hi, on the woodpecker today, has a christmas gift for renã©e, i made this huge stamp, i wonder how she will fit it in her album. since i've stopped using renã©e as my personal slave, she's gone back working in her stamps collection, the house is full of stamps. so i thought that maybe she'll be glad to have a big wooden stamp just for her.
fine woodworking magazine canada, so i look inside her canadian stamps album to find a "nice" one. i'm really not inspired by all the royalty , but when i spoted this nice beaver i knew right away and i said to myself; this is it, this is the perfect stamp, a beaver another animal that's loves wood ...
after taking it's picture, i use photoshop to trace it's outline. when i'm done, this is the result. i print several full size copy of the stamp, the first one will be the pieces placeholder, the second will be the cut pattern and i also printed the actual stamp, to have a real size reference. i begin, by using my pattern to measure the amount of maple i'll need, then i cut it. when i have a smaller piece of wood i straighten two sides. i want a wide but thin piece of wood for the back of the stamp, so i cut a thinner piece with the table saw.
but i'm unable to cut it all, i whish i could finish the job with the band saw, but no such luck, i'm forced to finish the cut with this demolition tool. then i do it all again with the rest of the board. after being sure i have straight edges all around, i glue them together, i put that aside while the glue dries. the maple wood will be the light part of the stamp, all the rest will be dark walnut. but just like the maple, i need to have smaller planks. when i have two, i glue them together. while the glue is drying, i cut thin pieces of scrap walnut.
after cleaning the belt from the sander, i sand those thin pieces. i'll take all of them to make the letters of the stamp. but the first piece i cut, is the maple leaf. ha, it's finally starting to take shape. next i can cut the letters. since they're three "a" in canada i stick three pieces together and cut the letter "a" only once. after a while i have all the letters, but i need the five cents too. as simple as that. the last lettering is smaller, i want thinner letters, so i rip a piece in two.
the saw left nasty mark on the wood so i need to sand them before sticking them together to cut two postages. after a little while i have all the letters of the stamps. but letters are nut enough, i still need the actual beaver, to do so i take my walnut glue up and sand it straight. since the drum sander is out, i also sand the maple. while i'm at it, i finish all the sanding. now i'll take this piece of wood and transform it into a beaver, first of all i need to cut the bottom straight. next i stick the pattern on it, and cut it to the right size.
the first thing i do is remove the sky. this part will be the maple backing. a nice beginning but it's for from done. here they are, all the pieces are cut, the only thing, i still need to do is to cut the maple leaf outline. all done now, but when i look at the original stamp, i notice that the head of the beaver is different from the rest, so i decide to cut off its head off. now i'm happy of all my pieces, but i need to simulate the texture of the beaver's fur. so i get several of my carving burrs and try them on a scrap piece of walnut. when i'm done i even spray a coat of lacquer so i can see the final look.
now that i have a better idea of the burr's texture, i remove the paper and start shaping the beaver. for the tail i use a finer grit. next i add details over the carving. then i shape the head and polish it with a fine grit. with the real stamp, i find, and draw the fine details that i must add with carving chisels. when i put everything together, i notice that i don't like the way i carved some part of the body, i fix that. since the tree lines are way farther than the beaver, they should be thinner. so i go to the band saw and cut their shape in half.
it's much better, i just need to shape them now. the trees are done, i need to do the same for the water. then it' time to shape the ground. but when it's time to shape the big bottom chunk, i see a potential problem, they're not enough wood under the tail, this will break. by looking at the original stamp i notice a line. i hand trace it to my piece and cut it. then it's all the same for all the other pieces. ha, i'm done, but i don't like that they're no transition from the body to the tail.
so i get some carving chisel and cave a little. when i'm done i just redo the fur texture. i also didn't textured the trees, so i add some right now. this is way better. the beaver texture is too rough, i hand sand it a little. i'm finally ready to work on the back of the stamp, i begin by sticking my pattern onto the back. next, in the middle of each stamp border holes, i punch a small divot. when i'm done, i stick this onto a scrap piece of plywood, before going to the drill press. when all ninety two holes are done, i cut them in half.
after removing the paper pattern i notice that i've damaged the wood a several places, to fix that i use the drum sander again. when the back is a little bit thinner, i sand it smooth. then it's time to get ready to sign my master piece. when it's done i make the final sanding. now i can check what this will look like when it will be done. but when i look at it i find something i don't like; they're no reflexion from the trees onto the water, i fix that right away. now i'll use those thin pieces of walnut to make the outline od the stamp.
the first thing i do is to sandwich a strip between a metal ruler and my workbench, then with an exacto knife i cut small strips. when i'm done i just plane them. now i can glue the first piece in place. i had marked it's placement beforehand. before going any further i clamp it to the back and wait for the glue to dry. when it's dry i glue the rest of the pieces. then i put weight on it and leave this to dry. when the glue is dry enough so i can remove the sand bag, i can begin gluing the letters,
i start by the five. followed by the first two letters of canada. but when i'm ready to glue the cent sign, i can clearly see that it's too thick, this looks weird, so i cut it in two. and glue it. then i finish the rest of canada. the two little lines in the cent sign. and i finish with all the letters from poste-postage. on the actual stamp they're some line in the center of the maple leaf, i trace them on my maple leaf. then with a carving chisel, i carve the lines.
i polish the leaf and glue it in place. now i can cut the thin border, to do so i put a transparent piece of plastic under two strips and with a chisel i cut both of them at the same time. i always use painter's tape to hold the strips in place while i cut them. after cutting all of them, i can glue them in their place. when the glue is dry i use a chisel to clean the excess glue. now i'm ready for the first coat. i begin by blowing away the dust. then the first coat of lacquer, i start with the back.
but the real magic happens when i spray the actual walnut. this dry pretty quickly, an hour later i can spray a second coat. i spray four coats like that. the next day i'm ready to install the wall hook. and with this last screw renã©e's christmas present is finish. when i look at it, i can't belive how far i came from my ugly santa. but this is not for me, this is renã©e on christmas morning. the last thing i need to do is to hang it on the wall of renã©e's stamp room. here it is, the christmas gift i gave my lovely wife last year,
it's still on the same wall, i guess she still like it. as for us we'll see each other in the next episode of the woodpecker.