Thinking of Hand Carving as a new hobby. [Archive] - Sawmill Creek Woodworking Community

John K Jordan

05-24-2018, 7:23 PM

Have you considered chip carving? All you need is one knife (or two, if you go crazy), a way to sharpen it correctly, and some basswood. Chip carving can be done almost anywhere, in the shop, under a shade tree, in an easy chair in the living room. The only mess is tiny chips, easy to clean up.

I took up chip carving a few years ago so I could chip carve on wood turnings. I practiced for about a month and discovered it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. There are plenty of resources on the web, lots of book, plenty of patterns if you need them. I'd be glad to discuss it until you got tired of listening to me!

Here are some of my original practice boards:

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If you like woodturning, chip carving on pieces can be challenging and rewarding. This is my first chip carving on a woodturned piece, a layer of basswood sandwiched between thin pieces of walnut and larger chunks of cherry:

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I did some ornaments, then some carved lettering:

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Some people build jewelry boxes or somesuch then chip carve decorations in the top or sides. BTW, I ordered slabs of basswood from Wisconsin and the price, even the shipping, was reasonable. I got 2", 3" and 4" thick boards. Rather than buy thin boards for practice or carving, I just resaw thicker stock - it's cheaper that way. The most expensive way to buy carving-sized basswood is from a carving shop. Some carve buckeye and other soft woods.

The chip-carving process: lay out a grid, draw a pattern, cut one chip at a time. Once you learn how to make one clean chip much of chip carving is just design.

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There is a lot you can do with just a whittling knife too like Christmas trees from a cedar stick. You can also carve chess pieces, figures and faces, and toys for kids as you mentioned. For many carvings, however, a few small hand gouges can help a lot in addition to the knife. Also, a bandsaw, scroll saw, or coping saw can save a lot of time by cutting away a lot of waste.

Sometimes when I carve I use some power tools depending on the wood. A wood harder than basswood (such as cocobolo, ebony, oak, cherry, etc) can be a LOT easier with a reciprocal and/or rotary carving tool. I made this from bradford pear, turned then carved.

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If you want to stick to just hand tools, another enjoyable pastime is spoon carving. I generally use a few power tools for some parts of spoons but they can easily be done entirely by hand. The types of wood you can use are almost unlimited. Once in Athens, Greece I found a shop full of woodworking and carving and every single piece was olive wood! It was incredible (I brought back some spoons)

I have a lot of misc photos but not really a lot of experience. There are some real carving experts/artists who post here - maybe they will chime in.

JKJ

Over a number of years I've made quite a few hobbyist woodworking projects as gifts for family & friends. Recently, I've discovered that I'm having difficulty imagining new projects, so I'm considering alternative hobbies.

One that comes to mind is hand wood carving that would be pleasing to look at and be nice as gifts. However, I have absolutely no experience at this and would like some suggestions on how to get started. I'm thinking of a how-to starter guide, some carving knives, wood, etc(?). I'm also wondering about face carvings, trinkets, toys, flutes(?), or whatever else would be fun to work on.

As an older person I can see this as an enjoyable pass-time during winter months, so I'd appreciate any suggestions on how best to get started, tools, techniques, types of wood that would best lend itself to this, and projects that you have found interesting and challenging.

Thanks for your comments.

Al Launier

05-24-2018, 9:20 PM

John you have landed on what I think would interest me, despite not having a lathe, so i would have to consider flat work. I wasn't at all familiar with chip carving, let alone knew it existed, until you just mentioned it. I really have to look into this.
Back at you with a question(s):
What would you recommend for a starter knife, a starter tutorial, and a beginners project(s)?
I just know I'll be asking for more guidance from you. Hope you can tolerate my questions & i seriously doubt I'd get tired of listening to you. Your work is what i would aspire to.

John K Jordan

05-24-2018, 10:20 PM

When I started I bought all the chip carving books I could find from Amazon. I read every word.

Beginner's projects: practice boards! Practice, practice before you try a project. The most important thing to learn right off the bat is how to hold the knife properly so you can make an absolutely consistent cut, actually three cuts, and remove a perfectly clean chip. Without this, you might always struggle to make something that looks good. Once you know how, it's easy!

The MyChipCarving web site has some videos, probably on YouTube too. I think they sell more intensive instruction and teach courses too. Some people start with a course at the beginning. Bill Johnson, Carolina Mountain Reefs (http://www.carolinamountainreefs.com/) teaches classes and private lessons. He's in western North Carolina but does travel around the country to teach classes. I was ready to take a class from him but after a few weeks of practice I figured out how to make consistently clean chips and everything was suddenly easy (Bill told me then I didn't need the class.) There are probably others closer to you who teach or at least someone who would be willing to show you the basics. You're a long way from TN but if you happened to be coming through this area at some point maybe you could stop for a visit.

I filled a couple of boards with practice chips, trying variations and such, then tried some rosettes. Once I knew how to make a good chip EVERYTHING else was simple. I was making projects after about a month of casual practice. BTW, the upper left of my first practice board has the very first chips I ever made. At the lower right I was trying some harder things - you might be able to see the little arrows where I pointed out all my mistakes!

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Knife: That's an interesting question. I bought my first knife from Woodcraft, a top-of-the-line Wayne Barton knife, a recognized expert in the field. It was worthless and I couldn't make the first clean chip. It made me give up chip carving. It wasn't until maybe 10 years later I found out the knife was fine but it just didn't come properly sharpened and it came with no instructions about how to sharpen it correctly. I ran into an expert chip carver who showed me his knife and the light went off in my head. He said he tried to bet Barton to properly sharpen his knives before he sold them but got no where. We agreed that this has probably caused many people to get interested in chip carving then immediately give up.

Some knives come in far better starting condition but still need a lot of refinement. The Hock knife, for example, is probably the closest to being useful out of the package. My Chip Carving sells a good knife and another slightly different one they call the "modified" knife which is a bit better for curves, such as with letters. The My Chip Carving guy also sells a wonderful sharpening kit that will put a stropped-straight-razor edge on your knife. He has good instructions, too.

If you get a knife write back and I'll tell you more than you want to hear about preparing it properly. (at least, "properly" as I define it!) Get the knife first so you can see how it is prepared and we can figure out if it needs to be changed.

Barton's knife is a direct copy of the traditional Scandinavian chip carving knife. Others sell the same type of knife. The important thing is the angle of the blade to the handle. A chip carving knife without this angle is useless (in my opinion). (The Scandinavian's apparently chip carved everything, decorating common household things they made such as ladle handles, butter churns, chairs, picture frames, etc.)

There is also another knife often recommended - a stab knife. This is a kind of blunt knife that isn't sharp enough to remove a chip but to deform the wood by pressing the knife straight into the wood. I use it rarely. I did use it on the "random" rosette in the picture below - it made the four narrow triangular depressions in each of the three otherwise blank areas.

A few other things you might find useful: good light and comfortable chair, graph paper, fine mechanical pencil, small metric ruler, xacto knife (I like fine #11 scalpels), small plastic triangle, white "Magic Rub" eraser, compass, graphite paper (not carbon paper), fine sand paper, clear wood finish. And stones, hones, and strop to keep the knife sharp. None of this is any fun with a knife that isn't like a razor!

One thing about chip carving designs. I found out that most people are happy with buying, downloading, or copying a pattern out of a book. This didn't appeal to me one bit. I did look at hundreds of patterns and got ideas but I'd rather come up with my own designs. I did practice by copying some designs to practice the techniques but I'd rather come up with something not even close to anything I've seen! To me that is a lot of the fun.

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So far, my designs on wood turnings are mostly simple with very basic chips, but I like them that way. I think too much ornate carving can detract from the elegance of the overall piece.

I sometimes carve freehand, especially letters and curves. Relaxing, fun, and occasionally I get something that looks good! Once at the beach grandson Alex wanted me to carve our names on a board so this is what I came up with:

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PS: and consider getting a small lathe. Your creativity might just explode!

JKJ

John you have landed on what I think would interest me, despite not having a lathe, so i would have to consider flat work. I wasn't at all familiar with chip carving, let alone knew it existed, until you just mentioned it. I really have to look into this.
Back at you with a question(s):
What would you recommend for a starter knife, a starter tutorial, and a beginners project(s)?
I just know I'll be asking for more guidance from you. Hope you can tolerate my questions & i seriously doubt I'd get tired of listening to you. Your work is what i would aspire to.

Richard Yates

05-25-2018, 7:38 AM

Hi Al & John

First, John your work is absolutely beautiful! I love the carved letters that your grandson ask you to do. Those are special moments you don’t forget.

Hi Al, I have to say those are some great quotes you have on the bottom of your posts. I screenshot those.

On the carving or whittling with a knife topic.
If you look for wood that is already close to the size of the object you would like carve. It will save you the effort of removing a lot of material with some other type of tools.

Like what John said with Chip carving your virtually straight into creating something from the start. Below is a Snowman I did for my wife Karen about 8 years ago and it was from a 3’’ x 3’’ Board so it was already sized to what I wanted.
Same thing with the owl, he is carved from a 1’’ x 8’’ Board so it was already close to where I wanted to be. So by this way of starting any whittling project it would help to keep the need for other tools then a knife to a minimum. It’s just a way to make it a little quicker with just the basic tools.

I do have to say i really lucked out on my pics below not going sideways and wonky on me! Technology and me don’t usually get along.

regards Richard

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Al Launier

05-25-2018, 9:29 AM

John, your work is really something to behold - exquisite indeed!
Thank you for your suggestions, your list of recommended tools is a big help. I now have a better feel for how to get this potentially new hobby off to a good start. In particular, where I enjoy hobbyist woodworking, and am reasonably good at it, this chip carving craft will now allow me to carve "whatever" on new & previous boxes and that would make them not only "complete", but also much more personal.
Since I would prefer to start off with low-moderately priced tools to test the waters, I'm wondering what you would think of this as a possibility, and what do you think of Beavercraft knives in general to just start of with? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Wood-Carving-Tools-Set-of-3-Whittling-Chip-Carving-Knives-BeaverCraft-Knife/323184562370?hash=item4b3f4d10c2:g:88IAAOSwC-Jar9QM
Also, would knives of this types be useful? https://cart.payments.ebay.com/sc/view.
My concern about knives is not only their shape (wanting to get what you recommend), but also the blade material & hardness. Having been a Tool & Die maker very early on I was taught heat treating (wish I remembered more of it these days) and think i would want something that is 62-63 on the Rockwell C scale. What do you think? It's practically impossible to determine the actual quality of the steel in lower priced knives, yet I could always heat treat the blade myself with a torch.
If it's a case of "buy cheap buy many" versus "buy quality buy once" then that could be persuasive.

Al Launier

05-25-2018, 9:33 AM

Thanks Richard, I kinda like them too. The first two are original & i use the first one on my wife when she gets carried away on something. :rolleyes::D
Good suggestions on wood selection, I'll be sure to keep them in mind. Cutting down the time (pun intended) is sure to enhance the enjoyment.
You really did a nice job, especially on the owl - very realistic & impressive indeed!

John K Jordan

05-25-2018, 11:22 AM

...Below is a Snowman I did for my wife Karen about 8 years ago and it was from a 3’’ x 3’’ Board so it was already sized to what I wanted.

Richard, I really like the look of the snowman. If it's not a trade secret, how did you do the holes for the "fluffy" rim and top of the hat? It looks great, I'd like to try that. I've used a Dremel with a sharp, tapered point do make holes straight in but they were more for a pattern than a texture. Another texturing effect I use a lot is stippling with a tiny egg-shaped carbide burr in the Dremel, for this effect:

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JKJ

John K Jordan

05-25-2018, 12:32 PM

It would be difficult to evaluate the cheap knife without getting one, reshaping the blade and sharpening properly, and using it for a while (and comparing it to a known "good" knife). It's impossible to know what the steel is like and whether it could be hardened and annealed if not done properly. (And to do it right you have to know exactly the type of steel they used.) Plus, you'd have to take the knife apart to heat treat then reassemble it. You might be able to harden just the edge with a torch without burning up the handle but how would you anneal it? (For example, O1 steel, I think, needs an hour or so at 400 degrees in an oven.) Seems like a lot of trouble to save a few bucks.

I compared the shape of that knife with one of my favorite chip-carving knives. I personally don't care for the handle on that one. I have one non-chip-carving knife with a similar handle and it doesn't fit well in my hand. Unlike some other types of carving, holding the knife is CRITICAL to making clean and repeatable chips so the handle may be important. The angle of the blade looks like it might be similar but with the handle shaped that way I couldn't tell without holding both. The red line on the second photo is the exact angle of the back of the second handle. With a handle continuous curve on the back of the first one, how that translates into the actual blade angle when cutting a chip would be a guess for me. (If the blade angle is too shallow, you might either have trouble with the cuts or your hand would start to hurt a lot from having to hold it in a stressed position for long periods.)

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It seems like the equipment expenditure for this hobby is extremely low compared to almost any other hobby I can think of. To me it would make sense to get a high quality knife to start with. Considering that the other two knives in ebay set are not useful for chip carving, I'd probably go with a known good knife especially since the price is about the same, for example here: https://mychipcarving.com/product/ruby-chip-carving-knives/

Don't forget that any knife you choose will still need to be reshaped and sharpened. The Hock knife probably comes the closest to being useful out of the box with the least amount of work. And it's not expensive. https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/hock-chip-carving-knife.aspx I like it as well or better than the Modified Knife from MyChipCarving for curves.

JKJ

John, your work is really something to behold - exquisite indeed!
Thank you for your suggestions, your list of recommended tools is a big help. I now have a better feel for how to get this potentially new hobby off to a good start. In particular, where I enjoy hobbyist woodworking, and am reasonably good at it, this chip carving craft will now allow me to carve "whatever" on new & previous boxes and that would make them not only "complete", but also much more personal.
Since I would prefer to start off with low-moderately priced tools to test the waters, I'm wondering what you would think of this as a possibility, and what do you think of Beavercraft knives in general to just start of with? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Wood-Carving-Tools-Set-of-3-Whittling-Chip-Carving-Knives-BeaverCraft-Knife/323184562370?hash=item4b3f4d10c2:g:88IAAOSwC-Jar9QM
Also, would knives of this types be useful? https://cart.payments.ebay.com/sc/view.
My concern about knives is not only their shape (wanting to get what you recommend), but also the blade material & hardness. Having been a Tool & Die maker very early on I was taught heat treating (wish I remembered more of it these days) and think i would want something that is 62-63 on the Rockwell C scale. What do you think? It's practically impossible to determine the actual quality of the steel in lower priced knives, yet I could always heat treat the blade myself with a torch.
If it's a case of "buy cheap buy many" versus "buy quality buy once" then that could be persuasive.

Warren West

05-25-2018, 4:46 PM

I would buy good tools to begin with. You don't need many, but cheap tools generally suck and make the new hobby that much more frustrating. Also if you don't like it you can sell good tools, cheap tools - not so much.

If this may be a hobby you do for a good while, invest some time and money in the beginning to give yourself a real shot at it.

Dave Keele

05-26-2018, 8:57 AM

Some very good advice here. +1 on getting good tools vs. getting cheaper-to-try-it tools. Warren makes a very good point on re-selling if needed.

I teach a beginners class and I share with them something I've observed over the years.... I believe beginners give up carving for one (or all) of 3 reasons, all involving tools:
> They are using the wrong tools..... low quality tools typically don't come sharp and won't stay sharp.
> They don't know how to use the tools.... how to make safe cuts
> They don't know how to sharpen their tools.... a dull tool is dangerous tool

I once had a guy tell me that he tried carving for one day and cut himself twice, so he quit. One or all of these things, I'm sure, played a part in his accidents.

Find a local woodcarving club and visit them. They can answer many of the questions you have now and will have as you learn.... what wood, where to buy wood and tools, kind of tools, and how to sharpen them.

I guest carve at Silver Dollar City and talk to a lot of carvers and non-carvers about all aspects of carving. I tell them all (whether chip carving, relief carving, or in-the-round) quality, sharp tools is the "carvers secret". Buy the best you can afford and learn to sharpen them. Do that, and you will be way ahead of the learning curve.

Al Launier

05-26-2018, 10:13 AM

John you have convinced me to go forward with a quality knife. Frankly I don't want to start a new hobby only to abandon it from the use of inferior tools.

I looked at the Hock knife https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/hock-chip-carving-knife.aspx, but didn’t like the looks of it, particularly the blade, plus at the lower price it didn’t seem to fit into the quality category.

So, I am currently looking at the WB Premier knife http://www.carolinamountainreefs.com/store/p8/Wayne_Barton_Premier_Cutting_Knife.html and the Ruby Knife https://mychipcarving.com/product/ruby-chip-carving-knives/.

Both appear to have very similar handles, cost the same, yet the blade angle of the Ruby appears to be slightly greater and I’m guessing that might make the cutting forces more directly into my thumb for better support when cutting. Based on your comments above & your recommendation for the Ruby I would select that one.

I like that it is made from HSS which I am familiar with, having made many tool bits in the past for metal lathe work.
Plus it's hardened to Rc63 which tells me it would hold an edge well, though it might have a more brittle tip.
Of the two Rubys shown, I'm inclined to select the one with the broader blade as that one appears to be stronger with more reshapes/regrinds/resharpenings available, although at this time I don't know what the reshaping is all about. I presume it means regrinding the angle of the cutting edge to suit oneself after learning what best fits me based on my future cutting experience.
This wider blade appears to have more material in the tip compared to the narrower blade, so that should help, although I don't know how that might affect cutting in sharp corners.
Also, it states that it has a "thumb notch", although it is barely perceptible in the magnified view. I presume this provides better control of the knife and is more comfortable to use over time.
I have both medium & hard India bench stones that should work well to sharpen this blade.
Is a glove helpful, even necessary?

So, I’m going to pick up some reference material at the local library & book store to get better informed about chip carving and should this reading convince me I’ll move forward with this new hobby.

I also have to find a local source for bass wood and/or balsa wood, although I'd prefer to engrave boxes made from poplar, maple, walnut, mahogany, etc.

I have much to learn, but having you & others provide your knowledge and advice is extremely helpful and is well appreciated. John, you may have opened Pandora’s box when stating I'd be glad to discuss it until you got tired of listening to me!” ;):)

John K Jordan

05-26-2018, 12:04 PM

...John, you may have opened Pandora’s box when stating I'd be glad to discuss it until you got tired of listening to me!” ;):)
I might be able to out "talk" you. It's in my nature and my typing speed is high from decades of software development.

The hardness of the blade should not be a problem. In chip carving you should never twist, bend, or pry chips out of the wood with the blade - simply position the knife, push down to cleanly cut one side, then repeat. If done right the chip will fall out of the wood. Curves are more complicated since there is a gliding motion as well but the knife tip should not be stressed there either.

More material at the tip will make no difference in the corners. When you cut a basic chip you imagine the ending shape in 3D of one triangle of the chip, hold the knife at the proper position tilted to match the wall of the chip, then plunge the tip in while pulling the knife back to cut the leading angle and stop when the very point is exactly at the visualized center of the chip (the lowest point), and make sure the edge of the blade makes a cut exactly along the trailing corner. This is a lot easier to demonstrate than describe. I would recommend cutting some practice chips at a variety of sizes and depths by hook or by crook (multiple cuts to clean up if necessary), then once the chip is removed practice holding the knife at the right angles and making motions to duplicate the shape, then move to the side and try to duplicate that one cut in a new spot. It helps to draw out the triangle of each chip in pencil before cutting. I like to make a little dot in the center of each chip to help me visualize where the point needs to end up on each cut. It would help to have x-ray vision!

The wider blade is stronger. The narrower blade is better for tight curves. But consider that you never use more than the first little bit of the tip, perhaps 1/8 to 1/4" depending on the size of the chip. Only the angle between the cutting edge and the back spine of the blade affect the ease of cutting the curve. I do like the modified knife and the Hock knives for curves, but many people use only the standard knife.

The "thumb notch" is only there to help you get your hand in the same position each time. Consistency of grip, hand position, and how your knuckles rest against the wood are everything (in my amateur opinion!)

I think a glove would not be useful and might even get in the way. I want to feel the knife and the wood.

You will soon find out if the stones you have are useful. You need hard stones for the finest edge but you need coarse stones to shape the new knife to make it useful (unless by some miracle they are preparing the new knives better than a few years ago.) I spent hours reshaping then sharpening each knife. I used several methods including some coarse diamond stones and even some work with the flat side of the Tormek wheel.

After shaping, to make and keep the blade sharp I can highly recommend the sharpening system that MyChipCarving offers as well as his sharpening method. It uses adhesive-backed strips of incredibly good quality very fine abrasive strips mounted on a convenient board. I end the sharpening and touch up between sharpenings by stropping on leather with some polishing compound too, although at least one well-known chip carver claims this is counter productive. What does he know.

BTW, when I bought my knives they had a simple bevel ground on the edge. The bevel is WAY too short, the included angle much to big, and the not polished. All three of these need fixing or the tip will not glide through the wood effortlessly. This is approximately what my knives looked like in profile when I was done, except the sides are more curved than my sketch and they are polished far more than show up in the photo due to way the light reflects on scratches almost invisible otherwise (I can actually see the my eye in the side like a mirror.)

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Note on the MCC modified knife in the center how much more "pointed" the tip is to allow it to glide more easily around curves. If I had just two knives, I get two similar to the top two, or get two of the upper one and grind the back. (No need to get a second knife until you decide you want to stick with this.) Remember that only the first little bit of the tip and edge make any difference, although shaping the entire length of both sides of the blade make sharpening easier to get right.

You just need one piece of basswood to start with, maybe 8-12" long and a couple or three inches wide, at least 1/4" thick. I think WoodCraft sells basswood, at least occasionally. There are many on-line sources. A local carving shop carries a huge variety and sizes. The cheapest way, if you decide to pursue this is to buy in bulk. I bought 8-12" wide and 2-4" thick planks of basswood from Heinecke Wood Products (http://www.heineckewood.com/) and had it delivered by UPS in just a few days. The price was good (a lot cheaper than buying by the piece), the quality was outstanding, and the people were good to deal with.

You can certainly use harder woods, the Scandinavians did it. Another way is to make a box or something with a softer inlay and carve it that. That's more or less what I did for some of my woodturnings by using a basswood layer.

As for reference material:

My library of just woodworking, woodturning, metalworking, wood/trees/plants, animal health, and electronics is beginning to outgrow the office I built in my shop. I learn almost everything from books rather than videos - they have SO much more information. When I decided to learn chip carving I did watch some YouTube videos but I got more out of the books. I never get just one book on any subject - I like to compare the perspectives and tips from different authors, try them all, and then decide for myself. (I probably have 150 books related to woodturning alone.) These are some of the chip carving books and DVDs I bought, those I could check quickly from the list on Amazon without walking down to the shop, roughly listed in order by my memory of what I found more useful. (It has been a couple of years)

Chip Carving Essentials, Marty Leenhouts (the MyChipCarving guy)
The Complete Guide to Chip Carving, Wayne Barton
Chip Carving: Techniques & Patterns, Wayne Barton
Chip Carver's Workbook: Teach Yourself with 7 Easy & Decorative Projects, Dennis Moor
Chip Carving (Best of WCI): Expert Techniques and 50 All-Time Favorite Projects, Editors of Woodcarving Illustrated
Chip Carving Workshop: More Than 200 Ready-to-Use Designs, Lora Irish

I bought one DVD and could have done fine without it. Everything on it was covered better in the books.
Chip Carving: with Wayne Barton, DVD

JKJ

Al Launier

05-26-2018, 2:48 PM

Good info John! Looks like I have an online mentor. Now how good is that!

I just have to advise you that I'm a one-handed, two-finger typist/keyboarder, so it does take time for me to post my comments.

Well, the Ruby Modified Knife is ordered & I expect it to arrive in 8-10 days. I was surprised the shipping cost was $10, but it is what it is.

Prior to your last post I ordered the following books:
The complete guide to chip carving (http://findit.gmilcs.org/polaris/view.aspx?cn=524322)
by Barton, Wayne.
Chip carving patterns (http://findit.gmilcs.org/polaris/view.aspx?cn=194752)
by Barton, Wayne.
The art of chip carving : award-winning designs (http://findit.gmilcs.org/polaris/view.aspx?cn=233297)
by Barton, Wayne

Now I have to see if there are local sources for basswood and/or balsa wood. I like to see/touch the wood I buy, but I'll get over that & the source will probably be an online source like that which you recommended.

I also need to get some patterns & practice when the knife arrives. I do want to engrave the woods I use to make boxes, etc.

Richard Yates

05-26-2018, 6:29 PM

Hi Al & John. Hey thanks for that. John thats a great texture effect on your work. Especially love the claw like handles on that bowl too. Beautifully done.
On the Snow man hat texture I used one of the small 1- 2 mm round ball diamond or ruby dust carvers 1/8’’ shaft that you get in those cheap assortment sets from China. They sure come in handy for a lot of things.

Regards Richard

John K Jordan

05-26-2018, 7:18 PM

...Especially love the claw like handles on that bowl too. Beautifully done.

Wow, a compliment from the world-renown carving expert is like a knighting by the queen.

That bowl was fun to make but time consuming. That was my first try at one with handles and feet after watching a demo by turner John Lucas. My first idea was to carve eagle's claw feet and wings but then Sir Lucas said he was thinking about doing one with claw feet so that was out! So I decided to make something else a bit organic.

This is the turning before I started carving on it and the end result. This is bradford pear.

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I have some ideas for the next one - as soon as I get the time. Maybe after I retire. No, wait, I've been retired for 12 years...

JKJ

Al Launier

05-31-2018, 8:55 AM

My Ruby Chip Carving knife is due to arrive some time today. I'm looking forward to this hobby & believe it's off to a good start with a really good quality knife. I really appreciate the recommendation from John, as well as all the other information he has given me.

So now I'm looking for alternative material sources. I've looked at (http://www.heineckewood.com/) as recommended by John, and they do offer quality materials, and I've also looked at https://mychipcarving.com/shop/ and https://blaiseba.dot5hosting.com/chipcarving.com/catalog/ for EZboard, basswood, butternut, and other supplies.

However, so far it appears that the cost of shipping can be significantly higher than the actual material I want to purchase, i.e. a $3 item costs $10 to ship which would force me to buy more material than I want to at this time. Frankly, I think the shipping cost is out of line, unless there is some kind of postal restriction/requirement for the shipment of knives & related materials.

I'm very well aware of the old axiom "If you want to play, you have to pay", but if I can find less expensive materials for practicing with the knife until I get reasonable competent with it I'd like to go that route.

Yesterday I was going to order an EZboard, but then realized I should probably try to see if there are alternative materials that I could use to practice with. Once I get reasonably competent with the knife I'll then start working on the basswood, butternut wood, walnut, etc.

I was looking at Lowes for high density urethane or similar, what they have is basically insulation material, and would assume HD has the same.

Can anyone suggest alternative sources for this or similar materials that would be decent for practicing chip carving.

Al Launier

05-31-2018, 9:07 AM

John K Jordan

05-31-2018, 9:23 AM

. . . it appears that the cost of shipping can be significantly higher than the actual material I want to purchase . . .

Did Heinecke give you a shipping quote that was high? I bought four 48" lengths of 8/4, 12/4, and 16/4 northern basswood 10 to 12" wide and they shipped by USP ground. I don't remember the cost of shipping but I remember thinking it was reasonable at the time. Maybe the shipping cost goes way down with quantities.

MyChipCarving web site indicates they ship most orders for less than $9. A basswood practice board 3/8x5x12 is $2.80 so $9 for a stack of those doesn't sound too bad. After practice you could use them to build something to carve on. (They did send me a free piece of EZ Board along with an order but I never tried it.)

Do you have a Woodcraft nearby? https://www.woodcraft.com/products/basswood-1-2-x-3-x-24

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=basswood

I see a lot of listings on ebay for basswood with free shipping.

Perhaps a local craft or hobby store would have inexpensive pieces of basswood good for practice. If you lived closer I'd say drop by and we'll cut some for you. Besides the planks I bought, a friend gave me some rough-cut basswood boards - I resawed some and ran it through the drum sander and it made great make practice boards.

I think it would be good to start with wood. The subtleties of cutting with and across the grain seem useful to learn from the start.

JKJ

Al Launier

05-31-2018, 1:08 PM

Thanks for your comments John.

My initial attempt at buying "supplies" was very limited as I'm still testing the water so to speak. The items in question were of low value with a $9.95 shipping cost & it just rubs me wrong to pay 2-3 times more for shipping than the item itself costs. I'm not ready to buy on a larger scale, plus my main interest in carving will be to carve/engrave person's name, etc. on hobbyist projects; jewelry boxes, cutting boards, etc. on other types of wood, i.e. walnut, maple, cherry, mahogany, poplar, etc. I've always felt that these gifts lacked a personal touch for the person. I burn stamp "Hand Crafted by Al Launier" at inconspicuous places, but that isn't what I'm looking for. Frankly I'll never reach the level you are at as I doubt if my patience would hold up, but if I can carve scroll lines, lettering, perhaps with some decorative chip work, I think that would satisfy me.

I just found out that the local lumber mill where I get my "box" wood sells butternut wood, although I haven't seen it yet. I'll be looking into that along with white pine & poplar to develop my skills. As you mentioned, I think it would be helpful to learn on these woods as that may give me an earlier start once I gain some competence on these woods. I'm going to have to learn how to not only cut with the grain, but also to cut in an orientation that best presents the figuring of the wood. So, at this time anyway I'm more interested in sheet wood rather than square/rectangular carving blocks.

Well, my Ruby Chip Carving knife just arrived. Time to fondle it & get it sharpened.

Warren West

05-31-2018, 6:57 PM

Al, woodcarving show season should be ramping up. Keep you eyes out for local shows or ones withing driving distance. Most have vendors selling all sorts of related items including wood. It's a way to hand pick your wood and not pay shipping.

For training and support, it's hard to beat Marty Leenhouts. I took a class from him and have purchased items over the years.

John K Jordan

05-31-2018, 9:00 PM

You can chip carve almost any wood. Basswood, butternut, eastern red cedar, buckeye, and some others are just easier, especially for starting. I've made chips in all those soft woods plus walnut, soft maple, bradford pear, and some others, just for fun. The soft woods like basswood is definitely easier. For harder woods, carving with a chisel might be good to enhance your projects. I like pushing a small v-gouge by hand even in quite hard wood for lettering and curves. I've carved several temporary grave markers this way to use until the stone marker was done. One was from hard maple which required putting mallet to chisel.

Poplar can actually be quite hard, depending on the tree. White pine is a good choice although pine and other conifers sometimes have hard and soft grain which can be challenging. Good basswood is more homogeneous and the grain is predictable. BTW, carve on side grain. Carving on end grain can be very challenging. When I turned things for chip carving I made the grain run parallel to the rotational axis of the turning if I had the right piece of wood. For pieces where I glued basswood in the middle of the Beads of Courage boxes, the grain orientation had to be sideways giving two quarters of side grain and two of end grain. I carefully designed the layout to minimize cutting in end grain.

Also, if the wood grain does not run parallel to the face of the board but at an angle (not sideways, but from the top to bottom face) it gets tricky too since it is easy to split along the grain instead of making a clean cut. (I discovered this when carving on turned globes of Christmas ornaments.)

You can cut carving blocks up into thin pieces and sand them smooth to make practice boards for chip carving. I did that after I ran out of space on my first practice board.

Thanks for your comments John.

My initial attempt at buying "supplies" was very limited as I'm still testing the water so to speak. The items in question were of low value with a $9.95 shipping cost & it just rubs me wrong to pay 2-3 times more for shipping than the item itself costs. I'm not ready to buy on a larger scale, plus my main interest in carving will be to carve/engrave person's name, etc. on hobbyist projects; jewelry boxes, cutting boards, etc. on other types of wood, i.e. walnut, maple, cherry, mahogany, poplar, etc. I've always felt that these gifts lacked a personal touch for the person. I burn stamp "Hand Crafted by Al Launier" at inconspicuous places, but that isn't what I'm looking for. Frankly I'll never reach the level you are at as I doubt if my patience would hold up, but if I can carve scroll lines, lettering, perhaps with some decorative chip work, I think that would satisfy me.

I just found out that the local lumber mill where I get my "box" wood sells butternut wood, although I haven't seen it yet. I'll be looking into that along with white pine & poplar to develop my skills. As you mentioned, I think it would be helpful to learn on these woods as that may give me an earlier start once I gain some competence on these woods. I'm going to have to learn how to not only cut with the grain, but also to cut in an orientation that best presents the figuring of the wood. So, at this time anyway I'm more interested in sheet wood rather than square/rectangular carving blocks.

Well, my Ruby Chip Carving knife just arrived. Time to fondle it & get it sharpened.

Al Launier

06-01-2018, 11:11 AM

Thanks for the heads up Warren. I'll be sure to keep an eye open. Hopefully NH will have them.

Al Launier

06-01-2018, 11:20 AM

Thanks John for your tips. I'm going to copy/paste them as a reference document.

As for making thin sheets out of thicker pieces i was planning of getting some 8/4 x 6 slabs, then jointing & planing them. I'm also thinking of adding to my knife collection & making the handles - seem like an easy thing to do.

By the way, is there a good way to transfer a printed images from an ink jet printer to wood? I've read/seen topics on doing this with an iron or heat gun, but I wasn't too impressed with the results.

John K Jordan

06-01-2018, 11:43 AM

By the way, is there a good way to transfer a printed images from an ink jet printer to wood? I've read/seen topics on doing this with an iron or heat gun, but I wasn't too impressed with the results.

Check with the chip carving books and web sites. I think it works with some printers to print (or photocopy) a pattern (in reverse if needed) and use a hot iron to transfer. I wouldn't try a heat gun. Some sell a small iron just for this that looks like a soldering iron but with a flat round contact. I have one but never tried it since I haven't used a pattern. It might depend on the printer itself. For example, laser jet printers and photo copiers used to use a fine powder pressed into the paper with a hot roller. This worked well with heat transfer since the heat remelted the particles and some stuck to the wood. I don't know if today's ink jet printer ink will work the same way. I could try it sometime but I'm so far behind it would probable be a few weeks. Quicker to call MyChipCarving and ask Marty.

I use a different method when I make my own layouts for letters and such. I draw the letters and words out out paper to get the spacing and positions right. I tape the strips of paper to the wood with strips of graphite paper underneath then trace over the drawing lightly with a tracing tool. This tool is a delicate stylus with a tiny polished ball on the end that glides nicely over the paper (usually sold in sets with different size tips, cheap). Use graphite paper, not carbon paper since you can later erase graphite marks to clean up. (I apply a thin coat of sander sealer to the wood first to make cleanup easier later.)

JKJ

Matt Lau

06-01-2018, 6:27 PM

Hey Al,

I've been doing spoons and tool handles.
For a few months, I thought that a lathe was the only way to go...then I drilled a hole in mahogany and started carving at it.
The handle was ugly, but strangely comfy.

For spoons and general whittling, I recommend a good sloyd knife.
I like Del Stubb's one best, but a Mora laminated steel blade is excellent and cheap.

If you want the spoon bowls, you can use a gouge or a bent knife.

A good cheap way to start is to buy the blades, and add a handle.
There's Thompson's knife works, Ragnar's Forge, and Lee Valley.
You could easily get yourself a great knife for under $20

I'm looking at the Ragnar webpage, and see some Lauri PT blades for $13 that should work fine.

Al Launier

06-02-2018, 9:32 AM

Thanks Matt, appreciate your suggestions. I checked the sites & those are some interesting knives. At the present time I'm slightly overwhelmed with projects and I do want to find some time to develop some skills at chip carving and make handles for blades. I'm going to keep your recommended sites on file for future reference.

John, researching Google I found a short tutorial on transferring ink jet printed images to wood using freezer paper that has a film on one side that can printed on & the rubbed onto the wood. I'm going to give that a shot. Hope that works - will know today.

Also I determined that Word 2007 cannot mirror image text. Instead I have to copy the text to Paint, flip it, then copy that back to Word 2007. Cumbersome, but it works. Now I can work towards carving names onto my projects. Progress is slow, but steady.

John K Jordan

06-02-2018, 10:37 AM

Also I determined that Word 2007 cannot mirror image text. Instead I have to copy the text to Paint, flip it, then copy that back to Word 2007. Cumbersome, but it works. Now I can work towards carving names onto my projects.

One of Wayne Barton's books has a number of fonts in the back. The nice thing about these is they are designed/adapted and proven for chip carving. Some fonts you find elsewhere may be challenging to carve and even then may not look good. The fonts in the book have photos of how they look carved. I liked one in particular and used it several times, modifying some letters to suit me. For carving in hard wood with chisels and mallet I usually just made of my own font.

One advantage to the tracing method it needs no reversal.

Regardless, it might be helpful to fill a practice board or two with triangular chips before starting on letters!

JKJ

Al Launier

06-02-2018, 8:06 PM

Right on John. I jumped the wagon & went right to letters, in Cursive-Elegant yet - very script - very challenging too, but i wanted to see what I was up against. Just too impatient to get started. To top it off I tried the carving in poplar. Didn't you say poplar could be hard to carve. You are so right, and my knife easily passes the thumbnail/hair sharpness test too. I'm going to have to wait a while until I can go to the lumber yard to get some butternut, white pine & walnut wood. They don't have basswood. In the meantime I try practicing on the little 3" Sq. EZboard that came with the knife.

The mirror image transfer wasn't too bad. Not really good & sharp, but enough to easily guide the direction of the knife. I found it important to use the darkest black ink color on the fonts for both Word 2007 & Paint. I'll keep trying until my skills improve & I find it's not good enough, then will try graphite sheets. I'm not good at freehand penciling/painting so tracing might work out, but I'm not keen on doing a lot of erasing.

I've three of MB books due in so I'll check what he recommends for fonts.

Dave Keele

06-03-2018, 8:06 AM

Also I determined that Word 2007 cannot mirror image text. Instead I have to copy the text to Paint, flip it, then copy that back to Word 2007. Cumbersome, but it works. Now I can work towards carving names onto my projects. Progress is slow, but steady.
Al,

In Word 2007, insert text using "WordArt", set the text type and size. You can flip horizontally.

387046

If printing on a laser printer or copying machine, both using toner cartridges, you can use lacquer thinner (sparingly) to transfer a pattern. Place on smooth surface, pattern down, and rub LT through paper. LT will dissolve toner enough to transfer pattern. I use this method often. Practice on scrap pieces, as too much LT will cause toner to run.

Al Launier

06-03-2018, 10:46 AM

Thanks for the suggestion Dave. I tried using WordArt before, but was unsuccessful as the Rotate icon wouldn't light up for use. Now it works. Must have done something wrong. Much simpler now. Thanks again.

PS: How did you copy that image. I tried the copy/paste, but that didn't work. So, i had to save as a PDF file then attach it here.

John K Jordan

06-03-2018, 11:47 PM

PS: How did you copy that image. I tried the copy/paste, but that didn't work. So, i had to save as a PDF file then attach it here.

I can't answer for how Dave does it, but what I do is a screen capture (Alt-PrtScr), load the screen capture in to an image editor (I use Photoshop or Photoshop Elements), crop and size as needed, save as a JPG file, then insert the JPG into an SMC message with the Insert Image function.

JKJ

Dave Keele

06-04-2018, 9:23 AM

How did you copy that image.

I used MS "Snipping Tool". (Comes with Windows). Snip what's on screen. Save it as a .jpg and insert as image.

Al Launier

06-04-2018, 9:42 AM

I also use Alt Prnt Scrn, but I would drop onto Word & then copy/paste it. It's a good tool.

Yup, Snipping works. Didn't realize this tool existed. Another technique. Thank you, I saved .

Al Launier

06-05-2018, 8:11 PM

First practice session using the sample piece of EZboard that came with my Ruby cutting knife. The knife felt very awkward when holding it correctly. The first image is my first attempt as you can easily tell - not so good. My second attempt is not any better, but the knife did start to feel more comfortable. Tomorrow I'm going to try to get some basswood at a local lumber yard, or some butternut wood at another local lumber yard. I like the butternut wood better because of the grain which more closely resembles the projects I'll be making in the future, plus it'll allow some for practice on cross grain chipping.
Despite the awkward feel of the knife it actually was fun and slowly became more natural in hand. Much, much more practice is needed.

John K Jordan

06-05-2018, 9:37 PM

Excellent start! I found the knife position started to feel natural after a very short time, after which anything else feels awkward. It might help at first to have a large enough piece of wood to rest the hand at the same level as the surface being carved. I think I got a second piece of wood the same thickness and put in on the table next to my practice board.

My chips got noticeably better when I got better at visualizing exactly where the point of the knife was in the wood and learned to draw the point down and back at the right angle. When cutting wood with grain it's usually best to do one particular cut last. To learn the grain I made a bunch of practice chips at random rotations.

You're getting me interested in making chips again - I haven't done any of this since last summer. Perhaps I'll glue up some layers and turn another goblet or an ornament.

JKJ

First practice session using the sample piece of EZboard that came with my Ruby cutting knife. The knife felt very awkward when holding it correctly. The first image is my first attempt as you can easily tell - not so good. My second attempt is not any better, but the knife did start to feel more comfortable. Tomorrow I'm going to try to get some basswood at a local lumber yard, or some butternut wood at another local lumber yard. I like the butternut wood better because of the grain which more closely resembles the projects I'll be making in the future, plus it'll allow some for practice on cross grain chipping.
Despite the awkward feel of the knife it actually was fun and slowly became more natural in hand. Much, much more practice is needed.

Al Launier

06-06-2018, 5:20 PM

Excellent start! I found the knife position started to feel natural after a very short time, after which anything else feels awkward. It might help at first to have a large enough piece of wood to rest the hand at the same level as the surface being carved. I think I got a second piece of wood the same thickness and put in on the table next to my practice board.

My chips got noticeably better when I got better at visualizing exactly where the point of the knife was in the wood and learned to draw the point down and back at the right angle. When cutting wood with grain it's usually best to do one particular cut last. To learn the grain I made a bunch of practice chips at random rotations.

You're getting me interested in making chips again - I haven't done any of this since last summer. Perhaps I'll glue up some layers and turn another goblet or an ornament.

JKJ

Thanks, it was actually fun once I got going.

That's exactly what I did. I used a 6" square of MDF & cut a 2" square notch out of one side to place a corner of the EZboard in the "notch" just so I could rest my hand & to be able to find a comfortable way to position the EZboard. I didn't appreciate how many times one has to re-position the work piece.

Today I went to a not-so-local sawmill (got lost) to get some butternut wood so I could practice cutting against the grain. I was very disappointed with the few pieces they had after calling in advance & stating that I was looking for relatively clear pieces, i.e. few knots. Turned out to be full of knots & spilts - unusable. So I settled for Basswood (I think - guy not sure, but it was very light), Aspen, and some White Pine. I'll resaw the rough 4/4 boards into thinner boards, ~3/8", then joint & plane them.

I'll try that.

John, don't hold back. Your work is absolutely outstanding & great to look at.

Al Launier

06-10-2018, 8:45 PM

Practice session #2:
Went to the sawmill Saturday to get some Basswood & Butternut wood. Called ahead & reviewed with the guy what I was looking for & he confirmed he had what I wanted & would take care of me. Not so much.

The Basswood was split/cracked so badly - unusable.
The butternut wood was so knotty would be able to salvage a 1' board out of a 4' length & not worth the price.
Picked a couple of shorts 2'-3' long of clear Aspen.
Picked several boards 3'4' lg of White Pine.
.50 mile RT

Monday I picked up some graphite paper, a set of styluses of different tip sizes & a graphite eraser at Hobby Lobby. The small one produces a nice fine line.
Last night I photocopied a pattern set (attached), taped it to a piece of Aspen & traced it out. Works much better than other ways suggested online, like printing & then scraping image onto wood, printing then ironing, printing image on freezer paper & rubbing the image into the wood. Didn't have any luck with any of those methods. Graphite works best so far.
Today/tonight I tried carving the three patterns. As you can see I have a long way to go.

Lesson learned:

A sharp knife is a MUST!
I initially thought the knife was sharp after working it on 400/600/1000 grit paper followed by stropping with with a green honing compound (Formax No. 12668). After carving for a while & touching up the blade I decided it wasn't really sharp. Resharpened it again this time adding a 8000 wet stone to the process & then stropping it. It cut noticeably better.
A stiff bristle brush would be handy to clean out the chips.
Keep the blade sharp!
Look ahead of the blade when cutting.
Maintain the 65° cutting angle. Going more upright with a sharper angle makes cutting the the midpoint of feature deeper & more difficult to mate with opposite half of cut.
I have difficulty on tight turns, even when using just the tip.
Keep the blade sharp!
I'm having trouble adjusting the depth of cut as I begin & end a cut. So far I'm unable to make the cut in a single flowing pass.
I'm forced into making several passes to reach final depth.
One surprising problem I didn't expect was all the thumbnail impressions I'm making. Don't know if I'm holding the knife wrong (using the hold from mychipcarving.com & also from pictures in Wayne Barton's book (The Complete Guide To Chip Carving" - 2007) should adjust the knife holding position or just trim the thumbnail to the quick.
Keep the blade sharp! I had to sharpen the blade about every 5 minutes.
Using a desk mounted magnifying light is very helpful.
Having arthritis in one's fingers is not.
I also have trouble with chipping in tight areas, perhaps I'm not carving the details in the right sequence, like should I cut cross grain before long grain? Is there a general rule of which details should be priority over overs as to when to cut these?

I'd appreciate your critique of my attempts to carve the three patterns. I did the top one first, then the middle & finally the bottom one. I'm going to try this pattern set again hoping to do better & hoping you can offer some criticism. I went way off on the bottom one, failing to cut the fine outside line.

John K Jordan

06-11-2018, 8:31 PM

Those look pretty good to me. Just like woodturning, making two curved things the same is hard! A symmetrical pattern is the hardest, trying to get both halves the same. Letters are easier. :) The sort-of-horizontal leaf pieces on the bottom sure look good. The hard thing is making each chip come out clean without junk in the bottom of the "v" - I read that the goal is to always make each cut perfect in one pass and never have go back and make a second cut to clean up. In that respect it is better to cut a little too deep than not quite deep enough. I did come up with a secret technique to "heal" the bottoms of a chip or curve if I did cut too deep and left a noticeable cut line on the bottom. I might even share it if interested. :)

I think I cut cross grain first then long grain but I'd have to actually make some chips and try to pay attention. I think the ends of the crossgrain cuts serve as a stop for the long grain since it is easier to go too far. I always paid close attention to the grain to avoid slips and unintentionally following the grain, especially when one side of a triangular chip was close but not parallel with the grain. Almost impossible to avoid when making long curved chips as in your patterns but should still be controllable with a sharp knife. I've done most of my chip carving in very high quality basswood, though - maybe the wood you are using is more challenging.

Everyone has trouble with sharp turns. That is one advantage of the "modified" knife the the mychipcarving guy sells. The point is narrower from spine to edge allowing tighter curves without fighting the flat of the blade so much.

Did you grind the sides of your knife until they are almost one long bevel from edge to the top, very thin? If not, that might help with both normal chips and flowing curves. I posted this before but here it is again - a diagram that's pretty close to what the cross-section of my three knives look like at the equivalent places on the blades near the tip:
387583
(Please disregard what look like horrible scratches on the sides of the blades. The lighting makes them look bad but they are actually quite polished and the scratches are nearly microscopic.)

I never sharpened every few minutes but I did strop every few minutes on a piece of leather with some polishing/honing compound applied. My favorite strop is a thin piece of pig skin glued to a flat stick. I just rub some green polishing compound into the leather or better, the yellow compound sold for "sharpening" general carving chisels. The first piece I had came in a Flexcut sharpening kit but then I found it on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ZRZQIO

I should say that all of the basswood blocks, planks, and sample boards I've ever bought (and even the rough-sawn boards given to me) have been absolutely perfect. No splits, cracks, knots - nothing but clear, clean fine-grained wood. Another thing, on advice from a chip carver I keep the basswood in plastic bags to keep it from drying out too much. If too dry it is harder to carve and chips more easily. If you lived close I'd cut some practice pieces for you so you can see the difference!

Also, I can't ever remember making thumbnail depressions in the wood. I don't think my thumbnail gets anywhere near the wood surface. I'm not in the shop now so I can't grab a knife and try it to be sure, but I think just the skin of my fingers and hand touch the wood. I wish I had a photos of my hand positions (both normal and backhand/reversed, harder but a real time-saver on occasion) but all I can find is this one where I'm not carving on a flat surface:
387582

This week I'm way overloaded but maybe this weekend I can get out the knives, think about the grain, and take photos of hand positions. I'm sure my hands will be photogenic - I smashed one finger with a hammer and got abrasions and cuts on both thumbs working on the remodeling and got blood everywhere. (My little grandson observed recently that it is better to keep your blood inside your body. Hmmm...) I also stepped on nails twice so I'm limping - whine, whine, whine!

JKJ

Al Launier

06-11-2018, 10:39 PM

Those look pretty good to me. Thanks very encouraging coming from you. Just like woodturning, making two curved things the same is hard! I'm finding that out! A symmetrical pattern is the hardest, trying to get both halves the same. Letters are easier. :) Good news! Looking forward to letters especially. The sort-of-horizontal leaf pieces on the bottom sure look good. Thanks, but it wasn't in one cut. Opened it up after fouling up the first cut. The hard thing is making each chip come out clean without junk in the bottom of the "v" - I read that the goal is to always make each cut perfect in one pass and never have go back and make a second cut to clean up. I'd like to do that for sure! In that respect it is better to cut a little too deep than not quite deep enough. I did come up with a secret technique to "heal" the bottoms of a chip or curve if I did cut too deep and left a noticeable cut line on the bottom. I might even share it if interested. :) Consider me very interested!

I think I cut cross grain first then long grain but I'd have to actually make some chips and try to pay attention. I think the ends of the crossgrain cuts serve as a stop for the long grain since it is easier to go too far. I always paid close attention to the grain to avoid slips and unintentionally following the grain, especially when one side of a triangular chip was close but not parallel with the grain. Almost impossible to avoid when making long curved chips as in your patterns but should still be controllable with a sharp knife. I've done most of my chip carving in very high quality basswood, though - maybe the wood you are using is more challenging. Maybe? I usually cut cross grain first on my TS & BS saws & router ending with a long grain cut to clean out burrs. Sounds like this could apply to carving. On the pother hand I wonder if it would be a good idea to stop just short on the final long grain cut, then cut the final short distance in the opposite direction???

Everyone has trouble with sharp turns. That is one advantage of the "modified" knife the the mychipcarving guy sells. The point is narrower from spine to edge allowing tighter curves without fighting the flat of the blade so much.

Did you grind the sides of your knife until they are almost one long bevel from edge to the top, very thin? No I didn't. It came with a distinct, but shallow bevel. I've been sanding/stropping at at angle that is shallower than the original bevel as noticed by the sharpened surface creeping up the original bevel. I'll put it on my small belt sander tomorrow with a fine grit, then a 600 grit belt to finish grind to your sketch dipping frequently in water to keep the temper. I'll then sand on a flat surface with 600 grit followed by 1000 grit wet paper. To finish it off, hopefully to establish a repeatable base for the blade, I'll put it on an 8,000 then a 12,000 wet stone followed by stropping to polish it off. If that doesn't produce a very sharp knife I'll grab a beer & scratch my head a few times. If not, that might help with both normal chips and flowing curves. I posted this before but here it is again - a diagram that's pretty close to what the cross-section of my three knives look like at the equivalent places on the blades near the tip:
387583
(Please disregard what look like horrible scratches on the sides of the blades. The lighting makes them look bad but they are actually quite polished and the scratches are nearly microscopic.)

I never sharpened every few minutes but I did strop every few minutes on a piece of leather with some polishing/honing compound applied. My favorite strop is a thin piece of pig skin glued to a flat stick. I just rub some green polishing compound into the leather or better, the yellow compound sold for "sharpening" general carving chisels. The first piece I had came in a Flexcut sharpening kit but then I found it on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ZRZQIO

I should say that all of the basswood blocks, planks, and sample boards I've ever bought (and even the rough-sawn boards given to me) have been absolutely perfect. No splits, cracks, knots - nothing but clear, clean fine-grained wood. Another thing, on advice from a chip carver I keep the basswood in plastic bags to keep it from drying out too much. If too dry it is harder to carve and chips more easily. If you lived close I'd cut some practice pieces for you so you can see the difference! Thanks for the offer John, appreciate it. but I live in NH and will just keep looking to find a source, plus I need to develop my skills on wood that i would use in my projects.

Also, I can't ever remember making thumbnail depressions in the wood. I don't think my thumbnail gets anywhere near the wood surface. I have to be holding the knife wrong, too vertical - will work on that. I'm not in the shop now so I can't grab a knife and try it to be sure, but I think just the skin of my fingers and hand touch the wood. I wish I had a photos of my hand positions (both normal and backhand/reversed, harder but a real time-saver on occasion) but all I can find is this one where I'm not carving on a flat surface:
387582

This week I'm way overloaded but maybe this weekend I can get out the knives, think about the grain, and take photos of hand positions. I'm sure my hands will be photogenic - I smashed one finger with a hammer and got abrasions and cuts on both thumbs working on the remodeling and got blood everywhere. (My little grandson observed recently that it is better to keep your blood inside your body. Hmmm...) I also stepped on nails twice so I'm limping - whine, whine, whine! Going forward in any pursuit includes the pain and sacrifice of getting there to be successful. You obviously have paid the price judging from your work.
John, as usual you've given me some insightful advice that will help me advance my carving skills. I just transferred the same patterns onto another piece of Aspen. This time I sanded the wood with 220 grit paper & the graphite image came out bolder. I'm slowly getting there.

Do you use the second position that Wayne Barton describes, i.e. pushing down with the thumb on the blade? So far I seem to be more comfortable with the first position, same as you use.

JKJ

John, thank you for your help, I really appreciate the encouragement and your taking the time to do this.. I just know I'm going to succeed at this new hobby. It will give me more incentive to continue making the jewelry boxes, etc. with the carvings on it to make it more personal.

John K Jordan

06-12-2018, 5:45 AM

Did you grind the sides of your knife until they are almost one long bevel from edge to the top, very thin?
No I didn't. It came with a distinct, but shallow bevel. I've been sanding/stropping at at angle that is shallower than the original bevel as noticed by the sharpened surface creeping up the original bevel. I'll put it on my small belt sander tomorrow with a fine grit, then a 600 grit belt to finish grind to your sketch dipping frequently in water to keep the temper. I'll then sand on a flat surface with 600 grit followed by 1000 grit wet paper. To finish it off, hopefully to establish a repeatable base for the blade, I'll put it on an 8,000 then a 12,000 wet stone followed by stropping to polish it off. If that doesn't produce a very sharp knife I'll grab a beer & scratch my head a few times.

Your bevel shape now sounds like the one I started with and it was so frustrating that I put the knife in the drawer and decided this wasn't for me. It wasn't until years later I watched a pro chip carver/instructor work and looked at his knife. I went home and duplicated it the best I could, with a long, very slightly curved bevel sort of as shown in the sketch but not quite, probably more curved from edge to spine. I ground with the flat side of a Tormak water wheel then refined it with coarse to very fine natural and ceramic stones. Far, far, FAR better! I could finally make some chips. The thin blade looks fragile but that has not been a problem - there shouldn't be any sideways stress on the edge to bend it and the steel is both hard and tough. The thin blade goes effortlessly into the wood and the polished sides at the tip let it stab to the bottom of a triangular chip or glide down a curve.

The Hock knife came with the bevel the closest to useful out of the package which make it take the least amount of work to prepare. It's quicker to sharpen, too, probably because the blade is not as wide. From one book I read the wide blade with the curved spine appears to be the traditional Scandinavian design that Barton copied, but unlike general carving/whittling, for making shallow chips we never use anything but the first tiny bit of the edge and bevel of the tip! The rest is "wasted" except to support the blade while sharpening/honing.

I mentioned the sharpening kit that mychipcarving sells - four strips of increasingly fine abrasive paper mounted on a thin square surface, used with water. After trying this I threw away the stones! (Not literally, they were expensive :)) One thing is the fairly long strips along the four edges of the board allowed me to keep my hand position very consistent for each stroke. I also found the board easy to hold and quick to rotate to the next grit.

I need to develop my skills on wood that i would use in my projects.

I might disagree on this. It seems to me soft, perfect basswood/linden with it's very fine and uniform structure would let you develop the hand position and motions easier without fighting with the wood. Once you are very comfortable with that and making near-perfect chips and curves, I think transitioning to more challenging wood would be a lot easier. I found that so, anyway. I haven't made any projects with other species but I did experiment with several, including maple, pine, walnut, bradford pear, etc. Pear, for example, took much more force with the knife, not something I would want to learn with. There is a good reason that most chip carvers and even many general wood carvers use basswood when carving by hand, often switching to chisels and power tools for other woods.

I'm always glad to tell what I've learned but keep in mind that I'm an amateur at this. I haven't spent too many months at it although I did find it easy. Maybe that was because early on I stumbled on the knife shape, hand positions, and useful techniques. If you can swing it you may benefit greatly from even a short course in the same room with a real chip carver!

BTW, I made almost instant improvement when I learned to visualize where the tip of the blade was in the wood. This made it easy to see how I needed to draw the tip down into the wood to cut the angle of the "far" corner of the chip while holding the knife (or rotating as needed around the point) to end up with the flat of the edge at the angle needed for the "near" corner. It helped me to go through the motions of cutting a chip while following the the sides of an existing chip. Also, like woodturning, I work slowly compared to others. Watching how fast Barton works in a video almost makes me dizzy.

JKJ

Al Launier

06-12-2018, 10:23 AM

Your bevel shape now sounds like the one I started with and it was so frustrating that I put the knife in the drawer and decided this wasn't for me. It wasn't until years later I watched a pro chip carver/instructor work and looked at his knife. I went home and duplicated it the best I could, with a long, very slightly curved bevel sort of as shown in the sketch but not quite, probably more curved from edge to spine. Is this curve slightly convex as it seems to appear in your sketch, or did you end up with a slightly concave grind? It would seem to me that a slightly convex grind might tend to push the chip away from the adjacent wood while a concave grind would tend to slice better??? I ground with the flat side of a Tormak water wheel then refined it with coarse to very fine natural and ceramic stones. Far, far, FAR better! I could finally make some chips. The thin blade looks fragile but that has not been a problem - there shouldn't be any sideways stress on the edge to bend it and the steel is both hard and tough. The thin blade goes effortlessly into the wood and the polished sides at the tip let it stab to the bottom of a triangular chip or glide down a curve. I don't have a good grinding set-up, only a bench grinder & a 1"x 42" belt sander. I plan on roughing it out from edge to spine with a coarser belt, then complete roughing out the shape with a 600 grit belt before I place it on a sheet of 3/8" glass with strips of 400 then 600 grit wet paper, followed by stropping. If that doesn't work well I'll try the 8000 & 12000 wet stones again finishing off with the strop. In fact, I have a scalpel that I'll convert into a chip knife. That'll give me some practice before I grind the real chip knife & I'll make a handle for it & rivet it together. Who knows I might even be able to make a knife for tighter arcs. ;)

By the way, I once again looked at mychipcarving thinking I'd buy just a modified blade for $9.95 & make my own handle, but their shipping charge is also $9.95. They seem to charge the same shipping fee regardless of the price of the item purchased - just doesn't sit well with me. :(

The Hock knife came with the bevel the closest to useful out of the package which make it take the least amount of work to prepare. It's quicker to sharpen, too, probably because the blade is not as wide. From one book I read the wide blade with the curved spine appears to be the traditional Scandinavian design that Barton copied, but unlike general carving/whittling, for making shallow chips we never use anything but the first tiny bit of the edge and bevel of the tip! The rest is "wasted" except to support the blade while sharpening/honing.

I mentioned the sharpening kit that mychipcarving sells - four strips of increasingly fine abrasive paper mounted on a thin square surface, used with water. After trying this I threw away the stones! (Not literally, they were expensive :)) One thing is the fairly long strips along the four edges of the board allowed me to keep my hand position very consistent for each stroke. I also found the board easy to hold and quick to rotate to the next grit. I also like this method, placing the glass on my shop desk to rest the paper on. I find I can hold the blade at fairly consistent position throughout the sharpening stroke. So far I've used only the 400 & 600 & 1000 grit abrasive wet sheets cut as needed. These sheets have a "no-slip" coating on the back so they do stick fairly well to the glass without slipping, plus the water helps to hold the regular paper as well.

I might disagree on this. It seems to me soft, perfect basswood/linden with it's very fine and uniform structure would let you develop the hand position and motions easier without fighting with the wood. Once you are very comfortable with that and making near-perfect chips and curves, I think transitioning to more challenging wood would be a lot easier. I found that so, anyway.t found a good local source yet. I don't doubt that you are right, I just haven't a good local source yet. Frankly, I'd rather see & touch wood that I buy rather than leaving it to luck online & paying the shipping charges. I haven't made any projects with other species but I did experiment with several, including maple, pine, walnut, bradford pear, etc. Pear, for example, took much more force with the knife, not something I would want to learn with. There is a good reason that most chip carvers and even many general wood carvers use basswood when carving by hand, often switching to chisels and power tools for other woods. By the way, do you carve with other hand knives/tools in conjunction with your chip cutting knives?

I'm always glad to tell what I've learned but keep in mind that I'm an amateur at this. If you are an amateur what does that make me? I haven't spent too many months at it although I did find it easy. Maybe that was because early on I stumbled on the knife shape, hand positions, and useful techniques. If you can swing it you may benefit greatly from even a short course in the same room with a real chip carver!

BTW, I made almost instant improvement when I learned to visualize where the tip of the blade was in the wood. This made it easy to see how I needed to draw the tip down into the wood to cut the angle of the "far" corner of the chip while holding the knife (or rotating as needed around the point) to end up with the flat of the edge at the angle needed for the "near" corner. It helped me to go through the motions of cutting a chip while following the the sides of an existing chip. I've been trying to do this, but it was sometimes difficult to cut deeper when needed, most likely because the knife wasn't sharp enough. Also, like woodturning, I work slowly compared to others. Watching how fast Barton works in a video almost makes me dizzy. I'm so slow I sometimes wake up in the middle of a cut! :D

JKJ

So now that you have me going again I'm going to work on that scalpel.
PS: What was that secret you referred to? Does it require a secret PM? ;)

John K Jordan

06-12-2018, 12:44 PM

My knives have a slightly convex bevel, much like the drawing but a more gradual curve without the inflection point in the drawing. I think a concave edge would be too thin and perhaps fragile. One thing might be interesting, draw a dot at the top of your bevel a short distance from the tip then with digital calipers measure the distance of the dot from the edge and the thickness of the blade at that point. Use trig to figure the angle (assuming a flat bevel). I listed the angles I got on my three knives - are yours close?

The sharpening kit has grits down to 3 micron. This is not paper-backed sandpaper but some kind of plastic with an adhesive backing, tough, very flat. I bought a few extra strips of each grit but haven't even come close to wearing out what came on the kit.
http://mychipcarving.com/product_info.php/sharpening-kit-p-77

From my experience and those of others who have said they have ordered from Heinecke, you won't be disappointed in their wood. I found out about it from someone who has been ordering from them for years. Others on this forum have also recommended them. I'm sure there are other places but that's all I have experience with except for local stores.

I carve with other hand knives, a variety of small hand gouges and chisels, a reciprocal carver, and several rotary carvers (including two Foredoms). The reciprocal carver is a dream, cutting cocobolo and other hard woods like butter. Like the hand tools, the chisels need to be kept razor sharp. I usually use carbide burrs on the rotary carvers to carve wood, plastics, and metals. I haven't done any other carving on chip-carved pieces yet but hope to someday when I get a free month.

One definition of a professional is someone who charges or makes a profit with his trade/craft. I don't and don't aspire to.

What I meant by practicing the movements with an existing chip was not to make a cut but simply to glide the knife along the faces of the chip, practicing the knife hold, draw motion, and depth/rotation without engaging the wood.

The "secret" healing method I came up with was very effective. I have a thin, very sharp awl made for artists. If I have accidentally go too deep while cutting one face of a chip, there is an unsightly dark "canyon" at the where the two planes meet, a very narrow but visible gap. I put a tiny smear of white glue on the last 1/8" or so of the awl and starting at the very bottom of the chip, press the glue into the gap, pulling the awl up the "v" (keeping it aligned with the "v", not digging in with the point) while applying a little pressure. The awl is sized just right at the point so it presses the glue into the gap and slightly burnishes both sides. It would be so much easier to demonstrate than describe it in words. In basswood, at least, this closes the gap and makes it invisible, as if I cut it perfectly the first time. Done tell anyone - this must remain secret. :)

I have also glued in little pieces of wood that split out where the grain was wild. I like to work over a clean dark cloth surface so if a piece does break out I can find it. Another dark secret - I've been know (only to myself) to carve a tiny piece to fit to replace a bad spot. I've never tried this on curves, just normal chips.

JKJ

Al Launier

06-13-2018, 4:39 PM

John K Jordan

06-14-2018, 12:02 PM

Well it sure looks like I've got a lot more grinding/sanding to do Based on your recommended blade angle. I thought I was good to go until I measured/calculated the actual angle of 17.8°. Time for a beer! https://sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=387583&d=1456521892&thumb=1

Remember, I'm NOT an expert at this, this is just what I found works for me. The larger angle distorted the wood too much to suit me. You think maybe I should loan you one of my two Hock knives to try? If so, send an email.

I drank a beer in 1983 I think. The only think I drink now is water, and milk with my cereal. The urologist encouraged this after my kidney stone surgery.

Al Launier

06-14-2018, 1:44 PM

Remember, I'm NOT an expert at this, this is just what I found works for me. The larger angle distorted the wood too much to suit me. You think maybe I should loan you one of my two Hock knives to try? If so, send an email.

I drank a beer in 1983 I think. The only think I drink now is water, and milk with my cereal. The urologist encouraged this after my kidney stone surgery.

John if those angles work for you then they'll work for me.

I just received a Ramelson Stab knife. It wasn't expensive, only $16 on eBay with free shipping. I don't know how good the steel is, but for a stab knife I don't think it's that critical. Oops! I just opened the package & it's not the stab knife I ordered. They sent me a Romelson angled chip carving knife instead, I believe by mistake. The chip knife does look good, it has a thin blade with a very shallow cutting angle. Oh well, let's see what happens when I try to return it.

Al Launier

06-18-2018, 4:46 PM

They shipped me the correct knife with sincere apologies and a prepaid UPS Return Label. I received it in two days. As for the second knife it did look good, so I decided to buy it. It's made of 1095 steel hardened to Rc 58-62. I might also comment that the two Ramelson knives I now have are well made; come with a 15° blade angle which leaves less metal to remove to get it down to a good thin cutting edge such as what John has on his blades; it cost much less than my other knife at twice the price; and the narrow point of the Ramelson Angled Chip knife does make it easier to cut small arcs and it feels comfortable when using. Time will tell how good they are. Have to say I do like the price.

Bob Glenn

06-20-2018, 1:47 PM

Al, no one has mentioned Scandinavian flat plane carving yet. I liked the look and ordered a Harley knife from Del Stubbs at Pine Wood Forge. I also ordered Harley Refsal's DVD a few basewood cutouts and a couple books by Refsal. Started carving one of the figures and love it. After completing the first carving, I saw Refsal was giving a two class about an hour away. Signed up and learned at the foot of the master. If you are going to order basswood, I'd recommend Heineke. I've ordered from other places and the quality just wasn't there.

Al Launier

06-20-2018, 9:29 PM

Well today I had sharpened knives on hand & decided to try my hand again at developing some carving skills on some Aspen.
The photo on the left is similar to the one in the previous post. I though I might do better the second time. - no improvement, actually worse, especially the bottom one compared to before.
In the center photo I was encouraged a bit, but it was an easier carve - not so many small arcs.
The photo on the right is my first attempt at letters. Only so-so on the smaller set at top - had the most difficulty on the turns, especially cross grain.
Then I tried the same fonts, but to a much larger scale. Disaster - should have been easier.
Some observation, thoughts & questions:

I find it very difficult to carve a side in one slice. I have to re-cut 1-2 times more depending on the depth.
Cutting 1-3 times per face of cutting leaves a significant amount of "residue and false faces" to trim & clean up which is difficult to do. I haven't developed a good way to make it look like one cut, especially on the deeper cuts. Looks like ****
I try to perceive the intersection point of the two cut faces but the deeper cuts still give me trouble.
I find the My Chip Carving Knife comfortable to hold & use on straight & slightly arced lines & larger curves, and the more pointed Ramelson Angled chip cutting knife more user friendly in tight curves.
However, when I do the tight curves (1/8" dia.) I basically hold the knife almost upright on the tip and rotate the work piece. It is not a slice, or drawn cut per se, more of a pivot cut by holding the knife stationary & rotating the knife around the point..
Unfortunately this has caused the small point of the tip to break off, no larger than 1/64" which then requires resharpening & stropping. The steel is made of 1095 steel hardened to Rc 58-62 which I think is good.
This also tends to break off a chip of wood.
I usually strop about every 10-15 minutes.
Bottom line is that I haven't developed a technique for making single clean cuts.

OK, now that I've bared my soul what suggestions are there that would get me on track to quality work besides a lot more practice. I do want this to work.

John K Jordan

06-21-2018, 9:15 AM

It looks like good progress, even if you are not yet satisfied with the results. I think cleaner cuts will come with practice. (Perhaps a "lot more practice"? :))

The books I've read said to always cut a side of a chip with a single plunge, multiple cuts will result in exactly what you found - problems on the bottom and sides. For a straight-sided chip I draw the outline of the chip first and usually put a dot in the middle to help me visualize the center. Then plunge down drawing the knife down the imagined back "corner" until reaching the bottom, rotating the knife all during the plunge for a large chip until when the point hits the bottom the cutting edge is exactly at the near corner, then pull the knife back and up along that corner. For a small chip I think I just held the knife at the near corner angle, still drawing it back during the plunge to cut the far corner at the right angle. It is better to cut too deep than too shallow. For curves, I draw the outline then a center line down the middle, also to help visualize where to put the point. I'd have to pay more attention, but I think I hold the knife with the bisection between the cutting edge and spine a little more vertical than with a straight-sided chip.

I mentioned this before, but to help learn to visualize the position of the tip and edge when hidden in the wood I found it helpful to start with a good chip and trace over it pretending to re-cut it to see what hand position and motion was needed. I think once I put drew a line on the side of the blade with the knife to indicate the wood surface when the tip was in the right position while "tracing" an existing chip. (I have no idea what the experts did to learn or what methods they teach.)

It's hard to tell from the pictures because of the lighting, but it looks like your chips might be deeper than needed. If so, that will make everything harder! Perhaps try adjusting the your hand position for a shallower angle and see how that works. I remember experimenting a lot with various angles. I would practice the angles on straight-sided triangular chips at first instead of curves.

I've never broken a knife tip and mine are pretty thin. Sounds like way too much twisting force on the curve, perhaps from the chips too deep with the tight curves - just a guess without seeing the actual depth. The chips are also more likely to break on deep curves. I often do turn the piece while making long curves, pivoting the wood around the knife. I wonder if aspen is harder and tougher than basswood.

You are making great progress. I'm certain this will work! I made zillions of goofs, bad cuts, chipped chips and such when practicing. I would make a bunch of practice cuts then mark the bad spots so I could try to figure out what I did wrong.

388186

Looking at my practice boards again, I see something I may have done differently - I never once tried to carve a traced pattern. I filled practice board after board with practice chips, repeating the arrays of the same chip over and over until I improved and the cut felt natural, then tried more with variations in size and width. I did this with rows and rows of triangular chips (hundreds of chips) as well as free-hand curves. With the curves I could let the wood and the feel of the knife decide on the curve instead of trying to fit a pattern curve. When practicing I never tried any wood but good basswood.

JKJ

Well today I had sharpened knives on hand & decided to try my hand again at developing some carving skills on some Aspen.
The photo on the left is similar to the one in the previous post. I though I might do better the second time. - no improvement, actually worse, especially the bottom one compared to before.
In the center photo I was encouraged a bit, but it was an easier carve - not so many small arcs.
The photo on the right is my first attempt at letters. Only so-so on the smaller set at top - had the most difficulty on the turns, especially cross grain.
Then I tried the same fonts, but to a much larger scale. Disaster - should have been easier.
Some observation, thoughts & questions:

I find it very difficult to carve a side in one slice. I have to re-cut 1-2 times more depending on the depth.
Cutting 1-3 times per face of cutting leaves a significant amount of "residue and false faces" to trim & clean up which is difficult to do. I haven't developed a good way to make it look like one cut, especially on the deeper cuts. Looks like ****
I try to perceive the intersection point of the two cut faces but the deeper cuts still give me trouble.
I find the My Chip Carving Knife comfortable to hold & use on straight & slightly arced lines & larger curves, and the more pointed Ramelson Angled chip cutting knife more user friendly in tight curves.
However, when I do the tight curves (1/8" dia.) I basically hold the knife almost upright on the tip and rotate the work piece. It is not a slice, or drawn cut per se, more of a pivot cut by holding the knife stationary & rotating the knife around the point..
Unfortunately this has caused the small point of the tip to break off, no larger than 1/64" which then requires resharpening & stropping. The steel is made of 1095 steel hardened to Rc 58-62 which I think is good.
This also tends to break off a chip of wood.
I usually strop about every 10-15 minutes.
Bottom line is that I haven't developed a technique for making single clean cuts.

OK, now that I've bared my soul what suggestions are there that would get me on track to quality work besides a lot more practice. I do want this to work.

Al Launier

06-21-2018, 7:11 PM

Thanks for the feedback John.

In order of priority I'm going to first resharpen the blades as I'm not totally comfortable that I've spent enough time sharpening them. They do pass the thumb nail & hair cutting tests, but I think they could be shallower angled & better cutting.

I do have to admit that I'm anxious to get on with this, but it's starting to hit home that I've not done enough homework. I'm going to do a bunch of triangular chips freehand to see how well I can control the depth of cut, then try the same on some gentle arcs. In doing these I'll try the dot technique & see how that helps to control the DOC. Also, I'm going to try some freehand cutting to see how that feels.

One thing that troubles me is how to clean up a messy cut without re-cutting too deeply & to make a decent looking valley. I noticed when trying to re-cut that the blade didn't seen to want to enter the wood at an angle to the face of the original cut. This indicates to me that the blade isn't sharpened properly to engage the wood easily to shave into the side of the existing cut.

Al Launier

07-02-2018, 2:03 PM

I had to take a break from practice to paint a number of kitchen chairs for the LOML. Yet, I was able to "work in" a project of my own which was to try making a chip carving knife for fine detail such as in script lettering. I made these two by grinding & pre-sharpening each end of a surgeon's scalpel I had on hand, cutting them in half, making the scales from an unknown piece of really hard wood, chiseling an inlet for the blade to seat in, drilling the rivet holes, epoxying things together & then riveting the scales from a piece of 1/8" aluminum rod I had laying around. Once the epoxy cured (18 hours) I put a final grind & stropp on the blades. I was going to chip carve my initials on the scales, but the wood is so hard I doubt if I could do it. Anyway, as ugly as they are I anxious to try them out after I get the chairs painted.

Al Launier

07-03-2018, 5:35 AM

I'm back on the paint job. For some unfathomable reason the LOML thought painting the chairs was more important than playing with knives.

As an aside, the scalpel was too hard to work with so I used my Mapp gas torch to it to soften it up so I could cut it in half & drill the holes. After I pre-ground it to near finish I used the torch again to heat treat it & then to draw it back so it wouldn't be so brittle. When I get to use it I'll find out if the tip breaks on me. The blade edge isn't as straight as I originally planned. I had dropped it after I heat treated it & of course it had to hit on the tip breaking off a bit of metal. So, it took a lot of time stoning to get some kind of point back. Time will tell.

Perry Hilbert Jr

07-19-2018, 7:00 AM

I was recently given a a few "carving" tools. I had a piece of 3/4 inch poplar that I cut off a saw mill cut off to make a square turning blank. The 4 x 11 inch poplar board became a whale. Not finished yet but surprisingly fair for a first attempt. I used a flex cut knife for the whole thing. Certainly not fine art but for a first real whittle....

https://i.imgur.com/mol9LQX.jpg (https://imgur.com/a/7YI2M6v)

Al Launier

07-23-2018, 1:54 PM

Perry, I think you've made a great "stab" at kicking off a new hobby. Indeed it looks good.

On the home front I'm still practicing on white pine boards & need a lot more practice before I'll attempt to carve initials, etc. on jewelry boxes, or other finished projects. However, my daughter recently gave birth to our first grandchild, and knowing that I have started chip carving, asked if I could carve her son's initial on a piece of wood so she could have it on her desk at work. Fortunately she chose the Times New Roman font which I was able to work on. Having tried the more elegant script fonts I ran into trouble with the small loops, especially the closed loops. I also found it difficult to carve the wide portion of some of some fonts due to having to cut wider vees. It was difficult cutting these features in a single cut per side which required me to go back into the cuts to clean them up. This usually turned out to be a mess.
So yesterday I completed the little (3"x 6") plaque & hopefully she will like it. One thing I don't know how to do is to "highlight" just the lettering, leaving the surround area as a contrasting background. So, I tried staining the lettering & the board together, but that didn't provide the contrast I was looking for. Just leaving it natural gave a better contrast than the stain.
What do you think? Please offer any criticisms/comments.