BIGining of the Tea Cart

After much research, inspiration and contemplating....I have taken the first steps in what is potentially the most ambitious project to date!
The project is what will be known as "the loutky tea cart".
As the name suggests, this big idea is planned to be a fully functioning tea cart. The cart itself is part of an even bigger project...but more of that another time.
The first step was settling on a design concept...then came the fun tadk of selecting the wood.
For some reason, i thought using "tasmanian oak" was a wise choice as it is readily avaulable and reasonable in price.
I had never carved tazzy oak before...and let me say...although a hard, splintery wood....im gaining a great "feel" for carving this stuff.
Back to the tea cart...the first thing to build is the "sculpted side beams"...the way this was set up was by laminating 19mm thick pieces together. Each individual piece was pre-cut to a rough profile shape before gluing and clamping.

I have begun carving the 1st beam and it is coming along nicely.
Hopefully you can see the face begining to find form.

Due to the hardness of the tasmanian oak, i decided to use the Arbortech "Power Chisel" to help rough out the form...but i soon found that the wood responds to Pfiel hand chisels really well....although quite physical and exhausting, the result is very rewarding.
I plan on using the Arbortech tools to rough out more of the shapes in each of the beams.

I am hoping to follow the progress of the "loutky tea cart" on this blog...so keep visiting to stay up to date.