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Woodcarving from tree to rocking horse
By Frederick Corrigan
“WOODCARVING: FROM TREE TO ROCKING HORSE”
I have always been interested in trees, forestry and wood carving. Fortunately, I lived in a rural town in western Massachusetts and I had a neighbor who was impressed with my desire to wood carve. He had a large Basswood tree that was 26” in diameter, that he would give me if I would put it to good use.
Out came my chainsaw and into his woodlot I went and I proceeded to cut down this Basswood tree. I then cut off the limbs and cut the tree into three foot lengths. I then began the task of lugging these heavy three foot pieces back to my garage. This entire process took over a week of good hard manual labor, as each piece of wood had to be carried out of the woodlot in my arms. Maybe this is a form of labor of love. The next step in the process was to take each of these three foot logs, stand them on end and cut down through them with my chainsaw to make 6” slabs of wood. Now we wait! It takes a long time to dry wood if you don’t have a kiln to dry it in. I didn’t have one so I had to use the old fashion way of putting 1” wood spacers between the slabs of wood and stacking them so that they could air dry. When you dry wood in this method it only dries about 1” per year on each side, so in theory it would take 3 years to dry each 6” slab completely. Now you know why lumber cost so much!
What would I do with these pieces of wood when they were dry? My love for horses led me to design a rocking horse. The first step was to draw the horse figure on a large piece of building tyvek because this is white and comes in an 8’ width. I didn’t need the 8’ width but I did need 4’ width as I planned to make this rocking horse 4’ tall. Then I took large pieces of cardboard and made patterns of the horses head and neck, body with saddle, legs and tail. I also made patterns out of cardboard for the rockers that I would attach to the horse when he was completed. I had the luxury of taking my time with this design and pattern process as my wood wasn’t dry yet.
The next phase of the project was to go to a lumber mill and buy a couple of pieces of White Oak, 2” thick and 7’ long, that I could use to make the rockers. This lumber was already dried, so I took my cardboard pattern, traced it out on the wood, and then cut the basic shape out using my band saw. Time went by and about a year and a half after I cut down the basswood tree, I started to cut out the pieces of the rocking horse. I knew that each piece would be cut out, shaped and detailed, then fitted to the other pieces and sanded. I didn’t have the luxury of a heated workshop, so working in an unheated garage in a New England winter was a challenge. I also worked fulltime, 6 days a week so my hobby hours were catch as catch can.
After a year of cutting and carving, the horse was ready to be assembled. The legs were bolted to the horse using 10” bolts, washers and nuts and counter sunk and capped with wooden caps. The horse’s head and tail assemblies were glued into the mortise locations on the body. Then the horse was secured to the rockers and the woodcarving was ready to be stained, finished coated and waxed. The final touches included a pony bridle with leather reins and 3” aluminum racing stirrups on straps that could be adjusted as the child’s legs grew.
The benefactor of this work of art was my 3 year old granddaughter who rode this horse until she was seven and now this signed original will be passed on to her family. A tree can be many things to many people.
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What an absolutely amazing labor of love, and what a beautiful end result! I am awed by the story of the genesis of this rocking horse. Call me crazy, but I do believe a rocking horse thus created, though it may be an inanimate object, is imbued with a soul, of sorts - and no amount of money can buy something as precious as that. The mountains of cheap plastic toys from China that are carted home from the megastore every day just don't compare.
 |  | nick Oct 10, 2009 11:16 |  appreciated |
Wow, that's the type of thing that gets handed down from generation to generation. You work being passed on to the next generations. Good Job
 | | adac Feb 16, 2011 19:38 | appreciated |
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Thank you for your visit and for your comments, Dwayne.
Hopefully it will be passed from generation to generation.
It's a one of a kind, signed original.
Best wishes.
Frederick
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http://frederick.qondio.com/
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