Last hobo of 2011

[Ron Landis]

It was a good year for me. This is the last nickel carving of 2011. (#26) I used a lot of the elements that were in the original buffalo motif. The back of the dog is the top of the buffalo's head with very little adjustment. The tip of his tail is the buffalo's horn, the legs of the bench were once buffalo legs. The knot tied around the hobo's peg leg is the tip of the buffalo's beard. Since it was just flat recessed metal below that, I gave him a peg leg since there wasn't any raised metal to create a matching leg.

I call this the "cloud method" of finding other designs within the outlines of the original design. I find they look more natural this way, using the raised parts of the old design to create the raised parts in the new design. The other method would be to just smooth out everything and carve whatever.

btw... Happy New Year!!

[JJ Roberts]

Ron,Thats amazing detail,I really like what you and the other the hobo nickel carvers are doing. J.J.

[allarddesign]

wow Ron that is amazing! I can only hope someday I can get that good, but I don't think it is going to happen with hand gravers. have to sell a lot of nickels and make a lot to get there
~John

[Ron Landis]

Originally Posted by allarddesign

wow Ron that is amazing! I can only hope someday I can get that good, but I don't think it is going to happen with hand gravers. have to sell a lot of nickels and make a lot to get there
~John

Don't let your tools get you down! I've used push gravers since 1978 and just got the Lindsay PC a little over a year ago. I still do most of my final details with push gravers as well as leveling the fields. That said, the PC is really great for the initial roughing out and eliminates all the hand strain involved with push-carving.

[Daniel Houwer]

The detail in your coin is just outstanding