Black Locust – September 2022 Carving

I’ve never been happy with the trunk chop on this one. It just sort of sits at the back, like a large ball point pen created by an inexpert sculptor.

You can’t see much from this side, but it’s behind that curve on the main trunk.

Therefore, I’ve been planning for a while to try carving something more interesting there. This is a first for me – I’ve never done any actual carving… just chops.

First, some carving tools. I got a couple of wood burrs for an electric drill.

Spoiler they didn’t work all that well, but they were the best I could find without buying a whole new electric kit. These were about $10 each.

To begin with, here’s the starting stump, rounded out with what I had at the time, maybe 2 years ago now.

I started with the burr trying to build a hole.

This didn’t work all that well… possibly because of the burr, but also the drill is somewhat underpowered now. (It’s well into it’s second decade.)

Continued work with the burrs and some standard drill bits left me with this:

Trying to create more texture, and downwards sloop.

Also, I don’t want to leave a space where rain will pool.

As it happens, that burr generated a bit of sideways kick. Very obvious in hindsight, but it caught me by surprise enough that it jerked off to the side and I marked the branch.

Fortunately, I have some sealant still, which I don’t use much, but applied here.

I decided that first point was still too high above the next branches. So I went in again.

Black Locust – September 2022 Carving — …and the whole of the thing.

So that’s where I’ve left it. I note I didn’t have a clear vision for what I was going to achieve, so it’s hard to say if I’m happy. Which leaves me with the old fall-back: in a few months, how do I feel?

(Also, I’m planning to move this to a bonsai pot in the very near future, just a few weeks after this experiment.)