What have I Done!?

I'm going to carve a whale shark out of solid walnut. And see all those spots? I want to try and do a maple inlay to show every one of these. This one is going to take me a very long time. Let's get to it. This is by Stone Walnut and the first thing I need to do is get them perfectly flat so I can have a really snug and tight glue up. I'm going to glue all these sections together in order to get the thickness I need for the whale shark. This may seem a lot more wood than I need but I have to account for the dorsal fin and the tail of the whale shark that makes the height a lot more than you would expect. This wood is absolutely beautiful and as you can see there's some color variation. I'm actually going to try and glue them up with the lighter sections on the bottom so it can kind of mimic the whale shark's color scheme which is basically white on the underside of the whale shark. We are looking good and ready for glue up. I'm going to glue this up in two different sections because I have to make sure all the sides are perfectly flush. This would be really hard and stressful to attempt in a single glue up so I'm just going to play this one safe, do two glue ups and hopefully it works out. The glue up went perfectly and now it's time to start carving. One of the hardest parts of the sculpture is the fins, well besides the hundreds of different inlaid spots, but the fins are just fragile. They're thin, they're prone to breaking when I clamp or bump it or hit it with a different tool so hopefully they all stay intact. While I continue carving this thing down I want to tell you guys about this video's sponsor Chime. Chime is the most loved banking app offering a smarter way to manage your money. The real game changer is Chime's high yield savings account. It earns 3.75 percent APY, that's nine times the national average which is what makes Chime so appealing to me. 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But the other thing it does is it shows me what this grain is actually going to look like and it looks stunning. I can't wait to see what this thing looks like when it's finished but for now back to carving. All right now it's time for the mouth and I don't want to make it all big and open like this. I want to make it more subtle and swimming like this one right here. And after looking at just hundreds of pictures of whale sharks it's just such a unique animal. The mouths are kind of like catfish. Which brings me to the question if tuna is chicken of the sea is a whale shark the catfish of the sea? I don't know who cares let's get back to carving. All right there's a couple things I want to address on this. Number one these lateral lines I made them very rounded over and when looking back at reference pictures they're a lot sharper and not as accentuated as I have here. So today I want to carve down those really sharpen those up and then hopefully by the end of the day I'm ready for the pectoral fins or these side fins here. And once those side fins come on this thing's really going to start looking like a whale shark. It looks kind of weird right now a little awkward. Those side fins those pectoral fins will really help finish this thing out. So let's do that. All right now it's time for these pectoral fins and I need to try my best to match the wood grain and the color on both sides. So I'm going to my offcut pile and picking two pieces that match each side the best. Once they're carved I use some sawdust mixed with epoxy as well as some CA glue to temporary hold it in place. The CA glue I kind of use as a clamp just to hold it in there while epoxy cures. And then once cured I use my rotary tool to clean out all the squeeze out and then sand it down. I basically want these fins to look like they were a part of the original body of the shark. The same piece of wood and I try my best and take a long time making sure that it looks exactly like that. Now for the detail that separates this sculpture from anything else I've done in the past. The spots. As you can see here the spots on a whale shark are not random. They're actually very organized especially along the side of the body. I'm going to try and do my best at inlaying maple spots of different sizes throughout this entire sculpture. This is something I am very scared to do but I think the risk is worth the reward. This thing just looks crazy. This is probably one of my most unique sculptures to date and I'm just really excited what this thing could look like. I mean I'm almost tempted just to leave it like this. I'm just afraid of messing it up at this point. I think it looks super cool but I'm not going to do that. I am sticking with the original plan. So let's start plugging these holes. I lightly round the tip of each dowel so it can basically go in the hole easier and then mix sawdust and wood glue and I'm ready to see if my plan is going to work. This thing just looks crazy. It looks like some kind of mutant creature deep in the sea that we haven't discovered yet or something. It just looks absolutely insane and now it's time to figure out how to cut all of these off. The hand saw worked okay but it was hard to get certain angles with it and then I remembered I had this weird little buzzer tool. I forgot the name of it but this thing is the perfect tool for the job. This thing made quick work of cutting the rest of these. That was a lot of work but all the spots are filed down and now it's time to finish sand. This thing is almost done and I can't wait to see this thing with finish on it. All right I just can't wait any longer. I want to see what this thing looks like so I'm gonna water pop it and it'll help me in the sanding process anyway and I get to see the beautiful grain of the sculpture. Check this out. I forgot something. Completely forgot about the gills so let's get the gills in and then we can finish sand. I spent a good two hours carving and sanding these gills and somehow I seem to be missing all of that footage besides this part right here so this is basically all I have but that's okay because right now I need to find a pedestal for this sculpture and I have a couple different options to choose from. Right here I have this thick stone but after placing the sculpture above it I just don't think it's the best option. I don't like the color combinations so then I brought over this piece of walnut and it's got a big live edge which I really like. I like the live edge of it but it's just too small. I need a bigger piece. Then I remembered I have this beautiful piece of maple burl that I've been saving for a very long time and I think this could be a really good color contrast from the dark walnut and I'm gonna see if this can work. This sculpture will be listed for sale over on my website and there will be a link in my description if you're interested. This sculpture took me over three and a half weeks to complete and is truly one of the best sculptures I've ever made. I would love to hear your guys thoughts and if you have a suggestion for something you want me to carve next please let me know down in the comments. Check out that grain. This is such a beautiful piece of wood and the colors will perfectly complement the whale shark and I'm just so happy I found this piece of wood and decided to use it for the base. I had a ton of fun stepping out of my comfort zone and making this whale shark. I spend a lot of time making these videos. I don't have any editors or helpers so if you want to help me grow my channel so I can continue doing what I love please consider subscribing and sharing these videos if you haven't already. Thank you guys. Now here is the finished whale shark.