The rogues galley of faces that follows gives a close up view of faces carved using only a knife in very hard wood.  It is something that can be done but basswood is a more enjoyable wood to carve.  Carving bottle toppers is done for the novelity and fun of carving while learning with every new carving.

Charles Simpson from Alabama made the knives in the photograph on the left using Personna eight inch floor scraper blades.  He has been making them for years with many satisfied carvers using his knives. Other carvers have also used the floor scraper blades to make knives so it was only natural for the WOOD BEE CARVER to tinker around again with another knife making project.  A search on the Internet for “eight inch floor scraper blades” will bring up Personna blades as well as Better Tools scraper blades to be purchased.  Personna floor scraper  blades (five in package - .036″ gauge) can also be purchased at Lowes Home Improvement stores in the flooring department for about seven dollars.  Make sure that scraper blades are at least .036″ gauge because any gauge less makes the blade more susceptible to breakage. 

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The first photograph shows the scraper blade tube package, a full length blade and several smaller blade sections cut off the larger blade.  The next photograph shows the dulling of the sharp edge of the scraper blade in order to work with it.  Wear eye protection and a safety glove while working during the cutting of the blade into smaller sections and the shaping of the smaller blades on the belt sander.  A Dremel tool with a cut off wheel is used to cut the larger blade into smaller sections.  The smaller blades are shaped on a one inch by forty two inch belt sander  laying horizontally using 120x grit Aluminum Oxide or 120x grit Blue Zirconia belts.  Use new belts because as the belts are worn down they heat up the metal quickly.   Dip the blade in water every so often to protect against burning the metal and drawing out the temper.

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The top photograph shows a cut blade blank and a shaped blade ready to be assembled into a handle.  The second photograph shows two strips of wood for a handle with one strip receiving a mortise cut to receive the end portion of the blade which will all be epoxied together using five minute epoxy.   Once the epoxy has cured the wooden handle is whittled and sanded to shape. An assembled knife is also shown to depict the finished knife.  The third photograph shows several knife blanks along with finished knives.  The blue handled and chucked knife is used to hold the blade during the shaping process on the belt sander.  Once the blade is shaped and secured in a handle then the blade is sharpened and stropped to make ready for carving.

The middle three photographs show finished knives all made using Personna floor scraper blades.  The bottom three photographs show Better Tools floor scraper blades and the knives made from this brand of scraper blade.  Both Personna and Better Tools blades are high carbon steel, .036″ gauge and have adequate hardness and temper to make usable carving knives.  Granted they are not as good as a custom made knife by Long, Lyons, Dunkle or any of the other fine knife makers.  But for the carver who likes to tinker at making a suitable carving knife, this is another project that will do the job.

Practice SAFETY  always while working with making knives and also when carving.  Any tool is only as sharp of the person using the tool, so always BEE SHARP.

ELKHORN III was carved out a three and half inch square by eight and half inch tall block of butternut with traditional carving tools.  Boiled linseed oil is the main finish with a coat of Deft brushing lacquer to protect the oil finish.  Wood burning highlighted some areas with darker coloration.  A butternut base was carved into an oval shape with tool marks giving random texture so that the eye does not stop at hard lines making the base non-descript. 

 The head dress and hair treatment was embellished with several motifs and flowing lines.  The facial expression and gaze of the eyes gives a far off look towards an imaginary horizon of unfulfilled dreams.  The robe has continuous flowing lines and soft folds and wrinkles to give the impression of the movement of the wind surrounding Elkhorn as he clutches the robe tight and  cradles a peace pipe.

ELKHORN III is the latest interpretation of a carving theme of a Native American.  The first one was carved out of basswood in February of this year.  A second one was carved like this one out of butternut in a little larger format. 

Every carving project is a learning experience of learning while carving changes that could have been made.  By carving a second of similar design other learning experiences take place while making refinement to the first edition.  Carving a third edition is still learning to refine the design.  Even though the same design is carved several times, yet each possesses its own characteristics and personality making each one unique in its own right.

  The subject of “Elkhorn” is not completed as there will probably be additional editions of this same noble design.  This photo essay is simply a peek at another interpretation of a similar theme.  A comparison may be viewed with the first Elkhorn posting at:  http://woodbeecarver.com/?p=2621.

A class in Whittle-Carving stresses using a “slicing cut”  as being the most efficient and cleanest cut in the carving process by using as much of the cutting edge of the knife blade whenever possible.  In order to introduce this concept the first exercise is to carve a round ball on the end of a square block of basswood.  The emphasis stresses to begin “thinking inside the block,” of envisioning a ball within a square and with a combination of slicing notch cuts begin to shape the square into a ball.  The simplest definition for carving is to shape a piece of wood with a cutting tool by rounding square corners and  flattening round surfaces. 

 Removing the corners of the four sides of a square block creates an octagon shape on each side of the square.  Continuing to slice off the corners of the octagons and subsequent corners a round ball will be carved.  This round ball exercise not only teaches slicing cuts, notch cuts, cutting with the grain but also becomes a demonstration for learning to position the direction and motion of the human head to be carved within a larger mass of wood. Center lines are drawn indicating the direction in which the head will be looking when it is to be carved as well as looking up or down.  The sides of the ball are sliced thinner to visualize that the human face is two thirds the width of the head’s length. 

  Next the angles and planes of the face are sliced off the ball to create a shadow form of the human face.  Using the Rule of Three for Facial Proportions, the face is divided into:  hairline to eyebrow is a third, eyebrow to bottom of nose is a third and bottom of nose to bottom of chin is a third.  These three divisions were drawn  on the basic form of a face newly carved on the ball.

The next exercise considered opening up a block for a human figure by first removing the corners into a dowel shape and then carving a hat to basic form.  Then the form of a head was carved as going up into the hat.  This exercise was followed by using a pyramid shaped block of wood to carve the ball of the nose, nostrils, smile line and then a mouth following the ninety degree angle of the pyramid.  Notch cuts were made under the eyebrow so that later eyes could b added to this pyramid practice block.

“Thinking in the block”  stresses carving to basic form to lay a good foundation to receive the carving of the details.  It is like baking a cake in that icing is placed on the cake after it has been fully baked and cooled enough to receive the icing.  Carving in the details is putting icing on the carved form.  Putting icing on a half baked cake ruins both cake and icing and carving details before the proper form is established ruins the carving.

The purpose of the Whittle-Carving class is to teach the “how-to methods”so that each student can create their own style rather than trying to emulate the teacher’s style.  The teacher’s carvings were used as go-bys and examples for each student to begin a project of carving a three inch tall bust and a six inch tall human figure.  The student learned that after the hat and head are carved to basic form for the full figure, then the rest of the block of wood was divided using the Rule of Three of Body Proportions to lay in the design of the figure.  Rule of Three for Body Proportions are: shoulders to waist is a third, waist to mid-knees is a third and mid-knees to bottom of feet is a third.

Students learned that if one learns the basics of facial and body proportions and  to carve to the basic form or shadow shape that these lessons can be applied to any figure.  All figures start out the same while it is the outfit and accessories that gives the carving its character as in “clothes do  make the man” saying.

Survivor students learned several new approaches to carving being encouraged to relax, enjoy the journey of carving and practice every day with a twenty minute workout.  The hardest part of any project is getting started, but once begun creative imagination takes over and the joy of carving begins again.

The Ashland Area Woodcarvers meet every Thursday 5:00 to 7:00 at the Ashland Steelworkers Hall in Ashland, Kentucky.  www.aawc.net  is their web site for more information as they welcome any interested in carving to visit one of their meetings. 

 The very tip end of any blade that comes to a quick point is the detail blade portion of the entire blade as only a fraction of the blade is doing the carving.  The next series of photographs show several Miniatures and the knife that carved the miniature figure using only the tip end of the blade.

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In the photographic journey that follows the first series are of Alabama Charlie that shows eight panoramic views of a miniature figure an inch and three quarters tall.

Jughead will be featured next being an example of a painted miniature figure to compare with the other miniatures  that have received only a stain of raw sienna artist oil paint mixed with boiled linseed oil.  Following Jughead will be Spud Jimmy, Leroy Obert and finally I. B. Whittled.

Miniature figures are more tedious than difficult to carve requiring fine slicing cuts with the tip end of the carving knife blade.  A miniature is actually easier to carve than a larger figure in that there are less cuts to get to the final result.  The tedious part is learning to make each cut remove the proper amount of wood but then each cut gets the carver to  the detail portion of the carving sooner although there is less margin for error.  Carving miniatures can be tedious, challenging and fun all at the same time.  Like so many carving projects, one is not sufficient so there is the push to carve another and then another and then another.

The only magnification used is reading glasses worn on top of bifocal glasses for this old carver.  Knife blades need to be extremely sharp with  a thin bevel to slice through  each cut with ease. Slicing cuts are a must and no prying of loose chips.  Re-slice for a clean cut.

  Miniature carving makes each cut count while counting the fun of carving a miniature version of the carver’s imagination.

I. B. WHITTLED made a little trip to the Blackhawk Woodcarvers show in Illinois and received a first place ribbon the the Miniature Challenge Class  (28 entries) and the Judges Choices First  Runner Up of all entries.  For a little man he stands pretty tall with the honor bestoyed.