Noobie share - NOT a Chris Pye!

[Lol999]

Okay so I finished my first carving, an oak leaf, and whilst it's a crime against nature I'm quietly satisfied because I literally sweated buckets on this. I have good tools, Pfeil, but it's still in that horrible stringy canary wood which crumbles on some edges and is just a down right pain.
I levelled out the surface, then tapered it down towards the leaf which I undercut slightly at the end. I know there are still some tool marks, I could spend a week getting them all out, but this carving was never about being perfect, it was the first step on my ladder of learning and I'm cool with that. and you know what? I wrung this thing out of the wood with my un-skilled hands and lack of artistic capability so it's all good with me. Onwards and upwards.

Anyhow, here it is in all its imperfect glory with a coat of renaissance wax on just the leaf:

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[scotia carver]

Hi Lol
I think you did a great job on your first try, considering the wood you used, things will only get better as you carve on
Bruce

[pallin]

You made a good choice for your first carving project. It taught you the value of good tools, and some qualities to look for in wood for carving. Carving a relief helps avoid the risks of cutting yourself as you get familiar with how wood responds to your tools. You are also observant of things that you might do differently next time.

Re: tool marks - some of us relief carvers prefer to leave tool marks. It proves the piece was carved by hand - which is significant. It may be a different matter if you are trying to impress a potential buyer of the piece. Since I don't sell any of my works, I can choose when it's done!

[Tinwood]

Bloody good on ya mate! Job well done and now that you've got your first taste of "blood" the desire to do better on your next piece will only increase. Baby steps.

Tinwood

[joepaulbutler]

You got to feel a little good about your efforts, all show improvement. You know, It may not be really cricket, but I am not above using some 80 grit sand paper will roughing out, especially if i got some wood that is crumbly,

[Lol999]

You got to feel a little good about your efforts, all show improvement. You know, It may not be really cricket, but I am not above using some 80 grit sand paper will roughing out, especially if i got some wood that is crumbly,

My wife asked if she could use sandpaper to smooth the edges, the "carver" in me responded "no, it's all about the finish from sharp tools!". To be fair, when I was roughing out the background I very nearly took the dremel to it to save time :-)

[pallin]

Tool marks are good when they are clean and random. That is not the same as ragged edges or grain tears. Even an oak leaf has clearly defined edges, veins, and curves.

[Claude]

For a first carving, I think it's quite good. As Phil says, it is a learning experience - some things you did, you will not do in the future; other things you did, you will repeat. Try a piece of lime for your next carving and see what you think. You could even do the same leaf, but in the different wood...

Claude

[Lol999]

Claude as soon as I can get my sweaty hands on some lime I will be doing. I don't know why but I found the scooping out of the leaf on one side with a #9 gouge to be hugely satisfying, perhaps because the wood carved so smoothly.

Anyway, thank you all for your encouragement, I will no doubt continue to create monstrosities for some while but that's the joys of learning, and as long as I enjoy it, who cares?

[fiddlesticks]

You are off to a good start. Keep at it. Find some Linden or Lime if you can for a nice carving wood, but I do recall a few books talking about students that learned in Pine or other woods that tear easily to later be able to make cleaner cuts than those that learned on easier wood. I'm guessing from your description of the wood that you quickly realize if your tools are not tip top sharp.

One thing I would tell you to do is not spin your board so you can make all cuts with your dominant hand. It will seem awkward at first to use your non dominant hand, but you will quickly improve. You have not carved enough so that your dominant hand is miles ahead of your non dominant hand. I consider this important because it saves a lot of time to switch hands rather than flip the carving around. Someday you will carve something that is big or awkward and walking around it may not be an option and turning and re-clamping will be time consuming and difficult. Another thing to do on some of your projects make two, one a mirror image of the other, this will give both hands equal training.

[Bob K.]

Don't be so hard on yourself! You chose a very hard type of wood to carve your first project out of and you did a very good job! As you said...onward and upward! Just keep at it and don't get discouraged!

[Lol999]

You are off to a good start. Keep at it. Find some Linden or Lime if you can for a nice carving wood, but I do recall a few books talking about students that learned in Pine or other woods that tear easily to later be able to make cleaner cuts than those that learned on easier wood. I'm guessing from your description of the wood that you quickly realize if your tools are not tip top sharp.

One thing I would tell you to do is not spin your board so you can make all cuts with your dominant hand. It will seem awkward at first to use your non dominant hand, but you will quickly improve. You have not carved enough so that your dominant hand is miles ahead of your non dominant hand. I consider this important because it saves a lot of time to switch hands rather than flip the carving around. Someday you will carve something that is big or awkward and walking around it may not be an option and turning and re-clamping will be time consuming and difficult. Another thing to do on some of your projects make two, one a mirror image of the other, this will give both hands equal training.

To be honest I was doing a lot of it with a #2 Pfeil gouge, 20mm wide, and every 15 minutes or so it was necessary to do a bit of a strop session. You could hear the change in tone of the wood as it was being cut. Some of the wood was very stringy, some carved like incredibly hard wax. I think carving on this sort of wood as a beginner, if you can accept the frustrations which I struggled with at first, well it is a good learning tool because I still learnt a lot about direction of grain, direction of cut etc, and when I do get my hands on something easier such as lime then it will come so much easier. It's all good either way.

[Brian T]

That's a good start. Lots learned as others have pointed out.
You have also noticed how an edge, even Pfeil, goes away and needs a repeated touch-up.
Instead of a 2/20, something like a 2/10 may take more cuts but there's less "push" with each one.

This is the carving to keep, write all the info on the back. Good to look at from time to time.

[Claude]

Here are some sources for Lime in the UK: http://www.greatart.co.uk/limewood-for-carving.html

http://www.toolsandtimber.co.uk

http://www.john-boddys-fwts.co.uk

http://www.spanglefish.com/Woodcarving-Scotland/index.asp?err=986

[Lol999]

Cheers Claude.