Blind Carving part 3. New sculptural wood carving from a wooden pallet

Blind Carving part 3.  

New sculptural wood carving from a wooden pallet

 

I am glad to say that I got the blind carving project finished, and considering the materials and tools I used, I am very happy with it. Before I go any further into describing how I finished the project, I would like to show you some of the carving tools I used and also ones that I just could not find at the time.

 

I went up into the loft today and found some of my carving chisels, the ones I didn’t use on this piece. I do have a few more, but sill need to locate them.

These are two Ashley Iles chisels that I bought when I was still an apprentice in 1989. They cost me, I think, about £18-£22 each, which works out at €22.86-€27.94 in Euros. When I bought them, they were reasonably priced at the time and I also got a trade discount from the tool shop I bought them in. They are fantastic chisels and came already sharpened, honed and ready to use. They also keep sharp when in use.

 

Now in comparison, this is a full set of 12 carving chisels that I bought in Lidl in 2012. They cost me €16 for the whole set which is an average on €1.34 each as compared to between €22.86-€27.94 for just one chisel. In many ways it seems a no brainer that the Lidl woodcarving chisels I bought a few years ago are good value, which indeed they are. But I have already spent about 7 or 8 hours, grinding, sharpening and honing them, and even with all that time I still haven’t been able to get them even a fraction as sharp as the Ashley Ilse chisels. When I can get them sharp, they just don’t hold a keen edge as the tool steal is too soft. In saying that, they are an OK starter set for anyone that is willing to put the work into grinding, sharpening and honing.

 

So back to the blind carving project.

I was able to get the nine sections of the coin finished and as I did each piece, I stained them with the iron oxide, vinegar mix. 

 

I then put a coat of wax on as each piece dried and am glad to say it looks OK.

As all the sections are separate pieces, I had to join them up together. I used MDF flooring to make a back and used hot melt glue to stick the carving on it. Although it made the carving sturdy, it also made it very heavy and I think the weight would have been too much to hang it on a normal domestic wall. I decided to take the MDF off and use an old curtain liner as a backing. So I cut the curtain liner into strips and then glued and stapled it to the back of the carving. Once this had dried, I then glued the rest of the liner over the whole back, which covered the staples and made it all look neater. I then put some picture hanging wire on the back and it was almost finished and ready to hang on the wall.

I felt that the carving looked a bit grey, so I put some brown wax on and buffed it off when it dried. To be honest, I now feel that it may have looked better before the brown wax went on, although the brown does make the finished piece look warmer.

 

So this is the finished piece that was made out of a wooden pallet.

I know it is not perfect, but I do think the imperfections add to overall look. As you can see, not all the pieces match up and some of the wood has started to warp and crack. I have to say I am very happy with it and for the first time since 1997, I feel like doing wood carving again. The reason I say 1997 is because that is when I made my first and up until now, my last carving. Now that's another story that I will talk about some day, and the reason my good carving chisels were in my loft.


Thank you for reading my blog and please feel free to make a comment if you wish.

 

Blind Carving part 1 New Sculptural Wood Carving

Blind Carving part 1     New sculptural wood carving from a wooden pallet

When I moved into my new house over 10 years ago, the builders had left a wooden pallet in the back garden. At the time I was still a cabinetmaker and me being me, I just couldn’t let the timber go to waist. I took the pallet apart and all the good timber, or at least what looked good at the time, I put up in the loft for a possible future project. Now over ten years later, I have finally decided to do something with all that timber. So I have taken all the wood down form my loft and I have got to say, the timber is not very good at all. Over the years it has dried out, cracked and warped, but I think I will use the roughness of the timber as part of the sculpture.

 So I have been thinking about making myself a Celtic shield for about 15 years and was even going to make it out of old copper pennies, and that got me thinking about Irish coins. So I have decided to make my wood into a giant coin that I can hang on the wall. The coin I have chosen is the old pre. decimalisation Florin which became the Irish 10p when we joined the EEC.

So this is the coin I will try and make from my very rough timber.

This is the timber that I have laid out and I have decided to do the work very rough as this will reflect how bad the wood is and also, the truth is I cant find my wood carving chisels as they are stored in the loft and to be honest, there is so much stuff up there, it would take me ages to find them. I also think that doing it in a rough way, will make it look old and hopefully will suit the wood I am using.

So this is how I will carve it and it will be in nine sections. I am going to blind carve each length. When I say blind carve, I mean that I will carve each length independent from the other, so the sections may not even match each other. Hopefully this will look good and the imperfections will reflect the warped and cracked wood I am using.

So this is the timber tacked together with Rocky2 my boxer dog in the foreground to give scale.

So to work I will go and I will update my progress as I go.