Laying Out the Body

I took a few days off from Santa to carve a few quick ornaments. I also made some adjustments to the head. I wasn't at all happy with the eyes, so I carved them off and will start again.  As long as you don't carve the original sockets too deep, you can usually make minor corrections. Anyway, on to the body. I went through some reference materials I have collected and chose a Santa with a long coat, open to see layers below. I found a nice picture with Santa wearing a vest with some interesting pattern - a painting challenge! My Santa body has already been roughed out and is about 8 1/2" tall. The photo is somewhat smaller, so I went into Photoshop and scaled it up to the right size. Next I put in some horizontal reference lines at key locations on the figure. I printed a hard copy so I could use my trusty dividers to transfer measurements onto the blank. Once I'm satisfied with those layout lines, I can head off to the roughout jig to get rid of some excess material quickly and safely. This saves a lot of the hand fatigue which I would expect if I did all this work with a bench knife.

Third Hand Modifications

After working on a few different project over the weekend and trying the jig with large and small blanks, I decided to make a few additions. I kept having to move the loose piece of foam pad around too much and it never seemed to stay in place. So I cut a bunch more and glued them to the jig. I also found that clamping to jig to the bench was not good for me. I came very close to nicking my large gouge. Since I prefer working at my bench, which is outfitted with a vice, I screwed a block to the bottom of the jig so I can just camp it that way. I made the block wide enough so I could fit my hand up through the vise to feed the hold-down straps. Last I added a stop block on one end to help keep the work from sliding. I only screwed this - no glue - just in case I decide to remove them for any reason. This allows me to use even less force on the hold-down straps. I don't need clamps now, so the jig is safer and more efficient than ever. Best of all, the modifications cost me $0.

Santa's Head

Well, I'm already in trouble! I've started on the head and if you look close, you'll see the eyes are a little off and. from the back, one ear is lower than the other. I thought I was being careful, but not enough I guess. I took some off the top of one ear, which helped a little. I might have to re-work the eyes though.

A Third Hand

Cutting a carving blank on a band saw still leaves a lot of material to be removed. It becomes unsafe to try to hack off all the corners with a band saw, so I turn to my large sculpting gouges. These guys are big and they take off extra material fast. But I need a  vice or clamps to hold the work in place. Often they slip off and they can damage the wood. Plus I have to worry about hitting a clamp with my gouge and chipping the edge.

This contraption is a solution to not having a third hand!  It is a little jig made from some scrap plywood, a couple of bicycle inner tubes and some padding. This device can also be a good helper device for roughing out blanks for carvers who don't own a band saw. I cut a couple slots in the plywood and found some foam rubber laying around the shop. For hold down "clamps" I chose some old bike inner tubes - free from a local bike repair shop. You could also use an old belt or strap or even a length of rope. Clamp down the jig to saw horses or a bench or table top. Feed the straps up through the slots.

Lay the carving blank under the strap loops and place some pads under the wood. Now all you have to do is put your foot through the loops and apply pressure to hold down. You can easily apply as much pressure as you need to offset the force of carving. When you need to rotate the blank, just let up on the foot pressure and adjust. Very fast and simple. It can be made to work standing or sitting down. Best of all, no dents in the wood and no worry about hitting a metal clamp with one of your tools. If you cut the rubber tube - so what? I find this jig to be very flexible and the technique removes wood fast! You have both hands on the tool and with most woods, you don't need to use a mallet.

Big Santa Project

Two things I am focused on right now: carving Santas and trying a new carving skill or approach for each one.  I'm suspending the idea of trying to develop my own style for the time being. not there yet. So I'm starting as new Santa with several new aspects. First, it will be the largest project I have personally done. He'll be close to 11" tall and pretty stout. His body blank used up the better part of a 3 X 3 of basswood. Second, I've been following along with some Lynn Doughty videos again to try to learn a little more about his face carving techniques. Let me just say here, I am strongly opposed to idea of literally copying another person's carving, but in this case, I'm carving a Santa, not a cowboy. Besides, I don't have the technique to copy anything exactly.  Lynn was carving the Gabby Hayes figure and mentioned at one stage the his face looked a little like Santa. From that, my idea to use that as a staring point for this figure. I also downloaded some early patterns from his site. This brings me to the third new thing - building a carving from parts. I  took his pattern download and made a few changes to suit my own project. I increased the scale of the pattern. I made the front of his body a little more Santa-like. And I used the arm pattern to make another arm that would have a bend, so he can be holding a stick or cane. For the head, I extended the chin so he can have a long beard. I also added to the pattern, a profile of the bottom of the foot. I can copy this to the bottom of the carving and get both feet the same. Lastly, I am revisiting an old technique fro roughing out the body from my sculpture carving days. More on that in a future post. So follow along, if you like, and see what kind of trouble I get into.

The Mystery of the Eye Knife

For some reason, the unusual design of the Denny "Eye Knife" seems to  baffle many carvers. In fact, I came to own one because a fellow carver could not get comfortable with it, so he gave it to me to figure out. I admit I haven't really tried it on eyes, so I too was unsure how this came to be called an eye knife. Even knives with names like "detail knife" don't specify what kind of detail. They're just small, pointed knives to be used wherever detail work is done. I found the eye knife useful on a tricky project where I needed a little extra blade tang to reach in and do some careful work. But it was not an eye. It was the inner cage of my cage in a cage carving.

Recently, I was doing a few Santa faces and I decided to see how the eye knife would best be used to carve eyes. I looked at the blade for a minute and wondered why the unusual dip on the back. Then I looked at the extremely angles skew blade.

Now I know a skew blade is not only well-suited for getting into tight corners, like the corner of an eye, but it excels at the slicing cut. If you want a smooth eye ball, a low angle, slicing cut is the best way to go. For this type of cut, I want to move the blade a small distance, with the greatest control possible. To me, that means bracing to tool against my opposing thumb and pivoting. I placed my left thumb (I'm carving righty) on the dip on the back of the blade and my right thumb on that and was able to carefully and accurately pivot the knife and slice across the eye. The right hand does all the moving. This knife comes razor sharp and leaves a beautiful,  smooth cut across the eye.
A little practice with this and I found the knife to be perfect for the job it is named for..  I wouldn't suggest you need to go out and get this for eyes. Lots of knifes can be taught to do the job, but if you have the eye knife, languishing in your bag, why not take it out and give it another try.

I'm Cleaning Up My Act...

To me, the line that divides the novice carver from the master carver is how clean he works. I'm referring to the carving itself. I have discovered that being focused on "finishing" each section of a carving before moving on makes for a much more efficient and much less frustrating carving session. A couple months ago I picked up a book that changed my way of carving. It's Tom Wolfe's "Carving Santas For Today". I have a fairly limited  Library of carving books, but this one seems unique to me. Tom uses almost the entire book to show you haw to carve one santa! Yes, there are a dozen or so pages at the end showing photos of  some other carving, but that's not what you  pay for when you get this book.

First, he does not work from a roughed out figure, but a simple square block. Second, he works very clean. He starts out with the ball on santa's cap and then to the cap. He pretty much finishes the cap and doesn't have to come back to it. This was for me a revelation and made me conscious of keeping each section I carved as free of "fuzzies" as possible as I progress through the carving.

It's not just about carving the one santa. I was able to take Tom's lesson and apply it to other carvings. That's a good  lesson.

[photo is of the first santa I carved using Tom's  lesson]