Latest Carving

[bpeck]

Here's something I did for a friend's birthday. Another in my attempt to use all the scrap 2X4 I run across.

Stain didn't turn out quite as I wanted, but not as bad as the picture shows. Flash seems to magnify the defects.

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[CarvedTones]

Nice work on the carving; ITR is hard no matter what the scale. The stain ran into the exposed end grain. I had that happen to me on some incised line carving/engraving that I did and I decided it was a feature - "faux woodburning" - by using really dark walnut and immediately wiping it off with spirits I got it almost black in the lines and a much lighter shade on the side grain surface.

[bpeck]

Thanks. Stain has never been my strong suit. I generally use a wax or oil finish on plain wood, or paint the thing if its pine/fir.

[CarvedTones]

I have had some success with the "wood conditioner" for pre-treating cypress and pine, but for the most part it is painful to stain consistently.