CLAYTON'S CARVING PRACTICUM HOW TO MAKE QUALILTY CARVINGS FOR MODEL SHIPS
Clayton Johnson clayton707@yahoo.com http://clayton707.googlepages.com/
November 2006
INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................. 2 TYPES OF CARVING TOOLS ........................................................................... 3 SELECTING WOOD TYPE................................................................................ 8 MAKING TRACINGS ...................................................................................... 11 DIMENSIONING WOOD & TRANSFERRING THE TRACING TO A BLANK ....... 14 CUTTING OUT AND HOLDING DOWN YOUR CARVING BLANK ..................... 19 VISUALIZATION AND TYPES OF CUTS TO USE ............................................ 21 VISUALIZATION AND TYPES OF CUTS TO USE CONTINUED ........................ 27 FINISHING .................................................................................................... 32 USING SOURCES OTHER THAN YOUR PLANS.............................................. 33
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INTRODUCTION One of the main concerns that scratch model builders have when they are looking into building a vessel from the 17th or 18th century is all of the ornamentation attached to ships of these time periods. In fact, many model ship builders shy away from this period all together just because of the fact that they are intimidated by sculpture. With the knowledge of a few basic concepts, however, you can be on your way to making excellent wooden carvings of any type and of any period. In fact, it will be possible to make carvings that are much nicer than mine and you will be able to add something to your models that everyone will gawk over! The mission of this practicum is to introduce you to the process of making small carvings for model ships. I will go through the kinds of tools available, the process of selecting the type of wood you will use, keeping everything in proportion through tracing transfer, cutting out a carving blank, holding your carving down, visualization, the kinds of cuts you will make, finishing, using sources other than your model plans, and everything else required to make excellent carvings. In order to move to the next part of the practicum, hit next at the bottom right. To skip to a previous or future section, see the index to the left. To go back to my main model ship site, hit the "MODEL SHIP CONSTRUCTION - HOME" link at the top or bottom of the page.
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TYPES OF CARVING TOOLS You have several options when it comes to selecting the tools you would like to use to make your carvings. There are four general groups of tools that model ship carvers use. These groups include larger saws and dimensioning devices for making carving blanks, rotary tools, micro chisels, and straight and curved razor blades. Some larger saws that you may want to use are also very handy with all other applications of model ship building. They include small table saws such as the Byrnes Model Machines saw that I have, a small band saw, and scroll saw. If you don't have the resources to pick up these more expensive power tools, hand tools will work as well. Coping saws can be used for the same purpose as a scroll saw, hand crosscut, and rip saws, and hand planes can be used to dimension billets. You can also buy wood in dimensions that are close to what you will need. I also recommend a precision thickness sander so that you can have an alternate means of getting the dimensions of your carving blanks exactly how you want them. Again, if you can’t afford a thickness sander, a hand plane will do the same job or you can buy dimension billets.
From left to right in the above picture of a part of my shop: Jim Byrnes table saw, Ryobi 9" band saw, Delta scroll saw, and Jim Byrnes thickness sander. I use #11 exacto blades almost exclusively for my carving and only switch over to rotary tools for coarser work every once in awhile, however, some modelers prefer to do all of their carving with rotary bits. If you choose to use rotary tools, you will first need something to power them with. For the little carving that I do with rotary tools, I use a Dremel multi speed tool with a flex shaft that you can hold like a pencil. You can pick up one of these at your local hardware or home improvement type store. Mine is in the picture below.
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The next thing you may want for your rotary carving set, if you choose that route, include diamond tipped and/or carbide tipped burrs. The below picture shows a typical carbide tipped burr set that I bought from a jewelers supply company. When buying burrs for model ship carving, you will be best off if you buy several kinds and shapes to use for different things, and also try to get many in a size that is less than a millimeter in diameter. Even a half millimeter is too big for many details! You can also contact your dentist since many burrs that are "wore out" for dentistry are still good for carving and you may be able to get some dentist burrs for little to no cost.
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The below picture shows a couple typical diamond tipped burr sets.
The next group of tools available for carving includes micro-chisels. You can get these in many sizes and in millimeter dimensions. Again, just like the burrs, try to get an array of shapes and try to get the smallest ones available. Below is an example of a set from Flexcut. Like I stated before, I prefer #11 blades and coincidentally they are the cheapest tool for carving work.
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Mentioned before and last but definitely not least is the group that includes our simple straight and curved edge razor blades. These tools are what I use for most of my carving since they are what I personally prefer and they are what I will be using throughout most of the practicum. Many of the main concepts, however, such as visualizing where you need to take wood off and leave it and keeping things in proportion apply no matter what kind of tools you are using. Below is a picture of some of my razor blade tools. I mainly prefer the #11 blade (pictured at the bottom) and buy packages of 500 at one time since I am always wearing them out and breaking the sharp tips off.
Below is an example of a package of 500 #11 blades that I purchase.
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See my nautical and model ship links page to see where you can purchase these kinds of tools. The tools you use in your carving have a lot to do with personal preference. There is really no "right" tool to use and what I have put on this page are simply some basic suggestions. NAUTICAL AND MODEL SHIP LINKS ( http://clayton707.googlepages.com/nauticalandmodelshiplinks ) One last tool that I feel needs mentioning in this section that doesn't have anything to do with cutting and that you may have to build on your own is a simple light table. Mine includes a wide board to which two by fours are attached lengthwise along the edge. Over the top of the two by fours sits a sheet of plexiglass thick and strong enough to draw on like a desktop. Underneath the glass is a simple fluorescent shop light. This tool is very valuable for making carving tracings to be transferred to your carving blanks. Without it, it is difficult to get the dimensions of your carvings correct.
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SELECTING WOOD TYPE The types of wood that you decide to use in your carving will have to do with the visual objective that you have for the completed model. You may want to end up painting your carvings in their original colors. If this is the case it will be possible to simply find a type of wood that you like carving in and use that one type throughout. If you want to leave your carvings natural and display contrasting colors like I am doing with my Wasa model, then you will have to select several types. If you want to leave your carvings natural and provide no contrast by using one wood type that is an option as well. The one main rule, however, when it comes to selecting wood types for model ship carvings is the finer grained the better. Generally, the finer grained the wood is, the least likely it is to split when you are adding fine details. You can cut very fine grained woods against the grain or with it with almost equal results. In fact, some very fine grained woods that I will suggest for carving are more like carving in a substance that has no grain such as plastic.
The above picture shows the woods that I have used to make the carvings for my Wasa. They are generally arranged from coarse to fine grain size from left to right. Again, you can also purchase billets in sizes that are close to the size of the carving that you will be making if you do not want to deal with cutting up larger dimension lumber. From the left to right: walnut, birch, yew, swiss pear, holly, apple, and dogwood.
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Walnut is about the coarsest grained wood that anyone will ever want to use in model ship carvings, in fact, some model ship builders would completely advise against using it. I use it for its dark color, however. Below is a picture of the railing links for my Wasa that I have made in walnut. Click on it to make it larger and show more detail.
I had some issues with the carvings splitting apart due to the coarse grain. I would simply glue them back together where they split with cyano acrylate. I suggest that if you are a beginning carver, you start out with one of the other finer grained woods that I have listed above or the kinds that I suggest below.
Above is a picture of some example carvings that I have produced for my Wasa model. Click on it to see more detail. The figurehead lion in the upper left is made in swiss pear, the 20 emperors, gunport wreaths and frieze carvings are made in holly, the tritons to the right of those are in dogwood, the carving to the right of that is in apple, and the dolphin carving below it is in walnut. Below the ruler, from left to right, the two dark colored tritons are in walnut, the next are in dogwood, the large warriors are in apple, and the balusters are in yew. There are kinds of wood that are available and suitable for carving other than what I have used on my Wasa model. These include boxwood, cherry, jelutong, degame, persimmon, tupelo, and whitebeam.
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When using different kinds of woods in your carvings you will need to think objectively about what you are accomplishing by using different kinds. Are the colors of the woods that you are using going to clash with the carvings next to them? Are they going to clash with the color of the woodwork around them? Are you adding too much color as to make your model look like a rainbow? All in all it is up to you, however, you will most likely need to ask these questions when you are in the planning stages of your model so that you do not end up veering away from the visual objective that you have for your model ship. I suggest that you see the links that I have on my nautical and model ship links page for more suggestions on what kinds of woods to use, their properties and where to buy them if you are at this stage of planning your masterpiece.
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MAKING TRACINGS After you have decided on, and purchased the kinds of woods and tools you are going to use in your carving, you have come to the first step in actually producing sculpture. This step involves tracing the sculpture out from your plan. This first step is extremely important to the final quality of your carving. Your tracing will determine the dimensions and proportions of the finished product. If either of these things is too drastically wrong, the carving will not look right and make your model look bad. First, lay your plan over your light table and turn the light table on. Make sure you have a pencil, eraser, ruler and any other drawing tools you may think that you will need on the table at the time. Next, take some blank computer paper and lay it over the plan where the carving is that you want to carve. Take some masking tape and gently tape down the corners. Don't press too hard or the tape will stick too fast and you will ruin your plans.
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Then, take a very sharp pencil and trace right over the outside and inside lines of the carving that you wish to make. Get all of the detail that you can.
In the picture I am tracing the forward face of the carving. Most of the time you will be able to make a second tracing as viewed from the side of the carving that will come from a different section of your model ship plans. This is what I am pictured doing below.
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Below is a picture of the finished tracing with the light table turned off.
The next step is to cut your tracings out. I do this with a #11 exacto blade.
And below are the finished tracings!
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DIMENSIONING WOOD AND TRANSFERRING THE TRACING TO A BLANK After you have completed the tracing for your carving, the next step is to dimension the wood that you will use to make your carving blank. I usually pay attention to the thinner dimension such as the thickness and cut a billet a little wider than I need on my band saw or table saw. Again, this can be done with less expensive hand tools or you can get billets pre-cut that will be close to the dimensions of your carving.
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The next step involves setting the tracing that you made for the thinner of the dimensions on the edge of the billet to get an idea of how much you need to take off in order to get the stock to the right width. As you can see in the picture below, the billet needs to be narrowed slightly.
In order to do this I run the billet through the thickness sander.
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Now the billet is the right width...
As you can see in the below picture, the billet is more than wide enough the other way to accommodate the size of our carving.
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The next step is to transfer the tracing to the wood. With a very sharp pencil, draw around the outside edge of your tracing.
Then draw the inside details so that you have a guide that will help you get proportions right while doing the actual carving. Position the tracing to the side of the traced outline. Then draw horizontal lines across the wood to help you guide where important breaks should be such as the bottom of the figures chin, underside of the figures arm etc. Then sketch in the rest using your guide lines.
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Now your tracing is transferred!
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CUTTING OUT AND HOLDING DOWN YOUR CARVING BLANK The next step is to cut the blank out. Since you traced the carving around the outside edge of your tracing, your line is slightly outside of where you will want to make your cut. In order to deal with this, simply cut right on the outside line of your carving blank. If you get done cutting and there is no visible outside line, then you know you have done a good job. Like I said before in the tools section, there are alternate tools for lower cost like a coping saw that you can use to cut out your carving blanks as well.
Leave some wood along an edge that will not require much carving such as the back or the top. This extra wood will be what you use to glue down to a surface in order to hold it while carving so that you can use both of your hands while carving.
Add some cyano acrylate to the backside of this extra wood. http://clayton707.googlepages.com/carvingpracticum
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Now, take a scrap piece of wood and clamp it down into your vice. Glue the carving down to the scrap piece of wood. Now you are ready to start the main carving process! Notice that I glued the back of the carving down so that the edge that needs the most carving is at the edge of the scrap piece of wood. This way I can get at this face more efficiently in order to carve it.
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VISUALIZATION AND TYPES OF CUTS TO USE The carving that you have seen traced and transferred to a blank so far in this practicum is one from the Wasa that is affixed to the clinker built bulkhead that separates the helmsman's cabin from the weather deck. It resembles a crouching devil or demon with his forearms up beside his head. The reason for its stepped back is that it will be attached tight to the clinker surface. We will now tackle the task of shaping this figure in yew wood. I should mention here that many model ship carvers like to carve under a magnifying glass. This is something that I don't do yet as my eyes are still in decent health. It will, perhaps, become a more practical thing as I get older. Also, I like to keep looking at the carving as other people will see it. I have heard it said that a magnifying glass allows you to carve in more detail and the carving will look even more detailed than it would without the magnification. This is just another thing that comes down to preference. In the below picture, to the left, the carving is shown with stop cuts behind the figures forearm and around the backside of the figure's head. Stop cuts are made by plunging your blade multiple times into the wood along a line of elevation difference in your carving, which is usually denoted by the lines from your plan that you transferred to the blank. Wood can then be removed from one side of the cut, thus making an elevation break. Make your initial stop cuts rather shallow; you can always come back later and make them deeper. When you go to cut the wood on one side of a stop cut, your blade will automatically stop where you made the original cut, hence the name. In the picture on the right, I am removing material along the stop cuts that I made. Since the carving needs to drop behind the figures upright forearm, the wood on the backside needs to be removed. Note: any of the pictures in this section can be clicked on in order to get a larger, more detailed view.
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In the below picture, the wood behind the arm and head of the figure is cleared out to a satisfactory extent. I am also going to cut the stop cuts along the top of the arm, the leg and buttocks, the top and bottom of the forearm are all places where downward cuts, or stop cuts, into the surface of the figure need to be made. I usually use both hands on the knife, with one finger down close to the blade or even on it, and the other on the shaft of the handle. This allows me more control. Obviously, however, I could not hold the camera and use two hands on the knife at the same time.
Once all of the stop cuts are made, the next thing to do is cut the areas on one side of stop cuts that need to be cut down in relation to the part on the other side of the stop cut. In this carving this includes the upper boundary between the figures leg and forward part of the stomach, and the lower boundary between the figures arm and body. This step takes some visualization. What do you want to be of higher elevation in the carving? What needs to be lower? Another way to think about this when making these decisions is how the light will interact with your carving. Light will be reflected off of higher or lower surfaces differently and cast shadows to the lower ones, depending on the direction of the light source. This play of light is what will bring life to your carving.
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The arm, stomach, leg etc of the carving now need to be rounded off since no figure has any part of its body that is perfectly square. Hold the blade at an angle and gently push it forward along a square edge of the carving. You can always cut your stop cut down farther in order to make the transition between the two parts more drastic. Notice that the front part of the stomach is cut down farther than the back part in order to simulate a rounded stomach that somewhat hangs between the legs of the crouching figure.
Now it is time to turn the carving and the scrap piece of wood on edge in order to start carving the forward edge. Clamp it in the vice like the below picture shows.
We will start with the legs of the figure by making a stop cut down the center of this face of the carving where the legs are going to be.
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Next, I am pictured carving a grove between the legs of the figure. I make this groove wider at the bottom since I want to make it look like his legs are slightly spread as he stands and his feet are narrower than the upper parts of his legs.
Round off the legs throughout to get a realistic appearance.
The next part includes carving the face. But first we need to make a stop cut in this carving around the forehead since there is a separate surface over the figures head. Then we need to take wood out from between the figures head and this surface in order to make it look like there is a separation between the two.
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In a face, the eyes are set approximately halfway up on the forward side of the head. Make stop cuts down into the face as shown where you want the top of the eyes to be.
Now, make vertical stop cuts coming down from your original stop cut as also shown in the above picture. This will eventually form the nose. Take your blade and hold it at an angle and push it up towards your first stop cut alongside the nose. You are now cutting out the eye sockets. Make a small grove on the outside edge of the figures eye socket and round off the edge of the face while tapering it down to the chin.
Now, the carving is really starting to take shape. The arm on one side, the legs, the eye sockets, the nose and the general shape of the body are visible. Notice how, on this particular carving, http://clayton707.googlepages.com/carvingpracticum
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the socle that the figure is standing on has a thin ledge around the upper part. This is done in the same way as every other aspect of carving that you have learned thus far. By using stop cuts and trimming unwanted wood on one side or the other.
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VISUALIZATION AND TYPES OF CUTS TO USE CONTINUED Remember, you can click on any of these pictures to get a larger, more detailed view.
Now it is time to detach the carving from the scrap piece of wood and draw the positions of the stop cuts on the other side. Simply run your knife blade underneath the carving and up towards the extra, attached wood and it will come loose. Position your tracing along side the uncarved side and draw reference lines across to the piece of wood from the carving like you did in the first step of this section. Then draw in the details. It will be a little tougher since you are actually drawing the figure the opposite way that it is shown on the tracing. With the help of the reference lines, however, this goal is achievable.
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Next, glue the excess wood back to your blank in the same manner that you did in the first place. Then, make stop cuts where necessary and start to clear wood out from the same places that you did on the other side.
Next, just as with the other side, cut down places on one side of the stop cuts that need cutting down. Then round off edges.
Next, take the scrap piece of wood out of the vice and then turn it on its side and clamp it down again as you did in the first part of making cuts. Round off any corners that need it on the front face such as the eyebrows, legs arms etc.
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Since our drawing suggests that there is a face on the socle and other sources do as well, we will now carve a face in that area. Make stop cuts in the shape of a head in the middle of the socle and carve the wood down around it. Then make stop cuts for the nose and eye sockets. Leave the forehead and nose alone and cut the rest of the wood away. Much like you did with the figures face but now just in a smaller scale.
Now add details such as the figures eyes by poking them out with a thin nail or awl. Other details such as wrinkles in the figures skin can be added with stop cuts and cutting down very subtly on both sides of the stop cut.
Other sources can help you tremendously with other fine details. This is discussed later but here is a page in one of my books that talks about the carving that we have been making.
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Now, separate the carving from the scrap piece of wood again. Cut the excess off the top, remove any extra wood that is undesirable, and finish it however you would like. I simply dip mine in polyurethane, wipe off the excess if there is any, allow it to dry, and the carving is finished.
Using this method of carving, and with a little practice and patience, it will not be hard for you to turn out quality sculpture. You will also be able to be very consistent if there is more than one carving your model that are of the same dimensions and artistic style. As you can see in the picture below, there are no two carvings that are exactly alike and making your own sculpture for your model ships will help you approximate that unique character that every carving has and had on the original ship.
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FINISHING
When it comes to this practicum, I will not even attempt to portray myself as an expert when it comes to the kinds of finishes and the proper procedure that you are supposed to use with them. I will, however, explain briefly what I do to finish a carving and point you to some resources that can expand your wood finishing knowledge. When I am finished with all of the cutting on my carvings and am satisfied with them, I will give them a coat of semi-gloss polyurethane, wipe off the excess if there is any and allow them to dry. This gives the wood a nice "glow" and preserves and protects it. It also accentuates the details so that the carving is more pleasing to look at. When it comes to finishing, you have to ask yourself the same kinds of questions that you did in the beginning when selecting wood types. What is your visual objective for your model ship? How can you cut down clashing colors while optimizing contrasts? If contrasts are not your goal, what color finish should you use that will keep your model aesthetically pleasing? This is all up to you and depends on the vision you have for your completed work. Here are some links to websites that can help you with selecting finishes and following "proper" procedure when it comes to applying them: Wood Finishing Enterprises Woodworking FAQ
http://www.woodfinishingenterprises.com/techinfo.html
http://www.robson.org/woodfaq/
Woodcarving Illustrated Forum http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8106 Minwax Wood Finishing
http://www.minwax.com/shoptalk/resources/
American Wood Finishing Institute
http://www.awfi.org/media6.html
Glossary of Wood Finishing Terms http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/A_glossary_of_finishing_terms.html
INTRO TO CARVING: SHIP MODELING FAQ:
http://www.dlumberyard.com/DavesPlace/Intoduction.htm http://home.att.net/~ShipModelFAQ/smf-q076.html
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USING SOURCES OTHER THAN YOUR PLANS Many times you will only be given a view of one side of the vessel that you are modeling in your plans. From one side to the other, carvings that are counterpart usually are basically the same, however, there can be minor differences that can give you an opportunity to work in more detail and add more interest to your model. The Wasa is a perfect example of this phenomenon. With just having the plans from the Wasa museum, I only have an idea of what the carvings are like on the starboard side. The ones that are counterpart on the port side are very similar but the below book makes it obvious over and over again that there are slight differences.
This particular book goes into most every carving and explains the iconography, dimensions, character, and location that they are affixed to the ship. The below carvings are the Roman emperors that grace the port side beakhead. Without these pictures I would not know what the port side emperors looked like since they are slightly different than what is on the starboard side.
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Pictures of the Wasa have also been valuable. Any picture or painting can be a valuable resource for you as well. I have several links on my nautical and model ship links page that will show you hundreds of maritime pictures and paintings. I hope that you have found my practicum informative and helpful! To ask me a question or make a comment, see my home page below.
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