Carving a hat brim can be a little tricky when it comes to its thickness in that it needs to look thin and still maintain its strength while being carved thin. A common approach is to carve the brim as thin as possible while leaving the outer edge having a flat surface that magnifies it appearance as being too thick. The trick is the chamfer the edge by slicing the top and bottom corners of the flat surface edge into a knife edge appearance. The hat brim will maintain it strength in thickness while the edge will be narrow giving the appearance of a thin brim.
Study the illustration photo that shows a hat brim in the process of being carved to shape. The area illustrated in the “B” section shows a flat surface reflective of the thickness of the brim. Illustration “A” shows the brim chamfered into a knife edge giving the appearance of a thin brim. Illustration “C” shows the brim thinned at its edge almost with a knife edge chamfer, only a little thicker to give a rustic and ragged edge to the brim. “A” is the YES, “C” is a MAYBE while the “B” is a NO because the flat edge is not artistically appealing making the hat brim way too thick in appearance.
The photo below will show examples of knife edged hats brims in their finished stage.
The Uncle Sam Five carving project is a commission of five different poses of the character Uncle Sam. Each one begins with a six and half inch tall by inch and half square block of basswood. The SHAPE UP process begins with the guiding concept of the Rule of Three for facial proportions and body proportions. The Wood Bee Carver has used the Rule of Three proportional guide since 1995 for carving and for instructions purposes for figures of various sizes since it is a “proportional” measurement of visual divisions of using eyes rather than a measuring rule.
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The first Dream Fish was carved in 2011 as gift presentation to a fisherman friend. At the time it was challenging carving project in which it was learned that “Challenge is a teacher of unlearned lessons.” Anytime a carver begins a new carving project it becomes a “learning exercise” of transposing an imagined subject into a tangible carving. Another lesson learned along the carving journey is what is learned in carving the subject for the first time will guide carving it the second time to expand the learning potential. So, it was when a commission came to carve the Dream Fish another time a renewed challenge of relearning while carving from a distant memory that new lessons opened during the carving process. Such a positive experience led to carving another Dream Fish to expand the “challenge learning lessons.” These two Dream Fish carvings will lend themselves to offering brief informative observations by way of photos of the carving process along with brief descriptions of explanation.
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A Half Pint is a three inch tall figure carved to the scale of a half inch equals a foot. It begins with a three inch by an inch square basswood block. Study the photographic chart below to follow the progressive steps to get an overall mental view.
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The Pirate First Mate is carved in the Half Pint size of three inches tall with a one inch square base. The First Mate is wearing a bandana head wrap rather than the officer’s hat even though he is wearing an officer’s coat captured as a spoil of a sea battle.
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Red Beard Pirate is the latest version of a carving project that I have carved several times. A pirate is a carver’s dream of a carving project because of the variety of anomalies of design compared with a regular figure.
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