some carving

[Scoony]

I brought back some mahogany from my last visit to Panama. We have a farm on the lake that the canal runs through. The farm was my wife's grandfather, and the story is he salvaged some logs from the canal zone and had them sawn up a long time ago. Its possible that that those logs were cut and cast aside as the canal was being built. I am making this box for my wife's Step-father and wanted to put a little carving on it.  Shells are pretty simple and don't take a lot of chisels. The ones in the picture are main ones I used. There were a few other chisels that made their way into the carving, but these were the primary.  One thing I forgot to do was remove some material towards the central hub. I realized that while processing the photos. ANother mistake was using a chisel to mark out the scallops. Should have used a pencil, so those chisel lines would not be there. Both will be easy to correct. This is less than 20 minutes of carving. 

   

   

They look rough at the moment, but they will clean up nicely with a small shaped scraper and sandpaper. Thing I realized about carving is that it generally looks crappy until you get close to done, then all of a sudden it looks good.

[jasfrank]

That'd take me more than 20 minutes to draw out, let alone carve it. You do nice work Scoony, and fast.

[Scoony]

Had to finish some other projects, but finally got back to this and finishing up the final coats of finish. 

This mahogany was a dream to work with. 

   

The carving did not turn out perfect, but it did turn out perfectly fine and I am happy with it. 

   

Finish is simply Minwax Antique Oil. I have 3 coats on right now and plan for a few more. I would love to get several hundred board feet of this wood if I could.

[BrokenOlMarine]

I like the final result very much and hope to learn to do some carving myself.  Perhaps I'll take the class that woodcraft offers if things settle down at home. 
  There are so many of the projects that I do that could be enhanced with the addition of some simple carvings.

Mahogany?  I like it very much as well.  I have been blessed with a very nice batch of mahogany that began it's life as the two inch thick four inch wide octagon edges of a trio of large bar/card tables at an exclusive golf course in Pensacola.  When the owners were redecorating the 19th Hole Club, they were tossing the tables and my dad grabbed the tops and saved the fine mahogany edges for me.  I ran the mahogany thru the band saw cutting it into 1/2" planks.

I used most of it as boxes over the last few years, some as trim for major projects and some for display cases and the like.  I have just a few pieces left.  I will carefully consider where that goes.  Maybe knife scales, perhaps a last few special presentation cases or boxes.  We shall see.

Again, beautiful work for the little time invested.  I hope my efforts turn out as well.

[jstraw]

That looks great, nice job. I’ve done a couple of fan carvings on drawer fronts and was surprised how fast it went. But, it Definitely took longer than you did.

Jim, try some of that walnut you have. I had good luck with carving walnut.

[BrokenOlMarine]

That looks great, nice job.  I’ve done a couple of fan carvings on drawer fronts and was surprised how fast it went.  But, it Definitely took longer than you did.

Jim, try some of that walnut you have.  I had good luck with carving walnut.

I did some carving for the Charity Tumbler I made for the YakAttack Tournament,

   
 and some for the Granddaughter's Toybox this past Christmas.  

   
Certainly not fast, and I was handicapped by "Cheap" tools.  I recently ordered a much better set.  Good tools won't instantly make an unskilled carver a master... but crap tools will certainly flatten a learning curve, no matter what skill discipline you are trying to master. 


I have seen this first hand teaching firearms, fly tying, fly casting, and kayaking... 
You don't need top of the line, but cheapo, is cheapo.

The one thing that is true....

A master of any skill?
They can take Cheap equipment and make it look like quality. 

I once saw Lefty Kreh... the DEAN of Fly Casting, tie a fly line to a STICK and make a perfect long cast...
I can't make a "Perfect" long cast with a TOP of the line fly rod. 

[Strokes77]

Scoony that box is fine work.  And it's inspired me for my next project.  Hopefully I can finish it and share a pic.

Great job, thanks for posting.

[Bibliophile 13]

Nice work! It's kind of comforting to see a carving project that's not picture-perfect up close. You did a good job with the box.

Nice, tight dovetails, too!

[Hank Knight]

Nice fan carving, but I'm really impressed by your mitered dovetails.

[Scoony]

Nice fan carving, but I'm really impressed by you mitered dovetails.

Thanks,

I probably do more mitered dovetails then plain DTs. If the edge of the item is going to be seen, it gets the mitered treatment.