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In this chapter from Del Herbert’s bird carving series, learn how to lay out and cut the body of a shorebird carving from a solid block of wood. The demonstration explains how to position the pattern so the bird’s weakest areas, including the primary and tail feathers, follow the grain of the wood for maximum strength. Del then shows how to transfer the pattern, cut the body blank on a bandsaw, leave a small amount of excess in vulnerable areas, and flatten the joint surface to prepare the body for assembly.
Transcript
This chapter we’re going to cut out the body of our chosen piece of wood.
When we do that, as with the head, we want to make sure that the weakest part of the bird, in this case the primary and tail area, lies directly along the grain of the wood so we get the maximum strength for our bird.
I’ll lay out the pattern on the chosen piece of wood, trace it out, and cut the block out on the band saw.
Again, I cut right on the line, and I only leave a slight excess in the weakest area, in this case it’s the area for the tail and the primary wing feathers.
This is the cutout that we end up with, and again, I’ll flatten this joint surface on my belt sander, so I’m sure that I have a perfectly flat surface.