I thought I'd give stabbing a try, as I've never done a whole design with this method.
The first thing you gotta do before stabbing the carving is to have your drawing EXACTLY what you want. Once stabbed in, the design is committed. I spent a lot of time drawing, erasing, drawing again. I even sent pictures to friends who commented on 'this or that might look better if'.... this is really helpful.
I made up some tools out of spring steel, old gravers, whatever happens to be about the right size. These are round ended tools:
1) the biggest, on the left, is 1/8" wide, is beveled on BOTH faces, sharp as a razor on the edge.
2) the middle tool is FLAT on one side, rounded on the other, about 3/32 wide at the tip. This enables one to make pretty tight radius curves. The flat side MUST be toward the inside of the curve.
3)The small tool on the right is about 1/16 wide. Flat on one side, round on the other.
The marks in the wood: top is STAMPED in with a mallet. The bottom marks are PUSH and ROLL.
As seen looking at the edge of the tool, you can see how thin I've ground them down.
Instead of tapping the tools in, I push down and roll the tool in the direction I want it to travel, steering while I roll. I can go over this as many times as I like to deepen the cut. I can tap the tools in, too, but the rolling allows me to follow a line better; it's not quite so 'stepped'.
Completed stabbing. Now the background must be removed, and then the raised relief must be detailed. But that is for another day....
Here is a sample photo of backgrounding for relief carving. I used a small fishtail gouge, maybe a #3 sweep x 6mm wide, which is shallow curvature, to cut away the background up to the stabbed lines. Once sufficiently cut down, I switch to a small rasp to flatten out the peaks and valleys of the gouging. THEN I scrape the rasped surface smooth. Turn your piece in low angling light so your eye can pick up high and low spots, inconsistencies of contour, etc.
