Grain direction

A lot of tutorials seem to start with the mechanical parts of the project, rather than some of the planning or layout stages. Stefang asked about information for gluing up blocks for carving so I thought I would do a few blogs about this stage of carving, the preparation of materials before you carve.

Wood is a moving, changing material, and certain aspects such as density, moisture content, grain, and size can affect the design of a project. I am no expert, so feel free to disagree with anything that you feel you have a different slant on; I am not too old to learn new tricks! This entry will be primarily about smaller 3-dimensional carvings, "in-the-round" carvings and I'll talk about larger carvings and glue-ups in other etries..

For smaller carvings like this, you want to take advantage of how the grain runs in a particular piece of wood. If you look a small blocks of kiln dried wood you will be able to see the growth rings. For most carvings, you want to have the end grain (3) at the top and bottom of the blanks. The end grain is more difficult to carve into, it doesn't hold details as well, and it absorbs stains, paints, and finishes like a sponge. It can absorb so much and turn so dark that you can no longer see the details you so laboriously carved. You want the grain to run up and down (1). You are working with a section of a tree, so the growth rings may show up as almost a straight line, a slight arc, or shallow C shaped lines when viewed from the end.

The color number and size all depends on the size of the tree and the type of wood it was cut from. If you are carving a face, you can orient those lines to run from the front of the piece to the back, which is essentially placing the outside (where the bark grew) to one side (2) and the inner heartwood side to the other. This puts the "shorter" grain on the sides of the face, where sturdier, thicker elements like ears and hair are carved. If you put the short grain on the front of the face, it makes it easier to accidently split off the end of a nose or an eye lid or other delicate features, because of how the grain runs. This doesn't mean you can't do it another way and have it turn out great! It is just something to be aware of with an organic material like wood. The growth rings are very pronounced in the basswood below and you can easily see the lines running verically from the front. But you can see in a slight profile view how you have sections like the ends of the hair and edge of the cheek and eye socket where the grain is very short

…it is quite easy to remove large chunks of wood when carving up and down in those areas. Imagine the grain turned 90 degrees and you can see how easy it would be to slice the end of the nose off! Think of it like the layers of a sheet of plywood, and keep the edge going in the direction where you need the strength most. More tomorrow!

oh yes, Mike. the garden won't grow till you plant the seed, and the seed can't be planted till the soil is ready… very good. I'll be followin

 

Grain direction

A lot of tutorials seem to start with the mechanical parts of the project, rather than some of the planning or layout stages. Stefang asked about information for gluing up blocks for carving so I thought I would do a few blogs about this stage of carving, the preparation of materials before you carve.

Wood is a moving, changing material, and certain aspects such as density, moisture content, grain, and size can affect the design of a project. I am no expert, so feel free to disagree with anything that you feel you have a different slant on; I am not too old to learn new tricks! This entry will be primarily about smaller 3-dimensional carvings, "in-the-round" carvings and I'll talk about larger carvings and glue-ups in other etries..

For smaller carvings like this, you want to take advantage of how the grain runs in a particular piece of wood. If you look a small blocks of kiln dried wood you will be able to see the growth rings. For most carvings, you want to have the end grain (3) at the top and bottom of the blanks. The end grain is more difficult to carve into, it doesn't hold details as well, and it absorbs stains, paints, and finishes like a sponge. It can absorb so much and turn so dark that you can no longer see the details you so laboriously carved. You want the grain to run up and down (1). You are working with a section of a tree, so the growth rings may show up as almost a straight line, a slight arc, or shallow C shaped lines when viewed from the end.

The color number and size all depends on the size of the tree and the type of wood it was cut from. If you are carving a face, you can orient those lines to run from the front of the piece to the back, which is essentially placing the outside (where the bark grew) to one side (2) and the inner heartwood side to the other. This puts the "shorter" grain on the sides of the face, where sturdier, thicker elements like ears and hair are carved. If you put the short grain on the front of the face, it makes it easier to accidently split off the end of a nose or an eye lid or other delicate features, because of how the grain runs. This doesn't mean you can't do it another way and have it turn out great! It is just something to be aware of with an organic material like wood. The growth rings are very pronounced in the basswood below and you can easily see the lines running verically from the front. But you can see in a slight profile view how you have sections like the ends of the hair and edge of the cheek and eye socket where the grain is very short

…it is quite easy to remove large chunks of wood when carving up and down in those areas. Imagine the grain turned 90 degrees and you can see how easy it would be to slice the end of the nose off! Think of it like the layers of a sheet of plywood, and keep the edge going in the direction where you need the strength most. More tomorrow!

Great blog, experience and plenty of mistakes is how I learned that lesson. I would have loved to have had Ljs when I first learned how to carve. Being self taught has its disadvantages.

 

Grain direction

A lot of tutorials seem to start with the mechanical parts of the project, rather than some of the planning or layout stages. Stefang asked about information for gluing up blocks for carving so I thought I would do a few blogs about this stage of carving, the preparation of materials before you carve.

Wood is a moving, changing material, and certain aspects such as density, moisture content, grain, and size can affect the design of a project. I am no expert, so feel free to disagree with anything that you feel you have a different slant on; I am not too old to learn new tricks! This entry will be primarily about smaller 3-dimensional carvings, "in-the-round" carvings and I'll talk about larger carvings and glue-ups in other etries..

For smaller carvings like this, you want to take advantage of how the grain runs in a particular piece of wood. If you look a small blocks of kiln dried wood you will be able to see the growth rings. For most carvings, you want to have the end grain (3) at the top and bottom of the blanks. The end grain is more difficult to carve into, it doesn't hold details as well, and it absorbs stains, paints, and finishes like a sponge. It can absorb so much and turn so dark that you can no longer see the details you so laboriously carved. You want the grain to run up and down (1). You are working with a section of a tree, so the growth rings may show up as almost a straight line, a slight arc, or shallow C shaped lines when viewed from the end.

The color number and size all depends on the size of the tree and the type of wood it was cut from. If you are carving a face, you can orient those lines to run from the front of the piece to the back, which is essentially placing the outside (where the bark grew) to one side (2) and the inner heartwood side to the other. This puts the "shorter" grain on the sides of the face, where sturdier, thicker elements like ears and hair are carved. If you put the short grain on the front of the face, it makes it easier to accidently split off the end of a nose or an eye lid or other delicate features, because of how the grain runs. This doesn't mean you can't do it another way and have it turn out great! It is just something to be aware of with an organic material like wood. The growth rings are very pronounced in the basswood below and you can easily see the lines running verically from the front. But you can see in a slight profile view how you have sections like the ends of the hair and edge of the cheek and eye socket where the grain is very short

…it is quite easy to remove large chunks of wood when carving up and down in those areas. Imagine the grain turned 90 degrees and you can see how easy it would be to slice the end of the nose off! Think of it like the layers of a sheet of plywood, and keep the edge going in the direction where you need the strength most. More tomorrow!

Hey Mike, I enjoyed to read that you are bothering by the same questions that I ask my self when I start a new project. I would like to share with you one point and ask about another conflict:
A. We are short with wide trunks, so I try to plan the sculpture as big as possible and to stay within the grain without using the margins but you can't be sure what are the measurments of the grain and it is important especially when you work with a trunk like Rosewood which the grain is dark brown to black and the margins are white to yellow. Some times you may get a dark head with a white spot on the nose
B. usually, I plan the sculpture when the trunk is standing in the direction of the growth which means the base will be close to what was the roots and the top head close to what was the branches, but today I have at this moment a conflict: I need to escape from appearing of "eyes" in critical places on the head and the best way to use this specific trunk is to work on it up side down, which means the base will be close to what was the branches. I assume there will not be any problem but I never did it. What is your opinion?

 

Grain direction

A lot of tutorials seem to start with the mechanical parts of the project, rather than some of the planning or layout stages. Stefang asked about information for gluing up blocks for carving so I thought I would do a few blogs about this stage of carving, the preparation of materials before you carve.

Wood is a moving, changing material, and certain aspects such as density, moisture content, grain, and size can affect the design of a project. I am no expert, so feel free to disagree with anything that you feel you have a different slant on; I am not too old to learn new tricks! This entry will be primarily about smaller 3-dimensional carvings, "in-the-round" carvings and I'll talk about larger carvings and glue-ups in other etries..

For smaller carvings like this, you want to take advantage of how the grain runs in a particular piece of wood. If you look a small blocks of kiln dried wood you will be able to see the growth rings. For most carvings, you want to have the end grain (3) at the top and bottom of the blanks. The end grain is more difficult to carve into, it doesn't hold details as well, and it absorbs stains, paints, and finishes like a sponge. It can absorb so much and turn so dark that you can no longer see the details you so laboriously carved. You want the grain to run up and down (1). You are working with a section of a tree, so the growth rings may show up as almost a straight line, a slight arc, or shallow C shaped lines when viewed from the end.

The color number and size all depends on the size of the tree and the type of wood it was cut from. If you are carving a face, you can orient those lines to run from the front of the piece to the back, which is essentially placing the outside (where the bark grew) to one side (2) and the inner heartwood side to the other. This puts the "shorter" grain on the sides of the face, where sturdier, thicker elements like ears and hair are carved. If you put the short grain on the front of the face, it makes it easier to accidently split off the end of a nose or an eye lid or other delicate features, because of how the grain runs. This doesn't mean you can't do it another way and have it turn out great! It is just something to be aware of with an organic material like wood. The growth rings are very pronounced in the basswood below and you can easily see the lines running verically from the front. But you can see in a slight profile view how you have sections like the ends of the hair and edge of the cheek and eye socket where the grain is very short

…it is quite easy to remove large chunks of wood when carving up and down in those areas. Imagine the grain turned 90 degrees and you can see how easy it would be to slice the end of the nose off! Think of it like the layers of a sheet of plywood, and keep the edge going in the direction where you need the strength most. More tomorrow!

Hi Mike. All good info and thanks for enlightening us, but a little different problem than I was thinking about. I was actually thinking about gluing up work pieces using plane sawn wood. I remember reading a carving book where the author said that when gluing up that type of wood, it is best to glue the two outside faces of the wood together in order to have the inside or heart of the tree towards the outside for carving. This was because the inner wood is more stable and better to carve on and also to limit any tendencies to warp, which is usually caused by the outer wood drying faster than the inner wood.

I loved your carving in the pics. It looks so lifelike. Wonderful work.

 

Grain direction

A lot of tutorials seem to start with the mechanical parts of the project, rather than some of the planning or layout stages. Stefang asked about information for gluing up blocks for carving so I thought I would do a few blogs about this stage of carving, the preparation of materials before you carve.

Wood is a moving, changing material, and certain aspects such as density, moisture content, grain, and size can affect the design of a project. I am no expert, so feel free to disagree with anything that you feel you have a different slant on; I am not too old to learn new tricks! This entry will be primarily about smaller 3-dimensional carvings, "in-the-round" carvings and I'll talk about larger carvings and glue-ups in other etries..

For smaller carvings like this, you want to take advantage of how the grain runs in a particular piece of wood. If you look a small blocks of kiln dried wood you will be able to see the growth rings. For most carvings, you want to have the end grain (3) at the top and bottom of the blanks. The end grain is more difficult to carve into, it doesn't hold details as well, and it absorbs stains, paints, and finishes like a sponge. It can absorb so much and turn so dark that you can no longer see the details you so laboriously carved. You want the grain to run up and down (1). You are working with a section of a tree, so the growth rings may show up as almost a straight line, a slight arc, or shallow C shaped lines when viewed from the end.

The color number and size all depends on the size of the tree and the type of wood it was cut from. If you are carving a face, you can orient those lines to run from the front of the piece to the back, which is essentially placing the outside (where the bark grew) to one side (2) and the inner heartwood side to the other. This puts the "shorter" grain on the sides of the face, where sturdier, thicker elements like ears and hair are carved. If you put the short grain on the front of the face, it makes it easier to accidently split off the end of a nose or an eye lid or other delicate features, because of how the grain runs. This doesn't mean you can't do it another way and have it turn out great! It is just something to be aware of with an organic material like wood. The growth rings are very pronounced in the basswood below and you can easily see the lines running verically from the front. But you can see in a slight profile view how you have sections like the ends of the hair and edge of the cheek and eye socket where the grain is very short

…it is quite easy to remove large chunks of wood when carving up and down in those areas. Imagine the grain turned 90 degrees and you can see how easy it would be to slice the end of the nose off! Think of it like the layers of a sheet of plywood, and keep the edge going in the direction where you need the strength most. More tomorrow!

I wouldn't think it would be a problem to have the base area as the head. You would not have the branches appearing as eyes and knots might not be as frequent either. Carving from a trunk or a branch does present some different challenges like you say…. I carved a few faces and used a branch jutting out for the nose. That can work really well, but it is easy to have a large brown spot on the end of the nose, from the pith in the center of the branch! And I had to learn to carve past the layers of bark, and sometimes sap wood to get to a section that would present a consistent color for the entire face or whatever I would be carving. If possible, I like to have a piece long enough to cut in half and experiment a bit and see if it looks like what I envisioned. I did a cane from some aspen. It started out as a green trunk about 3" in diameter and ended up about an inch thick and I had to take extra pains in drying it and shaping it, to keep it from cracking, but it turned out nice. The internet is really a wonderful reference tool. Us old guys grew up learning from books and encyclopedias, and the access to videos, and patterns, and artists from around the owrld is really quite amazing!

 

Grain direction

A lot of tutorials seem to start with the mechanical parts of the project, rather than some of the planning or layout stages. Stefang asked about information for gluing up blocks for carving so I thought I would do a few blogs about this stage of carving, the preparation of materials before you carve.

Wood is a moving, changing material, and certain aspects such as density, moisture content, grain, and size can affect the design of a project. I am no expert, so feel free to disagree with anything that you feel you have a different slant on; I am not too old to learn new tricks! This entry will be primarily about smaller 3-dimensional carvings, "in-the-round" carvings and I'll talk about larger carvings and glue-ups in other etries..

For smaller carvings like this, you want to take advantage of how the grain runs in a particular piece of wood. If you look a small blocks of kiln dried wood you will be able to see the growth rings. For most carvings, you want to have the end grain (3) at the top and bottom of the blanks. The end grain is more difficult to carve into, it doesn't hold details as well, and it absorbs stains, paints, and finishes like a sponge. It can absorb so much and turn so dark that you can no longer see the details you so laboriously carved. You want the grain to run up and down (1). You are working with a section of a tree, so the growth rings may show up as almost a straight line, a slight arc, or shallow C shaped lines when viewed from the end.

The color number and size all depends on the size of the tree and the type of wood it was cut from. If you are carving a face, you can orient those lines to run from the front of the piece to the back, which is essentially placing the outside (where the bark grew) to one side (2) and the inner heartwood side to the other. This puts the "shorter" grain on the sides of the face, where sturdier, thicker elements like ears and hair are carved. If you put the short grain on the front of the face, it makes it easier to accidently split off the end of a nose or an eye lid or other delicate features, because of how the grain runs. This doesn't mean you can't do it another way and have it turn out great! It is just something to be aware of with an organic material like wood. The growth rings are very pronounced in the basswood below and you can easily see the lines running verically from the front. But you can see in a slight profile view how you have sections like the ends of the hair and edge of the cheek and eye socket where the grain is very short

…it is quite easy to remove large chunks of wood when carving up and down in those areas. Imagine the grain turned 90 degrees and you can see how easy it would be to slice the end of the nose off! Think of it like the layers of a sheet of plywood, and keep the edge going in the direction where you need the strength most. More tomorrow!

Hey Mike! I'm trying to work my way up to your original glue-up topic! I have a whole blog coming up in a day or two, if work doesn't keep interfering! Are you talking about gluing several pieces together for an "in-the-round" carving or as a panel for a relief carving? In other words, would it be carved on all sides, or just carved on one side?

 

Glue-ups for large carvings

If you are carving basswood or tupelo, the largest pieces you can get are ususally 4×4 or 4×6 in various lengths (although some companies will custom cut it for you). So you will have to glue pieces together for anything larger. Large panels for relief carvings also are usually glued up, but they present some different issues, that we can discuss.

If a piece will be carved on all four sides, or all around (an "in-the-round" carving), then it is usually not as affected by direction of growth rings. Let's just use the term "bark side" for the area of the wood that would have been closest to the bark. If you look at the end of a piece of wood, you will see a shallow arc or C shape. The convex side is the bark side and the concave side is closer to the heartwood. So, for an "in-the-round" carving, you want the grain of the wood all going the same way, to make carving easier. And it is not really critical whether the pieces are glued up bark to bark, or bark to heart, or heart to heart. Because it will be carved on all sides, the wood cells will be affected equally, and cupping is usually not an issue (like it is with panels). There are more cells on the bark side. Cells can expand because of moisture, or because of cells being removed on the opposite side, no cells to push back against the other side. So that is why bark side usually will bow up….. everything else being equal, there are more cells on that side. But carving away the wood seems to even out the stresses and presasures, and keeps in-the-round carvings from bowing and cupping. Luckily for me, as I have did large pieces with no knowledge of cells and warping! I carved a carousel style rocking horse from 1" boards laminated together, with no concern for growth rings or much else. The laminations allowed me to make mortise and tenon joints that were beyond my skills and tools and the whole thing has not been affected by the past 20 years in the extremes of an attic in the humidity of Arkansas. The inside was hollowed to reduce weight and it was finished with polyurethane. Here are some other examples of "in-the-round" pieces that are glued up.

This guy (William) uses 3/4" pine and scrollsaws general shapes out before gluing them together and carving them.

The artist Gerhard Demetz deliberately leaves gaps and spaces in his glue-ups for carvings that create a dramatic effect. You can see his sculpture glued up, with edges to the front and back, it appears.

I saw a woodcarving at the Crystal Bridges Museum a couple of weeks ago that was carved in 1876 from five boards laminated together. It was often mistaken for bronze, due to the finish applied, but the laminations are apparent, if you know what you are looking for!

Glue-ups for panels for relief carving do pose certain issues and are affected by cupping, unless measures are taken. A jointer is recommended to get the tightest joints possible. While you can use any size board you desire, results will generally be better with 4" or narrower strips.

Gluing with the bark side up as shown in the first example, will cup as shown in the second picture. But there are several ways to minimize the cupping or use it to your advantage. You could turn the pieces on edge and glue them up that way, but it might require a lot of strips to constuct your panel. If you glue them as shown, some pressures will be equalized, simply by carving on the bark side. You would be rqualizing the number of cells. If your carving is quite deep, it may even be necessary to cut some off the back side or cut slots in the back, in order to equalize the stresses there. That has been a common practice for centuries, to balance the stresses created by removing wood from the front.

You can also attach cleats across the back or the sides, dpending on how the boards are oriented, but keeping the grain direction the same on all the pieces will make carving easier. I'm thinking that alternating the growth rings as shown in the second set of drawings, might cause more issues than it cures. Any real life experiences with that? Some carvers suggest that tipping the blade or the fence on the jointer slightly off 90 degrees allows you to introduce a slight camber to the panel, that will offset the pressures released by a high relief carving. But carvers with more experience than I, suggest that simply making several relief cuts on the back of a board will take the "fight" out of it!. No need to fuss with building in camber or worrying about angles.

Just get a decent edge and apply wood glue. Clamp it about every foot, alternating sides, and don't tighten it so much that it bows! Or get some of those fancy clamps made for gluing panels! Use wax paper or wood strips so the clamps don 't leave marks on the wood (react with the glue). Scrape or wipe off excess glue as you prefer.

I use Titebond glue generally, but other glues are useful for certain aspects of carving. I use two part epoxy glue for attaching handles to canes, which is generally endgrain-endgrain with a metal rod. I use CA glue (super glue) in several forms. I use a thicker version for gluing in pins or small pieces of work, like frets on a tiny guitar, or a piece of wood that chipped off (because I didn't pay attention to grain direction) while carving. The thinner CA glue absorbs really well and is useful for making a delicate piece stronger. I have used on the ears of a horse and on leaves and flower petals. It soaks in and dries quickly, making a delicate piece of wood almost like plastic. Be aware that paints may not adhere very well, especially waterbased. I hope this is helpful and answers some questions. More to come in my next one!

 

Glue-ups for large carvings

If you are carving basswood or tupelo, the largest pieces you can get are ususally 4×4 or 4×6 in various lengths (although some companies will custom cut it for you). So you will have to glue pieces together for anything larger. Large panels for relief carvings also are usually glued up, but they present some different issues, that we can discuss.

If a piece will be carved on all four sides, or all around (an "in-the-round" carving), then it is usually not as affected by direction of growth rings. Let's just use the term "bark side" for the area of the wood that would have been closest to the bark. If you look at the end of a piece of wood, you will see a shallow arc or C shape. The convex side is the bark side and the concave side is closer to the heartwood. So, for an "in-the-round" carving, you want the grain of the wood all going the same way, to make carving easier. And it is not really critical whether the pieces are glued up bark to bark, or bark to heart, or heart to heart. Because it will be carved on all sides, the wood cells will be affected equally, and cupping is usually not an issue (like it is with panels). There are more cells on the bark side. Cells can expand because of moisture, or because of cells being removed on the opposite side, no cells to push back against the other side. So that is why bark side usually will bow up….. everything else being equal, there are more cells on that side. But carving away the wood seems to even out the stresses and presasures, and keeps in-the-round carvings from bowing and cupping. Luckily for me, as I have did large pieces with no knowledge of cells and warping! I carved a carousel style rocking horse from 1" boards laminated together, with no concern for growth rings or much else. The laminations allowed me to make mortise and tenon joints that were beyond my skills and tools and the whole thing has not been affected by the past 20 years in the extremes of an attic in the humidity of Arkansas. The inside was hollowed to reduce weight and it was finished with polyurethane. Here are some other examples of "in-the-round" pieces that are glued up.

This guy (William) uses 3/4" pine and scrollsaws general shapes out before gluing them together and carving them.

The artist Gerhard Demetz deliberately leaves gaps and spaces in his glue-ups for carvings that create a dramatic effect. You can see his sculpture glued up, with edges to the front and back, it appears.

I saw a woodcarving at the Crystal Bridges Museum a couple of weeks ago that was carved in 1876 from five boards laminated together. It was often mistaken for bronze, due to the finish applied, but the laminations are apparent, if you know what you are looking for!

Glue-ups for panels for relief carving do pose certain issues and are affected by cupping, unless measures are taken. A jointer is recommended to get the tightest joints possible. While you can use any size board you desire, results will generally be better with 4" or narrower strips.

Gluing with the bark side up as shown in the first example, will cup as shown in the second picture. But there are several ways to minimize the cupping or use it to your advantage. You could turn the pieces on edge and glue them up that way, but it might require a lot of strips to constuct your panel. If you glue them as shown, some pressures will be equalized, simply by carving on the bark side. You would be rqualizing the number of cells. If your carving is quite deep, it may even be necessary to cut some off the back side or cut slots in the back, in order to equalize the stresses there. That has been a common practice for centuries, to balance the stresses created by removing wood from the front.

You can also attach cleats across the back or the sides, dpending on how the boards are oriented, but keeping the grain direction the same on all the pieces will make carving easier. I'm thinking that alternating the growth rings as shown in the second set of drawings, might cause more issues than it cures. Any real life experiences with that? Some carvers suggest that tipping the blade or the fence on the jointer slightly off 90 degrees allows you to introduce a slight camber to the panel, that will offset the pressures released by a high relief carving. But carvers with more experience than I, suggest that simply making several relief cuts on the back of a board will take the "fight" out of it!. No need to fuss with building in camber or worrying about angles.

Just get a decent edge and apply wood glue. Clamp it about every foot, alternating sides, and don't tighten it so much that it bows! Or get some of those fancy clamps made for gluing panels! Use wax paper or wood strips so the clamps don 't leave marks on the wood (react with the glue). Scrape or wipe off excess glue as you prefer.

I use Titebond glue generally, but other glues are useful for certain aspects of carving. I use two part epoxy glue for attaching handles to canes, which is generally endgrain-endgrain with a metal rod. I use CA glue (super glue) in several forms. I use a thicker version for gluing in pins or small pieces of work, like frets on a tiny guitar, or a piece of wood that chipped off (because I didn't pay attention to grain direction) while carving. The thinner CA glue absorbs really well and is useful for making a delicate piece stronger. I have used on the ears of a horse and on leaves and flower petals. It soaks in and dries quickly, making a delicate piece of wood almost like plastic. Be aware that paints may not adhere very well, especially waterbased. I hope this is helpful and answers some questions. More to come in my next one!

Thanks Mike, your blog puts all the theories I mentioned in your last blog in perspective. I have also observed that not following woodworking's time honored 'rules' doesn't always lead to grief.

 

Patterns and Blanks

For an in-the-round carving, a pattern or photo with a front and a profile view are most useful. Sometimes a view of all 4 sides can be helpful whencarving, but generally only two are needed for sawing out the blank. A coping saw or scroll saw can be used, but generally a bandsaw with a 3/16", 4TPI blade is the best way to go. Here is my pattern and I was careful that the front and side lined up at important points like the belt, boots and shoulders.

I decided to do the arms as separate pieces from the body for several reasons. I want the grain to run up and down the body, which will add strength to the legs. But if i did that and the arms were cut out, the grain would be very short in the arms, hands, and fingers, which would make it easy for those areas to break or chip off when carving. If you're going to all the trouble to carve something, you sure don't want it to fall apart! I lay out the arms on smaller pieces of wood with the grain runnning straight up and down as much as possible. It also allows some flexibility in positioning the arms later, for best effect. The head is also a separate piece and I only cut the side profile on the bandsaw. Usually, I cut the hat brim and crown as separate pieces and fit them to the head (a method used by Lynn Doughty). This allows the brim to have the grain oriented properly for strength, allowing it to be really thin. It looks great when done properly, but I wanted to try the older method having the hat and head as one piece. But it will still allow it to be moved and placed on the body for a better appearance.

Make sure your block is square on all sides, to avoid distorting your cutout. I use spray adhesive to glue a photocopy to the front and sidemaking sure the key areas line up. You can also draw the pattern on or use carbon paper, gluing the pattern on is quick and easy. I usually do the most complicated side first.

Stay ouside the outline a bit. It doesn't need to be exact and a little extra to carve with never hurts. You can completely cut off the scraps and re-attach them with glue or tape, but I try to cut just up to the edge and then just snap it or carve it off after cutting the front profile.

After removing the scrap pieces, you now have a blank. You need to draw centerlines down the body, arms, and legs and roughly draw in any main features. On this one, I drew the shapes of the soles on the bottom of the boots, the position of the belt and buckle, and the hands and cuffs on the arms. The purpose of this is to guide you as you use a knife or gouge to remove the corners, rounding off the blank and roughing in the over-all shape of the figure.

Here is the rough-out of the body, sanded a little bit with a rotary tool. I drilled a hole for the neck to fit into and carved the neck down until it looked more natural and fit better. I think I like the head turned to the side like this. Notice the flats where the arm will attach….. I use my disc sander to get a nice flat spot on the body and the end of the arm, so that the glue joint will not be noticed much.

Having the arms separate makes it easy to carve underneath them and around them. You don't carve it completely until it is attached and glued in place, but it makes it easier to get most of the work done. I use a dowel to join the arm and shoulder, both to keep it properly aligned and to add some strength since the arm will be glued on end grain, and it helps mechanically. You can move the arm to the position you like best. I just have this one temporarily placed with a rubber band, until I finish carving the boots and such. A little tip is to only glue them on one at a time and use a bit of inner tube or elastic band to clamp them ion place.

I have the main features drawn back in and now I will carve the belt, collar, and other details as much as possible before gluing the arms on and completeing the carving. But hopefully, you can see where I am headed with this piece.

I hope this series has been helpful for new-er carvers, at least as far as explaining a bit of the teminology and methodology for some types of carvings. I hope it takes a little of the mystery out of the carving process and will encourage you to give it a whirl. Don't be afraid …. it's only wood, after all! Thanks for looking!

 

Patterns and Blanks

For an in-the-round carving, a pattern or photo with a front and a profile view are most useful. Sometimes a view of all 4 sides can be helpful whencarving, but generally only two are needed for sawing out the blank. A coping saw or scroll saw can be used, but generally a bandsaw with a 3/16", 4TPI blade is the best way to go. Here is my pattern and I was careful that the front and side lined up at important points like the belt, boots and shoulders.

I decided to do the arms as separate pieces from the body for several reasons. I want the grain to run up and down the body, which will add strength to the legs. But if i did that and the arms were cut out, the grain would be very short in the arms, hands, and fingers, which would make it easy for those areas to break or chip off when carving. If you're going to all the trouble to carve something, you sure don't want it to fall apart! I lay out the arms on smaller pieces of wood with the grain runnning straight up and down as much as possible. It also allows some flexibility in positioning the arms later, for best effect. The head is also a separate piece and I only cut the side profile on the bandsaw. Usually, I cut the hat brim and crown as separate pieces and fit them to the head (a method used by Lynn Doughty). This allows the brim to have the grain oriented properly for strength, allowing it to be really thin. It looks great when done properly, but I wanted to try the older method having the hat and head as one piece. But it will still allow it to be moved and placed on the body for a better appearance.

Make sure your block is square on all sides, to avoid distorting your cutout. I use spray adhesive to glue a photocopy to the front and sidemaking sure the key areas line up. You can also draw the pattern on or use carbon paper, gluing the pattern on is quick and easy. I usually do the most complicated side first.

Stay ouside the outline a bit. It doesn't need to be exact and a little extra to carve with never hurts. You can completely cut off the scraps and re-attach them with glue or tape, but I try to cut just up to the edge and then just snap it or carve it off after cutting the front profile.

After removing the scrap pieces, you now have a blank. You need to draw centerlines down the body, arms, and legs and roughly draw in any main features. On this one, I drew the shapes of the soles on the bottom of the boots, the position of the belt and buckle, and the hands and cuffs on the arms. The purpose of this is to guide you as you use a knife or gouge to remove the corners, rounding off the blank and roughing in the over-all shape of the figure.

Here is the rough-out of the body, sanded a little bit with a rotary tool. I drilled a hole for the neck to fit into and carved the neck down until it looked more natural and fit better. I think I like the head turned to the side like this. Notice the flats where the arm will attach….. I use my disc sander to get a nice flat spot on the body and the end of the arm, so that the glue joint will not be noticed much.

Having the arms separate makes it easy to carve underneath them and around them. You don't carve it completely until it is attached and glued in place, but it makes it easier to get most of the work done. I use a dowel to join the arm and shoulder, both to keep it properly aligned and to add some strength since the arm will be glued on end grain, and it helps mechanically. You can move the arm to the position you like best. I just have this one temporarily placed with a rubber band, until I finish carving the boots and such. A little tip is to only glue them on one at a time and use a bit of inner tube or elastic band to clamp them ion place.

I have the main features drawn back in and now I will carve the belt, collar, and other details as much as possible before gluing the arms on and completeing the carving. But hopefully, you can see where I am headed with this piece.

I hope this series has been helpful for new-er carvers, at least as far as explaining a bit of the teminology and methodology for some types of carvings. I hope it takes a little of the mystery out of the carving process and will encourage you to give it a whirl. Don't be afraid …. it's only wood, after all! Thanks for looking!

I have enjoyed this blog series… your explanation to reproduce is very easy to follow.
Thanks for taking the time to put this into a blog….Long live carving!