Here is a barn owl that I carved from a block of ash over Christmas 2004.

It is my first carving. I used the Henry Taylor starter set of 6 woodcarving tools including skew chisels, spoon bit chisel, small and medium low sweep gouges, spoon bit medium sweep gouge and parting (V) tool. They were all useful.

The eyes are inlaid pieces of mahogany (which is MUCH softer than the ash. I would have used ebony but I didn't have any). The owl was designed by Ben Russell, and a guide to carving it featured in Practical Woodworker magazine, summer 2004.

Photographs (thumbnails; click to open each larger image in a new window)

There was too much waste around the owl after the first stage of bandsawing. This meant that it took a lot longer to get the owl into its rough shape than it should have. As a result the owl took about 4-5 days to carve. The eye cutouts were difficult and are not as sharp or clean as I'd have liked them.

The finish is a couple of coats of Colron Danish oil, followed by Colron finishing wax (both available from B&Q etc). The ash has quite a beautiful grain and a very nice patina. Next I may carve a penguin, or a badger, or another owl (an eagle owl?).