Post #585191 by congatiki on Fri, Apr 15, 2011 8:40 PM

Greetings Poobah, Amate and McTiki, appreciate your nice compliments about the latest carve.
No problem sharing my techniques Amate...pretty simple...time consuming...but generally produces
nice results.
A venerable carver, someone named Ben, has posted about staining, sanding, staining, sanding, and
so forth. His stuff always turns out pretty nice so I have started putting a little more effort
into the staining process.

On this carving I started with a coat of a stain called "special walnut"...which was a little more
brown than a typical walnut stain. I sanded off as much of the stain as I could without going crazy,
leaving some dark crevices (such as the deep carved areas around the nose...eyes...etc.) Then a
second coat of the same stain...repeated stain seems to show more grain and create a little
translucence to the whole thing...excuse my explanation...have had a few cocktails tonight.)
After sanding off the stain a second time I switched to "walnut" stain which is quite a bit darker
than the special walnut. That gave me the general color that I wanted...along with some nice
grain and the darker accents around the eyes and facial features. Then...three coats of
tung oil...each one giving the carving a little more character. Tung oil gives the project a nice
"glow" without being shiney.

The stain/sand/stain/sand/stain process gives the finished produce a "glassy" look that is
pretty cool in real life...a little hard to capture in a photograph. There is a depth that I have
not been able to achieve with a single coat of stain. Basswood is wonderful to carve but can be
a bit blotchy if you don't take the time to finish it properly. But...as Jackie Mason would say...
I don't know.

At any rate...I appreciate all positive comments...they keep me going when I wonder what it all
means.