A Manual of Wood Carving. John J. Holtzapffel
small kitchen table must be found. It should be used for carving alone, as it will be necessary to bore holes and drive screws into it. But if a table cannot be spared for this, the pupil must make shift by putting a board at least an inch in thickness on a common table and fastening it with clamps. At a more advanced stage he will carve standing up at a higher bench, or with his work on a stand. Pupils in wood-carving “shops” often carve standing from the beginning.
Carving Tools are generally divided into two classes: chisels, which are flat at the end and in the blade; and gouges, which are hollow. Among professional wood-carvers the former is generally known as a firmer, in order to distinguish it from the chisel used by carpenters. A carver’s chisel is always ground on both sides, so as to form a wedge like a very high, steep roof (a), while that of the carpenter is a stouter implement, its edge being like a wedge which is flat on one side (b), as it is only ground on the other. The object of grinding carvers’ chisels on both sides is that there are many cuts which cannot be executed by a carpenter’s chisel at all, or at least not with ease, for one would be obliged, while using it, to continually turn it around.
Fig. 1 a. Gouge.
Firmer
Carvers Chisels or Firmers, Fig. 1 b, are of many and all sizes, from an inch in breadth down to the “pick,” which, across the end or edge, is no wider than a small hyphen (-). To these may be added the “skew-chisels,” also called “skews” or “corner-firmers,” which are firmers ground off diagonally, so that the point is on one side. These are also sharpened on both sides.
Fig. 1 b. Firmers.
Figs. 2–5. Gouges.
Gouges, Figs. 2-5, are chisels more or less rounded. These, of all widths, vary from the extra flat, which is so slightly curved that it might at a casual glance be taken for an ordinary chisel, to the ordinary “flat.” A little more bend or convexity gives the scroll gouge. A semi-circle or any narrower portion of the same curve is a hollow gouge, the smaller sizes of which are called veiners, the very smallest of the latter being known as eye-tools. There are some differences of names for these among writers, as well as workmen, but for all practical purposes the terms here used may be accepted, and are understood by all who sell the tools.
Fig. 6. Bent Tools.
Bent Tools. Both chisels and gouges are made straight, or bent or curved in the shank. It often happens that in deep cutting, or in hollowed spaces, it is impossible to cut with an implement having a straight shaft, while with one differently shaped the wood can be easily removed, Fig. 6.
Holdfasts.—Carver’s Screws, and Clamps, Hand Screws, Bench Screws, &c. As the carver holds his tool with one hand and directs it with the other, it is evident that some means must be taken to secure in place the piece of work which he cuts.
I. The simplest method of doing this is to drive three or four nails or screws into the table at a convenient distance. The work may be held between these to prevent its slipping.
Fig. 7. Holdfast and Saw Table.
II. Holdfasts.—Clamps or Cramps, Fig. 7. These cramps are small iron frames, like three sides of a square, with a screw in the under limb. They are used on the edge of the table to hold the work firmly down to its surface; two or more are always employed. Their fault is that they indent and damage the work; a piece of waste wood may be interposed between the work and the upper limb to prevent this, but such a guard is generally in the way and otherwise objectionable. Hand Screws, Figs. 8 and 9, are a far better tool, entirely free from the above-named objection. They consist of two strips of hard wood rounded at the one end, or jaws, and two screws, also of wood, one of which passes through both jaws, and the other through only one; the end of this second screw entering a recess made in the other jaw to retain it in position. To use them the handles are grasped firmly in the two hands, and the hands are revolved around one another away from you, which causes the jaws to open exactly parallel with one another. When the opening between the jaws equals the thickness of the work and the table, the hand screws are slipped over them, and the second screw then alone receives an extra half turn, this throws the jaws slightly out of parallelism, and effects a powerful grip upon the work at their points. They are exceedingly powerful also in holding work for gluing together and other purposes, and are made of all sizes.
Hand Screws.
Fig. 10.
Carvers’ Screws.
III. Carvers’ Screws, Fig. 10. These are iron screws about 12 or 14 in. long, with a finer pointed screw, like that of a gimlet, at the one end, and a square at the other; on the screw is a winged or fly nut. To use them the point is screwed firmly into the under side of the work, with the fly nut removed and used as a lever by one of the holes in its wings placed on the square on the end of the shaft. The shaft is then passed through a hole made through the top of the bench or table, and the fly nut replaced on the screw below the table to fix the work down to it. The screws are long, which is sometimes convenient, but if the work be thin it is usual to put a block of waste wood on the shaft before the fly nut, to avoid the tedium of having to screw the latter up a long way. Slackening the nut enables the work to be turned round to any required position, and there is nothing above the table except the work.
IV. Snibs or Dogs, Figs. 11, 12. These are pieces of wood screwed down to the table, which hold the panel or other piece of work by a projection. They are easily made by simply sawing out a piece of wood fairly corresponding in thickness to the panel.
Snibs or Dogs.
Fig. 13.
V. Take an ordinary “button,” Fig. 13, such as is common on cupboards in country cottages to fasten the door. Saw out a piece of the panel, one or more inches square. Put the screw through the button and turn it over the