Secondly, much will depend upon the type of carving - bas-relief "plaque" (such as trailboards)? In-the-round (such as figurehead)? Applique (scrolls and stars to fasten on surface)?
If the piece is complicated, consider gluing together several blocks to insure that the grain runs along slim pieces (you don't want a cross-grained sword!). A figurehead may benefit from being made from three pieces, the center one being the thickness of the stem that the figure will eventually fit over.
The first thing to do is to "draw" the objective onto the wood. The easiest way, given an existing drawing, is to glue a full-size copy of the drawing onto the wood (Don't use water-based glues, such as Elmer's - It will cause the paper to stretch!) I prefer acetate-based glues, such as model airplane cement - many people use rubber cement, but I find that as the pieces of paper get smaller and smaller it tends to lose it's grip. If the carving is in-the-round, you may want to provide both a front and side view on the stock.
Next, saw to profile. If you have front and side views, saw the profile of one, then re-attach the piece with the other view (glue it to areas that will be sawn off) and saw again. Also drill and profile any pierced holes at this time. Finally restore any lines that may have been removed during the sawing. Make sure the blank fits where the final carving will go – it's annoying to have to redo a carving because the first attempt was too big to fit in the space required!
If the carving has to be fitted to another surface (e.g., to a curved section of planking or over a molding) do the fitting now, rather than waiting until the carving is complete – and delicate! (I find that putting a scrap of carbon-paper onto the target area with the carbon out and then applying the blank will transfer smudges to the "high" spots on the blank – pare off the smudges and repeat until the whole back of the carving is uniformly smudged.) If you took my advice and laminated the figurehead it will now straddle the knee with very little work.
I then knock off any corners and edges that require a lot of wood to be removed – just don't try to split off the waste – carve it away.
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I next pick areas that will be excavated most deeply, and "waste" the wood away using a Dremel tool and bur. I don't try to finish the surface, just remove wood, and preserve the "walls" bounding them. If "ganging" a series, I do the same work on each, rather than completing one before starting on the next – that way they stay uniform even if you skill improves during the process.
Repeat for successively shallower cavities. By working from the bottom up, you'll leave the pattern for the last pieces until you need them. This stage ends up with a surface with a bunch of "mesa" standing out.
Round off the edges. Use a coin as an example of how much material needs to be removed to give shape to thin work.
All of the prior could be done with a Dremel and Xacto knife. Finally, clean up the surface with a cutting tool (carving tools if you have them, but an Xacto knife ore even scraps of broken razor blades will work – the object is to remove the fuzz on the surface and leave it polished - DON'T try to sand it.
Finally, if you'd glued the work to plastic, paint with acetone, pop off
the carving, and put a small (1/32") chamfer on the back sides so that
it will appear to float on the mounting surface.
{John O. Kopf}
All my carvings are being done by hand with a complete assortment of Dockyard Models miniature carving tools (The Lee Valley tools you have are made by Dockyard, or licensed out by them), as well as a few tools I made myself from music wire and hacksaw blade bits.
The basic technique I am using is as follows: First, draw a pattern of the carving on tracing paper in ink, or dark, hard pencil (something that won't smudge or rub off). Next prepare the carving blank. Depending upon the size and finished shape of the carving, this could be a single large piece, or as in the case of the stern arch board carving, several pieces of overly thick boxwood glued together so that the grain direction follows the arch, and then shaped to fit over the convex "round-aft" of the stern.
When the blank is ready, the tracing paper pattern is glued on with contact cement. When dry, the outline, or profile of the piece is cut out with a hand coping or jeweler's saw. The sawn out blank is then spot glued to a "work block" which can be easily gripped, chocked, blocked, or clamped in any attitude.
The design is then relief carved into the blank, following the pattern.
In the case of the quarter badges, I made a single thick cut-out and
then sliced it into two mirror image pieces which were glued side by
side to a work block and carved simultaneously. The finished
carvings were then treated with Watco oil. However, I plan to paint
the figurehead, which will be about the only thing on the model that
will be painted. As an aside, I have decided to make the figurehead
quite different from the seahorse suggested by Harold Hahn, or the
bust of King Neptune suggested by another magazine article some
years back. Rather, I have decided to go with a full figure of Sir
Edward Halifax, a president of the British Board of Trade, holding
the Halifax City Charter, Kings Grant, or whatever (artistic license
here) and the person for whom the city (and no doubt the schooner)
was named.
{Jim Roberts}
Just a few thoughts :
I started with Fr. Romeros Book on the Fubbs aside. This has been extremely helpful. My first attempts have been lion heads as base relief carvings (shown in the book) and men's faces as full figure carvings. These were needed for the knightheads and for the top of the headrails of my Dutch two-decker. Scale is 1/75, so the faces for the knightheads are real small or even tiny, the ones for the headrails being somewhat bigger. Father Romero guided me through these attempts.
If you don't have this book I would recommend you get it, even if you never plan to build the Fubbs. It is fulfilled with hints and ideas, especially on miniature carving.
Don't be discouraged when you have to throw away a figure when you just finished 3 quarters. That's what happened to me. Due to a major mistake or when controlling the figure on the ship and you see it is slightly too small or too big. Every piece you carve will take you one step ahead with your carving experience.
I use only a power tool for micro burrs. I'm not very confident in using chisels for model carving, even though the old artists haven't had any powered tools. But micro burrs are faster, safer, and you get them in many different shapes.
Busch is one of the 2 German brands. If you can get them on your side of the pond, they are the tools to go with. You need burrs down to 0,2 mm for finest details. A handheld tool that accepts 2,43 mm shaft tools is essential. There are quite a few on the market, from low budget at around $15 to high end products at $700. I have 3 of the low budget ones and plan to purchase one of the high end tools. Having several tools is very convenient because you will find that you have to change the burr shapes very often. With three tools on the bench it is nice to grab the one which currently holds the right burr. The reason for a high end Swiss-made motor tool is just the quality. The cheap ones work, of course, but due to plastic housings, the lack of high end ball bearings and stuff like that make them very vibrational. Carving is fun, and you will find that a session easily extends 1 hour or more. And with the cheap ones after some 20 minutes your hand and later your whole arm starts vibrating. This is really unpleasant, somewhat like after an electric shock.
Boxwood is really nice to carve, but quite expensive and hard to
come by. You should have a look on Swiss pear. My experience is
it is as hard as boxwood, hold sharp edges and tiniest details as
good as boxwood. And not so expensive.
{Thomas Neuneck}
THERE ARE MANY in Canada BILL JUDD is one. Now after going to
the www and & education as to the various wood carving cut's and
some other basic's . Let me know and we can continue to the
Important stuff (making a HARD clay model first, keeping
your tools RAZOR sharp and safety Have a good day
{ED K}
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