One Man's Woodcraft: Carving.

The carving is done except for final checking and touching-up here and there. Those splits (high right, above where his ear isn't) are rather less obvious now that the texturing is completed – not that they detracted greatly, but nice to find they've faded a bit, all the same.

Now for the next few steps:

• The exterior finish. My preference is for oil, though I haven't (as yet) treated a piece to be weatherproof. There are three types of oil sitting on the shelf above the shed door, one of which might be suitable (rice bran oil, which I'm told is suitable as it does harden to a durable finish but there doesn't seem to be enough information available to reassure me sufficiently, so here goes for another mining expedition into the pocket...
• Where is He to live? That will be mainly Ms Stress's responsibility, with me having only the power of veto. It will be somewhere in the front garden, to the North of the house, where the sun is, on the fence (which is of course South-facing) and partly sheltered from the wind by the house itself and it doesn't get too much sun except in the morning – and will be in among vegetation taller than Himself, anyway.
• How is He to be fixed? Recent weather (March coming in like a lion) makes me think I was a bit optimistic about wind shelter among the greenery so He'll have to be firmly anchored to the fence – or a specially built flange on Magoda or even between Magoda and fence but where there would be very little shelter from the wind.

Articles by Rod

31.03.14 Front Page

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