Large Bear Bench Carving

I had been wanting to do a big bench like this for a while and this was the perfect time as I had lots of inventory built up, a perfect log and some time to carve something different and challenging. So a multiple bear bench it was!

I got the log that was used for this bench at least 3 years ago and it’s been drying since, which was nice as I really don’t like working with wet wood. It also made moving it around a lot easier as the weight was maybe only 400lbs or so now. So I fired up my big saw and cut the 28” log in half. Always a little worrying making giant cuts like that but all was good. I moved the 2 halves into the shop and began setting up the seat and back of the bench with some 2” pine slabs I had. The sitting area is approx 6’, so this bench is 8’ or so wide when all put together. That doesn’t leave a ton of room to move around in my small shop so there was a lot of dismantling and reassembly.

I started on the side with the 2 bears under the honey hive. It’s always fun trying to figure out where the limbs of bears should be as the one bear is climbing on the other. It certainly took some time and some steps back to look at it.

Next up was the side with the sleeping bear on the log, I’d never done one like this before and was a little nervous. It was a little tricky figuring some parts of it out but we got there and I think it turned out great.

Colour makes all the difference!

Stain and sealing was then done to the bears, seat and back. They really came alive here.

This bench is available (as of May 1, 2020). If you’re interested in it please email me. If you’d like something similar fire off an email and we can discuss your ideas.