River Otter Coat Rack - Black Walnut

[c_dwyer]

I recently wrapped up a quick project for a wildlife biologist friend of mine who just retired, and who also shares an interest in furbearers. The project started with 12" wide rough sawn walnut that was never stickered, so it had a natural cup to it. Not being able to use it for furniture and certainly not wanting it to go to waste it, I put the curve to some use in a relief carving of an otter. Here are the steps:

First is the layout and cutting. 
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Then I used a small angle grinder to round the edges of the back and tail, and some relief cutting with my trim router to seperate the hind feet.
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Then went to town with my foredom carver to rough out the main muscle groups and head, and work on developing the color for the upcoming gel stain.
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I needed to figure out which peg size to go with.  Options were 5 large for coats, or a dozen smalls for hanging tanned furs.  Went with the large and drilled away…
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[c_dwyer]

Couldnt figure out why pictures were pulling up, so continued…

Next was routing out the back to insert hooks for hanging. Did this across the bottom so as to no stress the connection between the peg section and the feet.
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Then sanding, sanding sanding….  Used a little water to raise the grain.
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Then the seal coat.  From this point I was following the work of Jeff Jewett who is well known for finishing work.
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Then gel stain using oil artists paint to add some depth.  Brush on, wipe off, allow to dry, repeat 2 more times.
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Finish with two coats of waterlox and since I was running out of time, let sit next to the dehumidifier to try to speed it up and voila.
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[Ivanhoe]

Very talented you are! Looks great CDwyer!

 

[Bob Wolfe]

nice job.

 

[mwildt]

Very talented indeed. Nice work for sure.

 

[c_dwyer]

Thanks guys! Appreciate that.

 

[waho6o9]

Beautiful work!