Practicing my carving - Lessons Learned

[Justin]

My Isaac Haines kit build is final shaped and ready for carving but before I cut into something that has taken me a lot of time to put together, I wanted to practice first.

I have a flat block (not ideal) of curly maple scrap that I got from the local Woodcraft so I used a pencil to lightly draw on my interpretation of an Isaac Haines original tang decoration:


I then used an Exacto knife to cut incised lines (vertical cut) over all the lines. Then I used a veiner tool to cut those wider -- being sure to angle the veiner to I was only removing wood on the outer edges:


Next step was using a sweep chisel to carefully cut away the baseplane wood. I also used a small scraper to smooth out the relieved area. It is very tricky to get a nice flat surface there with a skew chisel:


Finally, I added some depth to the design by lowering the surface of the pieces being overlapped:


Lessons learned:

• My exacto knife blade was too flimsy and I think made it more difficult so I picked up a fine detail carving knife from Woodcraft today. My next practice piece will be done using that one and I hope it helps clean up my incised line edges a bit.
• As I was cutting my incised lines, I think my fingernail was making indents into the design... Notice how it looks much more ragged in the latter photos. I'll be cutting my nails short next time and being more careful.
• My scrap wood has a burl on the lower left where the wood is extremely hard. That definitely makes carving more difficult. My stock does not have any burl but I could see if it did, it'd be difficult to deal with.
• Using a lamp that you can move around with no overhead light is critical to seeing your cuts when they are only 1/32 inch deep. Also, adjusting the angle on your lamp will reveal all of your flaws

Overall, I feel pretty good about it for a first try at relief carving.

[Jim Kibler]

Round your practice piece to at least slightly mimic the tang region of a gun.  The practice will be much more applicable.  You'll find background will remove easier.  Good job with the drawing.

[Justin]

Thanks, I will do that on my next practice piece.

[Mike Brooks]

Ok, that's pretty good. You can stop pulling weeds now. Next time you practice ditch the exacto and lay the carving in with your V-tool alone, or try stamping with appropriate gouges/sweeps. You got the drawing down no problem.

[Robert Wolfe]

A tip: if you stay with the Xacto snap the tip off the blade. It makes it much easier to control on the curves because you have less blade in the wood to drag around. Or, do as Mike says and stamp it in.

[alyce-james]

Justin; Sir, nice practice start. Very well drawn out design. A primary key arevery sharp cutting tools. Waiting to see more of your work. Have a great week. AJ.

[Justin]

I'll have to try one with the v tool alone too. It's a little more tricky to keep that going exactly where you want it versus a knife but that's probably technique I don't have yet. I'll give it a go.

I'd use my gouges to cut in but I don't think I have enough varying sizes to do it cleanly.

Mike, thanks for taking me off lawn duty

[Ron Scott]

A V tool will cut much more predictably than a thin blade.

[Mauser06]

Way better than any of my practice...lol. I don't have the drawing...I've never had an artistic bone in my body lol. Not sure if I will ever learn..which frustrates me...can't carve or engrave if you can't draw the design.  I can't even trace designs lol. It's bad.


Something that size, say a tangle carving, would you use a mallet or just your hands when using a V tool?

[Bill Raby]

I do best at cutting away the background by using a large skew chisel as much as possible. Mostly 25mm. Gives you a larger flat plane going away from the carving. It can be a bit more awkward than a smaller one, but the results are better. Have to go slow. That is what works for me anyway.

I pretty much always use a small mallet with the V chisels. I have a lot more control with a mallet than just by hand.

[KC]

I don't know if that's your first whack at drawing and carving a design, but if it is, you're off to a great start. Like most the other advice here, I'd probably skip the exacto knife and just stab in the design. Very nice work.
K.C.

[n stephenson]

I do best at cutting away the background by using a large skew chisel as much as possible. Mostly 25mm. Gives you a larger flat plane going away from the carving. It can be a bit more awkward than a smaller one, but the results are better. Have to go slow. That is what works for me anyway.

I pretty much always use a small mallet with the V chisels. I have a lot more control with a mallet than just by hand.

KC , Your drawing looks good. I agree with Bill , when using my v tools I tap them with my little engraving hammer. I have the best control like that. Nate

[Mike Brooks]

I drive my V- tool with a mallet as well. No control at all pushing by hand. It's just like engraving....only wood.

[ltdann]

Your first one looks like my 10th...nicely done.

I must not be holding my mouth right.

[Justin]

This time I did some things differently:

• Used a rounded piece of wood to mimic the forestock.
• Cut in the incised lines with a Flexcut Fine Detail Carving Knife -- next attempt I'm going to go right to the veiner with my engraving hammer chasing it.

The last 4 photos I dampened the wood just to see how it would look with more of the wood figure showing. This scrap piece has a lot more figuring than my stock. I think I am going to try staining it tonight to see if that makes the carving pop out more. I'll re-cut incised lines around it first so the stain shows up darker there (I think this is mentioned in Recreating the American Longrifle).

Drawing only:


The Flexcut Fine Detail Carving Knife:


Incised lines cut in:


Veiner tool used to cut outer edges:


Relief process started. Definitely easier on a curved surface:


Outer edges relieved:


Started adding depth:


Some other light angles:





With the wood dampened to show how figuring affects it:

[dogcatcher]

On the Woodcarving forum, Lora Irish posted a thread about tools for a new woodcarver.  https://forum.woodcarvingillustrated.com/forum/woodcarving-illustrated/woodcarving/wood-carving-for-beginners/1125225-beginner-s-wood-carving-tool-sets

There is also a thread about low relief carving that she posted last week.  https://forum.woodcarvingillustrated.com/forum/woodcarving-illustrated/woodcarving/wood-carving-for-beginners/1125049-basic-carving-cuts-in-relief-wood-carving

And last but not least a back to basics on her website.  https://www.lsirish.com/2018/01/08/back-to-the-basics-of-wood-carving/

[P.W.Berkuta]

I had the opportunity to visit with Bill Shipman some years ago and when I asked how he did such nice carving he said that he used a carbon steel rib-backed #11 blade on the lay out design like this <https://www.aspensurgical.com/catalog/blades-scalpels/bard-parker-conventional-blades-scalpels/bard-parker-conventional-blades/carbon-steel-blades-with-rib-back-design/371111>. Since he was a dentist he had much skill with this tool and it shows in his work .

[Justin]

On the Woodcarving forum, Lora Irish posted a thread about tools for a new woodcarver.  https://forum.woodcarvingillustrated.com/forum/woodcarving-illustrated/woodcarving/wood-carving-for-beginners/1125225-beginner-s-wood-carving-tool-sets

There is also a thread about low relief carving that she posted last week.  https://forum.woodcarvingillustrated.com/forum/woodcarving-illustrated/woodcarving/wood-carving-for-beginners/1125049-basic-carving-cuts-in-relief-wood-carving

And last but not least a back to basics on her website.  https://www.lsirish.com/2018/01/08/back-to-the-basics-of-wood-carving/

None of the attached photos on her post load. Do you need to be a forum member to see them?

[Mike Brooks]

Why do you cut your incised lines in with a blade and then go back over them with a V-tool?
 Also, It looks like sharper tools in shaping your carving would help. Also, buy some of the KRA DVD's and take a look at how that carving was sculpted.

[Justin]

Why do you cut your incised lines in with a blade and then go back over them with a V-tool?
 Also, It looks like sharper tools in shaping your carving would help. Also, buy some of the KRA DVD's and take a look at how that carving was sculpted.

In Recreating the American Longrifle (RtAL), they say to first cut your incised line and then go in and cut away the outer edge with your knife. I don't have the book in front of me to take a picture of their diagram. I figured the v-tool would work just as well to do that angled cut as using my knife.

RtAL also says you can cut an incised line around your designs to add the illusion of depth so it seems that'd be a necessary step anyway instead of going straight to the v-tool.

I'm going to try a few methods to see what I like best.

Also, do you know where to get the "KRA DVD"?

[dogcatcher]

None of the attached photos on her post load. Do you need to be a forum member to see them?

Apparently you do have to be a member. 

[Mr. Bubbles]

You might want to think about getting one of those sets (yes a set) of micro carving tools from Dockside Model supplies.  I think Woodcraft carries them.  They are very small bladed, let you get in to very small spaces, and make the Pfeil # 12 veining tool feel like a sledgehammer.  I don't think they are terribly expensive either.  Something like $20-$25 for a set of 5.

I wouldn't use them in lieu of the # 12, but go to them after the # 12 has done it's first bit of rough work.  They are particularly handy for stabbing ina  little trench around the base of the raised carving so that stain can gather there to really make the raised figures pop.

Scrapers have a way of digging out the curl when you scrape with the grain and creating a bit of a washboard effect.  You might find that a set of sanding sticks (they have a little band of sand paper that runs around them that you can move to let you get at the unused paper) will be helpful too, particularly when modeling the tops of the carving.  I use them after the scraper has knocked off the firs bit of the hard edge to the tops.  And again, the small dockside knives can be used to shave very small raised ridges between the curl that the scrapers dug out for you.

[Mike Brooks]

Why do you cut your incised lines in with a blade and then go back over them with a V-tool?
 Also, It looks like sharper tools in shaping your carving would help. Also, buy some of the KRA DVD's and take a look at how that carving was sculpted.

In Recreating the American Longrifle (RtAL), they say to first cut your incised line and then go in and cut away the outer edge with your knife. I don't have the book in front of me to take a picture of their diagram. I figured the v-tool would work just as well to do that angled cut as using my knife.

RtAL also says you can cut an incised line around your designs to add the illusion of depth so it seems that'd be a necessary step anyway instead of going straight to the v-tool.

I'm going to try a few methods to see what I like best.

Also, do you know where to get the "KRA DVD"?

I have "discovered"  the KRA DVD's in the past year. The most incredible photography that you'll see of old guns. Not that expensive either.
http://kentuckyriflefoundation.org/krf-store/
I know you hate my stinking guts, but you ought to take a look at my tutorial for a peak at how I lay in my carving. It's pretty simple and you have lots of control. There are many advanced carvers on here that are very good, I just get by.

[Justin]

This time around I started with the v-tool / veiner to outline the edges. I liked this method the best as chasing with a small engraving hammer did offer me more control.



After this photo I cleaned up some of the relief areas. In general, I think I did a better job on the modeling aspects of this attempt. It just looks like it has more depth. The spot where the tall stem goes under the leaf needs some work -- I should have kept the left edge of the stem a little higher so that groove didn't flatten out so much there. I think I also should have kept the bevel on the edge of of the right leaf smaller... That leaf in general has given me some troubles. In the original Isaac Haines photos I see, he keeps it pretty flat and plain but I find mine look a little out of place without any modeling on them. I'll have to resist the urge to do too much with that when cutting into my stock.

My plan now is to finalize my drawings on my stock and then start cutting the real deal. I think I will start on the moulding lines on the butt and fore-stock first and then the more fancy parts after. Hopefully, I don't mess it up

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone (including you Mike )