I have a big chunk of mammoth tusk I would love carved into a pendant for a necklace. Would anyone here be able to help with this/ know someone who could help? What kind of equipment would I need to do this?

thanks

As the topic says, I live in California. What the topic does not say is I'm actually French  I am a hobby knifemaker and more recently swordmaker, and I have developed an interest in Japanese metal carving through the need to make koshirae for my blades. I am in awe when I see the work showcased in this forum, and I see that there is a long road ahead and much practice needed to eventually do some of the things I want to do. I have been lurking around for some time now, and I thought it was time to finally sign up. I hope you will forgive my beginner's questions! 

Cheers!

Francis.

I've been carving for about 15 years, solidly for the past 7-8 or so. I'm 32 years old.
I live in Perth Western Australia, born and raised, though both of my parents come from Minnesota USA.
My grandfather ('Pop') inspired and taught me to carve and we're members of the Wandi woodcarvers guild.
I teach beginners with Pop twice a month for the guild (1st and 3rd saturdays of each month) and I find that teaching helps oneself to learn as well, after awhile carving techniques that you use become second nature, but to describe them and show to to someone else makes you really think about and analyse what you're doing.

I like natural sort of organic forms, I'm a big fan of japanese art in general and in particular netsuke.
I generally carve small pieces, no bigger than (and usually smaller than) about a fist (with a few exceptions of course)
I was first introduced to netsuke by none other than Sue Wraight when our guild was lucky enough to have her give a workshop (many years ago now)

At some point soon I'll take some photos of what I like to carve and post them on the forum, unfortunately I'm not great with a camera.

I’ve recently started carving with antler pieces again with better success.

Nice to meet you all !

I'm writing a novel where a character needs to carve and shape bones using traditional hand tools and techniques. 

Some of the bones will be used for handles on swords and knives. Others will be used on arrow shafts.

I don't know the first thing about bone carving or how to use bones for handles. I will summarize most of what I've found and the assumptions I'm making. Please correct me if something is untrue.

My research suggests bones are greasy and need cleaning. We can assume this is done before the character receives the bones.

I've also read that bones create lots of powder and smell like death.

I imagine the marrow on the inside is weak and would need to be cleaned out, but I haven't found anything to state that directly.

It seems some types of bone would be better for some tasks than others. But I don't know what those would be. I would be using bird bones around the arrow shafts because I understand they are light and mostly hollow .

It stands to reason that you could make a slurry from bone powder to be used in polishing the bones

That's what I think I know. I'll now ask what I want to know. If you're willing to respond, I will gladly accept search terms, links, videos or your personal answers. If I have additional questions after reviewing the materials you shared, I'll come back here and ask. 

He is attaching as many handles to swords as he can. They need to be comfortable, not decorative. I expect the swords would be full tang and run through the bone as opposed to scales on the sides. In a future chapter he will also put small bone rings on arrowheads.

Considering that: 

What hand tools would the character need to make a basic handle?

What types of bone would be best? Deer? Bear? Boar?

What is it like to carve bone? Does it really smell like death as I've read? Does white power get everywhere making your neighbors think you do drugs? What's the experience like?

What steps would go into the process of making a bone handle or a bone ring?

Would it be possible to do an assembly line style process where the work is divided up 3-4 ways? Could each person focus on one aspect of the handle creation? Say one drills the hole and fits it on the tang, another shapes the handle and a third polishes it?

If you can think of any information I might need, please feel free to share. I want to make sure I do justice to this art form and I don't know what I don't know.

i am using a RAM microtool, a Foredom rotary tool, and of course a Dremel 4000.  I also have a good selection of rifflers, files, and sanding tools.  My chief problem is finding other carvers with more experience and similar interests, so I am excited about finding this forum.

For my first project I am attempting to carve a small (2 inch diameter) ammonite.  I am "prototyping" in wood to get a sense of the design and proportion issues, but the differences in carving wood and stone are somewhat daunting.  I tend to be drawn toward realism as opposed to abstraction  in my  carving. I also suspect that my diamond burr selection is too "low end" and therefore need ultimately to upgrade to better burrs.

I hope to reach a point where displaying my efforts is more than an embarassment.  I look forward to contributing as well as learning from the many skilled artisans who frequent the site.

I'm Michele from Trieste, Italy. I start jade (Nefrite) carving few years ago, when I fell in love with this world watching the work of some skillfull jade carver in New Zealand. Since then I tried some other material like river stones and lately pietrified wood.

I build a little but functional working station at home, for now I' using a 10.000-32.000 rpm 130W multitool (not the best, I need to stop working very often to let it cool down).

I'm here to help with my little knowledge who is in need and to learn the more I can to expand my horizon in this awesome Carving world!

Michele

***attached a very rough draft of my first design, The Octo Hook (lol) The piece broke, waiting on glue to dry so I can continue carving... 

Scotland here although I’m not Scottish I’ve lived here for quite a bit doing a bit of carving now as I have moved into trying to make some automata as yet not completed one as I’m having to carry on with some scroll saw relief work I had a commission for as well as make stock for the craft fairs etc and the web shop hope to get some carving photos soon to post but here’s one of my relief pictures

Martyn.

Best M

 I'm an old artist, been doing one kind of sculpting or another for something on the order of 60 years.  Quite a few other careers, but still at the bench.  I took up netsuke again a couple of months ago and am getting a little better.  I've already found a few good tips in this site, so thanks.  I'll be posting a few photos from time to time.

Regards,   Fox sends.  

I live in England, UK and found this forum when researching tips for my current project. Previously, I have carved two canoe paddles, one for my Son and one for my Wife. Being Canadian, my wife introduced me to Canoeing and after a few years of loving the activity, felt my Son would enjoy a little paddle of his own. I used Spruce for this, as it is light and easy to work with. I found out how much fun a spokeshave is to use and was pleased with the result.

My next project was a full size paddle for my Wife. This was also a success - the key being taking my time (I'd never make a living making paddles!) and I learned more tricks along the way.

My Son recently has been learning about the medieval period and we read 'Beowulf' for bedtime. After seeing some of the awful plastic toy swords on offer when visiting various castles, I offered to make a toy sword for him from wood. Initially, the plan was to knock up a quick toy from soft wood, but I thought a hardwood would last longer, if I was going to all the effort of carving one.

I live in the Chiltern hills, an area of Beechwoods, traditionally used for furniture making. Up until the 1960's, Bodgers would live in the woods turning beech for chair legs etc. I thought beech would make a good wood for my project, as it is a wood with local connections. I located a man who owns an area of woodland nearby, who owns a mobile sawmill. He has a great attitude towards sustainable woodland management and runs carving classes alongside his milling operations. He was very interested in my project and cut me a beautiful plank of beech.

Well, after lots of research I decided upon the 'Sutton Hoo' sword as a basis for my project. I drew up plans and cleaned them up on my computer, then printed it off. I stuck the outline plan to card, then cut out my template that gave me my outline to cut to. there were lots of challenges along the way, but the sword is about two thirds of the way through now and the handle/grip is not looking bad. My next step is to carve the groove ('fuller') down the middle of the blade, and to chamfer the edges with the spokeshave.

I'm enjoying this project greatly. I found this forum after Janel kindly helped me with a question I had, and have found many gems of useful information here that will come in handy as I near the final smoothing stages. I really do like the look of polished beech and will post pictures of the finished sword - assuming I don't mess it up of course! Then onto the scabbard...

Best wishes to you all and good luck with whatever projects you turn your hands to!

Peter Schilling here. A couple of you may know me, Benzart and Donn.

I carve jade. The two pieces shown here are nephrite jade, the black from Wyoming and the golden from Siberia.

Some of my jade sculptures have wooden bases I carve to complement the jade carving and to present the sculpture in the proper way. The bases are carved to fit the jade, which is removeable.

I'm also interested in Netsuke style wood and antler carving.

I'm not sure if I can list my website, but I am online.

thanks for having me!

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Moved from Where in the World?

From Sergio, December 30, 2006

hi Janel, it's a good idea. I see we are comming from all the world to talk about our passion, it's fantastic. I hope to see more carvers and their works, it's very intrusting. Since i have seen this forum, my vision of carving change, i see more possibilitys to work, i find others inspirations, i'm very happy to discover carvers like you (Natasha, Sergey, Jim, etc....) and i work my english, "que demande le peuple!".