William Henry “Engraved Longhorn Beetle Knife” Part 8

Side B has been calling to me for a while now, so it’s time to knuckle under and get started…  This will be mostly bark with a sneaky centipede partially hidden underneath.  I vividly remember seeing one of these bad boys as a young child in Texas

, when I was perhaps 5 or 6.  Black body and startlingly yellow legs, it seemed like it was a foot long and struck me as being “powerful.”  Bugs aren’t something you would normally think of as powerful.  Stingers, biters, scratchers, yes, but not as having power.  But this thing was angry, not happy being held down with a stick across its’ middle, and it seemed to be winning the fight.

Here, I’ve simply engraved all of my layout lines quite deeply with a Lindsay Detailing (96 degree) graver.  I’ve also reserved a space for a possible use later, and marked where two cavities are located on the underside.  I don’t want to carve into those.

Above, I’ve used two sizes of carbide burs (small and tiny) to excavate around the centipede to the desired depth.  Quite deep against the centipede’s body, tapering to almost zero depth at the lower edge of the scale.

I’ve used flat gravers to begin carving the slightly rounded body where it disappears under the bark, and where the legs disappear under the body.  I’ve also used tiny flats to cut around the base of the legs and the tree surface.  Did you know that an onglette with a flat heel on the bottom makes a pretty strong, yet tiny flat graver?  Try it…

And, above, a more magnified view.  Lots more carving and rounding of the body and further sculpting with a punch tomorrow.

Thanks for looking!