Speaker A
One hour versus one day versus one week. I'm challenging myself to carve the same realistic skull three times to find out how much better each one gets with more time. And let's just say the results were not what I expected.
BM Sculptures carves a realistic skull three times in 1 hour, 1 day, and 1 week to compare results, featuring woodwork, epoxy, and a surprise gift.
Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.
Generated from the transcript and can be wrong — check the timestamp.
Key Takeaways
- More carving time significantly improves detail and refinement in wood sculptures.
- Natural voids and imperfections in wood can add authenticity and storytelling to art pieces.
- Incorporating epoxy can enhance the visual appeal and structural integrity of wood sculptures.
- Balancing work and curing times is important in mixed-media woodworking projects.
- Personal connections and surprises add emotional value to handcrafted art.
What the video covers
- The creator challenges himself to carve the same realistic skull three times with different time limits: 1 hour, 1 day, and 1 week.
- The 1-hour carving focuses on rough shaping and removing large pieces to resemble a skull.
- The 1-day carving uses buckeye burl wood, highlighting its unique colors and natural voids that add character.
- The video includes a sponsored segment about Zocdoc, a healthcare appointment booking platform.
- The artist discusses handling natural voids in the wood to enhance the skull's authenticity and story.
- After 10 hours of carving, the 1-day skull is completed and the artist prepares for the 1-week challenge.
- The 1-week skull involves incorporating epoxy into a unique piece of wood gifted by a friend named Jack.
- Epoxy curing time is balanced with carving time, and the artist also makes cutting boards while waiting.
- The final skull is finished, polished, and then gifted unexpectedly to Jack, creating a meaningful full circle moment.
- Close-up shots and finishing details are shown at the end, with the sculptures available for sale on the artist's website.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and 1 Hour Carving Challenge
- 01:36Progress and Reflections on 1 Hour Carving
- 04:461 Day Carving Challenge Begins with Buckeye Burl
- 07:14Sponsored Segment: Zocdoc Healthcare Booking
- 09:10Midway Update and Handling Wood Voids
- 11:15Finishing 1 Day Skull and Preparing for 1 Week Challenge
- 15:16Introduction to 1 Week Challenge and Epoxy Pouring
- 17:12Epoxy Curing and Making Cutting Boards
- 26:03Final Finishing and Surprise Gift to Jack
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Alright, one hour on the clock. Let's go!
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[Music]
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[Music]
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Time is just flying by. One hour feels like ten minutes. The only thing I could think about right now is taking off the largest pieces I possibly can so this thing could end up somewhat resembling a skull in the end. We'll see.
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[Music]
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Stick around because later in this video I'll be completely surprising someone who helped me out in the past with one of these skulls.
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You guys up too? I'm returning it to you.
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Why are you doing that? I didn't like it.
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No! Oh, look what you did. Holy cow. It's a pretty cool full circle moment you're not gonna want to miss.
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I have a piece of sawdust in my eye or not a splinter but a pretty big piece of wood in my eye right now. It's not gonna do well with this time to then. I have 20 minutes left. I'm gonna go flush this out and then try and get back to work.
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[Music]
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All right. Wow, it's smoky in here. Okay, one hour absolutely flies by. That felt like ten minutes, no joke. It actually looks like the beginnings of a skull. I think if I had another couple hours on this I could really refine it and make this thing look really good.
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Yeah, super happy with it. Now I'm gonna get a good night's sleep and tomorrow we're starting the one day build.
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This is a beautiful piece of buckeye burl, one of my favorite species of wood to carve. Not only is it soft and carves pretty quick but it's also one of the only species of wood that I know has different colors swirling throughout the entire piece of wood.
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This skull looks like it just got a lobotomy in the back of its head with these big natural voids in the wood. And speaking of lobotomies, aren't we glad with how far medicine has come? Not only do we not drill holes in people's skulls—
Speaker A
well, for the most part—but we can actually book doctors' visits from the comfort of your phone. Let's be honest, how long have you been putting off booking a doctor's appointment? For me, I always delay going to the doctors
Speaker A
because I hate scheduling an appointment, playing phone tag, or just being told that the next opening is like three months away. We've all been there but now everything has changed thanks to this video sponsor Zocdoc. Zocdoc is a
Speaker A
free marketplace that you can search and compare local in-network doctors across 200 specialties in all 50 states. You get to read real patient reviews, check openings, and instantly book online. Right here in the build I'm giving my own
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skull lobotomy. I'm gonna kind of take out all this dirt and bark and really just clean it up, you know, doctor stuff. And the cool thing about Zocdoc is once you choose your provider you could usually be seen within 24 to 72 hours, sometimes
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even the same day. If you're interested in all that Zocdoc has to offer to help streamline your health care, click the link in the description, scan the QR code, or head on over to Zocdoc.com/bmsculptures. Thanks, Zocdoc.
Speaker A
So far this carving is going exceptionally well. I've about four or five hours into this right now and still a long way to go. My only real worry right now are the big voids in the wood but that's not a worry for now. That's
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that's a worry for future me. So right now back to carving and let's get it.
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[Music]
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I am absolutely exhausted. I need a little bit of a break but so far just really happy with how this thing's turning out. This wood is just so cool looking and then from there we need to sand it and finish it. So I still have a
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long day ahead of me but really happy with how this is turning out and I'll see you right after my break. A little longer than a few minutes later.
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[Music]
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Now you may be asking yourself, well, what are you gonna do with all those voids and holes in the skull? My answer to you is nothing. I'm not gonna look at them.
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No, actually I'm gonna look at them truthfully. I did a couple skulls in the past that had voids and ended up not touching them and it made the skull look way more authentic like it was just found out in nature. Now there's probably not
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a lot of human skulls found out in nature but let's go ahead and say this guy's a caveman and these are battle wounds fighting saber-toothed tigers or getting hurt by boulders when trying to invent the wheel. I think it probably
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looks a little more caveman-like than a human skull anyway right now but I still really like how this thing's turning out and can't wait to put some finish on it.
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The sculpture will be listed for sale over on my website. I will put a link in the description or just head on over to the website and check the shopping page.
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[Music]
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[Sigh] I am absolutely exhausted. I spent an entire day, around 10 hours, carving this basically non-stop just one little break and 10 hours may not seem like a long work day but 10 hours of carving and physically bending over and getting all
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these weird angles, it is taxing and I am, I'm ready for bed honestly but this thing turned out so cool. I'm so happy with how this turned out. This wood is just something special. I'm gonna show you guys close-ups of this and all the
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finishing shots at the very end so stick around for that and now I have to try and top this thing with the one week challenge. Okay, check this thing out.
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Remember earlier in the video I told you I was gonna surprise someone? Well, I received a random email one day from a guy named Jack. Jack found this unique piece of wood near a creek and thought of me for it. He emailed me, we got to
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talk in and then I realized he lives super close to me so almost a year ago I met Jack over at his son's house who happens to be even closer to me and he gave me this piece of wood. Right here on the bandsaw I don't recommend doing this
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I'm just trying to get the bottom flat and it is a very odd shaped piece so this is kind of a dangerous cut but I'm going for it anyway. So anyways Jack gave me this piece of wood and it's been sitting in my side yard and I think this is the
Speaker A
perfect time not only to make a really cool skull incorporating epoxy but also making it for Jack and I want to return it to him completely unannounced. I haven't spoken to him in about a year I'm just gonna go over there and
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completely blindside him with a finished sculpture. Did you guys just see the color of that when I put on water? I don't know any other type of wood that is that color besides walnut and this is not typically what a chunk of walnut
Speaker A
looks like so I am absolutely blown away. Is this walnut? Do we have any wood experts watching this video? Is this walnut? This piece of wood had a bunch of dirt and bark and rocks and kind of intertwined in this mix so I took out the
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hose and really just washed it down and it's a super hot day so it dried really quick and then I'm ready for my first pour of epoxy.
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[Music]
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Oops, looks like I forgot a little branch here that I need to chop off so it can fit in the pressure pot. This is gonna take around two days to cure and I actually have two separate layers so I really kind of struggled with how to
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add this to the one week challenge. I ended up giving each layer one day in the challenge because it's not really fair comparing carving to curing time where I basically don't have to do anything besides the pour so overall I
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have a day to make the mold and do the first pour and clean up that piece of wood and then a day, day two for the second pour and then I officially start carving on day three. Do you guys think this is fair or should I have included
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all four days for curing and prepping this piece of wood? What do you guys think? While this epoxy cures I like to stay active so I have a ton of scrap wood in my shop and one time a year I make a batch of end grain cutting board so
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that's exactly what I'm gonna do while I wait for this epoxy to cure. I love just mixing and matching al
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It's very similar to carving marble where if you try to push it a little too hard, you could get big chips falling off.
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So you really just have to carve it slow and steady and that just takes so much more time than a wood sculpture.
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(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
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(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - It's the end of day five and I wanna fill all the cracks that are still showing in the skull.
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I'm using some penetrating epoxy and then I went back and forth whether to add color or try to keep it clear.
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But because that lower jaw has just a hint of yellow in it, I decided to go full on blue as blue as blue can get.
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I actually want these cracks to now be kind of an accent in this piece and I hope they actually show through 'cause I think it'd be kind of cool seeing just fractures of blue throughout this skull.
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Hopefully it works out. (upbeat music) Uh-oh, we got a bleeder here. Got a bleeder, need to fix this problem here.
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Let's suture this thing up with some hot glue and hopefully that stops the bleeding.
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(upbeat music) After only a couple minutes, my mixing cup is completely heating up and I actually don't mind this 'cause I hope the cracks heat up so I can get a second pour in maybe later tonight.
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(upbeat music) (upbeat music) I'm super happy I got this second pour in. It'll save me some much needed time for day six.
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(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
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(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) This thing is turning out so cool.
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I love the intertwined branches that are in the top of the skull and one even comes out in the middle of the jaw.
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I just think it's so unique and cool. But for now, I gotta fix a couple of little holes that are in the top of the skull and I'm just gonna use some CA glue, sand it down and then we're ready for the final polish.
Speaker A
(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) I almost forgot to add the skull rivers.
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This is just one of the many details that will separate this skull from the others.
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Just a lot more time and effort going to proportions and all the little details on this one week skull that just elevates it above the others.
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(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (scissors snipping) (scissors snipping) Somehow I forgot to press record when applying the finish to the skull.
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So instead I'll show you applying finish to the cutting boards. I have a total of 30 cutting boards for sale, all differently priced over on my website.
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If you're interested in purchasing one, head on over to my website. I will put the link right on the screen here or click the link in the description.
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Thanks guys. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Each board will come with a certificate of authenticity and maintenance oil so you could keep it looking like new for years to come.
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All right, now let's go surprise Jack. All right, I just pulled over down the street from Jack's son's house.
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I came here a couple hours ago and set up all the hidden cameras. And then he's gonna go turn them on once Jack gets here.
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- A little longer than a few minutes later. - All right, Jack's here. Let's go surprise him with this skull.
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- The tires are here. It's just like. - What's going on? - Counts on it.
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- Oh hey. - You guys up too. Jack, Blake, I hope you remember me.
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- Yes, no I do. - You gave me a piece of root a long time ago.
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- Yes, I do. - I'm returning it to you. - Why are you doing that?
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- I didn't like it. - No, I was gonna throw it away. - Well, you might be able to do something with it.
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We'll see. - Don't fall. - Oh, look what you did before. - There's your root.
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- Holy cow. Wow. That's insane. - That is amazing. - Crazy heavy, huh? - You're not giving this to me.
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- Oh yeah, it's yours. - No. - Yeah, it's your root. It's your root.
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- No. - I think it's just a cool full circle moment. - I think it's worth thousands of dollars for something like this.
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You know, you just, the kindness of you to give me this root is pretty cool.
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Give it back to you. - It was nice. - No, no. - Oh, holy cow.
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- And if you don't know, I came here earlier. You're actually on camera right now too.
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That's okay. - No, really? (laughing) - Does that hurt? You're being a jack? - If you're okay being a-- - This is why you kept dragging me in here.
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(laughing) - That was pretty cool. Just to see Jack's reaction, having no idea that I was coming was pretty special.
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I hope he likes it. And I think it's time for you guys to see the final reveal.
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So check it out, the final reveal. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
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Topics:wood carvingskull sculptureBM Sculpturesbuckeye burlepoxy resinwoodworkingtime challengesculpture arthandcraftedZocdoc sponsor
