Most carvers powercarve?

[bcarvings]

Hi,
I finnally went to my local woodcarving club, and learned a lot. And ALL of them ONLY powercarve! Do most carvers powercarve? Also I saw a kid there my age and his carving looked better them all 4 of my birds, and he said it's his first one! And that he had been there only 4 weeks! I guess I'm going to learn a lot from this carving club. Also all of the old guys pay like $2.20 for a 2x2x12 basswood block! Isn't that expensive? I get them for $1.30!!

I do a little power carving but not much, about 99% of my work is done with hand tools.

[farfalla]

Hmmm, I was curious about this too...I haven't been carving long, so I'm not going to start powercarving anytime soon (first I have to make sure I stick with it, move somewhere besides my apartment, and have money for tools--probably five years before I can seriously consider it), but I do think it's fascinating. I have tons of ideas for things that I would try with powercarving that I wouldn't try with handcarving. I figure if I write down all of my ideas, most of them will seem dumb to me whenever I get around to them, but the best ones will definitely be worth the effort. Of course, maybe I'll be good at handcarving by then, and I won't want to try anything else!

bcarvings - My guess is that you have joined a very unusual carving club.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I have the foredom and dremel but almost all of my carvings are done by knife 8)

[jamesfa]

i have a dremel and an assortment of bits but i mostly use knives & gouges.i use power to hog off a lot of wood in a hurry.

Frank

[AlArchie]

I have a few power carving tools and have pumped up a 3/4 horse electric motor with a flex shaft and jacobs chuck for heavy carving, an electric chain saw and an angle grinder with the Lancelot setup. Still use mostly hand tools!

As far as wood prices go, a lot depends on the quality of the wood. Just because it's 'basswood', doesn't mean it's top quality basswood. Like most everything else, price alone shouldn't be the determining factor of purchasing. If you are getting good quality wood for that price, go for it, and keep it coming. If, on the other hand (are different fingers) you find the wood a little soft, punky, or stringy, maybe the extra 90 cents a block for the better quality is worth it.

I've notice that in several of your posts, you have asked about 'good, cheap' articles. Those two terms are usually not used in the same sentence. Cheap often times (usually even) indicates poor quality or corner-cutting in manufacture, either in tollerances or materials.

Cheap in wood supply can mean improperly seasoned, twisted grain, the start of fungal decay, or a host of other wood defects. There are a lot of opportunities to get quality wood at reasonable prices if you look around, so don't be turned off entirely by low price.

Al

[quote author=Plain_Ol_Ed link=board=Beginner;num=1100127685;start=0#3 date=11/10/04 at 17:25:35]bcarvings - My guess is that you have joined a very unusual carving club. *[/quote]

Sounds like it to me too.

Though several members of my local club are bird carvers and use power carving tools we all use knives and gouges also and most of us use them exclusively. I own a dremel and a ryobi but I haven't tried carving with either one yet.

[bcarvings]

Hi,
Also I wanted to add the books that the people at the club used all had power carving in them.
Why use a knife over power? The small power tool bits are fast and accurate. And the members of the club do have knives and some handtools, but mostly power
[glow=red,2,300]I'm getting the book 'Carving and Painting a Black-Capped Chickadee with Earnest Muehlmatt'. The picture of the finished bird of front looks VERY realistic, and the book carves using powertools. I compare this book to Anothony Hillman's book, Carving Duck Decoys' Which gives minimal detail bad patterns, pictures of finished duck look fake, and tells to carve using a knife.[/glow]

Al you want to talk about bad wood ... I went to Lowes last night to pickup a load of pine for several shelves and cabinets I've been tasked to make for Christmas, Out of 40+ #2 pine boards I looked at, not one would pass for a grade #3!

I really like Lowes, but after last night, I won't make a special 50 mile round trip to go after lumber again!

I've got a 5 day weekend starting tomorrow so I'll run over to the local Mom and Pop's hardware store and hopefully buy my lumber there.