Roughing in the Head
The Wrangler Hound is starting to take some shape. The general outline of his head was marked out on a piece of basswood and cut away on the bandsaw. I intentionally cut the outline a little bit larger than I expect the carving to be when it’s completely so that I have room to cut in some deep wrinkles and folds that these little Basset Hound carvings end up having.
I started off using a Typhoon bit and the Foredom tool to move some wood away quickly and do some general shaping. I’ve mentioned before that Typhoon bits are very aggressive carbide tipped bits. If you decide to use this method of blocking in your carving, you need to wear the appropriate protective gear…safety glasses, gloves, leather apron and either leather or very heavy sleeves. Of course, you can use your regular knife to accomplish the same thing.
The roughed-in surface after the shaping with the Foredom tool and a bit of refining with a carving knife is looking like this. Next step will be to cut a flat section along the top of the head and add in a weathered, droopy, cowboy hat.
You can already see the shape of the hounds head coming through and as always it’s facinating reading how you achieved it 🙂