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Chinese
Tallow Tree
Welcome
to my updated website!!
When
I retired from the plumbing trade, our local college offered a wood carving
class, and my wife talked me into attending. After a few lessons
I decided I liked it, so I carved this and that, mostly caricatures. Then
one day a friend of mine that carved canes talked me into carving a cane,
and so I did and it turned out pretty good. I then joined the Texas
Woodcarvers Guild (TWG) in 1998 and shortly after hurt my knee, so I started
using the cane I had carved. One day the director saw it and said
I should teach a class. After a lot of persuading I agreed to try
it. In the fall of 1998 I started teaching at TWG and have advanced
my teaching to Glen Rose, Texas: Rally on the the Rio, Harligen, Texas;
Creede Woodcarvers Rendezvous, Creede, Colorado; and Coastal Bend Woodcarving
Show, Aransas Pass, Texas. I am available to teach classes in other
areas if someone is interested.
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The strip of pictures above shows the stages a cane blank goes through during the carving process starting with the cane with patteren drawn on, the carving process, then the finishing process. My cane blanks evolve from a Chinese Tallow tree (pictured to the left) which grows plentiful along the gulf coast. The wood is very stable/durable with tight grains and carves well. I locate a straight tree with no knots 6 to 10 inches in diameter and 42 inches long (approx. 1 in 10,000 trees I see). I cut it down with a chain saw, haul it back to my shop and cut it into a 2 x 4 board. Then I turn it on a lathe to size, and then start sanding and shaping by hand. I use a #2 pencil to draw the pattern on and once that is done I Spray with a clear sealer to set the pattern. This process takes anywhere from 5 to 10 hours for each cane. Every cane blank I sell goes through this process. So when you receive a cane blank you purchased frm me, 5 to 10 hours has been spent preparing it for you to carve. Join one of my cane classes to learn to carve your very own cane!
Our
great grand-daughter
Hannah, loves Don's Canes!
Lily
and I
