In progress: Carved mantel

[Mike Henderson]

Here's a carving project I'm working on for a client right now - a mantel piece. There's still a lot to do on it but it's getting to where I can see the end.

The "band" under the molding strip they want "rustic" so the tool marks will be left. They also want to "round over" many of the sharp edges to make it look "old" but I'll let them do the distressing. It goes to a finisher when I complete the carving and he's going to make it look old.

I'll post again when I get more done.

Mike

[Ed Nelson978]

Good looking mantle Mike. How do you lay out your repeating pattern?

[Mike Henderson]

Good looking mantle Mike. How do you lay out your repeating pattern?
The client gave me the basic pattern but it was not scaled to the length of the mantel. So first, I laid in the corner blocks (a special carving will go there), then measured what was left. The pattern is about 2.25" wide so I took a set of dividers and set them to 2.25" and stepped off the length - of course it didn't come out even. I adjusted the dividers and stepped off again. By the third try, I had it pretty close. Then I scanned their pattern and scaled its width to the size of my dividers (they don't care about the height that much) and printed off a bunch of them. I marked out the "squares" using the dividers to step off the distances. Then I glued one pattern into each square. When I carved, I just carved through the paper. When I finished carving, I sanded the paper off. That gave me a good repetition of the pattern.

The horizontal lines are laid in with a router (actually, a trim router and a Dremel). At the top, a 1/16" groove is cut (maybe a 16th deep - or a little more), then the pattern is carved down at the top so the top line stands out.

At the bottom, balls will be carved along the lower line, where you see the pencil marks now.

Thanks for your interest.

Mike

[Dewey Torres]

Careful Mike...lets not show up the laser guys.

Sure they can do it 50 times faster but cut the power and hand them a chisel:eek:

[Mike Henderson]

I did the four corner blocks and I've started on the row of balls. Carving the balls is really tedious - there's about 125 of them to carve. I have about 100 to go.

Mike

[John Timberlake]

Great job. Can't wait to see the final matel. Always enjoy your demos.

[Dewey Torres]

Mike,
I assume this is going to be the next addition to your outstanding website???

[Paul Atkins]

Very nice. Can't do that with my lathe. ---

[Khalid Khattak]

Very Nice work Mike... just a query.. why not u make the egg shaped on lathe... cut it in half and fix it on mantle???....

[Zahid Naqvi]

Nice job Mike, are any parts of the carving chip carved. I see a few lines which merge at a very sharp angle.

[Mike Henderson]

Very Nice work Mike... just a query.. why not u make the egg shaped on lathe... cut it in half and fix it on mantle???....
I thought about that. I could have cut the bottom at a 45* angle and made the round buttons on the lathe and glue them on as you suggest. But I don't know what would be more work. Making that many buttons on the lathe is a lot of work. What would be really nice would be if the buttons could be purchased from some commercial place for a reasonable price. But also, the client wants "hand done". The buttons would be too perfect (at least completely round) and it would be obvious that it's not really carved. When you carve something, you can't make them exactly the same and that's what they want.


Nice job Mike, are any parts of the carving chip carved. I see a few lines which merge at a very sharp angle.
No, everything is done with standard carving gouges. I do have a couple of really small (smallest about 1mm) front bent gouges which I use to clean out the really small places. Getting the ground flat and clean is really tough, though - and it's only somewhat clean and somewhat flat on the carving.

The real enemy is the tedium of doing the same thing over and over. There's 43 of the molding elements and they all need to look (pretty much) the same and there's about 125 balls on the bottom edge. So the challenge is to do the same thing many times and make it look the same. In many ways , it's much easier to do individual things because if you make a mistake, you can fix it and move on, and no one ever knows. But you can't make a big mistake on one element because there's others close by that the viewer can compare to - in fact, the eye does that naturally.

When I do a repeated pattern, like this one, I do them all at the same time - that is, if I'm making an outlining cut (a stab cut) I make it on each one down the line. Then the next cut all down the line, etc. So they all get completed at the same time. On the balls, I do about 25-30 at a time just because that's as far as I can reach from one sitting position (and I sit to do those).

Also, it's easy to break part of the carving and it then has to be repaired. White glue is the best for that - it's not dark like Titebond III and it stays "soft" so you can carve it when dry and it doesn't dull your tool.

Mike

[Charlie Schultz]

Very nice- did you mention what kind of wood it is?

[Mike Henderson]

Very nice- did you mention what kind of wood it is?
It's basswood. The builder talked to me before building it and I told him to make it of good quality basswood - with very straight grain and no knots.

Mike

[John Schreiber]

Very nice work Mike. Does it get boring or hard to maintain your focus while you do that many? Do you do work from one end to the other, or do you mix them up to avoid creating a pattern where you get better at them as you go along?

[Mike Henderson]

Very nice work Mike. Does it get boring or hard to maintain your focus while you do that many? Do you do work from one end to the other, or do you mix them up to avoid creating a pattern where you get better at them as you go along?
I work from one end to the other, but I carve all of them at the same time. I make a cut on the first one, then move to the second one and make the same cut, etc. The balls are a bit different - I do about 30 at a time because that's how many I can reach without moving my stool.

I enjoy carving very much so it's not boring. In fact, I sort of get into a groove and hate to break my concentration, even when I need to sharpen my gouge. It seems to take me five minutes or so to get back into the same focus when I re-start. It's kind of hard to describe what it feels like but everything else just disappears and I'm completely focused on the carving.

Mike

[Zahid Naqvi]

The real enemy is the tedium of doing the same thing over and over. There's 43 of the molding elements and they all need to look (pretty much) the same and there's about 125 balls on the bottom edge. So the challenge is to do the same thing many times and make it look the same.

That would just drive me nuts :eek:
OTOH I can relate to your comment about loosing track of time when you really get into working with wood, that has happened to me a few times.

[Khalid Khattak]

If i do that much hardwork;) I will never ever sell my master pieces... Salute to u Henderson:)

[Mike Henderson]

If i do that much hardwork;) I will never ever sell my master pieces... Salute to u Henderson:)
Yep, it's been said that "carvers are starvers". If I wasn't retired I'd never be able to do these things.

Thanks for your post.

Mike

[Khalid Khattak]

Mike.. i saw all of ur's thread and posts.. u are really a genius... The tutorials u written are great... I am thankful to u for all favours u did upon us...

Keep posting ur great work and please post the update now, if possible..i can't wait to see...

[Mike Henderson]

Well, here it is pretty much complete. The builder wants to install it for the client's Christmas party so I let him take it even though I still have some clean-up to do on it - mainly getting the balls to be a bit more round. I did them under fluorescent lamps which makes it hard to see the details. It sort of "flattens" everything.

So he'll bring it back to me after the holidays and I'll finish up on it.

Mike

[Khalid Khattak]

Mike..superb work..wow..very beautiful....What a hands u have... Thanks for sharing and i will be really happy to see it after finishing...

I wonder u did it under flouresent lamp... thats awesome:)

Regards

[John Schreiber]

Congratulations. That's quite an accomplishment. It must be hard to see it leave your shop.

[Mike Henderson]

Congratulations. That's quite an accomplishment. It must be hard to see it leave your shop.
I'd like to see a lot more come in and leave.:)

Maybe this will get me some more business.

Mike

[Robert LaPlaca]

Mike,

Looks great, I think you mentioned the wood is Basswood, is the intent to paint the mantel?

Your how to carve a early American fan post was the best step by step explanation that I have seen, you should think about writing articles for magazine ..

[Mike Henderson]

Mike,

Looks great, I think you mentioned the wood is Basswood, is the intent to paint the mantel?

Your how to carve a early American fan post was the best step by step explanation that I have seen, you should think about writing articles for magazine ..
The mantel will be sent to a finisher after I complete the carving. I don't know exactly how s/he's going to finish it, but I know they want it to look old. I expect the finisher will use glazes to put some color into it and will use layers of glaze to simulate wear in certain places. Finishing is a black art to me - I'm just glad there are people who are good at it.

I'll try to get the builder to give me a picture of it installed and finished, but sometimes you just have to be satisfied with the money.

Mike

[I'd be happy to write articles for magazines - anything for money:). Got any suggestions for magazines to send my stuff to?]

[Jeff Nicol]

Mike, I have been a wood worker and carver as long as I can remember, but that mantle is beautiful! I have done many signs and blanket chests and small boxes that had some sort of carving on them. I just finished a small sign today that was to made old looking also. Maybe post a pic tomorrow. But any way how do you come up with a price for something like that? Or is it pro bono?

Very nice!

Jeff

[Mike Henderson]

Mike, I have been a wood worker and carver as long as I can remember, but that mantle is beautiful! I have done many signs and blanket chests and small boxes that had some sort of carving on them. I just finished a small sign today that was to made old looking also. Maybe post a pic tomorrow. But any way how do you come up with a price for something like that? Or is it pro bono?

Very nice!

Jeff
It is definitely not pro bono. The designer had gotten an estimate of $1,000 from another carver. That sounded good to me (especially since I'm retired) so I agreed to do it for that. The way I got the job is that the contractor took my carving class at Woodcraft. He actually was a very good carver - he learned quickly and did advanced work. But he decided to have me do the work instead of doing it himself. I told him that he could do it but maybe he didn't have the time (or all the tools). He recommended me to the designer and that's who I really have the deal with.

I should get the mantel back next week to complete. When I have it finished, I'll post more pictures. They want it to look "old" so I'm going to round over the edges to make it look like wear. When I complete the carving, it'll go to the finisher.

The designer called me yesterday to tell me the status and said the client liked the work (they installed the mantel in the home for Christmas, even though I hadn't completed it). I hope to get more work from him. I just wonder if I could get him to recommend me to other designers. I enjoy it not just for the money but for a reason to wake up in the morning.

Got any work you want to sub out to me?:)

I'm looking forward to the pictures of your work.

Mike

[I don't know why there's so much age discrimination in hiring. I'd work just to have something to do - for very little salary. But when anyone my age interviews (except to be a Wall Mart greeter) you just never get a call back. Maybe the hiring people think they can't depend upon us because we don't "need" the job.]

[Jeff Nicol]

Mike, I am retired also but not by choice. I injured both of my shoulders on the job as a sheetmetal worker. So far after a couple of surgeries and no help at all. I have a lot of pain and loss of range of motion, but just like you I love to get up in the morning and go out to the shop and putz and see what happens. I am an avid turner and have posted some of my work there. I put the sign on already beacause I was little excited to show it off! Not much but still fun!

I turn a lot of miniatures and did a bunch of ornaments for christmas this year. But the signs are coming in again.

Thanks,

Jeff

[Mike Henderson]

I'm sorry to hear about your injury - I hope you can recover eventually.

Good to hear you have the sign business coming in.

Mike