Carving tree stumps can create an attractive centerpiece in your garden.
Wood stumps can be unsightly in your backyard if you don't have the resources to have it removed. Turning the stump into an interesting backyard feature for your home can allow you to avoid having to remove the stump completely. Small, handheld electric chain saws make the process of carving the stump easier, as you can use them to quickly remove the negative space from your carving, leaving you to carve the remainder of the stump using wood chisels.
Instructions
1. Draw the outline of the stump on a piece of paper with a pencil and plan the front, sides and back of the carving. While you won't be able to transfer the plan to the stump, having a plan in place makes it easier to flesh out the design.
2. Cut away the negative space of the stump using the electric chain saw. The negative space is the large clumps that will be removed from the design in preparation for the detail work that is to be done with finer carving tools. Use the plan that you drew up to determine where the negative spaces are in the design. If you are carving a face, you will use the saw to create the rough shape of the head.
3. Carve away the details of the design using the wood chisels and a mallet. Follow the plan you drew carefully to ensure that the design comes out as you want it. If, for instance, you are carving a face from the wood stump, you will be using the chisels to form the facial features such as the nose, lips, ears and eyes.
4. Carve the stump's final features using carving knives. Being the finest tools, these are used to impart the finest details to the carving. In the example of a face, you would produce the face's skin texture, eyelid details, lines around the mouth and other details that would not be possible to produce using either the chisels or the chainsaw.
