Carving question for Jim Kibler, or anyone else who wants to jump in

[varsity07840]

My previous experience with relief carving has been on builds were there was a fair amount of wood proud of the butt plate. On your Colonial Rifle there is hardly any. When removing background from carving behind the cheekpiece, how do I avoid a "valley" between the carving and where the butt plate meets the wood. I know I have to be careful not to stab too deep.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[davec2]

Varsity,

I completed one of Jim's kits not very long ago.  There is plenty of wood to do relief carving.  In fact, I removed a lot of wood in the forearm, wrist, and butt areas and still have enough wood to do the carving shown in this link.....actually, if you look at the patch box lid, there are three layers of relief in that design that i copied from one of Jim's own rifles....

https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=57140.msg615489#msg615489

With a normal depth of relief carving (1/64" to 3/64") you should have no problem blending and smoothing the backgrounds into the contours of the stock.

[Mike Brooks]

I never leave "extra" wood for relief carving. Of course I probably don't know what I'm doing either.

[smart dog]

Hi Mike,
You could watch some You Tube videos on carving long rifles so you could learn what to do.  I've seen quite a few that leave lots of extra wood for carving. 

Varsity, there is plenty of room for carving to even to quite some depth of relief. Here is a Kibler colonial example that included some fairly high relief carving.








dave

[Ed Wenger]

The way to avoid a “valley” around carving is to gradually relieve the wood as you get closer to the design.  You might have to go back a good inch or more from the carving, if you have the room.  The important thing to remember is to keep the the the area where the wood is removed as gradual and as consistent as possible, to “feather” it out from the design.  If you don’t have a lot of room, such as near the butt piece, just keep the angle of relieved wood consistent.  Not sure if all that makes sense…, here’s a quick drawing that might explain it a little better.  Also, an example of a design behind the cheek piece.  No “extra” wood anywhere in the area, just “feathered” out wood removal.  Hope that makes it a little more clear. 

Also, don’t be all that concerned with stabbing too deep.  To me, it’s desirable to have an “outline” along the edge of your carving design.  In fact, if I don’t outline my carving with a very small “v” gauge, I usually re-stab around the design to create an outline.  Stain will appear a little darker in the re-stabbed area, creating an outline, which accentuates the carving.

Best,

     Ed

[bama]

There are different styles of relief carvings, high relief and low relief. Most of the early Longrifles were carved in low relief. Many of the pictures of early rifles in the books look like the carving is high relief is not actually very high but low relief. Most is just barely above the surface of the stock. The pictures are very deceptive and makes the carving appear much higher than it is. I have seen rifles with high relief carvings but they are the exception.

[alacran]

Spend time looking at originals and photos of originals. I don't believe those makers spent much time concerning themselves on this matter.

[Jim Kibler]

Everyone has summed it up pretty well.  The only other thing I would add is that the edge of the buttplate can be filed down a touch, should you need a little extra material behind the cheek piece.  Typically this isn’t needed, though.

Good luck!

[varsity07840]

Thanks for all the feedback.