Carving a Yard-Bird

Carving A Yard-Bird

I use cedar scraps from a sawmill,mostly fence board ends 3/4" and 2" thick,4" to 6" wide. The tools I use are old chisels and mallets, I have found at auctions and flee markets. I made my best mallet out of an old wooden lawn bowling ball. A good gouge chisel 3/4" or bigger is the most important tool I use, to get that feathery look and take it down to it's basic shape. I only use the spoke shaves and draw knives at the start, around the neck and head to round it off. I use a cardboard template and draw the body on the 2"x4"cedar and the wings on the 3/4"x6" scraps with a thick black charcoal pencil. Next I cut the parts out with a bandsaw with a lighted magnifier mounted on it, this part is the hardest for me with my limited vision and can take me all day for just a few bird blanks. Then I drill out a 1/2" hole into it's head for a piece of dowel. To be careful not to drill too deep into the head that I go through, I like to use an old brace and bit hand drill that lets me feel the bit at work and steer it. After dilling the beak hole, I cut a dowel to stick out 2" from head and glue it in.Now I glue the wings onto the body, I spread a coat to glue on the inside of the wing blanks. I usually place them on the body, then wiggle them till the glue squeezes out. Lay the woodpecker blank on it's back, I place it in a vice or clamp the wings with a couple of wood clamps. With four vices and every clamp in my shop, I can produce twelve, they dry over-night and ready to carve in the morning.

To start carving, I'll clamp the blank by it's wing and carve the main body of one side leaving the wing with a good clamping surface. Flip it over and do the other body side, then I clamp it up-right in the vice and carve the head. A spoke-shave or draw-knife works great to round the body and shape the beak. Next I lay the it back on it's side clamping it by it's body this time and using a 3/4 or bigger gouge chisel I take little cuts always staggering them to leave a checked pattern in the finished bird. The wavy texture when painted gives a great appearance in the sun-light. The tail feathers are carved using a V-gouge, starting under the wings and deepening the cut as I reach the end of the feathers trying to leave a feather like shape. Once I have finished carving the woodpecker it's now time to dill a 1/8" hole through for it's legs, which is a 7" fence nail. I place the woodpecker on a angle belly up in the vice and drill a 1/8" hole right through to it's back, then hammer a nail though it. Now ready for painting, the only job I don't like, but with the right brushes I have found a way to get a great look with out needing any special talent or site for that matter. I've made a lot of these yard-birds in the last few years and except for the band-sawing and painting, I can carve them with my eyes closed.Low vision people can do anything they just have to find a different way of doing it.Not to brag, but I do also enjoy chopping wood blind-folded.