Art of the chainsaw

Chainsaw artist Tom Harris-Ward tells Gayle Ritchie how he carved out a career for himself

Sounds strange, but it takes a lot of skill and courage to be a chainsaw artist.

Tom Harris-Ward has been wielding chainsaws since he was nine. His dad worked in forestry and was more than happy for his young son to accompany him on missions into the woods. Tom, of Arbroath, recalls dragging branches into piles and stacking logs but what he loved most was being allowed to fell the odd tree.

“When I got bored of that, I’d play in the woods and imagine old tree stumps and dead branches were monsters or animals,” he smiles.

“That’s probably when, subconsciously, I first saw trees and logs as something other than firewood or timber.”

It wasn’t until Tom was in his early 20s that he realised he could use a chainsaw to carve wood to create art.

When his parents bought a small cottage surrounded by woodland, he got his very first chainsaw – “a heavy old beast of a thing that would rewind the pull cord so fast that I felt I might lose my fingers every time I started it”.

It was on one of his trips to Angus Chainsaws that Tom, now 34, first encountered chainsaw carving.

“There were a couple of wooden bears and a wizard outside the shop and I was fascinated by them,” he recalls.

“The first thing I carved was a mushroom but I didn’t really know what I was doing. I just hacked away at a log until it started to take shape. In fact, that’s how most of my early carvings were created.”

Other than Andy Wallace at the saw shop, Tom had nowhere to turn for guidance as online videos were thin on the ground but he has always been artistic.

He studied graphic design at Dundee College and his natural talent shone through.

These days, he performs carving demonstrations and competes at events up and down the country.

In 2015, he came second at the international carving championships in Carrbridge, when he carved the first moving sculpture in the event’s history.

Most of his work is based on Scottish wildlife but he’s carved a few strange sculptures over the years, too.

“One commission was a life-size North Sea commercial diver for a friend celebrating having worked in the industry for 30 years,” says Tom.

“Another was a VW campervan. A time-lapse video of me carving it went viral with more than 2.5 million views online in the first 72 hours.”

In June, Tom created a sculpture for the Maggie’s Penguin Parade in Dundee, starting with a huge Douglas Fir tree, milling it into four pieces and gluelaminated these together.

The Antarctica-shaped inlay in the penguin’s chest was a piece of teak, salvaged from RRS Discovery during restoration work.

Chainsaw sculpting brings its own

Visualising what I want to carve before I start is something that’s taken a long time to learn

challenges and Tom enjoys figuring out how best to fit a carving into a log.

“Visualising what I want to carve before I start is something that’s taken a long time to learn.

“With most forms of art you start off with nothing and build up to the finished piece, whether with layers of paint, clay or fabric.

“With carving, the finished sculpture is already inside the log. You have to cut in and take away the bits you don’t want so it looks like the thing you want to carve.”

When I ask Tom what he reckons is his greatest carving achievement, he laughs and says: “Probably the fact I still have all my limbs attached.”