Couple more old chainsaw pictures.....

[Dirt Bag]

   Been trying to catch on to this scanning and cropping etc...... using old 35mm prints. Had no digital camera back in our carving days. Seems best to start a new thread, as we will keep digging this stuff out until someone tells us to stop. This one was a big white oak in a park - the black spots on it were places where we hit metal. Over the years, the carnival folks would screw eye bolts etc. into the tree to anchor their rigging. Most of the junk got left in the tree. And we found it........ you feel the saw chatter in your hands and see a few sparks cone out the chute and another chain is cashed.  I bet you've run your mill into metal in logs D'man? Gets expensive.
   Thought you folks may like to see some of this stuff.


 
    Will put up a few more as soon as we get them scanned and loaded. Any one else out there chainsaw carve?...... Or tried it?     How 'bout it.
                                                                                          D.B.
     

[Capt Rick Hiott]

Thats some beautiful work,,,,,but what an ugly face.......................What do you treat the wood with after you are done?

[Dirt Bag]

   Think we're gettin' this figured out now..... and finding some short cuts.  Another stump that had metal in it  (drywall screws). Seems like there's never been a tree in a yard that aint had something nailed to it. We have found chains grown into them even. The old Stihl rep told us that when he carved, he doing one of the farm progress shows..... was cutting out a horse's head and he hit a horse shoe that had been tacked to the tree and healed in.  Another chain shot, but good karma he said.  
                                                                                                  D.B.

[Ron 1]

that is some sweet art work!  but i have to ask the same thing as capt. rick how do you preserve it? keep it from drying and cracking? how much did you charge for this? i really like the two coons! how long would one of these carvings last?
      rw

[Dirt Bag]

      Had enough yet?  There are more, and we have time on our hands.
                                                                                                        D.B.
 Rick;
         We tried just about everything there was at the time to keep them from checking and to seal them up. Best was some stuff Olympic made.. They just called it "Penetrating Preservative".  But you had to stay ater it.... keep soaking it down and when it weathered and started to get dry... put on some more. Most folks wouldn't bother, and those stumps went away pretty fast.

[Dirt Bag]

  OK, that's it for a while.  Got to dig through some more old pictures and have a cold one.
                                                                                 Best;
                                                                                                 D.B

[Zulu]

Dirt Bag,
I'm in awe!
My hat's off to you for fine quality work.
Never tried carving myself.  Much less with a chainsaw.
More pics please.
Zulu

[Dirt Bag]

   We did this one for the Doctor who always put my hands back together (table saw, chainsaw, and many assorted chisels, guouges, drawknives etc.) He had just retired, and was there every day to see it come out of the stump. Have said before that it is the best chainsaw work we had ever done. Another white oak - hit by lightning, that knocked the top out of it. It was also the last big carving we did..... for a while.  By then it was starting to get to be too much like a job, and not as much fun as when we started. Since then, we have went a-s over appatite into the gunstock making. We still carve now and then for the causes, but the running back and forth to the jobs, and putting up and taking down the scaffolds every time, plus the "Real Job", got to cutting into our riding, and hunting and fishing time.
  People still call, and then pretty much give us hell because we quit doing it.
      As always, hoping this finds everyone well;
                                                                                                  D.B.

[Capt Rick Hiott]

(Not to change the subject) But everytime I hear something about a chainsaw,,,,I think about this video. This is too cool !

 I know you will like it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvAI7-Qa2Io

[Hit or Miss]

You do nice work!  I've never had the urge to pick up a chainsaw to carve yet, my knives and gouges are much lighter and easier on the body!

From one carver to another "I like it"!

[Dirt Bag]

   OK  .... Here's two more. Enough for one day. Wishing now that we had pictures of everything we did. Also more pictures taken durring and before. At the time didn't think much of it, and who would want to look at pictures of a topped off tree trunk.
     The bear cubs and totem were both red pine. Nice to carve except for the sticky pitch mess. Best logs we carved were catelpa,..... Basswood (linden) aint bad either. Tried some poplar, soft maple (learned to stay away from elm). The hardest wood ever ? We cut a 8 or so foot alligator out of a red maple log .. it was even harder than the ash was. Catelpa don't get very big here, and when we did get one it was usually cut because it was sick and hollow.
                                                                      Over and Out
                                                                                                 D.B.

[Ron 1]

dirt bag   these seem to keep getting sweeter my hat is off to your awesome carvings keep posting please
 rw

[bobg]

 Nice work Dirt Bad.  At one time there was a local guy that did chainsay carvings. He had a life size bear in the back of his pick up that was always there. I went by his shop and he had an eagle carving out side. Haven't seen him around in years and i think his shop is gone now. You wouldn't happen to be located in NYS would you?

[briarpatch]

It takes talent to carve like that. If I tried it, the tree I started on would not make a toothpick when I finished.
Great job, thanks for showing.
How did you do the wings of the eagle, that is standing on the head of the indian? Were they opposing limbs or did you add them after carving them?