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In this chapter from Del Herbert’s bird carving series, learn how to join a separately carved shorebird head and body using dowels while carefully controlling the bird’s posture and personality. Del demonstrates how to accurately drill and align the head and body for a precise joint, adjust the angle of the head and body to create the desired attitude, and drill the mounting hole for the finished carving. This lesson highlights how small changes in alignment and positioning can dramatically affect the character and presentation of a carved bird.
Transcript
It’s impractical to carve most large shorebirds out of a single block of wood. It would take three times the amount of wood, and then we still have to deal with the line of the grain and the strength of the wood.
So I normally make the head separate from the body.
And in order to attach the head to the body for carving, I normally dowel the head and the body together.
While the sides of the head are still flat, I’ll put it in my drill press vise and set it up with a two plane level to assure that my surface is absolutely perpendicular to the drill press. Then I’ll drill a three sixteenth inch hole a half inch deep.
And I’ll draw perpendicular lines through the hole and transfer those marks to the side of the head.
And I’ll place the head on my body surface where I want it, and I’ll transfer the marks to the joint surface on the body.
And I’ll connect those lines, And where they meet is where I should drill a dowel hole so that my head is lined up with my body and my joint surfaces fit perfectly.
There’s our three sixteenth inch dowel.
And you can see using that procedure, the surfaces meet up perfect line, and the head is attached to the body.
Using this process, I can adjust the angle of the head slightly to get the attitude that I desire on the bird.
With the head down to the body, I wanna demonstrate to you that I can change the personality of this bird by rotating the head and the angle of the body.
If I show the head straight on, it gives one attitude to the bird.
If I turn the angle, it can completely change the attitude of that bird.
I can also do the same by tilting the angle of the body and change the attitude of the bird. So what I’ll do is I will change the angles of the head, try different angles of the body until I get the personality that I want in the bird.
And I think we’re gonna stop right about there, and I’ll show you how we’re gonna drill a dowel hole for the mounting dowel. Once I get that, I’ll put that on the table on a flat surface, and I’ll take a triangle and scribe a vertical line on the body.
And I’ll take the body to my drill press.
Gonna align that line up in my drill press and drill a hole for the mounting dowel.
In this case, I’m using a five sixteenth inch hole for the mounting dowel.
That way I know that when I put my bird together and I mount it on a dowel.
That will it will have the attitude that I desire in a final carving.