How to carve a punkin with a chainsaw

[wooly]

This is a real simple chainsaw carve that is easy for anyone to pull off just by following along with the steps in these pics.

This one took me between 1/2 hour - 45 minutes with my little electric saw, so give the Husky a yank and you can probably cut that down to 15-20 minutes. I'll be cookin' with gas soon!

 

First cut a tic-tac-toe board in the top of your log.

Next cut away all the squares on the outside of your board leaving only the center square which will be your punkins stem. Round the edges of the top of your log now as well by slicing them off at an angle.

Next up I carve a little valley around the stem with the tip of the bar like you would see on an actual punkin. At this point you can also shape the stem to get rid of the sharp corners.

Now decide the height of your punkin and make a cut all the way around the log an inch or two deep to mark the bottom.

When this cut is complete, make another rounding cut from the punkin side towards the straight bottom cut all the way around following the same line towards the base.

For the next step, start at the stem with the tip of your bar and run a few 1"- 1 1/2" deep cuts to the base line.

On each side of these sections, round the edges with angled cuts towards the line coming off the stem.

Now you can cut your punkin off whatever base is left over.

At this point you can call your punkin done or continue on to sand and round things off as much as you desire. I don't get too crazy with the finish work, but I've found my little Chicago Multi-tool with a straight blade does a nice job of cutting off and blending the sharp corners.

After that I hit the whole thing quick by hand with some 150 grit to get rid of any splinters and she's ready to be sealed or painted however you desire to finish it.

I'm waiting for my boiled linseed oil to arrive to coat mine with. This will slow down the drying process which will help with cracking and checkering as the wood continues to dry.

I haven't looked into the best painting options for this stuff yet, so your on your own if you wanna go blaze orange at this point or not,lol

And a couple finished pics of my 30lb cherry punkin before moving on to the next project.

 

 

 

[landtracdeerhunter]

Nice creativity wooly. I always watch the guy at the Erie County Fair. He's got a little dinky saw, but turns out some cool work. Never seem him do the work you do.  Maybe you could get an enclosed  booth up there and carve those cool statues. Spots are like $1300 for nine days.

Edited June 26, 2018 by landtracdeerhunter

[wooly]

25 minutes ago, landtracdeerhunter said:

Nice creativity wooly. I always watch the guy at the Erie County Fair. He's got a little dinky saw, but turns out some cool work. Never seem him do the work you do.  Maybe you could get an enclosed  booth up there and carve those cool statues. Spots are like $1300 for nine days.

That guys got mad skills! 

I hate it when he takes a break.

I'm planning on knocking out a few more of these easy carves before I increase the difficulty level any. I did haul a nice 4ft section of pine home this evening that will hopefully turn out as a nice standing bear in a few days.