54 Australian Wood Review
WOODCARVING- Looking again at our template diagram, you can see the
three small triangular areas that remain as corners on the
outside bowl walls. I use an almost flat, Pfeil No.2 gouge
to carefully carve these away, and to generally work over
the entire outside wall surfaces to give them the quality
of final finish I prefer. - There are three details of this finishing process to take
care with. One is to ensure the base triangle is shaped
and positioned correctly relative to the top of the bowl.
Once that has been done, the shape of the base can be
isolated and emphasised – I have done this with three,
carefully cut lines, using a Pfeil No.12 V-tool. Last is to
make sure that the three corner lines are straight, and
that they are in their correct alignment, joining each
corner of the base to the respective corner of the bowl.
These corner lines can be shifted and, if necessary,
straightened, by carving away appropriate amounts of
the sides as required. - Once you are satisfied with the entire bowl, you are
free to autograph it. I have been experimenting with
using a knife rather than a V-tool to do this. It is harder
to do, but gives a cleaner result.All that now remains is
polishing. I prefer the look of a tooled finish usually. For
the underneath of an object that we mostly ‘see’ with our
fingers only, I think it adds a little surprising warmth to the
viewing experience.
The finish I prefer when heat and water are not expected
to be an issue, is shellac, or French polish. I brush it on
with a brush designed for the purpose, and ‘cut’ each dry
coat with Liberon 0000 steel wool. After four coats, I cut
as usual and then apply a coat of wax.Robert Howard is a woodworker and sculptor who lives in
Brisbane. He teaches regular woodwork classes from his
studio. Email: [email protected]2526It is a cliche, but true nevertheless, that you learn to carve
by carving. If you are trying to learn, and want to try this
bowl, my advice is to do your best with it, but give yourself
permission to stuff it up. And, if you do stuff it up, do it
again. And again if necessary.Finally, just to show you that none of us are immune to
failure, let me say that that I wasn’t happy with the spacing
of the internal V-cuts or their convergence in the piece I
made. Why did this happen? Who knows? I think I just had
a bad day, as we all do.Photos: Robert Howard2422 23