Recent Comments

Ken, It truly is best to start with the basics. I know how it is to want to get into the "fun" stuff (not to say donut carving isn't "fun" - but you know what I mean). By learning the subtle moves and techniques of working with the grain, it makes each project that much more intuitive. The more you carve, the less you really have to concentrate on grain direction, how to make particular slicing cuts, how to hold the gouges to get the best control, etc.

Hae fun!

Oooh. I guess my "I want to see a video of this" list just got longer. Glad you enjoyed the tour!

It seems that in the evolution of carving career, my 1mm veiner sits on the shelf getting dusty a lot more than it used to. I tend to use the v-chisel where I would have used a veiner before. The difficulty of sharpening it certainly contributes to this. I use the 3mm veiner more often because of it's use in acanthus leaf carving (carving on each side of the "pipe" to give the appearance of it raising) and also carving out the "eye" where it shows as a hole in the leaf. No other gouge makes this cut as nicely.

The 1mm veiner is truly the ultimate gouge to make really nice vein lines on traditional acanthus leaves (thus called the veiner). But, as I mentioned earlier, the v-chisel can make similar cuts. The one thing that is nice about making these cuts with a veiner is that the base of the cut is rounded and the walls of the cut are straight, while with the v-chisel, the walls are at an angle. Is there truly a difference when you get down to tiny little cuts like this? Very minimal.

Also, the 3mm veiner makes some very nice cuts down these acanthus leaves as alternative texture lines, so they aren't all the same.

Anything larger than a 3mm, I have rarely used. I'm sure if I were to carve larger leaves, these would make some nice groove lines in the leaves, but these are getting very dusty on my shelf.