New tools from Slovakia.

Hello Peter. Was this question aimed at me or the community?
Being predominantely influenced by lowland and deciduous decay, it is near impossible to create that effect with the use of hand tools. Creating hollows and working with woodgrain that tends to snap rather than tear or peel is a job for machine tools too in my opinion. As I said before, both can beused together with great effect and I always finish a tree with a very sharp knife or scalpel.
It would be great to hear other opinions on this matter. I throw it out to you all.

will baddeley wrote:Hello Peter. Was this question aimed at me or the community?
Being predominantely influenced by lowland and deciduous decay, it is near impossible to create that effect with the use of hand tools. Creating hollows and working with woodgrain that tends to snap rather than tear or peel is a job for machine tools too in my opinion. As I said before, both can beused together with great effect and I always finish a tree with a very sharp knife or scalpel.
It would be great to hear other opinions on this matter. I throw it out to you all.

Question to all Will, also you hehe

Peter

wonderfull
su you ve made it twice.... ....
we can feel your style in this deadwood and in the one you ve made on the ulmus you ve showned at noelander
so you can make it again and again

rraaa..do you do carving workshops at your home for beginners like i am?

landerloos wrote:While we are on the subject of carving, what do you prefer, the manual or the with machines and why you prefer one above the other?

Peter

Most of us have carving machines and hand carving tools, I use both, usually, I use the machine first to form the shape of the deadwood I want to make and for deep cuts,It is less stressful for the roots.
Then I finish it with hand carving tools.
In carving, use whatever tool you think will make your deadwood look natural.
ka pabling

Thankyou Seb and Ka P for your comments. I was hoping to hear something from the anti's and their views on created deadwood, machined or otherwise?????. I know there are some that detest this kind of intervention, so would be interested to hear some views.
I have run workshops Seb but my garden isn't really geared up for them. I do like the South of France though.

I do not prefer one for the other. I use what is appropriate for the job. Pines with fresh soft wood is good to work on with hand tools, and Taxus is impossible without machines. So I use both tehchniques together or seperately depedning only on the speciemn and the effect wanted.
Regards
Morten

Great, that was the intention of my post, start a debat, only wish more people would join.
Before my tools where stolen I used both methods aswell, Ligustrum known for its soft wood, In my opinion harder than most say is very nice for machine carving, however if you carve a Wisteria and the wood is fresh machines have dificultis, as Will and I experienced with my Wisteria.

Peter

Looks like nice work Will. Reminds me a bit of your Elm I saw at Gingko a few years ago. It was my one of favorite trees there.

I was wondering when you carve the deep holes with these long tools, how are you removing the tool marks inside the holes? Does the black help cover them up?

Ha Ha..I guess I asked for that one The crushed charcoal is for contrast while I am carving externally, as it allow s me to stand back and see. The charcoal will wash out when it rains. To get rid of the tool marks internally, I get the marks as flat as possible and then burn and wire brush. This works extremely well.

will baddeley wrote:Ha Ha..I guess I asked for that one The crushed charcoal is for contrast while I am carving externally, as it allow s me to stand back and see. The charcoal will wash out when it rains. To get rid of the tool marks internally, I get the marks as flat as possible and then burn and wire brush. This works extremely well.

I will try that.

I had a Bald Cypress that I carved deep channels and a few years later I noticed capenter ants made a nest in it. Low and behold those worker ants did an amazing job hollowing out the inside that no human could reproduce. After they made it look decent I erradicated them. Hard to control but insects can do a great job.

Simon Temblett showed me some deadwood on one of his Taxus. While Simon much prefers to use the tearing method to create deadwood, he attributed most of the amazing work on this particular tree to wasps, who were building a nest close by.

Rudi has sent some new and improved tools for me to try out. The small one is for the Dremmel.

The larger cutter for use with the Makita now has a much thicker shaft. I am looking forward to giving these a spin in the near future.

Hi Will.....
Have got a tree you can attack with these bad boys???!

Look forward to seeing the results!!

Cheers
Bryan

I'm just getting into carving Will, and I can only dream of such great deadwood work! You did an awesome job. I got the tools, just need to practice more and have pics like your tree here for inspiration!
Chris