carving cliffs

[Luke]

okay guys,dont know how to post pictures,still learning this computer,i thought a megabyte was when you got bit by two or more masqutioes at one time.heres the question ,tried relief carving yesterday looks okay for a first timer but the carving sticks up like those canyons you see out west,how bout some advice thanks luke,

[Jerry V Lape]

Practice on a piece of sugar maple until you have learned to work with the grain, learn to sharpen tools (really really sharp) in the practice process.  Think in depths of no more than 1/32 of an inch.  Look at good original carving in a museum to see just how shallow it is.  Then do what I did and find a carving class with a truly skilled instructor and make a quatum leap in your work.  And you are going to need to invest in really good carving tools, which the instructor or members on here can guide you somewhat - you will have to figure out what works best in your hands.  I doubt anyone learned to carve well without diligent practice and a mentor or two. 

[Luke]

yea thanks jerry ive been buying good carvers one at a time. which are the basic ones you use ,as far as what size their are so many out their,its hard to know what sizes i will mianly use,and those sets are high.thanks luke

[LRB]

  Imho, the first step and possibly the most inportant, is to learn to draw nice carving. No matter how well you execute your carving, it will look no better than its design and layout, and I don't believe high end tools will get the execution done any better than cheaper ones, as long as they are not formed from tin can lids, and you know how to use them.

[Acer Saccharum]

Soften your cliffs by rounding the top corners off, where appropriate. You really need to take stock of the style you're carving. Some old guns had rather tall carving, and some had low relief. What's your style? Some designs have mixed rounded and sharp corners, high and low relief.

As LRB sez, it's in the design. What did you draw?

Here's an out dated tutorial on posting photos: http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=10.0


I use a scraper to round off the top of the carving.




Hollow out certain parts, like a leaf, with a gouge.




Then scrape that, too, with a round nose scraper.

[FRJ]

This is just a thought and I might be @#$$%&* into the wind but, I have been tooling leather for many years and I kinda think that the tooling I've done on leather will help me if I ever want to carve wood. You might get a book or 2 from Tandy's on leather carving and tooling and see if the techniques in  there will give you some ideas on wood. I dont like the carved rifles but may change my mind when I'm done with the 2 Hawkins I'm working on now. FRJ