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Relief carving practice questions.

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So I would like to practice my relief carving and I'm wondering if there is a readily available wood that is comparable to stock woods to practice on?
 
So I would like to practice my relief carving and I'm wondering if there is a readily available wood that is comparable to stock woods to practice on?
You can order hardwoods online or check your local area for hardwood suppliers, those that deal specifically in hardwoods.
 
There’s all kinds of decently priced figured maple boards on eBay. If you’re planning on carving on a curly maple stock, I’d think you’d want to practice on a curly maple board and not just a plain maple board from a hardware store so that you can get a feel for the varying grain patterns and how to approach them with the chisels you have on hand. That’s my plan of attack anyway.

Best Regards,

Josh Sawyer
 
The tricky part about carving isn't so much getting the shaping down---commonly called modeling---(that could actually be done with a homogeneous substance like plaster of Paris) but in dealing with the varying grain direction and tendency to chip and tear-out. Or the waves in the figure that makes the background plane want to undulate as you are trying to get it level. The key to getting this all right is to have super sharp tools that will want to cut rather than dig. Stropping your tools often will help you maintain that super sharp edge. After a while you'll develop a feel for it and just give it a few passes more and more often.

With LR's, in general, you want low carving. 1/16" max but most of it around 1/32". Most people when they are beginning tend to make it too high. The trick is to make this low relief carving LOOK like it's high relief. You can do this by trenching or undercutting your volutes which will let more stain nest in there. Once the finish goes on it will wind up filling up the little trench so it will be invisible on the finished product.

Of course, it's not as much the execution of the carving that is important, but the design and flow. Also, the SHAPING of the individual features. You want to avoid "elbows" in volutes, and for the most part, parallel lines. These features are generally, continuously evolving. The curves are getting tighter or looser. The shapes are getting wider and narrower. The relationships between them (or may not) may remain the same, but the shapes change. When they remain static, that's what can give carving a "by the numbers" and somewhat "cold" look.

So what you really need to do FIRST is practice with a pencil and paper a lot. As much (if not more gauged by time involved) as you do with the tools themselves. Just draw the individual volutes, and then tendrils until you like them. You can draw something in about 1/1000th the amount of time it takes to carve it. And if you can't draw it beautifully, you can't carve it beautifully.
 
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