topic, but I follow a fair few 'green' woodworkers on various social media channels and for all their proselytising about the virtues of never using seasoned wood, not coming within a hundred yards of sandpaper and only turning on foot powered lathes, none of them ever seem to mention sharpening.

I imagine even the most traditional woodworker has to secretly duck in to a back room somewhere every so often with a handful of plane blades to spend ten minutes wondering if his mate's pro-edge is that much better than his oil stones.

 

[lurker]

Let's hope Jacob & BB don't stumble across this thread :roll:

 

[bugbear]

As per my on-line TV listing:

Tonight, BBC4 (London) - 19.30 for 30 mins "Made on the Silk Road" - about a bloke in mid east who carves doors chests, etc.

I see from the listing that this is Episode 2 of 3 tonight. I don't know if that means total 3 episodes about this one bloke, or 3 separate episodes about 3 different blokes making 3 lots of different stuff (I missed it last week).

Maybe worth a look?

AES

Watched it on iPlayer last night. Most certainly worth a look.

I was surprised they carefully sawed and adzed the round tree into a rectilinear beam, then carefully rounded the rectilinear beam into a round column. The guy was a true master of the Adze, achieving high accuracy at the same time as rapid stock removal.

I was also surprised, when having carved the column, they (IMHO) softened and degraded the work by an overall sand-papering. It may be a cultural/contextual thing, but certainly in the English and Austrian traditions, the finish of woodcarving is straight off the chisel.

it looked to me as if they're making their own chisels by grinding to shape - they didn't look forged, and the cutting shape only extended back a 3-4 cm from the edge; I suspect when it wears away, they just grind it some more.

BugBear