Precision (sort of) carving?
#7
At the risk of tumbling down the gouges slope, I have started to carve pulls and recesses. On what? Drawers, boxes, anything. I have several of Pye's books, read a great recent article in FWW on carving recessed drawer pulls, have watched a bit of Mary May, and the like. With the exception of the FWW article, most carvers aren't looking for crisp, symmetrical shapes; what's pleasing for a door pull looks lifeless on a sculpture. This means that a lot of carving instruction has a different focus from what i'm trying to do.

For recessed finger pulls, especially on hard, ornery woods, I've had difficulties getting a crisp outline (look at furniture my Krenov and his students for fine examples of what I'm striving toward). For external door and drawer pulls, rasps and files have their place but they don't lent themselves to sharply defined features.

Can you point me in the direction of instruction for this? A lot of it will probably be trial and error. But I would love to cut down the learning curve.

Thanks!
Best,
Aram, always learning

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery


Web: My woodworking photo site
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#8
Assuming your technique is good, three things come to mind when you note that your details are not as crisp as you would like.

1. Sharpness. I'm always amazed at how touching up a tool with the strop will improve the cutting and the surface the tool leaves. Sharpen constantly. (I'm betting you know this already.)

2. Mallet vs. hand pressure. Sometimes hand pressure is all you need on a gouge, but I get better results on outlines (esp. with a V chisel) when I use a proper carving mallet.

3. Wood species. Some woods just don't take nice detail. A lot of softer woods tend to fuzz when being carved. But even some harder woods just don't yield smooth, sharp results. To get the results you want, you might need to consider a different species of wood. You mention gnarly wood, so I feel like this might be your problem.
Steve S.
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#9
Thank you, Steve!
Best,
Aram, always learning

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery


Web: My woodworking photo site
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#10
Steve is 'right on' with his comment. I would add, as a result of my own experience going down that road, is to pay great attention to grain direction. I found that bloodwood, padauk and cherry (for example) lend themselves to shaping beautiful pulls if I'm very careful choosing stock with manageable grain. I even found some manzanita that made wonderful handles & pulls. Grain direction is everything in gaining satisfaction.
Good Luck! Let us know how you fare with this.
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#11
Thanks. Makes total sense. Between the birds eye maple box and the reversing-grain bubinga lid, grain direction is a little arbitrary. Probably not the easiest choice. But I'm sure skilled craftsman could tackle this, so I'll keep banging away.

Thanks for the advice.
Best,
Aram, always learning

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery


Web: My woodworking photo site
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#12
I think you would be well served by first analyzing the specific shape you'd like to produce, and then constructing jigs and fixtures as required to execute each individual cut with precision.
One sees this sort of thing all the time with blocks of wood contrived to trim string bandings. That is just one example, but it is common enough, I hope you've seen it.
If it were me, I would examine the desired pull minutely, and attempt to break down its construction to a series of precisely executed chip cuts. Then I would make "guides", for lack of a better word, for each cut. You could make a little "bathtub" that the pull material sits in. A bathtub that fixes it in space, restricting its movement. When it's in there, it doesn't move. A rim around the bathtub could be constructed in a standardized dimension of your choosing. Miter blocks (again for lack of a better word) could be placed atop the bathtub. The bottoms of the blocks could be designed in female fashion. They'd have a socket-like rim that nestled nicely over the top of your bathtub fixture. Each miter block could then have an aperture to admit the chisel, allowing it to make only the required cut. Flipping it around, in any case, could make one block both a left and right block for any given cut. The bottom of the bathtub could have a block glued to it to secure it in the vice.
When you have to make, say four pulls, cut enough stock for six.
Secure the bathtub fixture in the vice, put a blank inside, and cover it with the first block. Make the required cut, turn the block around, and make the left cut (if you made the right cut first).
Next blank, same procedure, until all six have been through "block #1.
Then, block #2.
Etc.
You may even develop a shop slang, "That is a five block drawer pull, and this one is a seven block drawer pull."
I have other ideas, but I'm tired now. Maybe later.
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