A brief tutorial on how I create carved wooden cat sculptures. I have also made birds and other animals using these techniques. Woodcarving is a fun and engaging hobby. I also carve stone “Scarab Beetles”. You can make your own handcrafted gifts, and sell your creations as well.
I used to make many of these back when I was in high school. Most of them were given away as gifts but I did sell a few. Cut from a short length of clean 2X4 beam, these carvings are fairly easy to make. First we will need to create a reusable pattern.
A Template That We Can Use
You should make a reusable template and keep it, for future use. Here is roughly the one that I use.
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Lay a length of 2X4 (2-inches thick by 4-inches wide) wooden beam on a piece of white construction paper or light cardboard, and trace the width the beam. Draw your template within this width. Your cat template can be no wider than that, and cut out the template.
For the height, -whatever looks good for you is fine. Taller is nice, but I have done kitty cat woodcarvings at about half the height of the normal sized, -I call them ‘juvenile kitties.’ And they look AWESOME with a special charm all their own!
Trace the Outline Onto the Beam
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Here we trace the template onto the chosen clean, knot-free wood beam. To cut this out, I use a hand-held electric jigsaw (with a reciprocating blade) but you can use a coping saw or other narrow-wide blade if necessary. That just takes longer than an electric jigsaw. A band saw would be most efficient but be careful, use protective equipment and observe all safety precautions. This is not worth getting hurt or losing fingers over.
The Cutout Planchet is Ready
The completely cut out form is ready to be worked on. Let’s call it a “planchet”, this ‘blank’ 3-D form. A “planchet” actually refers to an un-struck coin but the term works here too as this is, really, ‘blank.’
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Using the pencil or pen, sketch in the approximate location of the hind legs and tail. This will aid in carving the form correctly. Notice that I have used a drill to pre-form several holes to aid in opening the space around the legs. I used to do this with a pocketknife (and had the cut & bloodied fingers to show for it.) But now I use a rotary tool to stab the holes between the legs. It is an excellent time-saver and MUCH safer than using pocketknives or woodcarving gouges and knives to do this.
A good electric rotary tool can cost between $20.00 and $130.00, depending upon brand and what accessories you purchase. It can be a good investment, -I use mine all the time for other projects including carving stones.
Rough-out The Form
Carving or sanding the sharp edges gets the carving ready for the finer sanding and detailing. Here, the cat has begun to take shape. The edges have been drawn in digitally to show the basic intended shapes.
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A lot of sandpaper and another hour or two of work can render this carving into a nice artful form. You want to make this as smooth and blemish-free as possible. The stain will reveal even the most tiny of imperfection, usually, unattractively so. This does not have to be perfect. A little bit of ‘antique’ appeal is nice too.
I sometimes will selectively wrap parts of the sanded kitty cat planchet in multiple layers of aluminum foil and tie it securely in place with string. Next, using a propane hand-held torch, will scorch the head, front legs and tip of the tail. It needs to be blackened quite a bit, but not to the point that it cracks the wood and it starts to blow red-hot wood cinders. There will be open flames on the wood. You will actually ’set the wood on fire.’ Just shake the planchet in the air to extinguish the flame. So this is an outdoor thing for sure! Do not dip in water to douse the flame, this will make ‘blackening’ almost impossible until the wood it dry again.
Using medium steel wool, you then buff-off the dusty charred outer surface to reveal a toasty-dark color beneath. When you reveal just the right amount of scorched wood, stop. If you have an old toothbrush, use that to scrub away the black char dust as much as possible. Old toothbrushes are an excellent ‘tool’ to keep with your Rotary Tool set, -for cleaning dust and chips from the device as each use.
Remove the aluminum foil and clean the un-scorched wood of any ‘carbon dust’ that may have gotten onto the white wood. You want this un-burned part of the wood to be CLEAN, -you may have to re-sand parts of the white wood to get it properly clean and fresh. The ‘carbon dust’ will stick to clean sanded wood and, if stained and varnished over top of this, it leaves an unattractive shadowy haze.
The Finishing Touches. The Results, Before & After
Shown here are a white planchet, -the ‘blank’ cut-out. Next, a stained and varnished statue in the middle that I call ‘blond’ style, and a scorched but un-stained ‘Siamese’ kitty cat on the right.
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The last step after sanding is to apply any water-based stain and let dry. A spray coat of clear polyurethane will give it additional shine and protection. When the poly-urethane has fully dried, a light buffing with fine steel wool, dust off with a terry-towel and re-spray with poly-urethane again. This gives it super glossiness!
The wood will dry-out over time in most household environments, becoming brittle. So I do recommend at least a single coat of clear poly (including the base) to seal it against moisture loss.
Recently, I have created other wood-carved items like a great blue heron or crane, and wooden hobby horse statues. I found that I enjoy making the horse a lot more, -it is easier because in this design I don’t have to carve out around the legs as in the above cats examples.
