luigi

I present here the latest photos of my Royal Sun. It is not finished and if it interests you I would put you following as work progresses.
Excuse me but not speaking English I use the Google translator

Beautiful

I am far from being an expert at carving in wood.  This was my first attempt and it seemed to work really well.  I am sure some of you will have alternative methods for mounting your carving blanks.
 
The Queen's cipher is probably the easiest of the designs to start with so I recommend starting with those.
 

 
To mount the blank,  I used a thicker 1/8" or 3/16" thick piece of scrap wood (not included with the blanks).  Its cherry and is hard enough to take a beating.  I would imagine softer woods are not the best to use and probably should be avoided.  The base was cut just a little larger than the piece being carved.  It was glued on with a childs glue stick.  This glue is easy to remove and cures permanent and strong....but will easily be treated with rubbing alcohol when the time comes to remove it.
 
  Dont be shy with how much you use.  You want this piece secure.  These are fragile pieces at 1/32" thick.  Take special care with the areas that would be prone to breaking like the bottom tails for the letters.  The glue will dry hard but also flatter.   If some squished out its not a problem because you can easily scrape it away while carving.     Because the designs are so thin it will have a tendency to curl when wet with glue.  To solve this problem I sandwiched it with another small scrap piece and clamped it to dry.  I let it dry overnight before starting to carve it.     To remove the piece after you are done...I literally just filled a small plastic container with 90% rubbing alcohol and dropped it in.  I let it fully submerge in a 1" deep bath for about 3 hours.  It actually fell right off the base without any trouble.   Feel free to share other ways here or in your logs when you start one.  I would NOT recommend trying to carve these blanks without mounting them to a base.  They will just break apart in the first 2 seconds.   Chuck

The stop cut is very important in relief carving.  It is a two stroke cut that is used to create depth and relief.
 
If you look at the crown design you can see the cross piece of the letters.  I have indicated a stop cut on each side of the cross piece in red.  
 

 
To replicate this in my crude playdoh demo.....I have created the letter A.  Note the wood grain added.
 

 
The first stroke in a stop cut is to slice very carefully to the depth you want.  In this case I am creating a cut straight down.  Remember not to try and go too deep on the first try but rather make a series of stop cuts until you reach the desired depth and shape.  So this first stroke if very shallow to only just begin creating depth.
 

 
Heres what it looks like in playdoh
 

 
The second stroke of a stop cut is to slice a very thin sliver off.  Carve with your blade or chisel towards the stop cut.  A small sliver should pop free creating depth.
 

 
Repeat this process until you reach a depth and shape you want....yes I know it doesnt look great in playdoh but you get the idea.  I am using a small kitchen knife to represent my micro chisel or #11 blade.  Remember that the piece is just 1/32" thick so you will be taking it down at microscopic intervals as you repeat the two stroke stop cut many times on each side of the cross piece.
 

 
Then start the process on the other side of the cross bar...
 

 

 

 
Eventually you will have created some depth in the piece and then you could further shape it by rounding off the edges and cleaning it up....
 
 
again ...take a look at my first attempt and and how the cross piece of the letters looks after applying stop cuts to each side....then cleaning it up.  I am sure more experienced carvers can do a much better job with it but this particular cut is used throughout relief carving for ship model carvings.  You will use it a lot.  As I did on my paper design...you can mark where you want your stop cuts in advance....they are shown in red on the drawing.  You can see the other carving and probably pick out where I used the stop cut.  I like to plan ahead and mark them out on my drawing.  I like to pencil where all of the overlaps will be and depth is created.  Its easy to lose track when you lose yourself in the carving process and seeing the pencil marks on the carving helps avoid a mistake where you will have to start over.
 

 
see my pencil marks on the uncarved half of this piece.  They show where I will use stop cuts.
 

For our needs basswood is problematic...I did carve one of the crowns in cherry but using castello worked much better.   I have not tried pear.   I have tried Yellow cedar and that works beautifully.  Carves like butter.  No grain at all.  Its a softer wood but very strong.  Hold a clean crisp egde.
 
I also tried Jelatung and Tupalo (I think thats how you spell it)  Not good for our small carvings though.   Way too soft.
 
But Alaskan Yellow cedar has possibilities.   I Loved it so much I actually started building another barge with it.   Here is a sneak peek.  In comparison with Cherry version.  If you can get some its worth a try.  The entire backbone is done in alaskan yellow cedar.
 
 

As I mentioned earlier...I am just a beginner with carving.  But to get this group started, allow me the opportunity to describe the 4 basic cuts or techniques I used to carve the crown cipher and the other designs.  This is what I covered with my local club before we undertook the actual carving.  Because the pieces are so small, I used Playdoh to demonstrate the four cuts  we were going to start with.  It allowed us to demonstrate in larger scale so everyone could see it.
 
Once I am done with cut one....please do reply and let me know if this method to describe the cuts translates well enough for the web.  If you guys think this is a good method I will delete your replies and continue with the remaining three.....
 
So let me begin.
 
To start here is an exampled of the same cipher on a contemporary model.    It very plainly carved.  And its gilded.
 

 
Here is my first try also gilded.
 

 
 
When you download and print the design patterns here
 
scaledecorationschart.pdf
 
You will notice on the crown design below, that I added some lines and arrows....the short red lines indicate where we have stop cuts...to be explained later.   The dark vertical lines show the wood grain.  The arrows indicate suggested direction for slicing the laser char from the sides of your carving.  Either with a # 11 blade or chisel.  I used a #11 blade.  I recommend you indicate the grain direction on the enlarged designs before you begin...and also draw in where you will place your stop cuts to establish depth....and arrows to indicate what direction you will slice and carve in.  Its just good practice and a great exercise before the wood shavings start flying.  As you can see I only did this for some of the cuts on the crown cipher......feel free to fill in the others on your design sheet before you begin.
 

 
Note the left leg of the monogram.  It has an arrow in green.  This is used to demonstrate the importance in cut direction with your chisel or blade.
 
The playdough piece below represents this same part of the crown cipher.  Notice the grooves I added to represent the wood grain.
 

 
When you are slicing with your chisel or blade....I watched everyone in my club group begin.  It is logical that everyone would start with the design right side up.....and start with this leg of the design.  The goal when starting is just to slice away the laser char from the sides of the piece.  Most started slicing off small shavings in the direction shown below.  I did this also.
 
Its seems like the obvious way to do it.  But guess what happened?
 

 
The blade caught on the grain and either split the leg off entirely or creating a large chip along the grain direction which ruined the piece.....time to start again.  Can you see how this would happen?
 
Some also decided not to slice or chisel away the char as they were shaping the edges.  They decided to scrape it off with the edge of the #11 blade.  Not only did this make a horrible noise...I wouldnt recommend this approach.  It leaves a dirty and rough surface that wont take a finish well.  It just doesnt look good.  Since we are trying to learn carving its best to try cutting or chiseling.  Very tiny thin shavings....dont try to remove too much.  This takes time to do.  Its very delicate work.
 
Instead
 
Slice in the other direction as shown below.
 

 
This may seem obvious to most but it is well worth mentioning.   This completes the first type of basic cut used on these pieces.  Its real beginner stuff but hopefully useful.   Analyze your piece for the wood grain and its direction and pre-plan the direction of your cuts to avoid splitting and ruining your piece.
 
You can do this ahead of time by drawing arrows on your printed design sheet. 
 
Let me know guys if this way of explaining the four basic cuts works....if it does....I will continue on with basic cut number two.....the stop cut.  God I love the smell of playdoh!!!!!!
 
Chuck