As I mentioned the other day, I have a lot of oak to carve.  I typically carve small things, so those whiskey barrels are going to last me a really long time.  A few months ago, somebody posted a neat little reindeer carving on the message board, so I thought I’d give it a try in oak.

The resulting reindeer is about 4 inches tall.  Unfortunately, that makes it slightly too wide for the oak board, and cutting it out on the bandsaw was quite difficult.  I managed not to break anything, but one side of the reindeer is flat rather than rounded.  Still, I figured I could use the pattern in its original size (9/16″ thickness rather than 3/4″) and create Christmas tree ornaments for family and friends.

The thinner piece makes it impossible to cut out on my bandsaw.  So I found a friend with a scroll saw and tried it on Saturday.  I managed to get one reindeer cut out without breaking anything, but it was very difficult.  The scroll saw didn’t like the oak.  Perhaps I could do it with a better blade, or maybe somebody with more experience using the scroll saw  could do a better job.

So now I have 18 pieces of oak, 3 inches by 2 inches, and 3/4″ thick, all with reindeer patterns taped to them.  Some of those blocks will undoubtedly become little dog carvings, and I’ll have to find something else to do with the rest.