8 ft. Black Bear in Shipman Virginia

This customer had a 4 ft. wide and 12 ft. tall red oak stump. He wanted an 8 ft. black bear with a fish in it’s mouth standing on a 4 ft. base. So I worked up a sketch for his approval and started carving…

This tree had 93 rings. It also had a section of bad, soft wood in the center. So, we cut out the bad wood and replaced it with pieces of good wood scraps. Glued and screwed and recarved until it looked great and was sealed up.

Next, we cut the base free from the ground to prevent moisture or rot from spreading up the trunk. We put 1/4″ spacers in the cut to allow a thin barrier of air on the bottom of the carving. Next, we burned the texture, applied the oil wood preservative and painted the black color…

Here is a time lapse video of the process…

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