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The bird is the final part of the carving. It happens to be part of the letter but, at the end of the day, it's just a simple, low relief carving on it's own.
Small Tools:
There are some very small parts in this carving that need correspondingly small tools. Dockyard Tools, in which I've no vested interest, make a set of small, inexpensive tools that I've come to like. They are a US firm and here's the link. You'll need to do an online search for distributors in your own country. There are a couple of single bevel chiselsin the Dockyard set that I've reshaped into #3 gouges.
| 01 January 2020 16:36
Christopher - Yes, I think that's exactly what you need to do. I know some carvers who use the gouges/chisels themselves as scrapers, though I dislike doing it myself as it's a good way to blunten your tools. I have all sorts of little scrapers for just this purpose.
It's a very good question. We've not really had a detailed project on this site where I felt this sort of instance of finish was needed so thanks for asking it!
| 31 December 2019 14:13
Hello Chris, Beautiful job done and a very informative lesson. Would you use scrapers- like the ones you have made out of used saw-blades or other available pieces of metal- to clean up the background? I often like the effect of tool marks on the background but I sometimes need it to look as clean as the surface/foreground. On some of my more intricate carvings I find myself with recesses rather like of the contours of your daffodil in this video that are very small and difficult to finish. I was wondering how you would go about 'smoothing' these small, hard-to-get-at recesses.
Many thanks in advance.
Happy New Year to you and your family.
Christopher Pearson
