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There are a lot of leaves! We have our working drawing so we can re-draw them over our prepared, shaped surface, keeping symmetrical as possible and then get down to sorting them out; separating and defining them. You'll see that I change mine from my original drawing (from my book) and you should feel free to do the same: if you feel some shape or form is difficult, you don't have the tools, it doesn't 'look right' etc - then re-design.
Here's a great tip: Design out your problems!
| 16 October 2016 10:25
Marshall - A 'knuckle' gouge is just a shortbent or 'spoon' gouge with a pronounced bend and is good for hollowing into deep, tight recesses. The thickness of the shank as such isn't too important; makers will generally forge the tool with the appropriate thickness for the work the tool will do. Generally I favour thinner tools but often these shortbent tools are thicker because the stress on them is greater.
'Knuckle' gouge is what carvers call these tightly bent tools but there is no real definition of what the bend should be in a shortbent gouge. Different manufacturers produce different degrees of bend, some quite slight (and frankly useless) to well bent, though the true 'knuckle' gouge is relatively rare. I've also seen different bends in the same version of a gouge by the same manufacturer - different batches and smiths presumably.
Thus you really need to look around at the profile carefully to see whether a particular short bent gouge will do what you want it to do. I cannot recommend a particular maker I'm afraid; I bought my own knuckle gouges a long time ago...
| 15 October 2016 15:34
Dear Chris,
In several of this Green Man project, you have mentioned the thick-shanked short bent (knuckle) gouge. How thick must the shank be to qualify for the title thick-shanked. I believe that Two Cherries (a German company) makes these, but it is hard to tell from the pictures how thick the shank is. Although you and I are probably not willing to try this with our own spoon bents, what would happen if you hit a normal shanked spoon bent with a mallet a lot?
Thank you for all you do,
Marshall
| 18 January 2015 12:36
"Getting down to Business!" - you, bet! I'm so thrilled to have this 2nd Green Man on your site - with your video skill progression and hopefully some progression in my carving skills, this set of videos is a treasure! I'm looking forward to following it in some approach to my second Green Man sculpture, solar or not. Thanks so much for all you both do.
