There is a two-tier walnut coffee table on my to-do list that needs to reflect the motifs and profiles in the pictured chair, which will live in the same room as the coffee table. I will turn the table legs to match the legs or uprights of the chair; and the aprons will have those relief carvings from the chair back repeated on them.
The turnings will be no problem but:
1) What is the best way to make that fluting? I am thinking a small gouge guided by a stright edge maybe? They look too big and “stopped” to be scratched (but maybe not). Also, I want to capture that slightly wavy look.
2) I am just begining carving and am without any proper carving tools – yet. What types/profiles of carving chisels (hopefully less than 5 or 6) would one use to make that relief? How about the stippling?
I have a list of basic carving tools from Ray Pine and other Knotters; as well as from this or that carving book. However, it would seem best to gather tools according to what I want to actually make as the making comes up……?
Thanks in anticipation.
Lataxe, carving novice.
Replies
I'd say you could probably get those reliefs done with a v-parter, a couple of different size spoons, maybe .125" and .25" radius, .25" straight chisel, .5" straight, and a skew chisel. The .5" straight would just be to make flattening the background a little faster, so you don't really even need that one.
Stipling- that's a term I'm unfamiliar with. Does that refer to the background pattern detail? If so,I believe they make punch tools for that. If you want a "knurled" look, you could just make a light crosshatch pattern with your v-parter. I can't really see from the pictures what the original looks like.
Enjoy- looks like a fun project.
John
Lataxe,
Oh, the acanthus is calling, can you hear it yet? ;-))
The reeding looks to have been done with a scratch stock. (Stiles flanking the upholstered back, and the aprons.)
The fluting in the panel between the leaves I'd do with a deep gouge/veiner of the proper size.
You might incise the outline of that relief panel with either a vee chisel, or by chopping down vertically with a shallow sweep fishtail, rapping with the mallet and rocking the curved edge pof the tool at the same time, andvancing as you go. Make angled cuts into those with the same tool til you reach the desired depth. The leaves you can set in the same way, with the fishtail where it will work, and with assorted straight square and skew chisels,and gouges to describe the outlines of the leaves. Then reduce the background to a uniform depth with gouges, working from a deeper sweep to shallow sweep to arrive at a relatively flat surface. The modeling of the leaves is done with vee chisel, skew, and gouge, with maybe a small veiner for some of the, er, veins. I made a stippling tool from a 20d common nail. Grind the point off flat to make a striking surface. With a very small saw (tri-corner) file (maybe a 4" XX or XXX slim taper) file a crosshatch pattern (like the checkering of a gunstock) into the flat surface of the head of the nail. Randomly positioning and striking this tool will give a uniformly textured surface. If the pattern differs from what I've described, vary the file cuts in the nail head to suit.
Choose the two or three gouges you buy based on the curvature of the 1) outlines of the leaves 2) modeling of the leaf surfaces, in addition a 5/8 or so fishtail and a 5/8 or so skew, and a smallish 1/4 or 3/8 vee chgisel ought to get you there.
I await pictures of more and more frou-frou, and scuttle legs adorned with the foliage of the acanthi.
Ray
Ray & John,
Thank you for the lists, which will form the basis of next pension-day spending spree. Happily I have the nails and the files to make that stippler. But I do hear a Lee Valley scratcher calling to me from somewhere in Perth.
Now, them leaves are surely something other that the dreaded acanthus, say it is so!? What will this do to my reputation?!! Perhaps I will change them to a ginko or even a fig.
As to frou-frou - there will be only a bit of turn, read and leaf - no scuttly legs and nothing embossed or gold-leafed. Definitely no bunches of grapes or cherubs, oh no.
Lataxe, being force-fed frou-frou.
Lataxe,
That will be a good project for you to work on. Will it be in oak, or something more easily carved? Altho the relatively uncluttered detailing of the leaves ought to pose few problems in oak, other than the hardness of the wood itself.
Enjoy,
Ray
If that's an acanthus it's the least flamboyant one I've seen. Call it a hawthorn. If you get fed up filing nails you can get a set of texturing stamps from LV.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=46354&cat=1,130,43332
Cheers, Jim
Hello Lataxe ,
Those turned legs look fairly rough as in possibly turned on a treadle or other then a motorized machine lathe to me , perhaps the legs are distorted simply from age .
Do you have any idea how old that chair is ?
The fluting surely looks hand done from the pictures , the background of the leaf carvings appears to look similar to the checkering on a rifle stock , perhaps the same checkering tool can be utilized . I'd probably get out my riffler files and give it a go with what I have .
David , this is not A & C nor G & G , what gives are you changing horses in mid stream ? I thought you and I were gonna post some on our A & C pursuits and such .
Happy new year to you and yours
dusty
Dusty One,
Happy New Year to thee lad, also.
The cawfee table to match that chair is wanted to replace a nasty mdf thang with scuttlelegs and a shiney laquer finish. This object has been offending me eye for some years and must be replaced.
That chair. Well, the father-in-law acquired it for 5 bob from a junk shop, many many years ago. He wanted something to practice upholstery on. He did a terrible job of it. The chair lived in his loft (attic) for some years coz it were so ugly, with yellah fabric and some awful tacking. The F-in-L upped and died; 7 years later so did his widder (my mother-in-law) so the ladywife and I discovered the chair up there in the attic with many dead typewriters and you-wouldn't-believe what else. In short, I don't know the chair's previous history but it looks an old 'un.
Any road up, we give the chair to our friends, who had it re-upholstered in a rather better style. Now they need that new coffee table and I must match it to the chair as well as to the rest of the Victorian furniture in their 1900 house. This is just a woodworking adventure off to the side, for me. For myself, I continue to prefer A&C, although I am moving towards Gimson/Barnsley, away from Mission, but keeping G&G in the list.
And I need to larn carvin', otherwise that Ray Pine will always look at me askance.
Lataxe.
PS I've decided that leaf is rhubarb.
Lataxe,
That's not askance, I just look thataway naturally.
Same as when the wife says to me betimes, "Smile!" I usually reply, with a heavy scowl, "I am smiling!"
Happy carving,
Ray
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