Eric’s carving attempt using coping saw, #11 blades and wood chisel

[EricWilliamMarshall]

Since Chuck kindly posted the scale pdf of the decorations, I felt laziness and a bit of fear were the only bars to an attempt. 

 

After printing, I glued the paper to my sacrificial bits of wood. I aligned the longest direction of the pattern with the direction of the grain in a hope to reduce the wood splitting apart.

Edited December 16, 2019 by EricWilliamMarshall
Changed title

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I first started to saw the wood without support and that made me nervous. I found piece of pine scrap with a pre-existing hole a cut a v-shape and then clamped the pine to my work area. That worked better but sometimes I found myself sawing into the pine as well as my target. A few pencil marks helped that issue.

 

For the sawing, staying vertical can be a challenge and tight turns require cutting a extra bit out with the saw so the back of the saw blade doesn’t bind when turning. The whole cutout took 15 minutes; which was quicker than I expected. That’s nice because anything printed and glued can be cut! I used a jeweer’s saw since I don’t have ‘proper’ cooping saw and the smallest blade I could find - again for jewelry making.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

Flipped over the piece and glued it to a chunk of 2x4 for support and ease of handling. The paper in between will later when remove the carved piece from the support. After it dried, I drew the image in the piece to be craved.

[GrandpaPhil]

Well done!  Good start!

Edited December 15, 2019 by GrandpaPhil

[reklein]

Nice, but, I think I would have left it partially attached the main piece of wood so as to have a handle while carving the piece. Then cut it from the stock and finish it.

Edited December 15, 2019 by reklein

[EricWilliamMarshall]

Using a ‘regular’ flat wood chisel and a x-acto blade, I cut in “low” areas. The contrast between high and low helps define the definition of the different areas.

 

I’ve used a combination of vertical and then horizontal cuts to knock chunks of wood, with slicing cuts for vertical cuts for the curves.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

Thanks for the suggestion, reklein. I thought gluing it to the block of wood would work in a similar fashion. I’ll keep you posted.

 

Thanks to everyone for the likes!

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I’ll have think about cutting inside curves. If you will pardon the pun, the x-acto doesn’t cut it.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I ground down a bit of brass tube to make a circle-shaped ‘punch’ for the center of the flower and I ground down a X-acto blade for scraping the previously described inside curves. It was quick to do and they worked ok.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I undercut the flowers slightly and the carving looked ok enough for the time spent so far. I popped the carving off and wet the paper and rubbed most of it off quickly. The rest yielded to the X-acto blade with a couple quick scapes.

 

I noticed a couple of my cuts didn’t cut all to the base so I scraped that as well. 

 

I thought I would need to scrape or sand at this point, but I’m happy enough with the exercise as is.  Beyond the the sawing, the cutting (and grinding) took two 15 minutes sessions (plus a bit more for photos). I assume this would quicker with practice. I think I would invest in buying or making a small gouge to supplant my ‘scraper’.

Edited December 16, 2019 by EricWilliamMarshall

[reklein]

Turned out pretty good, Ya got a fine touch. Like Snoopy catching bubbles.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

On 12/15/2019 at 8:40 PM, reklein said:

Turned out pretty good, Ya got a fine touch. Like Snoopy catching bubbles.

You are too kind! Thanks!

 

Edited December 26, 2019 by EricWilliamMarshall

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I covered the carving with several coats of water based polyurethane, which ‘smoothed out” the texture of the cut wood, making it look much better, than it actually is!

[Chuck]

That really looks nice.  I dont think the others know just how small that carving really is.  A fine job indeed.

[druxey]

Nicely done, Eric; particularly with the comparatively large tools you are using. If you are serious about miniature carving, you might consider acquiring some miniature carving tools. It will make a difficult job much easier.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

Druxey, I have ordered a handful of Dockyard mini chisels to play with (or more accurately, to see if I can sharpen and then play with them!)

 

Thanks Chuck, druxey, reklein, and everyone else again for taking the time to take a peek and comments!

[GrandpaPhil]

Well done!