Popular Woodworking 2009-06 № 176, страница 13

When a board is out of flat, we all know what to do. But what doc* one do when one encounters a C-scroll on a curved surface such as the knee of a cabrtole leg?

I asked St orb to come back to my shop andshowushowtodoit. I led*! follow untie

basic steps. But they were fairly general in nature I felt they were too general to he of much assistance on their own.

So instead of goingstep by stepthrough the process as we did in the ball-and-claw antcle. I thought rdtrytoilhist rate some of the tips and tricks Storb used while he was working. These won't allow usall to finally cam- like Storb. but they will provide some insight Into the approaches and tricks he uses. Hopefully, we can try some of litem when we encounter similar situations in our carving.

Basic Low-relief Carving Process

The bask process for executing low-relief carvingconsistsof four steps; drawing,stdb-bingin the design, groundingand modeling. Each step requires skill, care and practice.

The drawing step seems simple enough Get a pencil and draw the desired design on your workpiece. Well, not so fast. In 1762. cabinetmakers William Mayhcw and John Incc wrote a book in many ways similar to, but ksswell-knownthan. Thomas Chippai-dalesfamous'DlrfCtor." I nee and Maybevs book, entitled simply "Universal System of I lousehold Furniture." includes what wr now can see was a typical emphasis on drawing.

.. The principal Sweepor Centre Line is the round* km and Basis of the whole Orcer of Ornament; that must be first drawn and

made perfect (which can only be done by freed.HH of Hand) . . .."

I now believe that It Is a truism that one cannot carve what one cannot draw. This drawingstepisabsolutely critical. Thequcs-tion i». on what media doe* it take place? I suspect paper is the answer, not wood.

The design is set in with gouges of the appropriatcsizcandswecpofcurvature. For kmgeurves. a narrow gouge of the appropriate sweep canbe used. Makeaseriesofstab cuts, "walking" the gouge along, leavinga third of the tool's width in the prcviouscut. The result is a smooth arc. If the sweep is not exactly right, choose a narrow gouge and walk it around as before, but thlstime

nuke the stab cut send to end, "cheating'or approximating the desired curvature.

The stabbing-in stcpcan be done with a

The Basics of Low-relief Carving