relief carving depth

[Ron Scott]

I am in the process of carving a Jaeger Rifle. The inspiration for the design is the original Austrian Fowler seen next to my project in progress. The relief depth on the original is very shallow, so I measured it and found the range between 0.010 and 0.014 inches. I have been asked this type of question by my students in the past and thought some of the readers here might find it interesting. The design was hand sketched to fit the dimension of the new rifle and will show variations. There are a number of detail yet to be added and background clean up to ge attend to . In spite of the exuberant finger the Armenian walnut cuts beautifully.

[Dave B]

Wow! As always beautiful work Ron. I just love the Germanic style. It pops right off the wood and is yet so slight in its actual depth. Masters at work, Ancient and Modern. Thank you for sharing. Who is the maker of the fowling piece?

[smylee grouch]

Very nice. Exceptional wood and work. With that figure how was cleaning up the background?  Scraping I assume.

[Daryl]

Ron Scott - amazing as usual. What a beautiful piece of walnut. Those black lines. WOW. Just like the original above it.

[Mike Brooks]

Nifty. I enjoy seeing the tool marks in the background of the carving on the original. That sort of work would be poo-poo-ed by todays collectors. It's a really stunning design and your design compares excellently.

[PhDBrewer]

Beautiful Ron!
Thank you for taking the time to mentor others. Your skills are amazing as well as your willingness to share your secrets!
William

[Rolf]

Beautiful work. Thank for posting.

Best regards
Rolf

[oldtravler61]

  First really exceptional work Ron...but like Mike said I'm one for the minor tool marks. To me it shows a little human error so to speak. But like everything it's only my opinion...Thanks for showing.

[Spalding]

Really nice, Ron. Appreciate the insight.
Pretty snazzy looking piece of walnut, too.

Bob

[Jim Kibler]

It is a great design.  Beautiful work on your carving, Ron.

[James Rogers]

Really loving what I see going on with the original design and yours follow suit.

[BOB HILL]

Fantastic, Ron.
Bob

[Ron Scott]

To answer three questions. The fowler is unmarked but was labeled as Austrian by the Auction House and I tend to agree. The mounts are silver, with a wooden trigger guard and lock I would except on a 1740 or later production. The wood is dense enough to cut pretty well on the background removal. I use a both the large and small versions of my background removal knife to reduce the needed wood, followed up by scrapers, files and abrasive. The photos show tool marks but some of the irregularities appear to be wear marks (dents and scratches).

[J.M.Browning]

I do not know much of carving Although I know more about wood then most & you have a fantastic piece of wood !

[flatsguide]

Very graceful! I like the way the carving starts from the cheek piece riser on both pieces. Not much room for error when carving that thin. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers Richard

[JTR]

That's some very nice work for sure!

[Ed Wenger]

Interesting, that is shallow.  Ron, are you planning on outlining the carving in any manner, i.e., re-stabbing or with a “V” gouge?  I don’t recall seeing that on many European hunting rifles to accentuate the carving, just curious. 

Your design is very nicely executed (as usual), and the wood is spectacular!  Thanks for posting.  Best,

         Ed

[Ron Scott]

Hi Ed,

I have looked at the original with much magnification and cannot see any evidence of stabbing the outline.

[t.caster]

That's just Outrageously beautiful! Those German/Austrian designs are so different and intriguing!

[Ed Wenger]

Thanks, Ron!  Best,

   Ed

[Kansas Volunteer]

To answer three questions. The fowler is unmarked but was labeled as Austrian by the Auction House and I tend to agree. The mounts are silver, with a wooden trigger guard and lock I would except on a 1740 or later production. The wood is dense enough to cut pretty well on the background removal. I use a both the large and small versions of my background removal knife to reduce the needed wood, followed up by scrapers, files and abrasive. The photos show tool marks but some of the irregularities appear to be wear marks (dents and scratches).

Ron, could you post pictures of your background removal knives, or post a link to pictures? At least post a description. I'm very interested in the tools.

[Dave B]

No  where as nice and questionable as to what we are looking at. Here is a Germanic fowler that has what apears to be stabbed in patterns for the cheek piece front and back. And the wrist oposite the cheek. I had some one tell me someone sanded off the carving. The point regardless is the pattern was stabbed in or cut in.

[Dave B]

Most of you know that Ron has on hand exceptional walnut gunstocks. I have purchased several for my use on contental guns and have been pleased with how much easier it is to carve a gunstock "that is as hard as a witches heart" to quote the late John Bivins. I have for my next project a longrifle stocked in plain maple that I thought would work for carving 25 yrs ago. It is too soft and a nightmare to carve. Dont go cheap on your wood if you plan to carve it.  Beautiful work Ron. thank you for sharing it with us.

[Bill Raby]

Dave B is right. I have been working with a piece of Turkish walnut that is about the hardest piece of wood I have ever seen. It is much harder than any sugar maple I have ever worked with. That makes a huge difference when it comes to carving. Also there is a big difference between the European walnut and American black walnut. European walnut is closed grain and black walnut is open grained. Closed grain is much better for carving if you have any amount of detail. The claro walnut from California is the same species as the European walnuts. I love carving the European walnut. Major disadvantage is the cost. It is expensive stuff. Englsih or Turkish walnut with good figure comes with a price that will knock you over.

[Ron Scott]

Looking back at some of the posts regarding this topic I may have confused the issue of stabbing the design. I interpreted Ed Wengers question to be, is  the outline of the original was stabbed after completion to highlight the outline. I do not see microscopic evidence of this technique. I do feel the original design work was initially stabbed into the stock rather than outlined with a V or parting tool. I used the same technique on my yet to finish version in the photo. A superb tutorial of the technique is presented by Wallace Gusher in the video produced by American Pioneer Video.

One of additional joys of using European Walnut is that is has its own inherent coloration. With no need to stain, the grain casing aspect of water based stains is eliminated.  There is some debate about the origins of Claro Walnut. Some recent DNA tests indicate is is a subspecies of Black Walnut. Based on my observations of porosity and odor, I tend to agree. Occasionally American walnut and European Walnut hybridize  resulting in a super strong wood prized by high power rifle makers.