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. 

A Simple Hand Carved Fireplace

 I carved four of these and no one gave me a lift to put them into place!

Luckily they weren't too heavy! 

The Woodworker and Art Craftsman

My wife's 30th birthday today so as a treat I took the day off and we went to the other side of the county to look at books in Hay-On-Wye.

We both love books so this is a perfect day out for us, topped off with a pub lunch and cakes by the river in the sunshine.

I did manage to buy a few nice books, two carpentry and joinery books that were from the old city and guilds carpentry course (I know this as the man I did my apprenticeship with lent them to me many years ago). As well as this a rather nice "The Woodworker" annual from 1915 for £6.

Lots of interesting projects and write ups to read. In fact its just interesting see the kind of projects they were doing then and the techniques they were using - A lot less screws and nails and a lot more joints.

A selection of projects include:

• A Handsome Window Jardiniere
• Garden Seats Of Roman Design
• Smoker's Cabinet
• Parlour Cabinet Bookcase
• A Household Cycle Stand

And many more gems. Also some good how-to articles on woodcarving.

I'll enjoy reading this!

Carved Box Top

Looking at blogs the other day I was inspired when I came across the carved top to an oil stone box on http://villagecarpenter.blogspot.com/.

Kari had made such a beautiful reproduction of the one she saw I decided that I would have my first attempt at carving by trying to make one to my own design (about time I used the 50 or so carving chisels I've collected over the years).

To start with I decided to relief carve a jack saw just to make sure it was within my abilities. This didn't come out too bad (maybe a little like a child had done it) so I decided to draw up a design that could be transferred to wood. I thought that if I used my name on the wood it would make it personal to me, I also chose four tools I use a lot - a mallet, jack saw, level & bevel (in case you couldn't tell!).

Using some spray adhesive I fixed it to the piece of beech I'd decided to use. I know beech isn't the ideal wood for carving (believe me I know now!) but it this has got to survive in the back of my van so needs to be hardwaring and pretty tough.

Happy with the layout I set about chopping round the design then removing the background. It's pretty difficult to get the background smooth (I'd imagine it would be easier with lime or a softer wood) and I got to a stage where I was going to do more harm than good if I carried on.

I then tried to make the tools look 3d and give them detail before giving it a coat of linseed oil.

I'm now going to buy a piece of walnut to make a box for a new(ish) oil stone I brought at a car boot and mount this in the top so it should contrast nicely.

It's never going to win any awards, with so many imperfections everywhere I look, but I'm quite pleased that I managed to have the patience to carve it (and I really enjoyed doing it)