Lignum Vitae
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- čas přidán 26. 12. 2016
- From concept to completion, I document the process of creating a fine piece of art. The outdoor fine art fair/shows account for 75% of all sales in the U.S., and are the most organic means of acquiring art: direct from the maker, dreamer, worker.
www.SalemBarker.com
Genuine Lignum Vitae grows in northern South America and southern Central America. The name means "Tree of Life", because its oils, which account for 1/3 of the weight, offer numerous medicinal properties. The wood was heavily used in the shipbuilding and hydroelectric power plant industries in the late 1800's through mid 1900's for the water submerged rotating assemblies of propeller and rudder shaft bearings, and is now one of the most endangered trees on earth. So how did I get it? Trees die. That's how. Lignum Vitae trees live a loooong time. So, wait in line :)
I use Kutzall rotary burrs/files in my die grinder. These are the best! If you'd like to try them, use my coupon code for a 10% discount.
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I watch a lot of woodworking videos on you tube. Very rarely do I run across one where I can say I'm truly impressed by the sheer talent and artistry of the maker. Its a rare breed that can blend this level of skill, craftsmanship and artistry into a masterpiece such as this.
You are very kind. I truly appreciate your words. If you'd like to stay in contact by receiving my email Newsletter, subscribe via my website: www.salembarker.com
Just beautiful. It took an immense amount of work to make it.
Wow! Beautiful flow! So many people don't appreciate WOOD and the beauty within!
Salem I have seen this before and it is even more stunning and magnificent, outstanding. The grain in the wood comes through so awesomely.
Beautiful work! And that’s a helluva piece of Lignum Vitae!
Beautiful piece. I love the dimpling effect you used at the base. The wood is so dense and polished wonderfully. Fantastic job!
I absolutely love the step by step videos that you do. Such an inspiration!!!
Thank you much! I love to inspire, as I have been inspired.
Salem, I love what you do with wood. Thanks for showing us what went into such a fine wood sculpture. It does not look easy!
Thank you, Spencer!! Are still working in wood?
Beautiful!! That is a process, but the work is really inspiring! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Michael!
So lovely, such craftsmanship!!
Thank you!
Astonishing. My late Grandad was a woodworker in his spare time, designing and building models of horse-drawn working carts, from drawing the plans to completion. He would have appreciated your work.
Thank you!
Thanks for posting Salem. Very inspiring.
Thank you, Rob. I hope to inspire.
What a great talent to see this in a block of wood, really enjoy your work.
Thank you!
What a great talent. You have inspired me to start wood carving. Beautiful work!
Thank you very much, Nick. I'm grateful to inspire others!
Truly beautiful work
Beautiful organic sculpture!
Thank you!!
Amazing I watched few of your videos now and your finished piece looks like you found an amazing natural piece of wood. I had no idea you sculpted every bit by hand. You are so talented and I know you must have spent a very long time honing your craft
Thank you
Thanks. I've been doing for ten years and still imagine works much greater than I have the skills to create. Maybe in another ten years they'll be much better yet.
You are brilliant. That piece is exquisite.
Thank you. It was an exhaustive effort.
I love lignum vitae! I smells like perfume and looks amazing! I admire your ingenuity in tool use! Your finishing skills are top notch!
Michael Gross , thank you! I remember this piece smelling like flowers and chocolate. It was nice!
Great work, you made my day.
Thank you! You made mine by saying so.
Amazing work!
Really lovely work!!
Thank you much!
Even more impressive when you think about the fact that lignum vitae is harder than brass and aluminum
It's hard stuff!
I was def not expecting a motorized saw when creating this. Wow, your a wonderful artist!
Thank you :)
Amazing work
Wow nice peice of Art Dude you have vision and are a wood artist this is sculpture I know because the Mother of a wood is so bloody hard to play about with well done .
Thanks! I appreciate it. Hard work.
oh. That's how it's done? :o
F*** amazing.
You convinced me to try.
I need to do it myself because i want to touch it, and contemplate it everyday. :o
I'm glad i found you man.
I know the feeling i have right now ^^
I know i discovered an artist that makes me "feel" the beauty of beeing alive.
Thanks a LOT! :)
FANTASTIC.
Great work
Thank you!
wow = very impressive - love your work!
Thank you very much!
Gorgeous!!! sanding those out has to be a drag!!!
I set my mind to it and listen to podcasts and audio books. More time is spent sanding than shaping. One single grade of sandpaper grit took eight hours of labor, if not taking a break.
clogs sandpaper like a biatch with all that oil init but such beautiful wood!
your an extraordinary artist!! 🌼
Thank you!
@@SalemBarker very welcome. You made us see that arts is so amazing...God bless you always!!!
عمل مذهل Amazing work
Hii Salem, very good job, it's a real pleasure to see youre technique, and to admire youre realisation. Bye bye and excellent artistic vibration. And hello by france ;)
Hello to an admirer in France. I've had the pleasure of visiting many places in your country. Keep it yours!
Think you very much Salem, and i'm happy to continue to see your excellent job. Bye bye ;)
AWSOME!!!
Salem,
absolutely stunning my friend! where in the world are you getting these giant chunks of my favorite woods? cocobolo and Lignum Vitae. you don't have to answer that. I thought my wood source had an amazing selection...
✌️,
Jeremy
Thank you, Jeremy. I'd tell everyone the source but he actually told me not to. The LV was brought into the U.S. in the early 70's and sat in a warehouse in Homestead, FL. It went from there to the guy I got it from. I have one more piece the same size as the one in the video. You could look up wood dealers in Homestead. I don't remember the name, but he had a lot of other unique things as well. I also have the largest piece of Pink Ivory in the whole U.S., grade 8. I expect to sculpt it this year. The Pink Ivory also came from the dealer in Homestead.
Saludos desde. Cali Colombia ☺
Hi Salem, been following you’re site for a while and love the power carvings . I’ve seen your videos when you show some of your techniques and tools you create . I was curious about one accessory I think you have that I’ve never seen. It looks like an extension you use on a die grinder. Wondering if you made it or where you got it. Again thanks so much for sharing your hard working and amazing talent!
Thanks, I appreciate that. I made that die grinder extension on a lathe. It's easy to make, just use good steel. A grade 7 half inch diameter bolt is good steel to make one from.
wow mate, wonderful work there. I'm wondering if you use dry or green wood and how do you manage the splits, just starting my sculpture journey so very inspired by your videos, cheers man!
I use either, and prefer either depending on what I'm making. If it's large, I like to sculpt from green/wet timber and let it dry indoors inside big paper bags or wrapped in bag paper. I then continue when it dries. Cracks/checks may happen but most will close again during drying. They're also easy to fill if they remain. I should do a video on this topic.
Really cool video, I was actually curious how you made some of these sculptures and didn't expect it to just be you going at it with a chainsaw and circular saw to get most of the bulk out, lol. By the way, what's the narrow red power tool you were using to sand on the inside shown about 2:30 in the video, as well as the narrow brown one at around 2:50?
Amazing
Thank you!
You are the máster. .
Noticed you have a belt sander cleaner in a vice. So, do you touch your sanding disc to it to clean it? GREAT idea!!
I've always got that thing within reach, especially with oily, sappy, or gummy woods. I use to unclog any abrasive tool. One third of the weight of Lignum Vitae is oil, so it clogs abrasives very quickly.
You just sped up my processing my oak planks(6"x24"x9'). They are so-o-o-o heavy, I like to do as much as can in one position, before I move them.
Beautiful work! Roughly how long did it take from start to finish? Do you know the original log's weight compared to the finished product?
The log weighed about 140 pounds. It took three weeks to make, but If I compressed all the working time into 12 hr days, it took about two weeks.
The craftsmanship is awesome! curious as what a piece like this would sell for?
Thanks for the compliment! This piece sold for $7500.
@@SalemBarker thats awesome
nice
I absolutely love this video. I am an amateur knife maker for the past year and a bit and watched someone make a knife handle out of lignum vitae and came across your video. I also play guitar and I love the music and wondering if you could share where are you got this piece. Your artistry is incredible and I appreciate the video. Thank you! Also I'm impressed how you use a respirator and a dust filter off to the side but wonder if you should continue using a small dust mask even when light hand sanding. Our lungs cannot be taken for granted..
You're right about our lungs. I'm often holding my breath while power sanding. An easy way to check for filtration success is to blow the nose. If wood color is on the tissue, air is polluted. I made this piece a few years ago and my dust collection system is better. I use two units and fans blowing from the my rear sides to encourage the air towards the vacuum.
I bought a 300 lb piece of genuine LV (northern S America/ southern Central America) from a dealer in Atlanta who got it from a dealer south of Miami who got it from a dealer who brought it into the U.S. in 1973, prior to its addition to the CITES Appendix as highly endangered. I have several videos on my sculpting process. I hope you like them.
@@SalemBarker I have only seen this particular video but I will definitely check out your other videos. You're very talented and dedicated and people really appreciate the ability to view the process and the skill and ingenuity you bring. 😊
Absolutely gorgeous piece, I was considering using Lignum Vitae to carve out a wand from a 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 x 12" turning stock but was worried it would be too dense to use whittling knives. Do you have any experience with using hand tools on this wood? Also did you have any skin reactions to the dust while working on it? I read it could cause reactions.
It can definitely be whittled by hand and even though it's hard, there's so much oil in it that tools seem to stay sharp. I've had no issues with dust or health reactions. It's a medicinal wood and isn't toxic. Look it up on wood-database.com
@@SalemBarker Good to know, I had a beautiful piece last time I was at the craft store and when I told the guys there I was planning to carve with it they looked at me funny and said you know it's so hard that they made ball bearings out of this wood. So I settled for Canary wood which Im not enjoying carving with. The piece I got is splintering a lot.
You are COOL
素晴らしい
Much Appreciated. Thank you.
You my friend are a real artist. i love your work i always was attracted to wood sculpting but never took the step to do it maybe one day..!
ps: wood and metal also look great together ;)
Thank you for your kind words! Over the years I've created only three pieces that combined wood and metal, and they sold immediately. I do plan to produce another series of them :)
Wow nice work dude! You knowed what you wanted to have, and made it.
But you should get a carving kit for your chainsaw.
Thanks! I do have the Procarver bar kit on my Makita. I used it on this sculpture and it can be seen in use during the video. You must have missed it.
Looks amazing and but that is the 4th densest wood and is also on the endangered species list so I hope your getting all your wood from a good supplier...
The supplier died years ago. I have the trunk section of a genuine Lignum Vitae tree that was brought to the U.S. in the early 1970's and stocked for military use. It's been sitting in darkness since then. This is now one of the most endangered trees in the world and is on the CITES appendix "red list". You can still acquire genuine LV,, but it only becomes available when a tree dies. It goes to the highest bidder.
Salem Barker good to see your responsible with your materials
There are actually three different varieties of Lignum Vitae and only one is endangered with restricted trade.
Wow, beautiful piece. How often did you have to sharpen your chainsaw teeth?
maybe twice for each of the two types of chains used. Lignum Vitae is super hard, but 1/3 of its weight is oil, so it has a self lubricative effect during cutting.
Salem, what type of chain are you using on the Makita?
I'm just using the one that it came with.
@@SalemBarker Thanks! The video using your lathe and the chainsaw was an eye opener.... LOL!
@@thomastieffenbacherdocsava1549 thanks! It works great!
Looks like it just grew that way somehow. Its impressive how you almost erase any evidence of the piece being manipulated.
That's the goal! Thank you.
I wood pay a lot for this 😉 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Perfection
Thank you much!! This sculpture is in a prominent collection, appreciated by someone like you.
my grand father was also a wood artist , i would like to be ur student if you teach me...
How many hours did this take?
Maybe 40.
I'm sure that took a loooong time.
It took nine 12 hour days.
@@SalemBarker I was asked to make an Egyptian scepter once out of that wood and chose purple heart instead. Have you done work in purple heart.
@@DavidEgesdal I've worked with purple heart only in details and accents on my pieces but never in timber large enough for something substantial. I should buy a big piece. I'd like to know of a way to ensure its color longevity.
Without power tools where would you be?
I'd be swinging mallets against single bladed tools, and hopefully still making a living with my art.
Hi
did you go to sculpting school?
No. I've had no schooling or training.
Does it help with diabetes.
Not sure. You'd have to research it. I noticed it was harder to find info on its medicinal qualities the last time I was reading about it. I suppose the pharma machine was working to scrub it. Use a search engine like Presearch instead of Google.
It looks ugly but the skill he has is mad
convex pimples illusion
Does it bother you when people are putting their hands on your art. I seen a lady at one of your shows putting her hands on one of your displays . That would drive me crazy.
please pardon the late reply! I actually invite people to touch the work. The better shows have trustworthy attendees, so I haven't had any strange problems.
Why would you do something like this to something that is considered the densest wood on the planet? This would make a better structure piece than art,
Money.
Don't think this really is Lignum Vitae ... after being exposed to oxygen it will, turn green ... plush the pith and grain color/texture look off for this type of wood. Dunno what it is for real. But you made a real nice birdhouse there son.
You are absolutely INCORRECT about this not being genuine Lignum Vitae. It's dust did turn green, aka oxidation. In many years it will become black. You are unable to identify this wood through a CZcams video because without a microscope the vasicentric parenchyma cannot be seen. Nor can it's 78 lb per cubic foot weight be measured, which only 2 species of wood on earth attain. Can you smell the floral, chacolate scent through that screen also? I've been around this material for decades, having worked with it in hydroelectric power plants. This sculpture is in the home of a very notable art collector whose discretion on art outqualifies your snarkiness.
My God Salem thank you for that reply because that was a mic drop 👏👏👏👏👏👍
@@mrsaskriders thanks. If he he fires back, there's a bigger round in the chamber....
@@SalemBarker personally it would show his intelligence if he continued to reply. 😂
looks too pale for lignum, but im not gonna question
It becomes very dark when sanded. Did you watch the end?
@@SalemBarker yes of course, i have chunk of it and its waay darker than this, even bit darker than this one czcams.com/video/J2L2rXldOLg/video.html , but again not questioning it, just saying my notice