Sunday, December 20, 2009

Wood Carver's Hands


Wood Carver's Hands, originally uploaded by SWolfeNI8W.

Steve did some photography of me in my studio this morning. I'm working on a very complicated leaf vessel, which has already been on my bench for about 20 hours of roughing out. I just finished the shaping of the outside and am now moving to the inside rough out.

7 comments:

Debra said...

Great work Steve, that's a great B&W photo. Being a turner and wanna-be carver, have to ask, what kind of tool is that? I can only imagine that carving is labor intensive- 20 hours so far - amazing!!!

Andi Wolfe said...

I use the NSK Z500 micromotor carver. You see the handpiece at work in this photo. It's my all-time favorite carving tool - vibration free, quiet, and ergonomically correct. I wouldn't mind a smaller one size that fits my hand better, though.

Anonymous said...

What type of maintenance is needed for your NSK carving tool?

Andi Wolfe said...

Blowing out the dust every once-in-awhile; send it in for repair when it breaks (I'm hard on the handpiece, so I've had to do this twice in the past year). I have two handpieces, so one may be in repair, but the other is in use.

Keith Larrett said...

Very nice shot Andi. The lighting and composition compliment each other very well, drawing attention to the focus of the image, the artist's hands.

Anonymous said...

Have you tried the Compact version of the handpieces? Just wondering the small size would fit your hands better.

Andi Wolfe said...

Looking at the specs for the compact handpiece, I don't think it would suit my needs. The diameter is reduced by only 1 mm, and the max torque is much lower than the standard handpiece. Savings on weight and length aren't significant.

Thus, I'll stick with the ones I have, but thanks for the suggestion!