How do you carve this leaf in the round?

[Tom Jones III]

I have been working through Chris Pye's lessons on his website (http://www.woodcarvingworkshops.tv/home) and they are great! One of his more recent lessons is an apple in the round as an easy introduction to carving in the round. I completed an apple and was trying a new one to get some more practice. I would like to make one with a leaf like in this picture but I'm not sure how to go about carving the leaf.
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My plan is to carve the apple and drill a hole for the stem. Then I plan to carve the stem and leaf as a separate piece and insert it into the hole in the top of the apple. My problem is how to I carve something so small? The apple is about 2.5" in diameter so the leaf is about 1" long and the stem will be whittled down to 1/8" diameter.

The only thing I know how to do is cut out the leaf/stem profile and glue it to a backer board. When the front of the leaf is carved then pop it off the backer board. However, this leaves the back looking terrible and I won't have any way to hold such a small leaf to clean it up.

So how would you go about carving this small leaf in the round?

[Mike Pounders]

What about holding it in your hand? With a kevlar glove of course! If using hand tools, I would hold it in my hand and carve it with a knife. If I really wanted something thin and more realistic, I would use various sanding drums and cones in a micromotor or flexshaft tool. You can sand pieces down to quite thin and delicate edges. Flower carvers use similar techniques and I use it on caricatures, to thin down hat brims. I'm not sure Grinling Gibbons used sanding drums!

[Karl Andersson]

I've done small irregularly-shaped work like that by first gluing it down to newspaper glued to a backer board (as you mentioned) and doing as much as possible in that configuration, then clean up the back in a "holding board" I use for relief work - just a rectangular 1x14x24" board with two pieces of 1x2 scrap attached along the left side and top edge to form a 90 degree stop in the upper left corner (left-handers would put it on the right side). Hold the piece face-down in the corner, with the grain pointing at the corrner, using hard modeling clay (oil-free type). The clay forms a goods surface friction with the holding board and the piece, so as long as you're doing light cuts with a sharp blade, it stays put.

[Tom Jones III]

I just saw this method last night on a BBC documentary about Gringling Gibbons. I'm not sure it is going to work too well in this instance since this piece is so small but I think I will give it a try along with Mike's suggestion of hand-holding it and possibly just using a knife. ... I'm not sure that I want to be quite as barbaric as to descend to a power tool!


I've done small irregularly-shaped work like that by first gluing it down to newspaper glued to a backer board (as you mentioned) and doing as much as possible in that configuration, then clean up the back in a "holding board" I use for relief work - just a rectangular 1x14x24" board with two pieces of 1x2 scrap attached along the left side and top edge to form a 90 degree stop in the upper left corner (left-handers would put it on the right side). Hold the piece face-down in the corner, with the grain pointing at the corrner, using hard modeling clay (oil-free type). The clay forms a goods surface friction with the holding board and the piece, so as long as you're doing light cuts with a sharp blade, it stays put.

[randall rosenthal]

i've carved thousands of small leaves... if i have to do one that is free standing what i usually do is cut out the leaf but don't detach it from the larger piece of stock. i leave the stem as just a drawing on the original block. after the leaf is 90% done i cut out the stem leaving generous stock and carve that. i can immobilize the block while carving the leaf by putting it in a vise or screwing it to the work bench. OR....you could try and carve the whole piece from one block of wood. sometimes its easier.

[roger seckler]

I would use a small ruby tool ,pare shape in a foredom,thining the middle to the out side edge,front to back and do the same on the back side,to the thiness you want,go slow.