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Gary & Marie Crosby

Copyright © 2007, 2008, 2009,2010, 2011, Gary Crosby

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or

transmitted for financial benefits in any form or by any means, or stored in a

data base or retrieval system, for the purpose of financial benefit without

the prior written permission of the publisher, Gary A Crosby. This short e-

book is provided free of charge to all by darkwood-woodcarving.com, Gary &

Marie Crosby. This short e-book was created in Canada.

DEDICATION

First and foremost I would like to acknowledge and thank my wife Marie for

her many years of standing behind me in this endeavour and assisting me in

creating this book and others.

And To all the woodcarvers that will use this book to create their own works

of art.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We are indebted to the thousands of Canadian and World woodcarvers and

wood workers who have shared their ideas and experiences with us over the

years through the internet and personal contact.

PREFACE

Over the past 28 years of carving and furniture designing Marie and I have

gathered tremendous amounts of knowledge and skill learning from master

craftsman the world over, from the shores of Africa to the jungles of

Honduras, to the depths of the Black Forest in Germany, and Eastern

Europe, with their historical cultures steeped in tradition. We have taken all

of this knowledge combined with a little Canadian flair and are now putting

pen to paper to ensure this knowledge is passed on to future generations of

woodcarvers and woodworkers.

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CONTENTS Pages

General

Anatomy of a feather ----------------------------------5

Feather Patterns

Single -----------------------------------------------6

Double ----------------------------------------------7

Multiple --------------------------------------------- 8

Carving steps

Step 1---------------------------------------------- 8

Step 2---------------------------------------------- 9

Step 3---------------------------------------------- 10

Step 4---------------------------------------------- 12

Step 5---------------------------------------------- 15

Step 6---------------------------------------------- 16

Step 7---------------------------------------------- 17

Step 8---------------------------------------------- 19

Step 9---------------------------------------------- 20

Step 10--------------------------------------------- 21

Step 11--------------------------------------------- 22

Step 12 ---------------------------------------------23

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Finishing

Painting--------------------------------------------- 24

Finishing-------------------------------------------- 25

General

Carving a feather is normally an easy thing; there is not a lot of detail

required in order for a chunk of wood to become a good representation of a

feather. The difficulty is when you carve a feather to be an exact duplicate

of a real feather or you carve multiple feathers such as in an eagle wing.

Anatomy of a Feather. The feather is made up of 4 main parts; the

Vane which is the majority of the feather’s makeup. The Rachis that runs

through the centre of the feather and the Barb which will require most of

your effort when it comes to carving. The After feather is the hardest to

carve but, luckily, you only have to carve the after feather when doing an

individual feather.

Figure 001

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Feather Patterns Single feather

Figure 002

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Double Feather

Figure 003

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Multiple Feather

Figure 004

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Cross Section of a single feather.

Figure 005

Carving steps

Step 1- Print out the one feather pattern and trace

it on to your 4 inch x 10 inch 7/8 inch thick basswood.

Figure 006

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Figure 008 Carbon paper

Figure 007 Feather Pattern

Step 2- Now it’s time to carve out your pattern. First pick up your parting

tool and start cutting out the outside edge of the pattern. Remember, do not

cut away the pattern line and stay on the outside of it.

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Step 3- Then you begin to define the Rachis. First you need to cut on the

outside edge of the Rachis with your parting tool.

Figure 009

Figure 08

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After making the first pass with your parting

tool, your feather project should look like figure 10.

Note 1: as you can see by the photo in figure 10

remember to never remove the line as you carve out

the feather. “Stay on the outside of the pattern

line”.

Note 2: When using the parting tool, never allow

the outside edge of the parting tool to go below the

wood surfaces. If you do, you will see the wood

chatter up, which will break away the pattern and

could destroy your project.

Note 3: Now, depending on how deep you need to

go, you might have to make several passes, just keep

in mind note 2 above.

Figure 10

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Step: 4 All I do is remove some of the outside

excess wood stock. I do this by using my Stubai,

number 5 straight gouge from Austria. Stubia has

some relatively inexpensive carving tools, but the

quality is outstanding.

So,as you can see in figure

14 and figure 15 all I do is

remove the outside wood stock

without damaging the feather

pattern.

Figure 14 Figure 15

Figure 11 Figure 12

Figure 13

Figure 13

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Keep removing wood stock

from the outside edge of your

pattern until you have cut down a

minimum of ½ of the way through

the 7/8 basswood board. Try not

to go much further to avoid

weakening your project. You will

have to repeat step 3 and step 4

several times until you reach the

required depth.

Figure 15

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Step 4- Now it’s time to remove the

wood stock around the Rachis up and down

the complete Vane, making room for the

next step which is carving the Barb. I do

this by taking my parting tool and removing

wood stock on the left and right of the

Rachis.

Note: make sure you only carve

approx. 1/8 inch in depth and no more. And,

as before, stay to the outside of the Rachis

pattern line.

Figure 16

Figure 16 Figure 17

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Step 5, now you will need to remove the

wood stock from the left and right of the

Rachis. By doing this you will give the feather

the look of depth. Remember, the idea is to

remove more stock closer to the Rachis and

less to the outside of the feather, see the

profile below in figure 20.

Figure 18

Figure 19

Figure 20 Feather profile

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Strep 6. Once you have removed the wood stock on either side of the

Rachis, you would have removed some of the pattern markings as you removed

the wood stock. So now you have to draw in your pattern lines before we go

any further. This is done by simply holding up your pattern you printed out

and draw in the lines using a pencil.

Figure 21 Figure 22

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Step 7- Okay, now that you have defined the Rachis, it’s time to start

to work on the Vane and defining it better. The first thing I like to do is to

add in depth and I do this by taking my parting tool and cutting on one side

of the pattern line, I would recommend the top side, see figure 23 below

I like to use H

as the High point and

L as the Low point.

Once I’ve completed that, I start from the bottom of the feather and

from the Rachis working out and up with my parting tool. You only need to cut

in very small vane lines. If you push too hard on your parting tool you will cut

too deep and make a mess of things. I recommend that you practice on a

separate piece of wood so you get it right the first time.

H

H

H

L

L L

Figure 23

Figure 24

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Figure 25 Vane Profile

Figure 23

Figure 26 Figure 27

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Step 8: Now it’s time to give your project a light sanding with 220 grit

sand paper. Sand just enough to remove the pattern markings and to round

off the Rachis.

Step 9: Next, I take out my handy parting tool and define some of

those breaks in the feather.

Figure 27 Figure 28

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Step 10- Using your coping saw or band saw

cut around your feather. Just a reminder, do not

cut off the bottom of the feather until you have

carved the back (Step 11)

There are several ways you

can cut out your feather. Such as

a bandsaw or scrollsaw, if you

have one. But, if not, then it’s

time to get back to using a coping

saw. It will take you longer but it

still works and will only cost you

about $40 CDN.

Figure 29

Figure 30

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Step 11-triming up the back of the feather using your number 5 straight

gouge. This is quite simple. just clamp down your project using the wood that

you did not cut off with the coping saw.

Figure 31

Figure 32

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Step 12 – Final carving and

trimming and cut out.

Remember to clamp down your

project so it does not move. You will

also have to watch the wood grain as it

will probably be different from the top

to the bottom. In this project I had

that problem, my wood grain changed

at the centre of the project, so I

carved from the centre up cutting into

the grain and from the centre down

again cutting into the grain.

Once you get to the bottom do

not force your tool into the base. If

you do you could split your project.

Safety note; never stand in front of your tool or pull the carving tool

towards you. If you need to pull it back as I did above, make sure you keep

all of your body parts out of the path of the tool. In this case I stepped off

to the side making sure that if I slipped, the carving tool would never come in

contact with me since I am out of the path of the carving tool.

Figure 33

Figure 34

Figure 35

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Once both sides are carved out,

you will now have to cut out the last

part of your project using; again a

coping saw, or power tool. Once that’s

done, flip over your project and carve

the back. Just make sure that as

your project gets thinner you need to

reduce the amount of force or

pressure you are applying to your

project to prevent it from breaking.

Figure 36

Figure 37 Figure 38

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Painting: The first step in painting your project is

to seal it up. I like to use Shellac as my base coat

of sander sealer. In the photo to the right is the

feather after I brushed on a light coat of amber

shellac. Notice how the color changed from the

standard white that basswood provides to the

amber color that the shellac provides. You also

have at this time the option of not painting the

feather and just leave it as an amber feather. If

you want to paint it there is also the option of

using paint primer (white) as your base coat, but

at this point you have no choice but to paint your

project. I recommend tying both, so carve up a

couple of feathers and try both options and see

which one you prefer. After all its your project

not mine, so it’s up to you.

Figure 39

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Finishing: So now, depending on what you’re planning for the feather, you

can paint it several ways; with an airbrush or by hand. I prefer the hand

method which just gives me the satisfaction that I have completed my carving

without the aid of a mechanical aid. But I would have to say, airbrush will

provide the average carver/painter with an outstanding finish. My painting

skills are poor to most professional standards, however, my wife’s art skill is

fantastic and extremely detailed.

This is a painting completed by my wife a couple of years

back. As you can see she is a fantastic artist, and as

such, I borrow her skills whenever I can. But from time to

time I try my hand at painting as seen on the backyard

sculpture below.

The bottom line is that your carving is just

that, your carving and no matter what it looks

like it is still just that- your carving.

Well, back to your feather. The photo below is

of our feather carving after painting. All we

did was to paint it by hand with small craft

brushes and black and white paint.

Figure 20

Figure 41

Figure 42

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1. Simply start with the black section. Remember to only paint down from

the tip 1/3 of the feather.

2. Once that’s done wait until the paint dries then you can move on to the

white paint starting from the bottom of the after feather.

3. Next again after the paint dries, paint the Hollow shaft Calamus with a

tan starting from the bottom working up to the black section.

4. The last thing you will need to do is to define spots on your feather

that have shadows or should have shadows. You do this by using a light

gray. Remember that if you painted it white, well you can’t let it stay

that way, you need shadows to put definition in the feather.

When we paint my carvings,

we just use a ½ inch wide

craft paint brush that you

can pick up in just about

any craft shop.

You can paint the back, but that’s up to you. As for

me, it all depends what I am going to use the

carving for.

Figure 43

Figure 44

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Now, this is a very basic feather carving and a very basic paint job, but a

fun project. So, have fun with it and, remember, this is a very basic feather

which you can use with lots of your carving patterns.

Figure 45

Figure 46

Figure 47