Talk With Pride / Carving out a unique career
(cont)
Next, Sam completed a short course on the art of carving working with Mansfield based stick maker Colin Hickman and began to create the first of his carved duck head sticks and crooks.
Sam begins by coppicing straight hazel sticks and drying these for up to six months, sometimes using a hot air gun to ensure the lignum in the wood renders each of the 20-30 sticks gathered on a single day sufficiently straight to use.
Sam’s obligation to look after the county’s woodland is also echoed by his father, a lecturer in Forestry Management & Arboriculture at Riseholme College.
Next, Sam uses a piece of lime wood in the very rough shape of a duck’s head and begins the process of creating the finished shape with a series of flat chisels, gouges and microplanes, working entirely by eye and taking anywhere up to three days to create the shape.
There’s a huge amount of detail in Sam’s sticks, and this come next, once the basic shape has been refined. Nostrils, the egg tooth and serrated beak are added, and the top and bottom parts of the beak are created.
This detail even extends to the cartilage on the bridge of the beak and the accuracy and attention to detail visible in Sam’s sticks are really impressive indeed. After the final details are added, sockets for the ducks’ eyes are created, with buffalo horn polished up to create realistic looking glossy eyes.
A pyrography wand is then used to build up realistic looking feathers on the head, and colour is added to the design with particular attention to darkening the appropriate area of the head and bill. Finally, beeswax is used to seal the colour and the head is given a final polish.
Next a scarf joint is used to attach the stick, reinforced with a metal rod, a tricky but essential step which will make the stick feel as though it has been hewn from a single piece of wood.
“Every piece of wood you work with is unique.” The artist explains. “The burrs and knots give each piece real character, and it’s really rewarding to work with a living thing. It’s also great to coppice your
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