Wood Carving: Take 1

Posted by Phenix

April 28, 2009

Well, I recieved my tools and supplies yesterday! I couldn’t even wait to get home to try the stuff out. I sat in my office after I was officially off work, and drew out a design and began some practice carving. The design was something I’ve been playing with lately to be used as a potential logo for The Phenixblue. Transferring the deisgn over to the wood was extremely easy (the Basswood is soft enough that if you lay your paper with a design on it over the wood and trace it with a pen or pencil it will leave an indention of the contour lines). I started off tracing the outline with the 60° V gouge. A vice, or some clamps would help greatly to secure the block so you only have to focus on the goudge and the design. I next moved to the “Sweep” goudge and began the relief carving. My plan was to go along the outside border and remove wood to give the main design an “elevated” appearance. This proved to be somewhat difficult on my small design (I need a bigger piece of wood!!!). Tight curves and small lines are extremely hard right now. I was able to get the job done with a little modification of the design, and some flailing about with carving knives in tight areas to loosen the wood! I had to leave the office after about 30 minutes of working on it (design time included). I picked it up again once I got home for the day (around 9:00pm). I decided to try every tool in the box just to see what each could do. After I got to a point where I actually felt I had accomplished something (about 1.5 hours later) I decided to stop carving and take a closer look at what I had done. A closer examination taught me a lot about what angles I needed to hold the tools at for certain areas, and what tools would make certain tasks a little easier. I did a little sanding to smooth everything out, and that made a huge difference itself. Overall, It was fun and very theraputic! I think I could see the fun in doing this with others. Maybe sitting around a campfire, comparing each others work, and offering suggestions alike. Hopefully I’ll have something worthy of pictures soon! More to come though,

-Phenix