wooly

Thanks guys! LOL Larry- I made my first chainsaw carve attempt on June 12'th or something like that so coming up on 2 months experience already! Like I said, I've made a lot of mistakes up to this point that are teaching me what NOT to do, but still got a lot left to learn with this stuff. All those other little projects were a good platform for me to get started with this now looking back on it.

Pheeeew..., I didn't realize just how much wood I had left to remove from my latest bruin after getting him blocked out!My dream with all this carving stuff has been to carve some realistic animals at some point (preferably sooner than later), and I think I may have learned a few tricks along the way through all my screw ups that have got me a few steps closer to that goal.Here's a sneak peak of my day one blocking out of the log compared to where I left off yesterday.Still got plenty of work to do on him, and a few subtle changes to make, but man am I excited about how this one is coming along so far! I forgot to measure him, but he's probably in the 32"-36" range. This new saw package is such a step up from what I was working with in that electric model and I'm thinking there may be another one added to the line up shortly so I'm not wasting so much time swapping out sprockets, bars, and chains.

I think EVERY hunter has those two guys as neighbors at some point in the season,lol

I think I'm just gonna be that annoying guy next door BUZ.., BUZZZZZ..., BUZZZZING away with the chainsaw all day while everyone else is trying to get some quiet time on stand!

Just "printed" out my first! Watch for it in the classifieds soon,lol!

I wouldn't lose any sleep over a few fawns falling in the spring. Your mature deer will benefit from that deep in the winter when they don't have to compete with the weakest animals for their own survival. I know that's not going to be a popular perspective on this around here, but it's not always as bad as it seems if you look at it from two sides instead of one.

I'm pretty sure that's what I grabbed, but I just got one bottle for starters, dumped it in the can, and tossed the bottle so not 100% sure. I take it you recommend to keep doing so? Probably just start out with something simple at first until I get used to have she reacts to te wood in my hands. Cutting down trees is a whole different ball game than maneuvering and plunging a saw into a block of wood from some crazy angles and positions! I'll take it slow to start.

... on that little electric Remington chainsaw. This purdy little lady is gonna wrap her lips around some wood tomorrow and spit out a mouthfull of chips,lol! I got her set up with the little 12" dime tip carving bar, sprocket, and 1/4" chain. I've only run it with the standard 16" bar and 3/8 chain so far to whack down a few small trees, so I'm not really sure yet how she'll handle with her specialty accessories. She sure feels like a nimble little screamer!

SOLD

Looking to sell my Brownings. Both cams perform perfectly and have not been used much at all last season and only once or twice since May. I just don't have time for them now. I lost the door locking latch on the Strike Force (on left 2'nd pic) when the pin fell out last time I pulled that cam, but pretty sure you can pick up a replacement for it. I'm confident something could easily be rigged up if not, but I'm not gonna mess with that. Would like to sell the pair together both for $80 shipped. Message me if interested or if you need to see recent pics from these cams and I'll snap some off.

I honestly don't even keep track of my hours on this stuff. It gets too depressing to look at it that way when I look at the time I put into it, and the price people are willing to pay. When I noticed most of my more time consuming projects were rarely breaking the $8/hr mark(and most of the time only half of that), I realized I do this crap because I really enjoy it, and not to get rich from it. My best rough estimate on this one is 3 working days, but sometimes I take a long lunch..., or go for a hike..., or get delayed because of weather...etc,..etc...

I decided I'd be ok with a shallow relief carve for the feet. I see now where I should have done things a little different in that area for them to turn out the way I wanted, so I'll make that correction on the next one I encounter that on. I've been working on this one too long already to start erasing things and reshaping.

Wrapped up the chainsaw eagle today. A lot more Dremel work in this thing than I anticipated. Burned with torch, and applied 3 coats of boiled linseed oil over a 3 day period. Undecided if I'll add a urethane finish or not until I do some research to find out how it'll affect future maintenance.

Cool- glad he didn't slip past the second camera!

Want me to stop by and carve it into a mermaid for ya..? You can hang a treestand right in the crotch of it,lol

Can't hurt to hear both sides of the topic and form your own opinion from there.

I know some were happy to see this post fizzle out but I thought it might be good to post The Nuge's take on all this....

Mine is always hanging off a hook until the moment of truth, BUT I usually have it in my hand during that last full hour of light when the woods tend to go dead quiet. I try to hang my stands in a way that I can get away with a little movement up there in the first place. Since most of my hooks are nothing more than metal tree steps, my movements are slow and precise anyhow in an attempt to get my bow or gun off it silently above all else.

I get the impression using one of those things are a lot like my old clutch-less Milwaukee "Hole Hawg" I used to drill out rough plumbing in houses. Those drills used to scare the shit out of a lot of guys using anything over a 2 1/8" self feeding wood bit, but I loved that freaking thing because I LEARNED how to use it. It did beat me up a few times along the way, but I never suffered any broken bones I saw a few guys receive from them. I'm sure one of these will eventually find it's way into my tool bucket though!

Not yet. I've heard a lot of very scary stories about them from guys who work with them every day. A guy like me who doesn't have much of a safety plan in place probably has no reason to get one of those in his hands. BUT, they have a wide variety of uses from what I've seen, and at that price, it'll be hard NOT to throw one in the cart with my next supply order!

Thanks guys! Dave- since I'm still getting my feet wet with this stuff and learning as I go, it's easier for me to make it up as I go instead of trying to create an exact replica of an idea from the start. This way I'm not devastated if all does not go according to plan and I'm free to make adjustments and alterations to the original idea as I cut away at it whenever necessary. When I say I'm gonna do an eagle at the beginning, I really have no idea yet what kind of eagle it will be until I get rolling. For my NEXT eagle I already see a few things I'll do differently, and I'll make a point to incorporate those features into it first before I let the rest of the bird become what it wants to be. Eventually I'd like to start including some action and interactions into these things to bring them to life instead of just having stationary figures standing on a stump.....BUT, you gotta crawl before you can walk, so I just keep taking baby steps for now! I probably should have started taking pics earlier than I did with this one, but here's the first I have. As one of the best carvers I know once told me.... "they gotta look bad before they look good!" I just have to keep reminding myself that somewhere in that block of wood is my eagle and I just need to dig him out!

Ha- yep.... trouble ahead! I'm trying not to think ahead that far yet, but I'm hoping I left enough there to curl them over the rocks. I still got some fixing up to do below the belt on this guy so one way or another, I'll make it work even if I have to erase a part of the base that's already "done". It's a good thing this one's not entered in a speed carving competition.

Slow but steady progress now shaping the beak and adding in some details with the Dremel to get an idea of where this one is going. Hope I'm not getting ahead of myself.

I know a gal who caught CWD from a dirty toilet seat. She said for a FACT it's not contagious,lol

Still got a ways to go on this one. Gonna try to finish the detail work with some smaller tools and maybe try something new with the finish coloring if all goes according to plan. Just sort of winging it with this one. Worst case scenario is I have to grab another block of wood and do everything over again! BTW- I'm looking for recommendations on a 4" angle grinder if you guys have any suggestions on a tool that has proven it can stand up to a good amount of punishment...?