I've roughed out a few on the band saw and sanded them down with the belt sander. Now I've been hand sanding for a while, but it's challenging to get them symmetrical. Are there any tricks to this? Or is this just something done by eye and is a bit time consuming?

:cheers:
- Rich

Practice and a good eye are your best tools. You can also take a section of PVC pipe and split it lengthwise, then glue some sandpaper on the inside. This gives you a nice curved surface to use as a sander.

Jigman

calipers and a pencil.

If you're using two separate pieces of wood you can paint the sides you'll be gluing together before you add the glue. This will give you a true center line.

Practice, practice, practice. I carved a few with an old salt this winter. he made it look easy. It was kind of scary to watch him work the wood. How he turned it and took a bit here and a bit there, talked about what he was doing. With a few strokes of a file or pen knife, he'd change the entire charater of a plug. Amazing!!! Then he started doing lips freehand....
Oh well...