Carving a lambs tongue on a saw handle

[Jonathan S]

Any have any tips or methods to share for carving a lambs tongue on a saw handle? How about a good tutorial? I could not find much.

Thanks
Jonathan

[TobyC]

Didn't Matt have one?

[TobyC]

http://thesawblog.com/?p=145

[TobyC]

Here's one from Ray,

http://www.backsaw.net/SawHandles101.pdf

[KlausK.]

Hi Jonathan,

the first important step is the right cutting out of the blank. The lambs tongue has to be much thicker as it finally will be. You'll need enough space to shape the top of the tongue (where it will meet the cheeks).

After that I like to do a fine cut between lambs tongue and cheeks with the depth of about 3/16" from each side. Here is a blank that has got the cuts already.



The slot enables you to work from both sides against it. That makes the carving easier.

The shaping of the tongue itself and the shaping of the bottom of the cheeks I like to do by using little chip carving knives like these:



The smoothing of the surfaces between tongue and cheeks is a bit tricky. A Japanese saw file that is single sided toothed helps a lot.



To get an idea, here two pics of the finished handle that was made out of the above shown blank.

<img src="/ssl_proxy.php?url=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Rj5WzZ8dwR4/TY2b2arH5XI/AAAAAAAABJo/JjTpbiP5tUM/s1600/P1020106.JPG[/img]



Hope that helps.
Klaus

[Jonathan S]

Thanks Klaus,

I appreciate the pictures. That's exactly where I ended up tonight. With a few of those two cherries chip carving knives and and couple of palm carving tools on the bench. I have zero carving experience, in fact this is the first time I have used those knives and carving tools. That big triangular file looks helpful. I got a bit done, but still have a ways to go. Definitely takes practice. Your tip of starting with a thick tongue, sure makes sense.

Thanks
Jonathan

[MarvW]

Few people do lamb's tongues like Klaus does.

[mike9]

Try a slitting file to shape the recess between the tongue . Isaac turned me on to this tool. I bought it from Slav on Otto Frei. I was getting tearout when I tried carving it, could of just been the jatoba.

[Isaac S]

If I were to try it, I would use a slitting file like Mike suggested.

I used to carve them with carving tools, but now do the entire thing with a slitting file. For me, the carving tools were slower and more likely to blow out the lamb's tongue if I pried or slipped.

Like Klaus, I use a saw to cut a slit between the cheeks and the lamb's tongue before shaping it. Only after I round over the front and shape the contours of the top and bottom of the lamb's tongue do I start in with the file. After that, I just clean it up with sandpaper. Just take your time and look at it from all possible angles to see that you are forming smooth and symmetric curves.

Good luck. For me, it's the single most time-consuming part of shaping the handle, so once you get that done, the rest of the way is downhill.

[MarvW]

Isaac is among the few who know their stuff when it comes to a lamb's tongue on a saw handle.

Andrew Lunn used his carving talents in a different way..