Help with carving edges

[Catskill Pete]

I am having a problem with my low relief carving. How do you get and keep nice clean edges on the raised portion of the carving? Mine seem to always get "feathery" and get small chips in them, even though the parting tool cut clean to start with. This is Maple that could be harder if that makes any difference, although I ran into the same issues with the Walnut on my last gun. My attempts to clean up the edges with scrapers or chisels don't seem to help much. I know I am looking for some "magic" answer but I will settle for something less.

[Captchee]

 It  starts with good hard wood and sharp tools . The better your wood , the better your carving
  I also plunge the pattern and  cut to it. Followed by carefully scraping  the   background away .  Follow that with some burnishing  in and around the design .

[Mark Elliott]

Edges can only be sharp if they are stamped in with sharp tools.    You can clean them up the exact same way you stamp them in the first place, but you have to KEEP your tools absolutely sharp.   Do no try to scrape them.   Use a pointed scraper to scrape the background up against the carving.   

Also,  you don't necessarily need a vertical edge to your carving.   I model leaves right down to the background and sometimes below.    I think a lot of people are afraid to model.   Apparently,  I am not afraid enough, judging from the result; but if you don't over reach, you don't learn. 

[volatpluvia]

Mark, what do you mean by modeling?

[PPatch]

You mentioned the maple being softish and I would bet that that walnut was probably fairly soft also, that is part of the problem, hard wood lends itself to sharply defined edges, always be aware of the grain direction. Very sharp tools are a must and you have to learn to sharpen those gouges with the proper angles and put the sharpest edge possible on them so they make a clean slice or cut, when you feel the tool tugging during a cut or find yourself applying more pressure to cut then stop and hone the tool right away. A leather strop is all you need for that operation.

Perhaps watch some of the YouTube videos on carving such as the Mary May series and others. Almost always you pick up little tips and tricks that aid you in making better relief carving. Of course with most of the stuff on Youtube they are going way too deep for what we do on rifle stocks which as you know is quite shallow in depth. The cutting techniques are the same though. Here is a video where Mary talks a lot about defining edges: https://youtu.be/43dLqrKV9OI?list=PLPIh2uAfqlpRMv0aGjGGsrM7b8iq6I234

Note her V cuts and her use of a mallet at times to drive the gouge and have better control of the cuts. Also, practice is always a good thing, cut on scrap wood or something you don't have a lot of pressure to make perfect, try different techniques and just relax, enjoy the process, and cut with very sharp tools.

Good luck, have fun.

dave

[Mark Elliott]

Mark, what do you mean by modeling?

That is hard to explain in words.    It is varying the surface of the carving in order to make it what is refrerred to as bas relief in a fine art context.   That is,  kinda a half of a 3D sculpture.    The very best carvers do this.   Below is my feeble attempt at modeling.   Actually, I overdid it a bit, but it should show what I mean by modeling.  Like I said before, you have to risk failure to advance.  

[Catskill Pete]

OK it all sounds like good advice. The tools I am using are not the best quality, and almost certainly not well employed. They are however sharp, a skill I learned long ago. The initial cuts with the parting tool are clean and sharp. So it sounds like its time to take a deep breath and try the modeling and burnishing. I had been considering lowering the outside edges, sort of ramping them down from the center to produce a thinner edge. The videos suggested definitely are helping. So thank you all for taking the time to answer.
Catskill Pete

[volatpluvia]

Thanks, Mark, I think I see what you mean.

[Acer Saccharum]

Pete, have you see the tutorial on stabbing:  http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=29820.0

There are other tutorials on carving in the woodworking section. If you read a few, you can pick out tips that will help guide you in your efforts.