[cobalt]

Lots of you dress you sticks to a good standard ,some good examples in the photo gallery

I am impressed .the coffe stick by CV3 is very good with his low relief work

With this in mind i am trying to develop my own style as i just normally use the shank as a carrier for my toppers

So have decided to use my wifes initial (carved out of rams horn )to place on a sweet chestnut shank rather than a hazel as it dosnt provide enough contrast in colour

also re polished the rams horn to try and lift the colour more

I have alredy posted some photos of it ,but here they are again to view thw effect of different colours on it. and the jig i origally used which will have to be remade to sit onto the new shank .

Just hope the wife dosnt catch me boiling up the horn in her saucepans which will have to be done to fit a smaller diameter

heres some pics

1 is the rams horn letter .

2 the jig i used to bend it into shape

3the hazel shank with the flue de lee on it

4&5 the letter sat on a sweetchestnut shank for comparison after repolishing it

 

[cobalt]

Another approch to dressing the shank is to engrave a horoscope sign onto it .

this should be straight forward but i cannot seem to find burrs smaller than 6mm in diameter.any info on this would be gratefully recieved so i could look for a UK supplier

The shanks are aprrox 1 inch diameter which gives 3 inch circumferanceso the design needs to be approx 1.5inchs to fit half way round the shank

I am intending to use engrave directly onto the bark showing the pith below it which will give a sharp contrasting colour so a smaller burr would be needed and found that i can use a fleix shaft tool like a pencil for drawing the design

I am intending to make my wife a stick with a inter changeable topper and put the rams horn letter on it with a engraving of her horoscope sign

Here is a few ideas i had in mind and a sample practise cut i made useing the existing burrs

 

[Thistle]

Very nicely done, Cobalt. I like those.

 

[Steve R.]

Beautiful! Hope I can achieve such a level of craftsmanship one day..

 

[cobalt]

Thanks for those kind words but dont deserve them.

anyone can dress a shank or carve a topper ,the secret is in the interest and the drawing/planning of them..carve something you like as long as the shank is balanced visually its usually okay.

If you do any toppers always start of with a block of wood twice the diameter of the shank otherwise it will look elongated .alternatively just carve into the shank dressing itself jjierh and CV3 have some good examples to look at in the gallery, I make up a template 1st just to see that it will sit on the shank correctly 1st as long as the bottom of the topper is brought down to the thicness of the shank it should be fine ,things like snout/ beaks will be accomidated as the block of wood will allow for things like that.Just dont try to carve a topper with a piece of wood the same size as the shank it dosnt allow for those things and never sits right

but mainly ejoy it

I havnt been carving long nearly a couple of years doing sticks .Started carving puppets 1st. I have a degree in three dimensional designs which helps allthought thats for ceramics and glass

But enjoy doing it yourselfs and dont worry if it goes wrong we have all been there

I to need spell check but tend not to use it should do ,eyesights not brill at lookibg at the screen dosnt help i am hoping it will teach me to type .still think the keys move whilst i am typing tho

 

[cobalt]

I have a solid peice of rams horn still and rather carve into the stick i may carve the horn,its easy to carve with the advantage of being able to bend and shape it easyily .So mayby carve a cameo type horoscope sign and dress the shank with that

Lime wood is another pos. to do it with and would be simple to fit or shape it to sit on the shank

A tip i use is to ensure the grain of the wood is always going in the right direction it makes it a lot better to carve so say a bird with a large beak i would dowel and glue a peice of wood , say at right angle or whatever to the neck to allow for a bend in the neck to give it more of a natural feel and make the head beak etc much easyer to carve.