Thanks, Dave. Actually, the grounding process isn't so hard--I used a drill press with a forstner bit to clear out most of the material, then cleared away the bit marks and added texture with a #3 gouge. (Not my idea--it's recommended in Butz's *How to Carve Wood* and in various other texts I've read.) Even Paul Hasluck, who's about as much a traditionalist as one can be, describes the "mechanical method of wasting away" (and he discusses a hand-cranked mechanical boring device that can be mounted on the bed of a lathe--not much different from a modern drill press), though he then sternly cautions the carver not to depend upon purely mechanical methods for *finishing* the ground: "Such a groundwork may be exact and trim, but it is fearfully mechanical. The value of any wood carving is to a large extent in its virile, nervous cutting; because it is that which gives it life, and therefore character; and it is obvious that a mechanical process is the best possible method to adopt to kill completely any strivings after life and character." (This is much the same argument that he uses against "punching" the groundwork to add texture. A punch--an iron or steel bit with a pattern of textured dots or lines that can be used to texture a smooth surface--is a mechanical quick-fix that anyone can accomplish--it doesn't require a skilled artisan, and therefore can't demonstrate an artisan's skill, so he's against it.) It's hard to read whether he's exactly in *favor* of mechanical methods of wasting large areas of ground--I get the sense that he wouldn't have done it himself!--but the fact that he's even talking about the use of boring machines back in 1911 shows that the method is fairly conventional.
