Everyone eventually wants to experiment with surface enhancement of their work. Search for something that distinguishes your work from everyone elses.

Inspired by a bowl hand-carved by George Raeder. Surface piercing done by Dick Gray. Rotary tool carving done by King Heiple.

Ideas:

Incised Lettering vs. Raised Lettering

Geometric designs- variations of a letter cherry bowl, oak burl

Leaf carving- mahogany piece

Wood-burning as seen in Ralph Kubal’s maple bowl

Essential Woodcarving Techniques- scales platter idea

500 Wood bowls- great ideas and inspiration

Cleveland Museum of Art- Pharoah’s Hair- Redwood burl. Lacy redwood burl- see Bernie about $140 per piece

Repeating patterns in nature- sunflower and architecture- triangle and arch

Mistake to say that carving woods should be bland. This does make letters show up bettter. However, I have had success carving all woods including:

Makassar ebony

Black walnut- crotch

Black cherry- crotch

Chinese elm burl

Figured maple

Big leaf maple burl

Mahogany

White oak burl

When a wood is particularly hard or has figure or wild grain, care must be taken when removing material. You may wish to make three distinct cuts.

Benefits of hand-carved letters/design- “mallet and chisel”

Carving tools- Pfeil- chisels and gouges- materials list in handout. 20% off now at Woodcraft. Show ad. Can be ordered from Canada through the internet. Ask Bernie.

Additional expense for a good mallet. Need a leather strop and sharpening compound- show samples. Never sharpen on a grinder because you do not want to create a concave bevel.

Work can also be done with chip carving knives and palm chisels. Work is slower and limited to softer, often times less interesting woods like bass. Demonstrate how to carve a leaf. Use Foredom tool?

Although the work is carved by hand, all work is carefully planned. Show examples of letter lay-out. Current project- Makassar Ebony platter

When carving, the blank must be kept still using clamps, sanding pad etc.

Blank is prepared:

-Use a band saw to cut out the proper size blank.

-Show circle drawing device that Bernie got me.

-Then a 2 3/8” fosrtner bit is used to drill a hole in the center

-Chuck the blank and true it to round. Demonstrate this.

-The bottom of the blank must be flat or slightly concave in the center so that it will sit flat on the table for carving

-Sand the blank to 220 grit so that little sanding will be needed after the piece is finished. Too much sanding will begin to soften the appearance of the letters.

-Lay out letters or design. Use index pin on lathe to divide up blank into 24 equal parts. Then subdivide.

All letters or designs are orientated from the center of the blank so slight letter rounding and distortion are necessary to make the letters for the contours of the wood

Show your book of letters with different size fonts

Primarily use ‘new times roman”

Recommend Lettercarving by Chris Pye- the course is self-taught

Demonstrate how to hold a chisel using both hands- “pen and dagger” grip

Use an individual tool as long as possible to maximize efficience- example current piece under constrruction

Demonstrate stab cuts and stop cuts

Letter “I” and the letter “O”

In the future I want to do 3 dimensional carving in addition to incised and relief-carving.