---- Chris Pye: WOODCARVING - NEWSLETTER ---- January 2004 http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com "Dedicated to the teaching, learning and love of woodcarving" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please forward this newsletter to a woodcarving friend, and anyone else you think might be interested. Thanks! This is an opt-in newsletter and you should only be receiving it because you requested it from the website, or were sent it by a friend. Subscribe or Unsubscribe easily on the home page here: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/ or using the link at the end of the newsletter. ****Back issues here: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/intro/pastnews.html including zipfiles for 2001, 2002 & 2003 newsletters ============================================================ A Happy New Year to Everyone! All 2,774 of you fellow woodcarvers - thank you for your interest and support. - all the best with your carving projects! CONTENTS: 1. Website News 1) Spam Blocking Subscribers! 2) New 'Inspiration' 3) New Green Man 2. Quick Carving Questions 1) Norwegian Wood? 2) Bevels & Lettering Chisels? 3) Japanese Carving Tools? 3. Article Tempering & Old Woodcarving Tools by Chris Pye 4. Follow Ups... 1) Other Useful Stains 2) Holding that Bench Still 3) Slate Sharpening Stones Website Bookmarks at the end. __________________________________________ 1. WEBSITE NEWS __________________________________________ 1) SPAM BLOCKERS AND THIS NEWSLETTER *** IMPORTANT - please read! I don't know a sensible way to put this, but if you HAVEN'T received this newsletter it may be because you have just engaged a SPAM BLOCKER and you haven't told it that you've signed up for this newsletter...! More and more of you are signing up to Spam blocking programmes for filtering your email and I really don't blame you. However, because this newsletter is email too, the upshot is that it bounces back to me with a request that I go online, fill in something, submit my DNA for screening, and ask you take the newsletter. I AM NOT PREPARED TO DO THIS! This newsletter, and many other web-based things I do for free, takes time, and I have none to spare. I'm having to become more and more ruthless. So, after muttering at you under my breath, I will mercilessly wipe you from the database - you'll just not get the newsletter. Which may be why you are not reading this! IF YOU VALUE THIS FREE NEWSLETTER: * REMEMBER IT WHEN YOU SIGN UP TO A SPAM BLOCKER and tell it to allow it through. Sometimes you must wave a stick - but YOU must do it, not me. The sender address is newsletter@chrispye-woodcarving.com * PLEASE PUT A VALUE ON MY TIME AS WELL. Check that you can receive the newsletter at all. It comes at the beginning of each month so you need ROOM IN YOUR MAILBOX. And keep a CORRECT EMAIL ADDRESS by unsubscribing and resubscribing on the home page. I didn't think pitilessness was part of my nature, but I'm beginning to enjoy it... 2) NEW INSPIRATION! Who was arguably the greatest, most influential, sculptor of the 20th century? When and where was the first sustained nuclear reaction? 1941 - and this bronze sculpture marks the spot. Don't let 'bronze' put you off. We woodcarvers need to develop 'visual literacy' and there is much to learn here.: the balancing of smooth and rough; round and straight, mass and space; instability and oppression with lightness and bubble-like qualities... Have a look: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/gallery/g_inspiration.html 3) NEW GREEN MAN 'Twins' by Roger Strautman. Two characters appear from the same carving by the deft selection of where to remove the chips... See them here: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/gallery/gallery16.html And what about YOU? Have you got a Green Man carving you'd like to contribute? _______________________________________ 2. QUICK CARVING QUESTIONS ________________________________________ **** QUESTION 1: NORWEGIAN WOOD? **** "I plan to carve 'Hefenafl' game board, a Norse, chess derivative. I have researched carving style etc. but could not identify the type of wood frequently used in that area. I want to use a northern clime wood (14 x 14in., one piece), what do suggest?" **** ANSWER **** In Finland the carvers use Birch, and I believe this is also true of Norway - I've tried Birch and found the best quality excellent, taking a crisp cut. So I'd a go with that. You should get a wide enough board; if you must join, do it in 3 pieces, a join down the middle will be very obvious. You should be able to colour and figure match very well. If you have a choice of boards, always go for the heaviest: it'll be denser. =================================== **** QUESTION 2: BEVELS & LETTERING CHISELS? **** "I have been reading through your book on letter carving. In the early lessons when you are learning to simply cut right or left handed I notice that the cutting edge does not have a standard chisel edge, sharpened on just one side. Is this a special chisel that a carver would need to purchase? If so, what is the name or number of this chisel type? Could one substitute a standard chisel without lose of benefits?" **** ANSWER **** I'm sorry if that wasn't clear. Yes, all carving chisels have a bevel on each side, 15-20 deg. You can see it in fig. 5.29. You CAN use a carpentry chisel but the flat face tends to jig itself in a straight line - thus, if you start your angle too deep you will not be able to make it shallower without juddering and marking the walls of the letter. All carving tools rock on the heel of the bevel (think of a gouge, bevel against the wood) and this allows more subtlety in the cut. So with a double bevelled chisel you can adjust the cut a little as you create the walls and arrive more easily at a consistent root to the letter. A wall that is slightly hollow is not noticeable. The carving chisel is #1 in the Sheffield list, and I think every other. You can use a carpenter's chisel without the chamfered sides and grind in a second bevel. =================================== **** QUESTION 3: JAPANESE CARVING TOOLS? **** "I need some carving tools to make ball and claw feet. Do you recommend Japanese tools for gouges and so forth for carving, instead of the Western versions? I know they cost more but, in my experience, the chisels are so much better I hesitate to buy other tools before I know more about the Japanese versions" **** ANSWER **** Western tools are absolutely fine - after all, they carved the ball and claw you admire. Beware the 'Tyranny of the New'! I have little experience with Japanese carving tools but doubt the wide range of sweeps and widths are available here, as they are for ours. So you may not find what you need for the job anyway. The tools are the carving. I think chisels are another ball game, and are laminated in a way carving tools aren't. Anyway, they are all means to an end and the best thing is to try one and one from the Western tradition. ***** NOTE As I said, I don't know much about Japanese carving tools. but I am a lover of Japanese Edo and Kamakura carving. I'd love to hear from anyone with more experience and knowledge. _______________________________________ 3. ARTICLE TEMPERING & OLD WOODCARVING TOOLS BY CHRIS PYE _______________________________________ Tempering & Old Woodcarving Tools By Chris Pye Hardening and tempering endows the blade of your carving tool with its crucial, edge-holding properties, These days the process is undertaken in computer-driven forges with precisely selected steel. But it didn't used to be and, as I am always trying to show, it is easier and less of a mystery than most people suppose to temper a carving tool so that it keeps its edge well. In my opinion, an amount of the bluntening of a cutting edge is due to factors other than the tempering: levering across the edge; the hardness of the wood; or inclusions such as calcium within the wood fibres, so a lot of this factory precision is wasted. And not all makers agree what the best harness is for a carving tool anyway. What the factory is looking for is consistency and the 'good enough temper' as much as anything else. Some makes (and thus harness) suit some carvers, other makes suit a different style and preference. WE can do this: establish the 'good enough temper': harden steel so it keeps its edge well. And because we can, we may safely altering the shape of a tool or reclaim an old tool. I have information about the method in volume 2 of my Woodcarving Tools, Materials & Equipment. Many of you have had a go and found it both satisfying and fun! One of you asked: "When I temper a gouge, only the last quarter inch looks the recommended "straw" colour. Will a worn second-hand gouge be ground through the optimum temper to softer metal?" Presumably we are talking regular, straight gouges. A regular gouge will normally be tempered the whole length of its blade, thus you can use it to within an inch of it's life, perhaps lengthening the handle. So the answer to this part is: it might, or not depending on what was done to it; but you can assume so until proved otherwise. (Bent gouges lose their hardness at the bend - this is necessarily softer metal for resilience - bending to the strain without breaking.) However, the first comment - "only the last quarter inch looks the recommended 'straw' colour" - stands out, You should try to make this longer. The questioner continues: "When tempering gouges, we "float" the heat down to the bevel before quenching. As the bevel is thinner than the blade before it I find it difficult to get much length in the 'straw' colour." Let's look at this: Essentially we start by 'hardening' the blade metal: heating to a high temperature ('cherry red' = 1375C) and suddenly cooling it: 'quenching'. But in this state it's TOO hard to use, too brittle. We must draw out some of this brittleness by a more subtle heating and quenching known as 'tempering'. In this last stage we aim to heat the working part of the blade to a 'straw colour'(= 230C), then quench the metal there. When you overheat your lovely edge on a grinder, it goes blue - yes? Before it went blue, the colour changed from a pale straw, through bronzes, and then to the blue. But it happened too quickly for you to see it. Temperature is related to mass and heat energy. Heat going into a big mass raises the temperature less than the same amount of heat going into a small mass. (Imagine pouring a cup of boiling water into a cold bath, and the same into a teapot...) So, yes, as the blade gets thinner, it will heat more quickly. The temperature rises and you can overshoot the colour and actually lose the hardness at this point completely. These tempering colours are oxidants on the surface of the metal - you can easily polish them off. Each colour represents a specific temperature - and what a wonderful coincidence! - because the light straw is just the temperature we need to reduce the hardness or our carving tool to its optimum level. You need a polished surface to see these colours. The best way to get the straw colour is to create a 'heat sump' by heating a part of the blade (way back, towards the shank). From this hot spot, the heat moves along the metal (to both sides) in a gradient - the further away from the hot spot, the cooler - and you'll see this as a spectrum of colours: light straw first, through bronzes, to blue as where you started. The 'art' now is to gently apply your heat to separate the colours and creep the straw colours along the blade - what the poet in my soul called 'floating'. The light straw colour moves more quickly if the metal thins towards the cutting end, and quickest at the bevel. You need to be sharp as you plunge into water! Start at the shank, way back from the cutting edge, to give you time and room to move. It's a low temperature (230C) so take it easy as you apply the heat. You can lengthen the light straw colour to a couple of inches at least on a regular gouge - which should last the lifetime of most carvers. As always, I suggest you practice your skills first. Any rod or strip of steel - an old steel ruler, a bolt; just polish them up. Bear the following points in mind: 1. As long as you have good, suitable steel, you can re-harden and temper the blade any time you want, independent of whether it has been hardened before. 2. You can repeat the process any number of times without harming the steel - providing you don't make the blade white hot, in which case you start burning off the carbon. 3. Thus, if you feel you are not successful, you can try again... If you are interested, read through the chapter in volume 2 of my Woodcarving Tools, Materials & Equipment and have a go! If nothing else you'll understand carving tools better. And if all goes well you can resurrect old tools, or convert a spare carving tool into something more useful. _______________________________________ 4. FOLLOW UP... ________________________________________ 1) OTHER USEFUL STAINS (Dec 03) (Thanks to Morgan Groves, Ill.) Many years ago, I learned that Potassium Permanganate dissolved in water gives a very nice light brown color to pine. I used it to stain a couple of home projects. The color fades in the light over time, but it leaves a nice darker shade of tan than the original wood. No experience with using it on carving, but I will try it again, as I have a couple of tablets still left. 2) HOLDING DOWN THAT BENCH! (Dec 03) (Thanks to Morgan Groves, Ill.) KEEPING THE BENCH IN ONE PLACE: I put a couple of 70 lb sandbags, sold in our area as supplemental weight to be put in trunk or truck bed for winter traction, on the bottom shelf of my bench. It hasn't budged in three years. 3) SLATE SHARPENING STONES (Dec 03) (Thanks to Trevor Leedham UK.) I've been using slate slipstones for that final polish to an edge for a good few years now. I inherited a bench stone from my Grandfather about 20 years ago and since then have added to my collection by picking up slates from various mountains. I now have a variety of grades from fine to superfine. They are extremely hard and produce a wonderful edge. ============================================= That's all for this month! Joy and success in your carving! Chris Pye ------------------------- PS: One for the bench: "I like thinking of possibilities. At any time, an entirely new possibility is liable to come along and spin you off in an entirely new direction. The trick, I've learned, is to be awake to the moment." - Doug Hall ____________________________________________________________ SOME WEBSITE BOOKMARKS ____________________________________________________________ ----------------- WOODCARVING TOOLS The FOLLOWING PAGES ARE UNAVAILABLE and being re-written: * UK TOOLSHOP: Auriou woodcarving tools and other equipment http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/toolshop/ts_uktoolshop.html * UKTOOLSHOP Direct Link (missing out introductory page): http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/toolshop/uktoolshop/index.html ----------------- SLIPSTONES WOODCARVING MANUALS Over 12,911 copies of these ebooks have been downloaded in the last 11 months, of which 3700 have been 'Learning to Carve'. * The Accomplished V Tool 1 - Free evaluation copy http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/ * Learning to Carve - Free eBook http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/learncarving/learn_ebook.html * A Guide to Safe Woodcarving - Free eBook http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/safecarving/safecarving_index.html * Mistakes and Woodcarving - Free eBook http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/mistakes/mistakes_ebook.html * Fundamentals of Woodcarving - Free eBook http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/fundamentals/fundamentals_ebook.html *Slicing, And The Value Of The Inside Bevel With The Chris Pye #2 1/2 Finishing Gouges From Ashley Iles - Free pdf http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/toolshop/ts_iles.html ----------------- TEACHING * UK (1-TO-1 PERSONAL TUITION) Full details here: http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/tuition/t_custom.html Single day: £150 3 days: £360 5 days: £495 Lunch included. Local B&Bs in a very beautiful part of England... * USA (CENTER FOR FURNITURE CRAFTSMANSHIP, MAINE) http://www.woodschool.org/ Sept 20 - 24 Ornamental carving (Mouldings) Sept 27 - Oct 1 Relief Carving Oct 4 - 9 Carving Tutorial Full details to be announced. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright (c) Chris Pye 2004 Chris@chrispye-woodcarving.com ----------------------- -----------------------