This is rather embarrassing to admit, :embaresse but as much as I like to carve and aspire to make that the cornerstone of what I do in the shop, I am not very good with a knife. I can shape big stuff like instrument necks with power or a spokeshave or a draw knife (doesn't count ). I can shape smaller stuff for intarsia and segmentation projects using power. I can hollow with an adze or power and clean it up with gouges or power. I can do a reasonably good job on shallow relief carvings with my palm set and I am getting there with the mallet tools. Then there is the knife. I can cut strings to length and open packages with the best of 'em. :roll: I do have a "bench knife" that is a single bevel thick blade chip knife that I use to clean things up and I use and Exacto to cut veneer to various shapes, but that isn't carving.
So I have decided to address that deficiency. I chose a couple of things out of the most recent Wood Carving Illustrated magazine - a face that you cut on a board corner primarily using triangles and some chip patterns. I started out with the chip knife but found it isn't a good choice for general carving due to the thick blade and steep bevel; it tends to tear into the wood. I got a good pocket knife that has a coping blade and have had better luck with it:
My photos are pretty bad, but I will start with a closeup of a face I did. This is actually zoomed in - the actual carving is less than 3" high. It is not finished; this is just where I stopped:
The right side ("his" left) came out OK and the overall shape is OK, but I really butchered the left side. It looks OK from further away, but I am looking for advice, not praise, so I took a close up to expose its many flaws.
I also tried a little chip carving with mixed results:
I drew a single twist Celtic knot pattern by hand and roughed it in relief with my palm tools so I could feel competent for a few minutes.
These last couple of pictures are terrible photos, but you can still kind of see where I am with this.
I tried a couple on a found wood stick. This is probably the best of the faces I roughed out:
This one is an even worse photo, and the carving is barely begun, but I had something of a breakthrough - I gave him the expression I had in mind! It is way too early in the process to be doing that, but it is just a practice piece, so when I got the urge to do it I did:
In the background you can see the face I posted above zoomed in. From further away, you can clearly tell what it is and the flaws aren't so obvious. So it could be worse...
Anyway, suggestions and criticism are welcome.
So I have decided to address that deficiency. I chose a couple of things out of the most recent Wood Carving Illustrated magazine - a face that you cut on a board corner primarily using triangles and some chip patterns. I started out with the chip knife but found it isn't a good choice for general carving due to the thick blade and steep bevel; it tends to tear into the wood. I got a good pocket knife that has a coping blade and have had better luck with it:
My photos are pretty bad, but I will start with a closeup of a face I did. This is actually zoomed in - the actual carving is less than 3" high. It is not finished; this is just where I stopped:
The right side ("his" left) came out OK and the overall shape is OK, but I really butchered the left side. It looks OK from further away, but I am looking for advice, not praise, so I took a close up to expose its many flaws.
I also tried a little chip carving with mixed results:
I drew a single twist Celtic knot pattern by hand and roughed it in relief with my palm tools so I could feel competent for a few minutes.
These last couple of pictures are terrible photos, but you can still kind of see where I am with this.
I tried a couple on a found wood stick. This is probably the best of the faces I roughed out:
This one is an even worse photo, and the carving is barely begun, but I had something of a breakthrough - I gave him the expression I had in mind! It is way too early in the process to be doing that, but it is just a practice piece, so when I got the urge to do it I did:
In the background you can see the face I posted above zoomed in. From further away, you can clearly tell what it is and the flaws aren't so obvious. So it could be worse...
Anyway, suggestions and criticism are welcome.