Once a month I get together with a few girlfriends to play with miniatures. We take turns hosting the gathering. This month I hosted the group at my workshop. The projects we choose vary, sometimes we work independently other times someone will suggest a project to share. I offered to show them how to do some miniature sized carvings and since Valentines Day is coming up I chose a heart design from a Dover Publishing book of Celtic Designs.
I had a piece of poplar wood that was cut thin and wide enough to fit the design. I have stained my piece to look like old English Oak for no particular reason other than I felt like it. After I was done carving the piece I cut around the outside edges with a jeweler's saw.
I might turn this project into a necklace or maybe I will put a pin on the back of it. I suspect I suspect it will become a random, surprise gift for someone on Feb. 14th. Maybe my favorite barista will be the one to end up with it.
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| photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012 |
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| photo copyright Karin Corbin 2012 |
It is a trick to sharpen a tool that small. The chisels are easy enough to deal with but the gouges used to be a challenge for me. However I just learned a trick that makes it easy. Take a piece of softwood such as pine or basswood and use the gouge to carve a groove into the wood. Each size of gouge gets its own custom groove. Put some honing compound in the groove and use a pull stroke on the gouge to polish the beveled edge at a 20 degree angle. The honing compound quickly brings up a lovely mirror like polished surface and it creates a razor sharp edge. On the side edge of the block turn the chisel over and use the inside curve against the wood to carve a matching shape and use it to burnish the inside edge to remove any burrs left from the honing process.
As you are carving and the carving tools start to feel a bit dull give then a few strokes on the honing block and they will be sharp once again. No need to regrind these tiny tools if you take good care of them.
5 comments:
That looks like it was a fun project! I am sorry I missed your class. Those tiny carving tools look wonderful!
The thing I would like to carve is a medieval door. That has been swirling around in my head for some time.
That's a lovely little project Karin. Nice tools too. Thanks for the great tip on honing the gouges. I don't really know what honing compound is, but I am sure they can tell me at the tool shop over here. I will certainly be trying this as well!
Josje you will need a fine grit honing compound. Sandpaper is a bunch of tiny abrasive grits adhered to paper. Here we find the grit in a form that we can apply to another surface. Often honing is done on a piece of leather glued to a board. In the example shown above I am using the board itself as the surface.
It is hard to tell you what you will end up finding in a local store. Honing oompounds come in powdered form or in sticks that have a bit of binder in them to stick the powder together or it might come in a paste that makes the powder easy to rub into leather.
If you can find a wood carver to show you how to hone a gouge on a leather strop that would be useful to see. Avoid the people who want to show you how to use a power grinder to do it other than a felt wheel. Tiny tools and power grinding are not a good mix as you will ruin the temper of the metal by overheating it.
It came out gorgeous! It would make a cool necklace---
Great tip to leave out the leather and use the gauge itself to produce exactly the right counter form to hone 'm to. In the past I've made a block just like you, with various curves but glued on leather as is so often the case with ones you can buy. It turned out quite tricky to find the right diameters and curves cos you've gotta compensate for the thickness of the leather. And V-shaped carvers are almost undoable that way because you can't get that sharp edge you need. Leather simply can't make a bend that sharp, even by taking away as much "flesh" as possible at the back, making it paper thin...
I never would have thought to leave out the leather and hone on wood. Is there any particular type of wood that's best? I presume a softwood?
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