Mary,
I am trying to build my collection of gouges. I have a basic set of 6 gouges which is a good "getting started" set. I have an opportunity to get some #11 veining gouges, 3mm, 7mm, 10mm. I have not done a lot of carving, and I am wondering what type of carving these gouges are best suited for. Do you you use this type of gouge. Any comments or suggestions you have would be appreciated.
I think the main place I use veiners (#11 gouges) is when I carve acanthus leaves. I often use the #11, 3mm or 4mm for making the "eyes" and "pipes" (many more of these videos to come in the next year). I don't have anything larger than a 5mm, so I personally wouldn't spend the money on the 7mm and 10mm, unless you are planning on carving very large architectural acanthus leaves. Large veiners can also be used for hogging out a lot of wood (where I would probably use a #8). One reason I would stay away from using these for doing a lot of real hefty carving is that they are difficult to sharpen. They are shaped like a "U", so the movement of sharpening is a little odd. They have a curved base, but also have flat sides. I have a video on sharpening these, so you may want to look at this to see the difference.
When I asked my furniture-maker teacher which tool he recommended to accomplish a particularly challenging task, his response was, "whatever gets the job done." I guess I'm not a purist, because I still follow his advice to this day.
Arthur W.
Hi Arthur,
That's the best way to look at a project. I rarely say "this is the only gouge that will make this cut" because it simply is not true. Before I started teaching, I didn't even really pay attention to the tool sizes (now I look at the size so I can let people know what I am using). I just used what seemed to work the best. The funny thing is if I were to carve a similar project a month later, I would probably use different gouges. Similar gouges, but not necessarily the exact ones.
The combination of these two lessons show all of the parts used in most letters. I think the only thing left is a horizontal part of an E or F, and those shouldn't be hard.
From doing technical support for Mary's sites, I remember her mentioning that there's another lettercarving lesson in her queue. But, don't let that stop you from getting to the shop and carving letters. 🙂
Hi Charles and Bob.
You're correct, Bob, in that the letter carving lessons that I have currently (with serifs) go over most of the details of letters. Details of the ends of letters are similar for many letters. I will be adding another letter carving lesson within the next few weeks where I will be carving smaller san-serif letters (without the turned ends details of the letters).
Lamp Brand carving tools makes a single bevel fishtail chisel. A 12mm is shown at the link below, use the menu on the left of the page or the link just above the picture on the page to see the rest. They have 6, 10, 12, 16, 20 and 25mm #1 single bevel chisels.
Thanks David. It's been a while since I ordered from them; probably where I got the Stubai chisel I reground. Looks like they still ship to Canada. I'll give them a try.
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