I was surprised how easy it was southey, i'm usually crap at stuff like this but i can honestly say i impressed myself with my first effort.
i'd second that andy, shockingly simples.
a couple of tips that might make life a little easier for anyone who wants to have a go at one of these:
- make sure your knife is
sharp, strop
- a bigger piece of timber is easier to work than a smaller piece of timber
- strop
- (egg sucking time) some woods are easier to work than others, you want something easy to work with good grain - i used a piece of willow
- seasoned timber acts more predictably than green timber and so is often easier to work even though it's harder(it won't split anytime soon either) - my willow had been standing by the fireplace for over 18 months
- strop
- slow down, if something's going wrong just leave it alone for a while, work on a different bit of the carving or just stop carving all together for a while, next time you look at the problem there's a good chance it'll have sorted itself out
- last but not least, strop - i really can't overstate the importance of a
sharp blade
cheers for all the comments guys
stuart
