Japanese Whaleback Saw Logo

Recently I’ve been thinking of changing my logo.  The current one was made a couple of years ago when I was trying to capture a focus on just do it yourself projects.  I was contacted by John Zhu, and  asked to hand draw a logo.  This was my opportunity to imagine something a little different.

After some reflection I came up with two primary topics that influence me the most right now.

  • Japanese Woodworking
  • Military Design

I’m luck enough to own a Japanese Whaleback Saw, and did a video on it a little while back describing details of it.

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When I went to the Atlanta Woodworking show the people I met knew me as the guy who had that massive Japanese saw.  So starting with that I came up with a logo based around it.

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Japanese Whaleback Saw logo

New Logo

For this request from John I thought I’d have a little fun.

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Whaleback Saw Logo Rough Sketch

Whaleback Saw Logo Rough Sketch

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Inking The Logo With A Sharpie

Inking The Logo With A Sharpie

Time to get rid of the pencil marks after inking.

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Erasing The Pencil Marks

Erasing The Pencil Marks

I’ve never really done any watercolors so I thought I’d try my hand at it.  I started with a light coat of raw umber color and layered it for a darker color.

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Brown Watercolors For The Handle

Brown Watercolors For The Handle

Lamp black was used for the saw blade using the same layering technique.

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Watercoloring The Whaleback Blade

Water Coloring The Whaleback Blade

I liked the way that turned out, but it seemed to be missing something.  I started layering red mulberry paper using white PVA glue.

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Layering Red Mulberry Paper

Layering Red Mulberry Paper

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Finished Business Card Sized Logo

Finished Business Card Sized Logo

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