Martys carving

Hello every one, I am going to post my carvings here so I can get some feedback from people who know what they're talking about. I'm new at this so any advice or criticism would be appreciated. Here is my first. I already posted it with my intro, but I have better photos now so here goes.



I don't think I carved deeply enough but it's real shitty wood and cracks easy. I'm making an duplicate from better wood 'cause my uncle likes it and wants to use it for a shift knob so this time I'll go balls deep with the cuts. I'm also in the works with a eucalyptus carve. I'll post photos when finished.

Welcome on board! That's good debut and eucalyptus ( behind in the pix)it seems even better...

YEs Marty, Welcome to TC! What a way to start, your first piece is Excellent with nice detail. I Love the eyes and the teeth, Good stuff and the one in progress thee looks like a fun one too.
Thanks for sharing.

Welcome This is a great start! and just with the knife?

Thank you all for the warm welcome and kind words. As to how I made this guy with limited resources: I used a pocket knife and a razor blade to carve it out and then used a red hot nail to outline everything. After that I toasted the whole thing with a torch then sanded the teeth down to the original color. I finished it off by staining it with a few coats of coffee and then rubbed it down with gun oil. I did most of this at work on my breaks. The eucalyptus in the background is too hard for my knife so I'm using a dremel and a snap-on carbide burr set. It works, although it's slow going and makes a mess(my kitchen is covered with wood dust now). I bought some wood chisels for a larger piece I started at work but they are too big for the small stuff I'm doing right now. I also have some speedball linoleum cutters that work great for carving wood but I broke the handle so I wont be able to use them for a while.