Smokin Harley
Well-Known Member
The ash trees in our front yard died over a year ago and my son finally came up over the weekend to help cut them down. That boy of mine amazes me how much he knows how to do. Hes going to be 20 this September and not only has he worked for tree removal service companies but hes always building and rebuilding his trucks. He loves to work with his hands, much like me. He climbed the trees with his steel /square toed cowboy boots ,and our 14" Echo chainsaw. He studied each branch before cutting it and even though we needed a rope or strap to pull some that would have hit the house , he knew how to notch and cut so they would fall just about within 6 inches of where he needed them to. within 2 hours of starting the first tree we were done for the day , that was Friday when it was 95 out. Saturday he came up early , he made the first cut on the second tree at 7:15 and we finished the last cut at about 11:30 am.
I had the idea of carving the trunk of both trees into something decorative but the smaller one was standing dead too long and the bark had fallen off and what would have been clean usable wood became so dry it cracked in a few places so deep within the trunk the result would not have looked good at all in a carved piece. The other one however, gave me a nice solid (and heavy ) log 5'8" x a solid 20 inches in diameter. except for the top 16 inches , its knot free. I think I can incorporate those big branch knots into the indians head dress or if I can cut most of them out completely.
I've had this idea of carving for myself a cigar store indian to adorn our front porch. Yesterday I just happened to find a "how-to" book on the subject on ebay that not only was the auction less than 20 minutes to ending , but I won it ,paying a whopping $6 + $3 shipping. I should have it by or before Monday the 20th. I've very excited to start this . Should be easy right? Just take a log and carve away everything that doesn't look like a cigar store indian.
I'll post pics before I get started and along the way. Not sure how long it will take. but it will give me something to do when the weather cools off this fall.
I had the idea of carving the trunk of both trees into something decorative but the smaller one was standing dead too long and the bark had fallen off and what would have been clean usable wood became so dry it cracked in a few places so deep within the trunk the result would not have looked good at all in a carved piece. The other one however, gave me a nice solid (and heavy ) log 5'8" x a solid 20 inches in diameter. except for the top 16 inches , its knot free. I think I can incorporate those big branch knots into the indians head dress or if I can cut most of them out completely.
I've had this idea of carving for myself a cigar store indian to adorn our front porch. Yesterday I just happened to find a "how-to" book on the subject on ebay that not only was the auction less than 20 minutes to ending , but I won it ,paying a whopping $6 + $3 shipping. I should have it by or before Monday the 20th. I've very excited to start this . Should be easy right? Just take a log and carve away everything that doesn't look like a cigar store indian.
I'll post pics before I get started and along the way. Not sure how long it will take. but it will give me something to do when the weather cools off this fall.
