When to start carving and moulding - after final sanding?

[Justin]

I'm about at the point where I have everything attached to my rifle kit and I want to start laying out mouldings and carvings. I won't be starting to cut wood until I feel good about my patterns and I also will be practicing on scrap wood.

However, none of my reference materials are super clear about whether I should be completing "final sanding" o the entire stock before carving anything. For example, I have the DVD that Chambers sells featuring Jim Turpin. He sands the butt plate and then adds his moulding on the butt plate up to the trigger. So that part is clear but he doesn't seem to do any mouldings around his lock plate. It seems mostly obvious that you'd want to sand before doing any moulding but I also want to add beavertails off my lock plate and I don't want to sand away all the wood I'd need to form those.

Should I just be sure to leave enough wood in these areas when sanding down to 320 grit so that I will have enough wood for these relief carving features?

Probably a dumb question and I think I know the answer but I wanted to get clarification from folks who know better before proceeding. Thanks for clarifying for this newbie.

[smallpatch]

Your stock should be final sanded, ready for finish, BEFORE you start carving.  Your gun will have plenty of wood left for carving at that point.  Being your first ( I assume) will most likely have too much wood left.
Relief carving is only about 1/32" thick at most.  Blend it in with the background, and no one will know.

[SingleMalt]

Gary Brumfield's website, "flintriflesmith.com" shows step by step his process for carving.  It's an excellent tutorial.  http://www.flintriflesmith.com/  Go to "tools and techniques."  The link to the PowerPoint tutorial is in the last paragraph.

[Mark Elliott]

You have to whisker before carving.   It will take at least three whiskerings, possibly a good many more until the grain doesn't raise anymore. 

[Justin]

Cool. Thanks everyone!

[Mike Brooks]

I'm about at the point where I have everything attached to my rifle kit and I want to start laying out mouldings and carvings. I won't be starting to cut wood until I feel good about my patterns and I also will be practicing on scrap wood.

However, none of my reference materials are super clear about whether I should be completing "final sanding" o the entire stock before carving anything. For example, I have the DVD that Chambers sells featuring Jim Turpin. He sands the butt plate and then adds his moulding on the butt plate up to the trigger. So that part is clear but he doesn't seem to do any mouldings around his lock plate. It seems mostly obvious that you'd want to sand before doing any moulding but I also want to add beavertails off my lock plate and I don't want to sand away all the wood I'd need to form those.

Should I just be sure to leave enough wood in these areas when sanding down to 320 grit so that I will have enough wood for these relief carving features?

Probably a dumb question and I think I know the answer but I wanted to get clarification from folks who know better before proceeding. Thanks for clarifying for this newbie.

You don't use sand paper to remove wood. Use rasps and files to remove wood to the point you'll start to sand or scrape. That kit you're doing has a lot of wood removal to do before you get out your sand paper. Once you have sanded and/or scraped you can do your carving with whiskerings in between. then you'll have to sand/scrape around your carving with more whiskering in between. I have on occasion not sanded or whiskered before carving as I take away more wood during relief carving than I leave anyway.