52 Weeks Of Carving - Week 7 - Second Drawer Front Started

 So the first drawer front is finished! 

I added a very simple border on the top and bottom just using the V tool and a shaped punch. I think it offsets the main carving quite well. I then gave it a coat of boiled linseed oil for a bit of protection. 

Once I had fitted this I then started machining up the second drawer front from the same slab of lime that the bottom drawer was made from. 

This time I'm going for what is called strap work. With struck lines, not carved with the V tool. The idea being that you use the chisels to dictate what the curves will be. 

Laying it out took a fair bit of time (and head scratching). Everything was divided up evenly to try and make it look right and symmetrical, although it will never truly be as it's carved by hand, but the eye wants it to be!

Once I got it laid out I then started to strike the lines with chisels and mallet blows. I plan to leave the lowered areas with the tooled marks on this one as I think it will be hard to get it to be a clean background. 

Watch this space to see how this one progresses! 

52 Weeks Of Carving - Week 2 - Tool Box

It's my eldest daughter's birthday at the end of this week and as she loves helping outside and making things we thought it was about time she got some tools of her own. And then she'll need something to carry them in - time to build a tool box! 

I decided that as my daughter loves my wood carvings (she has to, I'm her dad) that I would carve her a design on the sides of the tool box. 

52 Weeks Of Carving - Week 1

So to develop my carving I'm trying to make sure I keep practicing little and often. I've set myself the challenge to carve or turn at least once a week. 

A mirror I carved for my wife for Christmas

This doesn't have to be for very long, and doesn't have to be a whole project completed, but ideally be more "craft" than more usual work, but if I manage to combine the two than that's even better (and add it to things I'm selling on Etsy).

Week 1 -

I have decided to make a new workbench for the workshop. Although I love my MFT style workbench (and I plan to make a Paulk Smart Bench fairly soon to add to this), I want a solid top workbench that I can use as a dedicated sharpening bench.

Layout

In my old workshop I had a good set up but that was nearly 10 years ago and I never got round to setting up anything the same in my new one, and as these things always are they move on and methods change and develop. 

I need somewhere I can easily store and set up my grinders, somewhere for my hundreds of sharpening stones and slips and somewhere to store carving chisels in rolls. I figure a 4ft workbench with drawers would be perfect for this. I purchased some 2" (50mm) thick beech for the top, but decided that there was no need to use that timber for the legs as I already had some large chunks of tulip/poplar that would be perfect. 

As it was tulip I decided that I should probably use it as a good excuse to practice a bit more carving. A simple repetitive design is really medative to work on.

So with the frame assembled and the top on the bench is far from finished but it is useable and I like the look of the legs.

When I make the drawers I plant to carve the drawer fronts, I have some lime that is wide enough so just need to decide on some patterns to carve out, this should provide lots of opportunity to get some more of my 52 weeks of carving in the bag! 

More Carving Practice

 Following on from my last post. I've managed to fit in some more carving practice over the Christmas period. 

Architectural carvings have always fascinated me and it's something I've always wanted to learn to be able to do myself. A rosette seemed like a good place to start, and was part of an online course I'm doing with carving. 

I decided after my first attempt to flip it over and try again, after all practice makes perfect and it's a good use of the wood. 

I've also had a bit of company while I've been in the workshop - my youngest has discovered the joys of a piece of wood, a hammer and a handful of nails - lots of entertainment! 

The second carving I decided to make up a few leather strops to get the keenest edge possible on the tools - used with some homemade stropping/honing paste. 

It's amazing how much faster the second one was compared to the first one. Hopefully the speed will come after more practice. 

Anyone else do small pieces of carving just for practice?

Practicing carving

So I have a little commission to make in the form of a small box. So to make things harder for myself I've decided to carve a small pattern on the front. 

The real box will be in oak but I had some tulip to make a complete test run and make sure everything works well together. 

A fairly simple pattern, but a good piece to practice on. When I carve the real one the corner of the border will be stopped and started better. and I'll tidy up the cuts more. 

Repairing An Old Door

Repaired an old door today.

Splicing in a lime block

After looking closely at the door I decided that it was lime, there are lime floor boarding the house so that's a clue and I could tell from the close even grain and the way it cut with the chisel. I did think at first it was elm but it was far too soft for that.

The corner had rotted away with woodworm so I chiseled this out and added a block off an old lime floorboard.

Gluing the block on

 

Carving the detail in.

 I then had to carry the moldings on across the new block. I did this with my carving chisels, it's good to use them as not much work calls out for them any more and luckily it's lime as its one of the best woods to carve. I was pleased with the finish and by the time it's oiled up it will look like a quality repair - not hidden from sight though as that's not being true to what you're doing to a three hundred year old door!

Carving Chisels

I decided to have a bit of a tidy up in the workshop today (moping around as a fox killed all my chickens last night).

I brought a cheap Stanley toolbox the other day and decided that it would be good to keep all my carving chisels in one place. When I rounded them all up I was quite surprised by the number of them as this doesn't include my wood turning chisels or any of my normal everyday chisels that I use for work.
Some of them need quite a bit of work doing to them and I'd like to re handle quite a few of them but the ones in the tool rolls are all sharpened ready for action. None of them have cost me over a couple of quid but they have taken me quite a few years to accumulate (I've just remembered I've got another set of six tucked away that I wasn't happy with and not shown here).
55 here so far, ideally I'd like to have them in a big cabinet on the wall, but that will come when I get a bigger workshop!
Need to find more time to use them now! Anyone else got a nice set of specific tools that doesn't get used as much as it should (although they do get used!)?

Making a Carving Mallet

I was looking for a simple project to have a go at during the evenings this week and decided to make a carving mallet.

Traditionally lots of different woods and materials were used to make mallets, from the heavy Lignum vitae (which is now like rocking horse poo to get hold of) to brass, to beech or fruit woods. Some were made from one piece of wood others had beech heads with ash handles (for example).

I brought some locally grown apple wood at a auction not so long ago with the intention of making a few mallets as apple is known to be a tough wood.

And tough it was! I had to sharpen my tools quite a few times during the project to keep them cutting cleanly. Unfortunately there is a little bit of woodworm in the wood and I only realised this once I had turned the basic shape, so I've treated it with woodworm killer and I don't think it will affect the way it is used as the wood is so hard.
I always worry when turning things like this as its difficult to know what shape to turn it as there are some many different kinds out there. From reading different articles about it and using the mallets a little bit, one that stands up is handy (as it wont roll of the bench) and a slight concave in the shape of the head of the mallet helps to land a clean blow on the chisel.

I've given it a coat of linseed oil and now hopefully someone will be able to use this and carve a work of art.