Practice tang carving for kentucky pistols.

[Rolf]

I've drawn a tang carving for my pistols, and done a practice carving on some scrap wood. I've tried to keep the design simple, so I could do it with out messing it up. Comments, critiques and suggestions welcome. I'm working on a pair of pistols, one right handed and one left handed, and I want to make the carvings mirror images. The carving is 1/16" high.

I've found a mistake in the the design. The stems of the vines start at the shoulders of the tang thumb nail. Reliving the back ground here would spoil the tang inlet. Suggestions??




Best regards

Rolfkt

[Acer Saccharum]

It looks too tall, Rofkt. Most of the American pistols have carving from 1/32 tall down to almost nothing.

For your next practice piece, cut the carving on a curved surface.

Good for you, practicing like this. Your hand and eye get a great training, so when you start on the real gun, they will know what to do, even though YOU will be sweating bullets.

Keep up the good work. Let's see more!

Tom

[Jim Kibler]

One other suggestion is to try to use more hollows and flutes in your sculpting.  You really need to study in order to have a good idea what you are trying to accomplish with this however.  Higer carving which is just rounded has limited appeal.  Higher carving which is sculpted can be striking.  With this being said, I agree with Acer.  Most American carving is fairly low with limited amounts of sculpting.  The safe bet for someone just starting is to keep it fairly low.  The lines you were wondering about  can fade in from almost an incised line to full depth.  Also, you may want to consider moving the start of these lines outward in your design a bit rather than starting them from the tang.  Keep at it and good luck!

[Ky-Flinter]

I think this is what Jim was describing on those lines next to the tang.  Good luck and keep showing your progress.  -Ron

[flintriflesmith]

I think Ron's picture of his carving in progress nailed how to treat the origin points of the scrolls. They have to flow from some point and not be too near the tang.

The rifle shown on this web page has another version of this Vally of Virginia style tang carving and shows some more options in how to flute and sculpt the scrolls to add variety to the design without actually making it a lot more complex. (look at the last picture on the page)

Gary

http://www.flintriflesmith.com/GunshopEraGuns/78.valley.rifle.htm

[Dave B]

Rolfkt,
You have the starting point but shouldnt have to work that hard to remove all that wood. It only needs a millimeter depth to get what your looking for. Here's a pistol I built with a tang layout similar to what you are doing.



You should start your volutes small and make them grow out in width, creating a sense of flow in the carving moving away from the tang. I made the chip cuts in a progressive size to maintain the sense of flow as well.

[Rolf]

Thank you all for your tips and advice. It's a big help .  My first carving looked to clunky.  I've redrawn it, slimmed it down and will try to keep 1/32".  I'll  post pictures of the next practice carving.

Best regards

Rolfkt

[JTR]

Rolf, you're going to have a fine set of pistols when you get finished with all this practice!!!
Keep at it!
John