Carving a flame finial- "brush" type
I just finished carving some finials in the Philly style, that is, not your typical corkscrew or crazy provincial variation. So i guess it's more typical of the Phil. type. I'm illustrating this because it shows a manner of carving that is fairly improvisational and not easy to describe. You'll end up with your own style.
The first step is to just draw a wavy line from top to bottom and use a gouge (11-7) to follow the line.
Cut a few more lines in that roughly parallel the first one, but start and stop at about the same spot.
Cut a few more lines in that roughly parallel the first one, but start and stop at about the same spot.Leave a blank space and do it again,
I then connect the bottom of one set of cuts with the top of another set to bridge the space between them.
I then connect the bottom of one set of cuts with the top of another set to bridge the space between them.Once I've covered the surface of the finial with these hollow cuts I then use the gouge to lightly hollow out the high ridges
,
then go back 
with a v-tool and put some dividing cuts between the groups of previous cuts.See also the final lineup pic to get a better view of these cuts.
, then go back with a v-tool and put some dividing cuts between the groups of previous cuts.See also the final lineup pic to get a better view of these cuts.At the bottom of the finial I use a smaller gouge and a straight chisel with the end rounded off to clean up the cuts where they meet the base.
Tools used are illustrated: #11 gouges, v-tool and the clean up tools.-Al
Comment
-
Comment by John Davis on August 10, 2010 at 8:55pm -
Thanks for showing the detail and sequence Al.
© 2012 Created by Tom Edwards.
You need to be a member of The Breed School to add comments!
Join The Breed School