[MJC4]

Its been awhile since I've made a stick so I had this piece of silver maple that I sanded and oiled several months ago sitting in my stick barrel. Since its been a monsoon around here to wet to do just about anything in the yard or garden I thought I would get out the carving box and do a little whittling.

It was the wood spirit sticks I saw an older gentlemen carving at the Cradle of Forestry in the Pisgah Nation Forest that got me started sticking. I carve a few gnomes, birds, bears, wolves and Santa's but I always find my way back to carving the Wood Spirit. He goes by several names. Woodwose or Greenman in Europe, but here he is the Wood Spirit and he is my favorite. Attached pics are the start of a carved wood spirit stick.

 

[FishGuy]

That's a good start to the carving. I especially like the wood grain pattern of the wood itself. Maple is nice wood for carving - not too hard and not too soft for details.

 

[Sean]

Yes good so far. That wood looks like it's begging for a nice oil to pop the color.

 

[JJireh]

Don't be scared to go deep! You can use up to half of your diameter for carving.

http://walkingstickforum.com/topic/439-wood-spirit-and-stick-integrity/

Great start!

 

[MJC4]

I started this silver maple stick a couple months ago. The bark was left on, sanded down to a 220 grit then several coats of boiled linseed oil were applied. I then carved the wood spirit on the top this week. I like the contrast of the dark outer bark against the lighter inner sap wood, makes the carving stand out better IMO. Finished the stick in two coats of oil based satin spar poly.

When drilling the hole for the lanyard I got it slightly off kilter so to "fix it" I had to bore a larger lanyard hole than I wanted. I now had this gaping lanyard hole to fill, so what to do? I made a 4 strand 880 paracord brown and woodland camo braid for the lanyard and it filled the hole nicely. Might be something I start using more on future pieces.

Thanks for looking.

Mark