My crooked nose bull project
Alright, let me tell you about this little project I got stuck into recently. I call it the ‘crooked nose bull’. It wasn’t really planned, you know how these things go sometimes.
It all started when I was clearing out some old wood scraps from the shed. Found this weirdly shaped chunk of maple. Thick piece, pretty solid. Didn’t know what to do with it at first, just tossed it on the workbench. Kept looking at it for a few days.
Then, I kinda saw a shape in it. Maybe an animal? Decided to just start carving, see where it led. Grabbed my trusty old whittling knife and started shaving off bits. The wood was harder than I thought, took some effort.
Getting the basic form
I first roughed out a blocky shape. Thought maybe a bear, or perhaps a boar. Hacked away quite a bit, just getting the general size down. Took maybe an hour just to get something that didn’t look like a random lump anymore. Then I started thinking ‘bull’. Yeah, a bull seemed right for the heft of the wood.
- Started defining the head area.
- Blocked out where the legs might go.
- Worked on the main body mass.
The happy accident – the crooked nose
So, I was working on the face area, trying to get the snout right. There was this knot, or maybe just a weird grain pattern, right where the nose should be. Tried to carve around it, then tried to carve into it, but it just wouldn’t shape up straight. One side was higher, tougher. Instead of fighting it too much, I just went with it. Shaped the muzzle around this oddity. Looked kinda cool, actually. Like the bull had taken a punch or run into something. Gave it character, you know? That’s how it became the ‘crooked nose bull’.
Refining and detailing
Once the nose thing happened, the rest flowed better. I spent a good while shaping the horns, trying to get them symmetrical, unlike the nose. Gave it a thick neck, powerful shoulders. The legs were tricky, always are on these small carvings. Didn’t want them too thin or they’d snap. Kept them chunky.
Used smaller carving tools for the eyes and ears. Just simple shapes, nothing fancy. Added a bit of texture to the body with a V-tool, trying to suggest coarse fur or hide. Put a simple tail on the back.
Finishing it off
After all the carving felt done, it was time for sanding. Started with coarser grit sandpaper to smooth out the big tool marks, then moved to finer grits. Took ages, this part always does. Wanted it smooth enough to feel good in the hand, but not so perfect it lost the hand-carved look.
Finally, wiped it down clean. Rubbed in a couple of coats of simple beeswax polish. Just to protect the wood and bring out that nice maple color and grain. Especially around that crooked nose, the finish really highlighted the weird wood pattern there.
So yeah, that’s the story. Started as a random piece of scrap, ended up as this little bull with a wonky nose. Sits on my desk now. Just a fun little thing I made, starting with nothing much in mind and just following the wood. Pretty satisfying, I gotta say.
