Woodpecker Door Knocker

[William Young (SE BC)]

A neighbor has asked me to make him a woodpecker door knocker. You know the kind that you pull a string to have the bird knock on a wooden back plate. It would be easy to make a plain one with a home made pattern from a woodpecker picture but I want to surprise him and make it with some fancy fretwork and that takes my pattern making skills beyond my capabilities or at least beyond a desire to even attempt that type of pattern.

I find that I can cut out patterns much faster than I can make them and I am more interested in cutting patterns than actually designing them .

Any suggestions as to where I could get a nice fretwork pattern for this project ?

W.Y.

[sawdustus]

Try Scroll Saw Fretwork Paterns by Patrick Spielman & James Reidel.
Sterling Publishing, 1989.
There are a lot of background or frame patterns which could surround your woodpecker.

[William Young (SE BC)]

Thanks but I guess that was a scarce pattern to find because I posted the request on a few sites at the same time back on May 15 and this was the first response.
In the meantime , I told my neighbor that I not only hate painting but I am not at all good at it. That was why I wanted to go the fretwork route. It was the bird itself that I wanted to know where to to buy the pattern for.
So I made a (outline) pattern off a picture for the bird and the rest was basic carpentry and mechanics and gave it to him as an unfinished piece and he said his wife will paint it.
I was glad to get out of that one.
W.Y.

[lucky788scroller]

if you do a two year subscription to SSW, theres a nice intarsia woodpecker that could be easily made into a door knocking fretbird! Its in a free special ultimate pattern collection special issue .Its an awesome collection of patterns in it great job Fox Chapel ! Dale