Incised carving

Trapper Scott said:

Like you, I know my limitations. I'm a stick figure artist like one of the other commenters mentioned.

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Yep, I met my Waterloo on that attempt.

Robby said:

I have always found incise carving much more demanding the relief carving. Some use a 'V' chisel with great success, I have not enough confidence in my hand obeying my brain anymore to do it that way. I use a knife and an exacto knife, it probably takes more time but it works for me.View attachment 168371
Robby

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That’s beautiful!

TDM said:

Yep, I met my Waterloo on that attempt.

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Right there with ya.

My first attempt at relief / incise carving. My advice is razor sharp tools and much patience. Most of the work was hand powered, but I used a small ball peen hammer in places where if the tool jumps out of the cut it might ruin something. And given enough time, your tool will jump! Followed quickly by much #!%$&*#!. I know this personally! I found that a set of small gouges, V cuts and carving knives, think art store stuff works best. I have a set of full size carving tools, but I only used the smallest gouge, they are designed for bigger work. I also found that I used a small carving knife as a wood scraper. I could not carve a smooth flat transition from a carved surface to the stock proper. And drawing the knife edge at an almost 90 degree angle, patiently, got the job done. I also found that cutting cross grain worked better for me. Curly maple is hard, hard and the grain is a roller coaster! I could cut with the grain, but little chip outs were a constant issue. Keep your tools wicked sharp, and strop often while working. The more securely you can hold the stock while working, and good lighting helps much.

ronaldrothb49 said:

Nothing easier about getting incised carving to look good. From what I have seen originals with only incised carving tend to be rather simple patterns. I usually use a combination of low relief and incised which you see on a lot of originals.

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What specific gouges do u use? I’d like to try more carving but want to get more gouges but not sure what I would need without buying more then I need cuz they r expensive

for cheap I would go on amazon and look up power grip carving tools. not that expensive and work well. get both u and v shape in 1.5mm and 3mm. my other incise carving tools are ramalson. incise carving is all about your ability to draw. I prefer hand push tools.

jtkerk said:

What specific gouges do u use? I’d like to try more carving but want to get more gouges but not sure what I would need without buying more then I need cuz they r expensive

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I have a couple of small V groove gouges but seldom use them. Mostly I use a knife and some home made scrapers which I made from needle files, It works for me.

Flintandsteel said:

Incised carving is much more difficult to get to look good than relief. The lines MUST be perfect! At least with relief carving, there is some room to make some corrections.
It’s very easy to turn a $1500 kit into a $300 rifle with crappy carving.
A well executed, plain gun is much better looking than a poorly carved and decorated one.

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I agree