---- Chris Pye: WOODCARVING - NEWSLETTER ---- June 2001 http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com "Dedicated to the teaching, learning and love of woodcarving" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hello Everyone! Please forward this newsletter to a woodcarving friend, and anyone else you think might be interested. Thanks! This is an opt-in newsletter and you should only be receiving it because you requested it from the website. Subscribe or Unsubscribe easily on the home page here: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/index.html or using the link at the end of the newsletter. ****Back issues here: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/intro/pastnews.html ==================================== ****CONTENTS: 1. Slipstones - June 2001 2. Slipstones Back issues 3. Website Notes 1) Changing ISP's 2) Gallery Change 3) New Inspiration 4. Article 'Woodcarving Mistakes - Part 2' by Chris Pye 5. Quick Carving Questions 1) Allongee tools? 2) 'Bouncing' chisels? 3) Horse carver wants to carve figures? 4) What 3 tools to begin with? 5) FOLLOW UP: More on stropping 6. GUEST ARTICLE 'Thoughts On Restoration' by Richard Wright __________________________________________ 1. SLIPSTONES - June 2001 __________________________________________ In Slipstones this month: *** Using Dowels to Join Wood. How to do it well! *** How do YOU sign your work? Here's an excellent and simple way... *** What's the one great advantage of a Bench Holdfast? I'll tell you... *** Do you want a lighter feel to you mallet? Change its 'weight' with a snap of your fingers... *** Protecting Bench Vices *** And much more, including 'Lines of Light' and Carving Tips. Find full details of your interactive woodcarving journal: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/slipstones/slipstones.html Have you downloaded your FREE sample edition? Slipstones is like an invitation to my workshop where we can share experience, advice and support, and which aims to further carving at all levels. Join me! *Get your FREE copy of '101 Master Woodcarving Secrets' - available only on subscribing. __________________________________________ 2. WEBSITE NOTES __________________________________________ 1) Changing ISP's 2) Gallery changes 3) New Inspiration ****** 1) Changing ISP's The move is imminent but hasn't happened yet - there are several tests still being carried and I was a little optimistic about how long it all takes! ****** 2) GALLERY CHANGED! I have now completely updated and re-formatted the gallery, with about 11 clusters of thumbnails grouped by subject and removing the 'tour' pages altogether. There are just short of 100 images to look at now. The result is still only a sample of my work and I will be adding more galleries in the future. Enough to be going on with! Have a look, and tell me what you think! http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/gallery/g_index.html ****** 3) NEW INSPIRATION This month, a throwaway gesture by Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721). Yes it's THAT cravat: virtuosity incarnate! http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/gallery/g_inspiration.html Notes on how Gibbons made it are found in David Esterly's excellent book, Grinling Gibbons and the Art of Carving, reviewed on the website in the Recommended Books Section. __________________________________________ 3. ARTICLE 'Woodcarving Mistakes - PART 2' by Chris Pye __________________________________________ (Part 1: available as a back issue, May01 http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/intro/pastnews.html) In the last issue of this newsletter I said that one benefit - sometimes the only benefit - of a mistake, carving or otherwise, is what you learn from it. So the outcome becomes less of a 'mistake' and more an opportunity for learning. And mistakes we will make! How could we not? Sometimes what cannot be salvaged can be turned to advantage: A leaf 'falls off' your carving and you have to simplify your design - making the result better than before. Oh lucky day! Sometimes, though, it's a matter of starting again. That's a grimmer day and usually happens when all your eggs are in one basket. Take, for example, your beautifully lettered plaque. You only notice when it is pointed out to you that the word PUBLIC" has an "L" in it. This actually happened to a stonecarver. (Not me - really!) Most mistakes land you in the middle: with more work now needed to recover - but you get out of it somehow and keep shtum. Some mistakes can be repaired, and I want to turn to that classic cry, 'It broke off!' It happens: breaking bits off. I'll do the "Why bits 'break off'" next issue but, now, let's be practical: say you break off a piece of carefully carved leaf. What to do? 1. Don't panic! Don't have to do anything straight away when you are feeling self-reproachful and inept. Take time to assess the situation. Carry on with the carving and mull it over. But next and just as important: 2. Don't lose the broken piece! If it goes on the floor among the chips and shavings, you may find yourself grovelling about looking oddly like a pig after a truffle. Put the piece to one side carefully - I keep a special little box just for things I mustn't lose. 3. Assess the damage! A neat break is usually repairable and when over-carved and finished, invisible - this I will look at now. Other choices are to re-design - and this can work out well, but not necessarily; or make a joint, cutting off the break, flat and clean, and gluing on a matching piece. 4. Fixing the piece back on... If the piece is cracked but not free from the main mass, you might have to crack it further to get glue into the repair. i) Do a 'dry run' first - particularly if clamping (see below) is needed. ii) Use 'fast grab' PVA woodworking glue. iii) Put a thin layer on both parts with an artist's brush. iv) Wait until the glue goes tacky. v) Make your join (by rubbing the two surfaces together if possible). vi) If the carving can be positioned with the broken piece vertical, gravity will hold the parts in position. Otherwise use wedges, masking tape; elastic bands, 'spring clamps' to hold the broken past firmly in place. vii) Don't wipe away excess glue; just leave it to dry. viii) Re-carve the surface carefully. The trick is to ignore the join, don't do anything special to it or you'll find you've just emphasised it. The more you can texture etc the better the disguise. A somewhat hazardous alternative is 'Superglue' (cyano-acrylate). I have found this very successful, giving a hairline joint with pieces simply held in place by the fingers. It is probably worth the attempt at repair even if it just hasn't 'worked'. But, with care, and luck, only you will know. *** TO BE CONTINUED Next newsletter - So, why DO things break off? __________________________________________ 3. QUICK CARVING QUESTIONS __________________________________________ **** QUESTION 1: ALLONGEE TOOLS "I ordered some allongee tools from Henry Taylor (for lettercarving) a) One side is polished; the other side is very rough. Do I need to do anything about this? b) There is no bevel just a gradual curve toward a point with that on the "front" side longer and more gradual the curve on the rough side. Is there supposed to be a certain curve as it approaches the point?" **** ANSWER a) Clean off any roughness on the surface and side edges and corners with abrasive paper and ignore different finishes on either side - that's just the way Taylor make them. b) Ignore any curve, just sharpen as normal chisel - with a flat bevel about 15-20 deg (which gives you the same cutting angle - check). =================================== **** QUESTION 2: 'BOUNCING' CHISELS "My chisel, when I make the first cut for the centre line of a straight letter, bounces off the wood. Why?" **** ANSWER **** They are bouncing because 1. The cutting edge of the chisel aren't sharp enough, or 2. The bevel is rounded and effectively you have too high a cutting angle - too thick a wedge of metal to drive into the wood. So: Check your bevel is flat; the cutting angle on each side is 15-20 deg and the edge sharp. =================================== **** QUESTION 3: HORSE CARVER WANTS TO CARVE FIGURES "Although I have experience carving horses, I have none where animal or figure carving is concerned and I am unsure of the first steps I need to take. Advice and suggestions please!" **** ANSWER I'm a great believer in transferable skills. In other words, you already know a lot about carving; you have carving skills. Now you need to apply them to something else (there are no skills for carving rocking horses and only rocking horses!). What you need to do is research your subject - what you want to carve. This means studying, drawing, modelling and so on, until you really understand - really visualise - what it is you are carving. In your case the shape of the skull and effect of the bony structures and muscles on the face; proportion; the difference between old and young; emotion and so on. (There are some anatomy book suggestions on the site.) Start simple carvings, feeling your way in, and take it a step at a time as you are learning more and more. And feel confident! You have the skills; you just need to know more about what you want to apply them to... =================================== **** QUESTION 4: WHAT 3 TOOLS TO BEGIN WITH? **** "If someone could begin carving with only 3 tools, what size tools would you recommend? They have a good detail knife and they don't want to buy a set until they know for sure that they will continue carving. And they don't want to be buying junky tools." **** ANSWER **** Mmm, tricky! I'd go for: 1. 3/8" V tool 2. 1/2" #3 straight gouge (You can do a fantastic amount of decorative work and relief carving with these two). 3. 1/2" #7 straight gouge (A little over a medium sweep for some work in the round. You can see I work large - but ask me another day and I'll give you a different 3! OK everybody - here's your chance! What would YOU suggest??? Write to me at: Chris@woodcarver.force9.co.uk or to the web site. I'll pass answers on and, if I get enough, I'll assemble a page =================================== **** QUESTION FOLLOW UP: MORE ON STROPPING **** Just finished reading your comments about stropping on leather. About 15 years ago, I took a course in sharpening from a rather talented machinist, woodturner and carver. He taught me, and the class, to strop on a piece of basswood of other soft wood - I frequently have used poplar. He said that the wood would not turn the edge the way leather would. I use wood with a dark green rouge. For gouges, I cut one of the edges of the board with the gouge to be stropped and you know it will fit the gouge. I have used this technique ever since and I have some tools that have not been re-sharpened since his class, but stropped before every use. Give credit where credit is due, I was taught this by Dave Hardy of Bucks County, Pa. and a member of the Bucks County Woodturners Association. He has given more of his time to teaching woodturning and carving than anyone I know. Has about 6 or 7 lathes in his shop and has a carving group over one morning a week and usually a woodturning session one evening a week. He has done this for years. No charge, just come and learn together. Have seen more of his ideas taught and used by others without a bit or credit to the man. Several professional turners produce pieces he designed and worked out-no credit ever given. That is why I felt compelled to give him credit for the "stropping on a board." Thomas W. Horton Glen Mills, Pa. ___________________________________ 4. GUEST ARTICLE 'Thoughts On Restoration' by Richard Wright _______________________________________ THOUGHTS ON RESTORATION By Richard Wright A recent visit to St. Paul's Cathedral in London, to see for the first time the famous Gibbons choir carvings, became an important introduction to restoration carving. As I approached the choir from the "visitor" areas, I was taken aback by the restorations, their white Limewood stark against the darkness of 300-year-old work. The contrasting light and dark areas seemed to be at odds with each other, detracting from symmetry, intruding into the eye/mind collaboration, and making the images appear jumbled. The beauty of design and unequivocal genius of execution were obvious; there was great joy in finally seeing so famous a set of carvings; but the visible restoration was so at aesthetic odds with the basic artistry, as to leave behind palpable disappointment. After a bit of "public" viewing, I happened to engage one of the staff and told him of my interest in the carvings, whereupon he escorted me up into the choir for a closer look. That closeness occasioned a wonderful new perspective on the genius of Gibbons' work. That said, equally striking was the genius of the restorer(s). For considering the work the restorer(s) must have had to do to understand Gibbons, get into his thinking, not to mention recreate his techniques and processes, the restorations are phenomenal. I immediately asked who did the restorations, as I wanted to meet and talk with them, see if it would be possible to learn from them, but sadly, the guide had no idea who did the work, or even how to find out who did it. Reflection upon the visit brought to mind art history classes in which the instructors spoke of restored work, but made light of the restorer. Until I saw the Gibbons restorations, it never occurred to me the level of talent and artistic genius needed for outstanding restoration. It makes restoration, to my mind, barely second in importance to the original creation, since that is the only means by which future generations will be able to see, appreciate and learn from the masters of the past. I had seen many pictures of St. Paul's choir, but one look at the original is worth 1,000 pictures. On analogy, we can never hear Mozart's own rendition of any of his works, but only subsequent interpretations. We can however see and learn from original carvings, if only we can maintain them and keep them restored. Unfortunately, there are today few master carvers teaching the basics, and perhaps few people interested in learning those basics, let alone advancing in skill. How then will the art and craft of carving be maintained? How, in addition, will those skills be developed to the level needed for restoration? When next the Gibbons carvings need restoration, will there be someone able to accomplish the work? I hope some day to meet the restorer(s) for St. Paul's, as the experience of that work has already become an important event in my development as a carver. I look forward to philosophical debates on visible vs. invisible restorations. In the interim, however, it is back to the bench with renewed spirit. --------------------------------------- The Author: Richard Wright is a novice carver looking forward to a long second career in woodcarving when he takes early retirement form his job as Dean of the College of Aviation at Western Michigan University. --------------------------------------- *****COMMENT: NOTE ON RESTORATIONS: I am not sure exactly when the change of heart came about but there was a time when restorations were carefully hidden in the original - so you couldn't tell the difference between old and new. Indeed this is still the case with furniture restorers. For valuable pieces in Museums, however, it is normal to leave the restoration obvious, how obtrusive the repair is varies, but it is still considered better than leaving the bit missing or pretending it is old. The original Gibbon's carvings were, I believe, originally washed with a brown varnish that has further darkened with age and dirt. So the new Limewood stands out, remarkably, as Richard noticed, and the colour will never merge in because of this varnish. --------------------------------------- Could YOU write a short 'something' of interest to other carvers? Let me know! --------------------------------------- That's it! I hope you have found this newsletter interesting and useful. Once more: joy and success in your carving! Chris Pye ----------------------------------- PS: Here's one to think about at the bench: "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled." --Plutarch Copyright (c) Chris Pye 2001 Chris@woodcarver.force9.co.uk