[gdenby]

You plan sounds pretty good.

Here's what I can offer. After the stick is smoothed to a cylinder, trace the top. transfer the circle to some card stock. Cut it in half, and then cut out the half circles to form profiles that can be used to see how close the wood shape is getting to round as the carving progresses. After that, to save some time, I cut the top to half an octagonal profile. From there, I remove smaller amounts. I haven't sawed into the bottom, for fear of going to far, and so the bottom portion is mostly just chipping away.

On my first attempt, when I was still working thru how to seal and season the stick ends, I was about half way done when the splits opened up at the top. Since then, I've tried to have enough extra stick that I can cut the ends away before I start finial work.

 

[gdenby]

You are welcome.

I spent a good while looking at your blog today. If your sticks turn out as well as your workbench project, they should be quite fine.

I'm amazed how nice your spare bedroom/shop was. At best, my work spaces tend to look like a dump that at least had a broom taken to it, and all the tools more or less in a pile.

I've been cutting thicker sticks, a few maybe even 2.75" diameter. I like that I have enough volume for more sculptural carving. Altho. littleknife's link to D. Stehly's work, where he used logs big enough that he could cut coiled snakes that joined the remaining stick is well beyond what I think I will attempt.

 

[gdenby]

Looking good. I'm sure it was pleasant to get back into your shop. I suppose your decision about cutting the ball off and placing it on existing stick vs. finishing the whole of the current shaft will depend a lot on time. If the unfinished portion of the ball stick is long enough, at least 36", after the ball is off, you will still have stock ready to go when you find more time.

At present, I find that I can get a lot of works done just w. rasps, files and rifflers. But I find that a few of my small hand gouges come in very handy quite often.