CroppyBoy1798
Established Member
Time to dive in at the deep end me thinks and have a go at a very detailed carving!! :shock:
Been a while since I did a 'proper' old skool carving, in fact just looked it up today and it would appear its been over 6 years since I did the piece below (bloody ****, where did that time go!!!!!). At the time this was the most advanced bit of carving I'd ever undertaken and since that I havent done all that much.
Its a scaled down, loose representation of the centre panel of the clock from the forward grand staircase of Titanic and Olympic, 'Honour and Glory Crowning Time' and is carved, as the original, from red oak. The characters, by right, should have been more three dimensional, but I was working with 1" stock so I didnt have much to play with, as well as that I wasnt up to speed with proper sharpening techniques (in fact, I reckon my chisels were probably far from adequate when I doing this!) and the grain of the oak didnt really suit a small scale, highly detailed carving. The clock measures 2' x 1.5' at the widest.
So, looking through a book recently on Georgian design I spot this marble fire surround and on each side were classical figures but it was the one on the right that caught my eye and I thought 'WOW! I have to try and carve her!!!'
So, thats the challenge, I have the aquired skills I believe, the patience and a box of plasters
and figured it'd be a nice little project for the evenings for no other reason than to get back into carving again. I've just come a little short with regard to which wood to use. I was thinking walnut perhaps, I like working with that and find it shapes easy. I plan to make this piece big, ie a foot and a half long by maybe eight inches wide and carve from 2" stock (still have to scale it up etc). Would anyone else have any suggestion with regard a nice, easily obtainible hardwood, ie oak, ash, teak, mahogany etc?
Cheers!
Been a while since I did a 'proper' old skool carving, in fact just looked it up today and it would appear its been over 6 years since I did the piece below (bloody ****, where did that time go!!!!!). At the time this was the most advanced bit of carving I'd ever undertaken and since that I havent done all that much.
Its a scaled down, loose representation of the centre panel of the clock from the forward grand staircase of Titanic and Olympic, 'Honour and Glory Crowning Time' and is carved, as the original, from red oak. The characters, by right, should have been more three dimensional, but I was working with 1" stock so I didnt have much to play with, as well as that I wasnt up to speed with proper sharpening techniques (in fact, I reckon my chisels were probably far from adequate when I doing this!) and the grain of the oak didnt really suit a small scale, highly detailed carving. The clock measures 2' x 1.5' at the widest.
So, looking through a book recently on Georgian design I spot this marble fire surround and on each side were classical figures but it was the one on the right that caught my eye and I thought 'WOW! I have to try and carve her!!!'
So, thats the challenge, I have the aquired skills I believe, the patience and a box of plasters
and figured it'd be a nice little project for the evenings for no other reason than to get back into carving again. I've just come a little short with regard to which wood to use. I was thinking walnut perhaps, I like working with that and find it shapes easy. I plan to make this piece big, ie a foot and a half long by maybe eight inches wide and carve from 2" stock (still have to scale it up etc). Would anyone else have any suggestion with regard a nice, easily obtainible hardwood, ie oak, ash, teak, mahogany etc?Cheers!
