An outstanding piece of furniture should be as inspiring in its details as in its overall form. The details that elevate Doug Mooberry’s mahogany chest of drawers are the starfish, shells, and ribbons that grace the perimeter of the top. They were carved by Steven Swann of Coatesville, Pa., who specializes in carving for furniture.
Swann takes us through the major steps of the carving process here. But he cautions that one of the most critical steps comes before you pick up a gouge—carefully developing and laying out your design on the workpiece. For efficiency and for crisp carvings, he says, the curves of your design should match the sweep of your gouges.
Punching the pattern. After transferring the design from paper to the workpiece, Swann uses gouges to “punch” the outlines of the starfish, shells, and ribbons. For greater control, he pushes the gouges rather than using a mallet. |
Custom base for a curved molding. He relieves the background of the carving with a 1/8-in.-dia., flat-bottomed, high-speed-steel bit in a laminate trimmer. A concave base keeps two points of contact on the bullnosed edge. |
Flattening the background. To clean up the background, Swann skims the surface with a double-beveled chisel, which won’t dig in. He begins with a wide chisel (shown) and follows with a narrower one for tight spots. |
Taming the end grain. To avoid tearout on the ridge of the bullnose, Swann carves from the top down, flips the workpiece, and then carves from the bottom down. He uses a riffler file to remove the small ridge that’s left in the center. |
Simple strokes for the starfish. With the background relieved, Swann shapes the starfish by scooping the edges with a very shallow gouge. The center of the starfish remains uncarved. |
Each shell gets rays. Swann shapes the surface of a shell, and then draws in its curving rays with a mechanical pencil. He punches in the lines with larger gouges and deepens those incisions with a tiny gouge, as shown. |
Texture adds depth. To simulate a bed of sand, Swann stipples the background with an engraver’s punch and a mallet. It’s hard to avoid creating patterns, Swann says, but it looks best if you keep the spacing random. |
Photos: Jonathan Binzen
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