Cable for Lewis Winch. Our How-to Articles show you the proper use of materials and tools for building, maintaining or restoring your log home. More of a visual learner?
Our video series demonstrate many of the common techniques you will need to build and maintain your home. We carry a variety of books and DVDs on building log homes, rustic furniture, carving and tool use.
Skip to content. How To Articles. Are you in the process of building your log home? Log Home Building Tools. Library of How-To Articles. If your log happens to be larger in length and wedges from the top will not be enough to split it, you should use more wedges on the side of the wood to help it split all the way through.
As mentioned before in the article, you probably want to work inside as it is quite a long term project. Also in the workshop, you will need to use an adjustable workbench to keep the wood still as you are working on it. When transporting the wood, be careful not to damage yourself. Use some kind of a wheelbarrow or a cart to not hurt yourself as you probably know yourself that wood is heavy! In the workshop, you want to prepare the wood for carving by shaping the log. To do that, you should secure the log perpendicular to the floor at a comfortable for your height.
Make sure it is very stable and stands firm on the ground that it is at. You can use a bar clamp to help secure the wood in a stable position. At this point, you should probably think of the best ways to preserve the wood if you are planning on continuing the next day.
A nice trick that will help your wood is if you seal the end bottom of the log to stabilize the moisture content in the wood. Now that you have the log standing in a perpendicular position to the floor, cut in half, and firmly stable you will want to flatten the side of the log that has been split from its other half.
If you are working with a whole log and your project does not require you to cut it in half, skip this step and continue to step 5 to peel the bark. When working with hand tools always use protective glasses and kevlar gloves. As well as make sure your tools are very sharp, by the way, if you want some tips on sharpening check out this article!
Then chop off everything past the line. In less confusing words, you have to cut off the side in a way, that there are no dips going into the wood, otherwise, the side will not be flat. So you want to chop off everything past the thinnest point of your wood, perpendicular to the floor.
The best way to chop off the wood is of course with an axe. Try to follow the line and chop down making the side as even as possible. Please make sure that the wood is held firmly and that it will not move after a few hits with an axe.
Carving wood with a layer of bark over it is not much fun. This can be done very conveniently using a bark spud if you have one, other alternatives also include an axe or a massive gouge. After you completed that, congratulate yourself on finishing setting up the log for carving, you can now detach the bar clamp and place it on your workbench to start carving.
A carving knife is not the most important tool for log carving, however, it is and always will be one of the first tools any woodworker will ever buy. Using its sharp edge, it is used to carve smaller pieces of wood by hand. The act of carving wood using a knife alone is usually referred to as whittling.
While you will not use a knife on the log directly, cutting off a smaller piece of the log to use for a seperate carving will most likely result in a carving with a whittling knife.
It is quite a time-consuming process in which you take off small shavings of wood at a time. But as a result, you are able to provide way more intricate details to wood. That is because you have complete control of the wood and the force you are applying to the knife. There are a few types of knives used in whittling. One is for carving, one is a detail knife that is a bit shorter and has a finer point.
Then there is one for chipping which has a much shorter blade, to carve a full log you will likely not need a carving knife, however, as mentioned before, if you process the log and carve either parts of it or make a detailed ornament on it, a good carving knife will come in handy. Using a carving knife requires a lot of practice. At first, you just carve away at a piece of wood to get a feel of how much strength is required and what is the result of the force applied. Once you are accustomed to its usage, you can start making shapes.
Most wood carving beginners start off with whittling, then steadily move up to more tools. These can be quite durable if used and maintained properly. But in amateur hands, it might break easily as well. If you are interested in buying a carving knife this set by BeaverCraft is all you will need.
Or if you are good at crafting tools, then you can make your own tools. In this tutorial , you can learn how to make your carving knife. Power carving is easier due to the machine doing the most work, but it is also harder to control and a little more dangerous so make sure to follow the 9 rules of safety when using any power carving tools.
The power carving tools that you will require are as follows:. Chainsaw carving is an actual thing, where carve huge logs using it and make some brilliant masterpieces. There are even yearly competitions for chainsaw carving. Chainsaws are used by carvers to take off a large quantity of material from a log and create an initial shape of their project.
Some people are so good at this craft that they even give initial detailing with this huge tool, but for most of us using detailing tools after a chainsaw is a better way to go. When it comes to clearing a log, nothing beats a chainsaw. It will take off huge chunks and clean the whole thing for you to start carving it using other tools. Though it can be a bit harder to control and a tad bit dangerous if you are new to it.
You need a great amount of control to be able to carve using this tool so it is not something beginners should use. You should practice using a chainsaw first by just taking off material instead of using it to give details.
Most chainsaws are normally durable but it can also depend on the brand that you are using. A cheap brand will not last that long, this is specifically the case in power tools. Since most of their function is related to the motors that are being used in it. Here is a great chainsaw by DeWalt that you can use for power carving. A grinder or a mini grinder is ideal for carving logs where you need to shave off material at a slower steady pace. It might be harder to control for people who are new to power carving.
Though a mini grinder might be a bit easier to control than a full-size one. The best thing about a grinder or a mini grinder is the number of attachments it supports. Using these attachments you can achieve various results. You can sand, carve, and cut a log with these without an issue. It is easier to use than a chainsaw as well, due to its small size. The final details that you will give to any piece of work in power carving will be using a rotary tool.
Using all the burrs and bits these tools have to offer, you can create works of art.
0コメント