---- Chris Pye: WOODCARVING - NEWSLETTER ---- February 2006 http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com "Dedicated to the teaching, learning and love of woodcarving" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is an opt-in newsletter and you should only be receiving it because you requested it from the website, or were sent it by a friend. Subscribe or Unsubscribe easily on the home page here: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/ or using the link at the end of the newsletter. ****Back issues here: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/intro/pastnews.html including zipfiles for 2001, 2002 & 2003, 2004 & 2005 newsletters ========================================================== Hello Everyone! Many, many thanks to everyone who has forwarded this email to friends and family. Please keep passing it on and getting them to add themselves to the distribution list. CONTENTS: Some new additions to the website: 1. Those Multiple Copies... 2. If you write to me... 3. Learning to Carve 2 - free ebook 4. Quick Carving Questions 1. Frosters? 2. Smooth Surfaces? 3. Brass Name Plates 4. Pfeil Term, 'Cut'? 5. Follow Ups 1. Carving in a Tight Space 2. Protecting your Hands (1) 3. Protecting your Hands (2) 4. 'Learning to Carve' Advice 5. Sharpening Machines Website Bookmarks at the end. Woodcarving Tuition Slipstones Woodcarving Manuals ________________________________________________ 1. Multiple Copies of this Newsletter ________________________________________________ A few of you have written to say that I've sent you several copies of this newsletter and, thanks, but one would be enough... I don't actually email out over 4500 newsletter from my home computer but use a (sorry to be technical) form-thingy, round the back of the website. Neither I nor the web guys have any idea why this form-thingy recently and occasionally has decided to send out more than one newsletter as it to some people. I do apologise if you have been on the receiving end of this glitch. Please just delete any superfluous copies. ________________________________________________ 2. IF YOU WRITE TO ME... ________________________________________________ Just a note to say that while I do read and appreciate all emails that readers of this newsletter or visitors to the website might send me, I also do not have the time to reply to them all. More and more I am forced to triage or reply more curtly than I would wish. If you do write, please bear this in mind and accept that I am not necessarily being rude. ________________________________________________ 3. LEARNING TO CARVE 2 - FREE EBOOK ________________________________________________ As promised I have compiled the articles I recently wrote into an ebook: Learning to Carve 2. This is now available on the website where you'll see it featured on the home page. For a direct link, look here: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/learncarving2.html Full list of available ebooks: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/index.html ALL YOURS! You are free to copy any or all of these ebooks, send them to your carving friends, or have them available on your own website but: * You must not charge money for them. If you make them available from your own website: * Please don't link directly to mine. Put a copy up on your server and link from a page of your own website. You may use the graphics and text on my site. * Please accredit me as author and I'd appreciate a link to my website. PRINTING: These ebooks will print well providing your printer settings match the page of the ebook (effectively a web page). However, this often seems difficult to get correct, and the right margin can be cut off. *Try printing the page with your printer set to LANDSCAPE. I hope you find the new ebook useful in helping you follow the woodcarving path more happily and successfully. __________________________________________ 4. QUICK CARVING QUESTIONS __________________________________________ **** QUESTION 1: FROSTERS? **** "On page 218 of your 'Woodcarving Tools, Materials & Equipment' you show some punches you call 'FROSTERS.' Where can I buy them? **** ANSWER **** Frosters or matting tools look like small meat-tenderising mallets and are used to texture a background for example. I would guess any supplier of woodcarving tools (including online) would have them, perhaps under a different name. Most of mine are hand made by cutting the teeth or ridges into the end of a bolt with a triangular file or hacksaw. =================================== **** QUESTION 2: SMOOTH SURFACES? **** "How do I get eyes as smooth as on your Green Man 1? I seem to leave too many tool marks." **** ANSWER **** * Do the main shaping with the gouge 'upside down' and thus in sympathy with the convex surface you are creating. * Scrape the surface, with the grain, with small scrapers made from hacksaw or Stanley knife blades. * Sand finely to a polish. =================================== **** QUESTION 3: BRASS NAME PLATES? **** "I'd like to use a brass plate as you do on carvings but can't find where to get one made and, in particular where I can design the logo myself. Any suggestions on sources?" **** ANSWER **** A trophy engraver makes the ones I use especially for me. They are relatively simple: a circle with 2 screw holes towards the edge and my name written in a straightforward Roman script. I don't know about having a non-standard logo engraved but I would ask and start my search with the same engraver. =================================== **** QUESTION 4: PFEIL TERM, 'CUT'? **** "I want to buy some Pfeil chisels but am confused by the recommended list on your website. What does the term "cut" in front of the chisel number mean? Will it make sense to a retailer? Please clarify as I don't want to order the wrong tools." **** ANSWER **** Pfeil - translating from the German (Swiss) uses the term 'cut' where the English term is 'sweep': the arc of the circle that is the cutting edge when looked at end on. Anyone selling Pfeil tools will know this. However, do bear in mind that the numbering system is out of step with the more common Sheffield list: Pfeil cut #2 corresponds to Sheffield #3 for example. __________________________________________ 5. FOLLOW UPS __________________________________________ 1. CARVING IN A TIGHT SPACE - Nov 2005 (Thanks to Gordon Paterson Dowling, Ontario, Canada) The book: "Hand Tools - Their Ways and Workings" by Alden A. Watson, provides details for construction of a foldaway bench in a closet space similar to what you suggested. 2. PROTECTING YOUR HANDS (1) - DEC 2005 (Thanks to Judy Johnson) Regarding sore flesh on forearms, the protective sleeve that butchers wear not only protects your skin but also any long-sleeved clothing. I located mine through my friendly local butcher. 3. PROTECTING YOUR HANDS (2)- DEC 2005 (Thanks to Malcolm Wall) I don't find that my fingers get sore, but my palms and knuckles do take abrasion from chisel handles, and the edges of carved work. I wear bicycle gloves while carving and find them very light and comfortable. These are good leather half-gloves that extend to the proximal interphalangial joint (the one outboard of the knuckle, in Navy terminology). 4. LEARNING TO CARVE ADVICE (Thanks to Ed Mckamey) I continue to enjoy your newsletter and certainly couldn't agree more with the 'Commitment and Tenacity' guidance that the mastercarver, Gino Masero, provided you long ago. [Quoted in the new ebook 'Learning to Carve 2'] My own former master, periodically reminded me what Marcus Aurelius said almost 2000 yrs. ago: "Do not think that what is hard for thee to master, is impossible for man. For if a thing is proper and possible for man, deem it achievable by thee." 5. SHARPENING MACHINES - Dec 2005 Thanks to Lawrence Nadwodney) One aspect of hand sharpening is that it teaches you your tools. The faster you can sharpen a given tool, the faster that tool will need sharpening, by virtue of the wheels being soft. Once you get to a mechanical system, it will be faster, but you lose the hand touch, or as it was called in the old days, the "feel" of the tool. Also, I agree that beginners try as many tools as possible before settling on one brand. ================================================= That's it. Joy and success in your carving! Chris Pye ------------------------- PS: One for the bench: "It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape, keep one at it more than anything." ~ Virginia Woolf ____________________________________________________________ SOME WEBSITE BOOKMARKS ____________________________________________________________ ------------ TEACHING 2006 * UK (1-TO-1 PERSONAL TUITION) The best way to learn to learn or improve your carving, and easy to arrange. Full details here: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/tuition/t_custom.html * USA (CENTER FOR FURNITURE CRAFTSMANSHIP, MAINE) 2006 June 19 - 23 Wood Sculpture June 26 - July 7 Relief Carving July 10 - 14 Intermediate/Advanced Carving Details on the website: http://www.woodschool.org/ --------- SLIPSTONES WOODCARVING MANUALS Help yourself! You are free to copy any or all of these ebooks, send them to your carving friends, or have them available on your own website but you must not charge money for them. Full list and details: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/index.html * Quick Carving Questions - 1 http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/qcq1.html (Sponsored by Tools for Working Wood: http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/) * Quick Carving Questions - 2 http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/qcq2.html (Sponsored by Classic Hand Tools: http://www.classichandtools.com/) * Quick Carving Questions - 3 http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/qcq3.html (Sponsored by Preferred Edge Carving Knives & Supplies: http://www.preferrededge.ca/) * Quick Carving Questions - 4 http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/qcq4.html * Selecting & Sharpening Your Vtool http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/v1.html * Learning to Carve http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/learncarving.html * Learning to Carve 2 http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/learncarving2.html * A Guide to Safe Woodcarving http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/safecarving.html * Mistakes and Woodcarving http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/mistakes.html * Fundamentals of Woodcarving http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/fundamentals.html *Slicing, And The Value Of The Inside Bevel With The Chris Pye #2 1/2 Finishing Gouges From Ashley Iles - pdf http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/slicing.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright (c) Chris Pye 2006 Chris@chrispye-woodcarving.com ----------------------- -----------------------