Adding Some Detail - Chip Carving

Submitted by Leif on Wed, 08/29/2007 - 7:30pm.
Here's what I have after the primary shaping of the handle is completed.  It's pretty bland, and would make for a very boring tool, though it is quite useable without any adornment.  I wanted to dress it up, though, and the standard for dressing up saw handles in the past was the addition of some chip carving that vaguely resembles a stalk of wheat - which is a fairly simple application of chip carving and one that can greatly enhance the appearance of these handles.  Besides, I needed one more operation that gave me another chance to screw something up!

These carvings are accomplished with a chip carving knife such as the one shown in the photo below, which was made by my father for me a couple years ago.  After the "stalk" is carved out, the "leaves" are added using 2 cuts (sometimes more, but that's because I was doing it wrong) with the knife.  You must have a good knife, and it must be *sharp*!!!  You will only get poor results from a dull blade.  It must cleanly slice through the wood - you will feel it when it starts to dull.  I sharpened this knife fully twice during this episode, and honed it several times between those times.

There are 3 ways to mark out the carvings.  The first, as shown drawn on the handle portion in the top photo, is to draw the intended carving out completely, including the full size of the intended "leaves".  Then, it's simply a matter of following the lines with the knife, and this method, while by far the most time consuming, produced the most consistent results.  The template for the larger compass saw above had carvings on the handle, and I used carbon paper to trace them onto my handle.  This was the only place in all four saws built for this project where that was the case, however.

The second method is to simply draw a set of lines... the first line representing the stalk, then a series of angled lines emanating from the stalk to a pre-set distance from the stalk, at the same angle as the leaves.  This method works faster, as you don't have to fuss about with the exact shape of the "leaves".  It does require a bit more confidence with the knife, though.

The third method, by far both the fastest and the trickiest to do right, is to freehand it.  I tried this on 2 of the saws, but I can't recommend this method until after several practicing sessions.  For sake of clarity, I will discuss only the second method, as I think it was the best of the three in terms of both speed and consistency.

Before I put the knife to the handles, I took the cut-offs from the handles and practiced making these carvings till I got a blister on the inside of my palm.  Only when I felt confident enough with my skills did I go to the finished piece.  Clamp the piece you are working on to the bench - you cannot do a good job if the piece isn't well clamped down.

When I feel up to attempting the real thing, the first action is to draw out the line that represents the stalk with a pencil, then carve that line out with the knife, using 2 cuts - a left and a right so the stalk forms a "V" shape: 

It's not as hard as it sounds to do, with a bit of practice.  In the second cut, the knife naturally wants to follow the groove made by the first cut (with some care, of course).  Next is to draw out the lines that represent the leaves.  They can be either directly across from each other, or alternating.  Then, start the first of two cuts, slightly tilting the blade (to the right, in my case):

The next cut will complete a single leaf, starting at the top (the part of the leaf away from you) and pulling the blade to you in a slightly 'rounded' fashion.  You'll know you've done it right if a small chip lifts out of the cut when you end your sweep:

You can clean up the cut, if necessary, by further careful cutting with the knife.  Then, it's just a matter of repetition, one cut following the next, until finished.  While practicing, try different lengths, widths, shapes, and spacing to see which suits you best, and which looks best.  The only way to improve carving skills is practice.  But this isn't like practice, really - it's much too fun.  When the chip carving is completed, I final sand the handles with 150 grit sandpaper.
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