"Grug Knut"

This is from a rough out by Chris Hammack, which you can purchase from his web site. Rough outs are an easy way for instructors to teach carving and for new carvers to learn carving all the little details, with out having to use a band saw to cut the blocks out. It is roughly shaped and rounded over so that you can tell where the arms and other parts are supposed to go. They are usually reproduced on a duplicator machine that is manually operated and usually makes around 24 at a time, typically using a 1/2” bit. So they are not very detailed and they need a lot of cleaning up before you can even draw in the details. I don’t know of any people making rough outs commercially that use CNC, because they are expensive and usually only do one at a time. I do create my own designs and sell some of those as rough outs for other to carve, but I also enjoy carving other peoples designs as I feel like I can learn from doing that and improve my skills. I usually send off an original carving to a rough out shop and have them make as many as I think I need.

You basically start by carving off all the tool marks from the duplicator, removing the extra pieces of wood used to mount it in the duplicator, and making any piercings needed for open areas. This one had a large piece of wood as the base, but it was easier to cut that off and carve the feet and between them. The extra wood let me make the feet a little longer. Rough outs usually come with a drawing or pictures that show front, sides, and back. You can use those pictures as a guide or you can make something completely different out of the piece of wood. But you are somewhat limited by the shape of the wood, unlike something that is completely designed by you. And of course the paint job can be varied quite a bit. All of that is to say that this is not my own design or idea, but it was carved by me with hand tools. You will not find a surface that was not carved by me with a gouge or knife. It didn’t come with any weapons, but suggested an axe, mace, or spear, so this was carved as a separate piece and glued in his hand. Thanks for looking!

-- Mike P., Arkansas, http://mikepounders.weebly.com