This was a fun carving to do! It’s a white rhinoceros of Big Leaf Maple (aka Oregon Maple). This is completely hand carved and finished with shop-made linseed oil soft wax.
I cut the billet for the rhino out of a large offcut from a local mill. I sketched the rhino’s rough outline on the piece then hand-sawed the billet. I cut the rough shape on my bandsaw to save some time in rough shaping.
I screwed the roughed out rhino to a sacrificial block so I could clamp it in any direction to my workbench, in my vise, or with double-screw clamps.
The carving in progress! I primarily used flat chisels and carving gouges for this work. To save some time, I roughed in some of the details on the head with a coping saw.
After getting most of the detail work done, I removed the rhino from its block. I then finished the feet, legs, and belly and then applied the finish!
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