The_Woodworker_and_Woodturner_-_October_2019

http://www.getwoodworking.com October 2019 The Woodworker & Good Woodworking 59

certain bits are difficult to get to once the snout
is added. Again, using an angle grinder fitted
with an 80 grit sanding disc, you want to carve
away the dip in the head, between the nose
and the eyes (photo 9).

11 You now need to repeat the same process,

but this time for the lower jaw

CUTTING LIST

As with Gilly the giraffe, for Henry I wanted

to use as many scraps of wood as possible

that were lying around the workshop. As a

result, the woods I used are very mixed in

terms of both size and species. I felt that the

species wouldn’t matter so much this time

as the whole animal would be painted grey

Body

• 9×1 tulipwood for the sides


• 6×2 redwood for the back, plus extra,
  which needs to be ripped down for filler
  pieces for the rest of the body
  Head


• 9×1 tulipwood for the sides of the head
  (I used as many offcuts from cutting out
  the body as possible)


• 8×3 hardwood for the top of the head
  
  
  • this has to be a sizeable lump as it’s
    the part that will be most heavily carved
    in order to achieve the head’s contours
  
  
  
  


• 6×2 redwood for the front and back of
  the head (I used the leftover wood from
  the back for this)
  Legs


• 6×2 pine for the front legs


• 6×2 limewood for the back legs
  Snout


• 9×1 tulipwood – again using offcuts from the
  body. Note: DO NOT DRILL THE NOSTRIL
  UNTIL FITTED AS IT’S ONLY ON THE CUTTING
  LIST FOR DEMONSTRATION PURPOSES
  Lower jaw


• 9×1 tulipwood for the sides – again,
  using offcuts from the body


• 4×2 sapele for the width of the jaw –
  this is what I had to hand but you could
  use redwood or oak instead


• 3×2 redwood for the tongue
  Teeth


• 2 x rolling pins – ideally made from beech
  Ears


• Offcut of 9×1 tulipwood used throughout
  the rest of the project
  Rockers


• 1m of 3×2 redwood/pine for the rocker’s
  struts


• 1.2m length of 254 × 50mm thick ash for the
  rockers – any hardwood will do but softwood
  will probably not take the strain as well

8 How the head should look once the clamps
are removed and before carving proceeds

6 Two F clamps are used to hold the two side pieces

9 The head once carved using the angle grinder

• here you can see the dip in the head has been
  created between the nose and the eyes

7 The head with its blocks of wood, which is held

together using three F clamps while the glue dries

10 The two side pieces, which will form the
side of the jaw

12 You can now dry fit the two pieces together.
The head should now fit over the top of the lower
jaw. If this is a slightly tighter fit than you’d like,
you may need to do a bit of sanding first

THE LOWER JAW  PART 1

Cutting out the side pieces

The first step is to cut out the two side pieces,

which will form the side of the jaw (photo 10).

Again, I used some leftover 9×1 tulipwood

for this.

The bottom of the jaw

The bottom of the jaw (underside of the head)

is made from a large piece of 3×2 sapele block

that I had in the workshop. Again, you could use

any wood for this part as long as it is the correct

size and the grain runs parallel with the two sides

of the jaw that have just been cut out. The block

then needs to be ripped down to a particular width

in order for the jaw to be able to fit underneath

the head. I measured the internal width of the

inside of the top of the head and then subtracted

the thickness of the two sides of the jaw. This will

be different for every person making the project,

so therefore needs to be worked out carefully.

Hopefully my diagram opposite (Fig.1) will help

to explain things a bit better.

The front of the jaw

Using the same measurement of the width of

the block, cut a second piece for the front. This

piece needs to have its grain running with the

width of the jaw, rather than the length. The

height is the gap between the block of wood

being used as the bottom of the jaw and the

top profile of the front of the side pieces.

Gluing up the jaw

The blocks can then be glued between the

two sides and held in place with two large

F clamps. Here, it’s important to have the

block sitting flush with the bottom of the jaw

profile. You can then leave this to dry overnight.