This carving is of Chief Powder Face of the Arapaho Tribe circa 1867-1874 pictured in full war dress and holding a large staff. I was commissioned by a friend to do this carving of his great grandfather as a way to honor his family and heritage. This carving was done by hand on my scroll saw on a slab of 3/4 inch live edge eastern red cedar and took me approximately 60 hours to complete. I lined the back of the carving with black velvet to help make all the details of the carving stand out and the front was wiped down with boiled linseed oil and then finished with lacquer to help protect the carving. My friend was concerned because his friends and family were amazed by the art and they kept wanting to touch it and he was afraid one of them would accidentally break it so he asked me to build a display case to help keep it safe. I built the display case from oak and used plexiglass for safety and installed a battery operated light in the top of the display case to highlight the carving in the evenings.
The carving was done entirely by hand on my Dewalt 788 scroll saw using Pegas No.2/0 Spiral blades which only measure 0.027 inches in width and have 56 teeth per inch. I had to utilize the spiral blades to carve this piece due to the carving being larger than the throat on my saw and so normal scroll saw blades would not have worked. Cedar is a fragile wood that breaks very easily and so i had to be extra careful in many places due to how close some of the cuts were and the long thin pieces that had to be cut.
This is one of my favorite pieces and has been a hit with everyone I shared this with.
