Scroll stamping gouges

[Scota4570]

After looking into buying gouges, I have decided to make my own out of clock spring from old victrolas.  I have a friend to has lots of old spring stock, he restores wind up record players.  

I was thinking that it might be nice to have a set of gouges of various known radius-s. I see scrolls are often laid out using Pythagoras's folding rule.  By that rule each succeeding section of the scroll is 40% of the radius of the last.  3/5  the golden ratio.  

OK, what size gouges is in a set that is normally used for this purpose.  Are long rifle scrolls normally done using the folding rule.  Or, would one normally scale up and down a known scroll.  

If I start out at 5" it come out real close to regular measurements.  5, 3, 1.75, 1, 5/8, 3/8, 1/4, 1/8 would all be very close to calculated values. 

[okieboy]

 If 1/8" equals one unit then you have (in the opposite order), 1,2,3,5,8,13,21. Each number being the sum of the two proceeding. This usually starts with two number 1s, so 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21 and is a common simplification of the golden mean often used by woodworkers.
 BUT, as to what sizes are normally used, that would probably be the sizes that one has at the bench. 

[Scota4570]

" 1,2,3,5,8,13,21"  

If we start at 1/8 then we get, 1/8, 1/4, 3/8, 5/8, 1", 1 5/8, and 2 5/8.

I would probably add a (13+21)* 0.125 or 4 1/4" to the set.    

Pretty cool how these things work out.  

Since I am making the gouges, and I can do any size.  Is the above a "standard set" of scroll stamping gouges?  

I see store bought gouges come by "sweep" to describe the radius.  That is not very helpful to me.  Is there something abut the sweep system that is useful for what I am trying to do?   

I see some stamp with a tiny straight chisel over a pencil line.  I like the idea of smooth curves. How is it normally done?  Am I wasting my time on this idea?  

[jerrywh]

 Your theory suggests that all scrolls are based on the same principal.  In reality that is not so.  Beauty cannot be reduced to a mathematical formula IMHO.  Nature does not conform to the golden means.  One factor of beauty is variation. However it works well to a limited degree.

[sweed]

There ye go Jerry, Beat Denis to the Punch! 

[kaintuck]

yes..............

marc n tomtom

[Scota4570]

With no artistic talent what so ever  the method does produce a well proportioned scroll.

http://antiqueradios.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=160138

[bama]

I agree with Jerry, you have to have an artistic eye with the understanding of how a proper scroll is laid out. There are many good scroll books available today that instructs on how to lay out a scroll design. If it was me making chisels, i would lay out my scroll, divide it into sections and make the chisels match each section, numbering each one.

I would probably use tool steel to make the chisels. I have often thougt of doing this myself usually when laying out "C" scrolls for a carving design. I have enough chisels to make the small to medium scrolls it is the large sweeps that i don't have. They are on my " round to it " list of things to do.

[Acer Saccharum]

This is not to undermine your effort to get a whole set of gouges, but to show there is a different way for similar effect. You, or others, may not have seen the process before. Late John Bivins had developed a small stabbing tool, and mine are a slight departure from that.

If you can transfer or draw that perfect scroll to the stock, you can stab it in with one very simple tool. The largest one pictured is about 5/32 wide. You can stab around curves with these.



Stabbing of the design in progress, using the largest tool to save time. Small tools for tight turns, and I sometimes use a curved gouge for smooth inside turns. I will go over a pattern several time to get the depth I want. This allows me to make slight corrections in the curves, and helps prevent 'popping' out of delicate pieces of the pattern.