Any carvers here?

[Jux]

I suppose I should be looking into some forums dedicated to wood carving, but what the hell, I'm already here and maybe I'll strike gold.

So here's my problem. I'm doing a bas relief carving (some french curves and a magnolia flower) on 2 inch thick cherry, but the bas relief is mostly at the top of the piece, and I want the rest of it planed evenly. This is especially important because the piece is actually going to be 3 boards tongue and grooved together and routed once it's squared up and planed (I couldn't find a single piece of wood big enough). The curves are going to be approx 1 1/2 inch high, so most of the work is going to be about 1/2 in thickness.

I have access to pretty much any tool I could need, I just can't figure out if there is a specific technique that'll make this come out clean.

I could always do the carving seperately and attach it, but if possible I want to do a true bas relief. Thanks ya'll.

 

[Albino Boo]

I'm not the worlds greatest wood carver but I can tell you the rough techniques. Draw on to the surface your design. Take a small c section gouge and cut well outside the line to the depth that you want your new surface to be. Next take a large c-section gouge and take off the rest of the surface to that depth. Use small c-section gouges to make a rough outline of your design and then v section gouges for the fine details. You can use power chisel with the same shaped cutting blades.

Thats an ambitious project for a first try, especially in a fairly hard wood like cherry. I would practice on some cheaper woods first so you get a feel for how it works and how the tools cut.

 

[Jux]

Yea, practicing on basswood right now. I've run into another problem conceptually too. I was going to use an ogee as my route, but I just realized that the relief is going to be too close to the edge to allow a router to sit flush on top of it. Looking for a power solution right now, but I'm thinking I might have to route that section manually. Would like to avoid that at all cost if possible though.

edit. Wondering maybe if I can do the route first somehow and then carve? I need to see if there are any 'deep' bits

 

[Albino Boo]

You can rough out with a router but unless you have large sums of money lying about to buy a CNC router, you are going to have to do somethings by hand. You might to be able to cut some of your french curves using an ellipse jig and just carve the top. You could try using a circle jig to create a cylinder and crave your flower from that. If you have a router table you could also build a template and cut using that. I think ultimately you are going to have do the fine detail by hand. Its nerve racking to do, but with a small gouge and a light touch any mistake won't be that big and when sanded and varnished largely hidden.

 

[Jux]

Yea, the flower and french curves are going to have to be done by hand for sure, I just didn't want to do the edge routing by hand. I figured out the solution to the routing problem though. I'll take the 2 inch stock and run it down to 1/2 inch along all the sides with a table saw (I guess just multiple passes) and then use a plunge router with a bit extension to get my ogee routing. From there I'll do the flower and french curves.

I'll be uploading some pictures as I go with the practice basswood I think so I can get pointers along the way.