The high whine of a chain saw echoes over a rain-drenched field in Poland on Monday morning.
Light yellow wood chips fly in a graceful arc from the bar of the bright orange saw and land on emerald colored grass. The face of a bear emerges from the wood.
Andrew Logan, 44, is creating.
Last summer, Logan’s mother-in-law enjoyed looking out her window and watching a family of unusual fowl nest in the field.
Around the same time, Logan needed to fell a tree that was choking out others.
“Then — I guess you could call them cranes but I’m not certain what they were — disappeared toward the end of summer and she enjoyed watching them,” Logan said. “I thought I would do something fun for her.”
So Logan took out his Husqvarna 346 XP with a standard bar and carved a duck out of the leftover stump.
“Emmet,” the name they gave the carving, now proudly keeps watch from a hill on Lewiston Junction Road in Poland and his mother-in-law can still watch her “duck” from the window.
What started as an accidental hobby, has turned into a full-time passion.
Logan had never seen chain saw carving until he stumbled upon a YouTube video from Colorado. He was intrigued and started investigating.
“I was watching other people do it and thought, ‘hey, why not try it.’ If someone else can do it, I can do it; which is how I look at most of my life.”
So the former occupational health and safety specialist and carpenter started carving bears.
“I have over 50 carvings and not one has hit the burn pile. You can see the progression looking around the yard; each carving got better,” he said.
Logan acknowledges there is little room for error when working with wood, but he said, “If I don’t like where a carving is going, I change the way it’s going.”
Bears are Logan’s specialty, but he also does Tiki Heads, Easter Island carvings, flowers, and the occasional turtle.
For a bear, he’ll start with a piece of hardwood he has bought, bartered, or harvested and use his chain saw to slowly carve away bits of wood. After he is satisfied with the amount of detail, Logan will use a four inch grinder on the muzzle and nails. Then he’ll brush the piece with a soft nylon brush, and burn it with a torch for added color. Then he’ll apply boiled linseed oil to seal and protect the wood.
But despite the amount of work that goes into each carving, Logan averages two to three bears per week.
Eventually, he plans to invest in a carving chain saw, but for now he is content with his art.
“It takes your mind off of other things. You just concentrate on the carving,” he said.
Logan pauses for a moment, searching for the correct words. “It’s really low stress. The only thing you have to worry about is chain saw safety. When I was an occupational therapist, I had 300-400 construction workers to worry about. Now it’s just me.”
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- Andrew Logan, 44, of Poland, works on a bear carving with his chain saw Monday. What started as an interest has turned into two to three carvings a week, with some of them being sold to local people and businesses.
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