turning and carving

[Dave Pugh]

I make a lot of goblets, but have never done any carving work. A friend of mine is interested in taking some of my goblets and doing some carving work or inlay work on the bowls of the goblets, mostly Celtic or Viking knotwork. The bowls of my goblets are typically too thin to do anything like that with. How thick should I leave the walls so that he can do some shallow carving?

[Bruce Pratt]

The expected maximum depth of the relief carving + your usual wall thickness + 1/16" - 1/8" for variations in carving depth.... Suggest you thin out the rims to your normal thickness if the goblets are intended for drinking.

[Ryan Mooney]

The flower petals I did on this goblet: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?212188-Some-goblets-and-a-teapot-stand&highlight= left the wall thickness at around 1/8" total in the thinner bits and had about 1/8" of depth. I hand thinned the rims down on the inside of the outer petals after carving.

For knotwork I'd probably go a smidge thicker since its nice to have a bit of undercut where the knots crossover which I find helps "pop" it off of the surface some so once you do an over and an under on the line plus some thickness in the wall of the vessel left it takes a bit of material.

On a side note if I'm carving turned pieces I usually do them while the piece is still on the lathe. For goblets I'll mostly do the bowl before taking the stem down otherwise it kind of tough (possible sure) to support them well enough for the carving.