Phil’s carving log

[GrandpaPhil]

I’m currently trying to carve my entry ports for my model of the Victory.  It’s a steep learning curve, which is a nice way of saying that it’s not going well.

 

I have carved a bas relief before, but at much larger scale.

 

 I am going to give these carvings a try.

 

I printed the patterns out and pasted them down to the board.  I’ll let y’all know how it goes.

 

[GrandpaPhil]

I’m not sure what order we’re supposed to do these in, but I started with this one because it looked like the easiest to cut out.

 

 I used a #11 X-Acto blade

[GrandpaPhil]

1st attempt, 1/16” thick basswood 

[Jim Rogers]

Great work. They would be calling me Stubby after I finished.

[paulsutcliffe]

Hi Phil

Great effort, if you have any harder wood like box or any fruit wood you will get a much smoother finish, lime is to soft for this kind o work really, but still a great first carving

Regards

Paul

[druxey]

A harder specie of wood than basswood is needed for miniature carvings, as Paul advises. You will immediately see the difference, especially if your tools are kept razor sharp!

[GrandpaPhil]

Finished the second one!  Still 1/16” basswood!  Still learning!

 

Having fun and feeling better about the Victory’s carvings.

 

 I have some cedar grilling planks that are going to get cannibalized into those carvings.

[GrandpaPhil]

Thank you

Edited November 2, 2018 by GrandpaPhil

[GrandpaPhil]

I made the crown cipher on my third attempt.  I bas reliefed it into 3/16” basswood.  It’s not perfect but it’ll do for now.  I made it with a #11 x-acto blade.

 

Among my lessons learned is that basswood is not really effective for miniature carving (which I already knew, but I wanted to try it anyway, because I have a lot of it, lol).

 

 I also learned that I am going to have to buy some pear or boxwood for the carvings on the Victory, because these are giant in comparison.

[Louie da fly]

I do all my carving in pearwood and can get some pretty fine detail. Never tried box, but can certainly recommend pear.

 

Can you post a photo of your carvings with something that can give an idea of scale? (Matchstick, coin, ruler, whatever)

 

Steven

[JerseyCity Frankie]

Painting basswood with Sanding Sealer before you begin to work on it does a lot to combat the fuzziness of the basswood fibers. If you’re like me you’re too cheep to buy better wood to work with but there are still other species of wood more suitable to carving if you look around. For instance older wooden rulers and yardsticks are made of pretty tight grained wood, the older measuring sticks were actually made of boxwood! 

[GrandpaPhil]

I have a few pieces of cedar to use for the rest of the Victory’s carvings and for the Triton.  

 

I’ve learned a lot since running through the carving tutorials, but these were an excellent starting point.