boo

Had another go a phesant head , one piece of American walnut , on hazel shank , now I wish I hadn't painted it ! I pyrography the feathers & details in looked really good , should of just oiled it up & left it alone, paint has killed the feather patterning ,oh well you live & learn ! Definitely investing in some carving gear next month!

Apparently looking for 3 lads & a girl , go for a look-see later , bit of a stroll see what the damage is , parkgate be rammed till later on...

It's off moorside/parkgate on the dee estuary

Marsh by us on fire tonight, large Reed beds , considering the amount of water through rain & big tides , gotta been sett , police & fire brigade been at it , was impressive...

Let's hope it works , as he's just broken his last diber !

Hopefully works , made from odds & ends , a mole run stick...

Once glued up, take the top down to the shank, don't go mad checking for lines , get the inside line sorted rest will follow, when happy ,sand back , scrape& wet/dry to finish, I gently closed up the nose as well for asthetics, fit ferrule, it pulls up tight when tapped on , then finish the stick with your choice of finish, it's got a couple of light cracks,but makes an OK stick , considering I was going to bin it at one point

Once nose sorted, find suitable shank, this is hazel , I fitted a piece of 8mm stud into handle& fitted a couple of spacers to increase the heel length , then drilled the shank , next jointing, chalk I find is your Friend, offer the top up to the shank for best fit ,Mark a line through top& shank as a reference point, then use chalk as an interface showing high spots on join , keep gently removing high spots to achieve a good fit & no gapping, when happy glue up ! I use an inner tube to pull everything together

After a bit of shaping, turning the nose , slowly heat up ,done in stages , otherwise develops cracks,once happy leave to cool & set

Wow ! Saved to jpeg instead, seems to work , horn being bulked, slow process of squeezing up with heat , slowly working down blocks to form a solid piece, gain a couple of inches in length, once bulked, put on a bending jig to form basic shape, then onto a former to attain the Shape you want as in the picture, once formed needs straightening up so top is pretty true

Carnt seem to carry on uploading photos , sorry people...

Soz

Try again later

Morning, just finished a rams horn crook , it nearly ended up in the bin , been using left over horn from the old man , now know why it's left over! So first get horn ! Then need to clean it up , flatten then begin bulking , took a week on / off to do this , pic shows bulking blocks & home made press

When the old man passed , he used to brown his own barrels , in one cupboard full of his stuff , quite a lot of paperwork on brownig solutions & brews , havnt gotten round to seriously having a look ! Probably be on the dangerous hazard lists these days ...

Usually go in the garage and pick one out ! In reality funny where they grow , there's one wood on an estate we're can go pigeon shooting, it's twisty heaven , all surrounding woods not a one , but hazel ! Don't mind a twisty but not my favourite, cut about 50 good blackthorn this year & one of them is a twisty...

Class , are you going to brown the barrels ?

Just about finished, considering the horn , turned out OK...

9Think your going about this a bit backwards , before buying loads of kit for carving etc , start off making a simple natural thumbstick , learning to straighten it ,fit ferrule ( can make break a stick) , how to finish it , then go onto an antler top, progress into wood ,get the feel of different tops& designs , learn joints& fastening methods ( stud or peg) shaping , get the inside line first rest will follow , decent ply makes a good top, looks nice & cheap to try ! Then move onto horn & carving , so basically need to source & sort,season straighten shanks , fit ferrules ,learn jointing ,fit & finish ....simples ......don't go mad on tooling, never have enough decent vices , hot air gun for straightening, various saws ( hand& mechanical) , ensure got a decent set of files & rasps , cloth backed emery , various grits , supply of ferrules & epoxy for jointing, personally find a power file really helpful, old bits of leather to hold pieces in vice stop markng, on a big safety one DUST !are sure got ventalation set up & decent mask, especially when sanding, then have a go , learning curve .

Cheers ! Still learning

This is a proper job , solid horn on a blackthorn shank, took me a couple of days to turn the nose , in reality a proper crooks shank should be smooth ,incase it gets pulled through the hand , a headkeeper has this one now...

Dug out some left over rams horn , bulked it , best as I could, problem not much wall thickness , causing voids , should of gone in the scrap bin, anyway ,made a mould around the heel , and used coloured casting resin to fill the voids , once set , fitted & shaped on shank , taking more horn off ,revealed resin , got to polish & seal yet , looks OK, honest repair, do for someone...

Cheers , if having another go , get a finger stall, got a few cuts using a knife ,ouch ! See in the future a few tool purchases, definitely need a sharpening station at some point ,also want to venture into woodturning at some point as well

Morning, well spurred on by the fine carvings on here , attempted my first carved phesant head , it's a one piece hazel, was going to be a *** stick , no idea really ,just made it up as went along, used tools had to hand , first time using acryllics , hopefully represents a phesant head , bit of a learning curve. 20220123_183147.heic 20220126_205749.heic 20220131_141233.heic

I've got space but not the cash till May! Lovely piece