Panf.i..

7^
A MANUAL OF WOOD
CARVING
BY

CHARLES G. LELAND, F.R.L.S., M.A

Late Director of the Public Industrial Art School of Philadelphia ; Member
(Committee) of the Home Arts and Ind. Assn. ; also Covim. Member of the
French- American and Hungarian Folk Lore Societies ; Pres.
British Gypsy Lore Soc, ^'c. ; Author of " The Minor
Arts,'" ^'Twelve Manuals of Arts," '^Practical
Education, " " Album and Handbook of
FcJ-ousse Work,'" &c. &=c

REVISED BY
JOHN J. HOLTZAPFFEL
Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers, London : Correspoiuiing
Associate
Member of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia ; Member of the
British Horological Institute ; Examiner, City and Guilds
of London ; Institute for the Advancement of
Technical EducatioJt, ^'c. ^^c

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1891 -

J
^ / ',
• » * * > 1

, , , >
,

'",''. .'. i'j'. /

 73437-

Copyright, 1891, by

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

Press of I. I. Little & Co.

Astor Place, New Yorlr.

• • • • • I •
• ••• • t ••
 PUBLISHERS' NOTE.
This manual, like that on Drawing and Designing, previously
published, intended to form one of a series in furtherance of
is

the principles set forth in Mr. Leland's work on " Practical

Education." It has rarely happened that a volume such as this
latter, proposing (as one critic declared) nothing less than a
complete revolution in Education, has been so favourably
received by the public, and so highly approved by competent
authorities, as was the case with it. Should it be unknown to
any friends of educational reform into whose hands this hand-
book may fall, it is to be hoped that they will think it worth
while to make themselves acquainted with the principles upon
which Mr. Leland's practical manuals are based.
As regards this in particular, it may be observed that it is
almost the only one which treats Wood-carving in a general and
extended sense, and regards it as an art widely applicable to
ornamentation, and not one confined to small cJiefs-d' oeiivre and
prize toys, facsimiles of fruit and leaves, or the like. It is the
firstbook in which the sweep-cut, which is the very soul of
all

good and bold carving, has ever been described. It may be

added that the work has derived great advantage from the
friendly interest taken in it by Mr. John J. Holtzapffel, for
which the thanks of both author and publishers are due.
 —

CONTENTS.
PAGE
Introduction.
Woods, Tools, and Sharpening I

First Lesson.
Indenting and Stamping ic

Second Lesson.
Cutting Grooves with a Gouge T)

Third Lesson.
Flat Patterns made with cuts and lines — Cavo Relievo or Intaglio
Rilevato (Cavo-cutting) 28

Fourth Lp:sson.
Cutting out a Flat Panel with a Ground
34

Fifth Lesson.
Cutting Simple Leaves — Carving with the Left Hand — Modelling or
Rounding — Shaded Patterns and Modelling — Progress towards
Relief 39

Sixth Lesson.
Cutting with the Grain — Turning the TooL— the Drill — Bold Carving
and large work 44

Seventh Lesson.
The Sweep-cut or Free-hand Carving — Cutting Notches in Leaves
the Round-cut 49

Eighth Lesson.
Further application of the Sweep-cut to Higher Relief 53

Ninth Lesson.
Carving Simple Figures or Animal Forms Figurini — for Cabinets
Simple Rounded Edges and approach to Modelling 59
viii Contents.

Tenth Lesson. page

Finishing off— Imitation of old and worn work — Where Polishing is

required 64

Eleventh Lesson.
Diaper-work — Stamped Diaper-patterns — Cutting Diapers 69

Twelfth Lesson.
Building-up, or Appliqud work 75

Thirteenth Lesson.
Carving in the Round 79

Appendix to Thirteenth Lesson.

On the Use of the Saw 83

Fourteenth Lesson.
Incised, Intaglio, or Sunk Carving 86

Fifteenth Lesson.
Carving Curved Surfaces : Cocoa-nuts, Bowls, Horns, Casks, Tankards,
etc 93

Sixteenth Lesson.
Bosses, Knobs, Bars, and Polished Ornaments loi

Sevhntkknth Lesson.
To Repair Wood-Carving— (ilue — Nitric Acid Glue — Preparing De-
cayed Wood— Artificial Wood — Fillers — Spraying — To make Glue
"lake" 105

Eighteenth Lesson.
Colouring Wood-work Oiling Soda— — — Stains and Dyes — Ivor)'ing Sur-
faces —
Black Dyes and Ink iio

N I N KTEENTH LESSON.
Making Moulds or Squeezes for Wood-Carvers 115

Twentieth Lesson.
Sjjot Cutting » . . . . 118

Appendix.
Objects for Wood-Carving o = . 121
 LIST OF PLATES.
Decorative Panel Frontispiece

Panel in Low-relief to face pai^e 40

Highly-finished Studies of Foliage " "48
Circular Panel in Higher Relief ....""
. . .

56

Head by Civitale "

Miniature Frame ..,.,.."" " 82

128
 aJUoDi) earning.

INTRODUCTION.
WOODS, TOOLS, AND SHARPENING.
 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

until these can be executed with ease and accuracy. This will
be greatly aided if the, book is read with care, and not used for

mere reference.
Teachers observe that the work is in a regular
will please
being extremely easy and
series of progressive lessons, the first ;

that these lessons lead so gradually one to another that the last
arc no harder than the first to one who has gone on carefully
from the beginning. This will be found to aid teaching and
self-instruction greatly.
Every item of information will be found under its proper head,
and not scattered here and there through different chapters :

for every lesson is complete in itself, and from the first the pupil
is taught how to produce some satisfactory work of its kind.

Thus, indenting or stamping, which can be learned at once, and

grooving with a gouge, which is not more difficult, are capable
of producing very beautiful decoration even if the worker goes
no further. No writer has, indeed, ever seriously considered
what valuable and varied results may be produced by these
simple processes.
Finally, the author has endeavoured in these pages to treat
wood-carving not merely as a fine art, whose chief aim is to
produce specimens of fancy work for exhibitions, and facsimiles
of flowers, never to be touched, but also to qualify the learner
and what nine-tenths of all practical wood-carving
for a calling,
of, that is, house and other large decoration, and
really consists
of work which is to be perhaps painted, and exposed to the air.
There is no reason why the artist should not be prepared to
undertake figure-heads for ships, garden gates, cornices for
roofs and rooms, dados, door panels, and similar work, as well
as mere drawing-room toys, which should have no finish save
the delicate touch of the cutting tool
The author would observe as regards this work that he has
been under very great obligation to Mr. John J. HoLTZAPFFEL,
 Tools and Implements.

Assoc. M. Inst. C.E., whose name is so well known to all workers

in wood and
metal, for revisions, suggestions, and addition of the
chapter on the use of the saw in carving. He is also indebted
to Mr. Caddy, teacher of wood-carving in Brighton for valuable
suggestions.
Tools and Implements. The first and most important is a
strong, and, if possible, a Jieaiy table or bench. If the pupil
cannot afford this, an ordinary small kitchen table must be
found. It should be used for carving alone, as it will be neces-
sary to bore holes and drive screws into it. But if a table
cannot be spared for this, the pupil must make shift by putting
a board at least an inch in thickness on a common table, and
fastening it with clamps. At a more advanced stage he will
carve standing up at a higher bench, or with his work on a
stand. Pupils in wood-carving "shops" often carve standing
from the beginning.
Carving Tools are generally divided into two classes chisels, :

which are flat at the end and in the blade; and gouges, ~Avhich
are hollow. Among professional wood-carvers
the former is generally known as a firmer, in
order to distinguish it from the chisel used by
carpenters. A carver's chisel is always ground
on both sides, so as to form a wedge like a very

high, steep roof («), while that of the carpenter

is a stouter implement, its edge being like a
^
wedge which is flat on one side ib), as it is only «
ground on the other. The object of grinding carvers' chisels
on both sides is that there are many cuts which cannot be
with
executed by a carpenter's chisel at all, or at least not
ease, for one would be obliged, while using it, to
continually turn

it around.
Carver's Chisels or Firniers, Fig. i b, are of many
and all sizes,
across the
from an inch in breadth down to the "pick," which,
 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

To these
end or edge, is no wider than a small hyphen (-)•
"skews" or
may be added the "skeu-chisels," also called
Fig. I a.

Gouge.

Firmer.

" corner-firmers," which are firmers ground off diagonally, so

that the point is on one side. These are also sharpened on
both sides.

rs
r\
r\

Fig. I b. Firmers. Figs. 2-s. Gouges.

Gouges, Figs. 2-5, are chisels more or less rounded. These, of

all widths, vary from the e.v/ra which is so slightly curved
flat,

that it might at a casual glance be taken for an ordinary chisel,

 Tools and Implements.

to the ordinary " flat." A little more bend or convexity gives

the scroll gouge. A semi-circle or any narrower portion of the
same curve is a hollow gouge, the smaller sizes of which are
called veiners, the very smallest of the latter being known as
eye-tools. There are some differences of names for these among
writers, as well as workmen, but for all practical purposes the
terms here used may be accepted, and are understood by all
who sell the tools.
Beut Tools. Both chisels and gouges are made straight, or
bent or curved in the shank. It often happens that in deep

Fig. 6. Bent Tools.

cutting, or in hollowed spaces, it is impossible to cut with an

implement having a straight shaft, while with one differently

shaped the wood can be easily removed. Fig. 6.
Holdfasts. —
Carver s Screws, and Clamps, Hand Screws, Bench
Screws, ^c. As the carver holds his tool with one hand and
directs it with the other, it is evident that some means must be
taken to secure in place the piece of work which he cuts.
I. The simplest method of doing this is to drive three or four
nails or screws The
into the table at a convenient distance.
work may be held between these to prevent its slipping.
II. Holdfasts. —
Clamps or Cramps, Fig. 7. These cramps
 A Manual of IVood-Cai'ving.

arc small iron frames, like three sides of a square, with a

screw in the under limb. They are used on the edge of the
table to hold the work firmly down to its surface two or more ;

arc always employed. Their fault is that they indent and

damage the work a piece of waste wood may be interposed
;

between the work and the upper limb to prevent this, but such
a guard is generally in the way and otherwise objectionable.
Hand Screivs, Figs. 8 and 9, are a far better tool, entirely free
from the above-named objection. They consist of two strips of

^^.

zmna
^<^ ^
S
a. b.

Fig. 7. Holdfast and Saw Table.

hard wood rounded at the one end, or jaws, and two screws, also
of wood, one of which passes through both jaws, and the other
through only one the end of this second screw entering a recess
;

made in the other jaw to retain it in position. To use them the

handles arc grasped firmly in the two hands, and the hands are
revolved around one another away from you, which causes the
jaws to open exactly parallel with one another. When the
opening between the jaws equals the thickness of the work and
the table, the hand screws are slipped over them, and the second
 Tools and Implements.

screw then alone receives an extra half turn, this throws the jaws
slightly out of parallelism, and effects a powerful grip upon
the
work at their points. They are exceedingly powerful also in

C
W/WM/>///^;///'/.'/,,
n
jl TI
e
u
Fig. 8. Fig. 9.
Hand Screws.

/
8 A Majmal of Wood-Carvin'g-

12. These are pieces of wood

IV. Snibs or Dogs, Figs, ii,
hold the panel or other piece
screwed down to the table, which
of work by a projection.
They are easily made by simply saw-

Fig. II. Fig. 12.

Snibs or Dogs.

ing out a piece of wood fairly corresponding in thickness to

the panel.
V. Take an ordinary " button," Fig. 13, such as is common on
cupboards in country cottages to
y^_ fasten the door. Saw out a piece of
^^^^^^
the panel, one or more inches square.
Put the screw through the button and
turn it over the panel and the little
waste piece of wood. Two or more
of these will hold the work perfectly
Fig.
fast.

VI. The simplest method of

all is to leave about an inch at

cither end of the panel and pass screws through these extra
portions into the table. When the work is carved these ends
may be sawn off.
The Scratch, Fig. 14. This is a very convenient and ingenious
tool. "It is used," says J. S. Gibson ("The Wood-Carver,"
 Tools and Implements.

Edinburgh, 1889), for running small mouldings and hollows

^'

Where the lines are long and straight it makes

finer work than is possible by means of gouges.
The cutters are made from pieces of steel barely
i-i6th of an inch thick. Broken pieces of saws
are generally used for cutters. They must be
tightly fixed in the stock. It is worked back-
s o
wards and forwards gently. When the cutters
are filed to the
1
required
shape, they have to
be finished with a slip stone to take out the
file marks. They are sharpened straight across
the edges." (D
The Router, Fig. 15. This is a small copy of
the joiner's plane of the same name. -"Scratch.
It consists ^^»- ^^-
of a block of wood with a perfectly flat sole a. hole through ;

it an angle carries the cutter and the wedge by which it is

at
fixed. It is employed for flattening the ground-
work after that has been partially excavated
with the chisels. The sole of the router rests
upon any margins left of the original surface,
and being worked about over the ground, the
fixed projection of the cutter rapidly reduces
the latter to one true ^'" Router.
level. These routers are -

made from about nine inches long in the sole to about three
inches, the smallest, which little tools have cutters about i-8th
of an inch wide.
Saws. These are of various kinds perhaps the most useful is
;

the Fret Bow Saw, Fig. 16. This consists of a light thin steel frame
with screw jaws, at the open end in which the thin saw-blades
are clamped. The handle is also formed as a screw, by which
its jaw can be advanced about an inch towards its fellow. To
place the saw in position for work, the end of the handle is
screwed round until its jaw has advanced about an inch, the
lO A Manual of Wood-Carving.

saw is then fixed in thumb-screw, then

the opposite jaw by its

in the handle jaw in the which the handle is

same way, after
turned until its jaw has travelled back again the distance it had
previously advanced, thus straining the saw by the tension of
the steel spring saw-frame. This saw is very useful for removing
superfluous pieces from the out-
line, both in flat works and when

carving in the round, as will be

explained its primary purpose ;

is for cutting out pierced and

buhl and fretwork, but for such
work, as the apertures cut do not
Iways cut out to the edges, a
drill is required to pierce holes
the saw through the
to thread

Fig. 16. Fret Bow Saw. work before it is placed in the

second jaw to strain it. Fig. i6
is required for pierced work laid down on a ground and then
carved, a style of carving which will be described. The ordinary
joiners " dovetail " or " tenon " saws, their blades with
stiff backs,

are required, and are almost indispensable for cutting off portions
of the work and trimming it to shape ; these saws are too well
known to require description.
In addition to the tools already described, the pupil will
<^p^ need for more and varied work the following:— I. The
1^
Spade Chisel, and Spade Gouge. These are very light,
I

pj,, ,_ ^"^ ^""^ "sed for finishing by hand, as, for instance, in
KNircKLK- ^"^^'"S around grapes or plums or in fine work. II.
Knuekle-bends, Fig. 17. These are gouges scooped or
BEND.
bent in a curve like a knuckle. III. The Macaroni
Tool, Fig. 18. This is like the three sides of a square. It is
for removing wood on each side of a vein or leaf, or similar
delicate work. It is not very commonly used. IV. The Parting
 1

Tools and liJiplejuents. 1

Tool or V, straight or curved. This is a useful tool for out-

lining a pattern or veining leaves. Beginners find it,

like the Macaroni, rather difficult to sharpen, or to r\

keep an edge on it. It must not be used recklessly
for carving, as it is apt to break unless handled with ^'^' ^^'

care. It should be kept with a cork on the end.

Macaroni
It is a question among experts as to whether the
tools for beginners should have long or short handles, which is as
sensible as if they should debate whether the pupils should have
large or small hands. General Seaton, who is in other matters a
good authority, declares that "small, short, neatly-turned box-
wood handles must be avoided they are nearly useless. Get
;

good-sized beech or ash handles quite five inches long, and if

the steel is four or four and a half inches long you will have a
really serviceable tool." Common sense teaches that between a
child or a young lady who has a palm " the size of a cardinal's

seal " (to borrow a simile from Benvenuto Cellini), and a work-
man who would burst a number ten glove, there must be very
great differences in the size of handles, and it is certain that for
young beginners short ones are to be advised. If they are not to
be obtained ready made, then take an ordinary long handle,
saw it off to the requisite length, say from three to three and a
half inches, round the sharp edge of the wood, firstly with a
knife or chisel, then with a rasp, and finish it off with glass-
paper. See that the tools when set into the handles are %vell
ri7iged Sind Jinn. In most shops it is usual to sharpen them if
it be required. After becoming accustomed to such handles
the pupil may, as he progresses, familiarize himself with those
which are in general use.
There is really only one trouble in wood-carving. This is the
sharpening the tools, and keeping them in good condition. For
this the grindstone and oilstone are indispensable, and the beginner
must take pains to learn to sharpen his tools well and readil)'.
 12 A MaittLal of Wood-Carving.

Sharpening. Tools which are as yet unground, or which

have had the edge broken, may, with patience and care, be
sharpened on a harsh flat stone, but round grindstones which
revolve with a handle arc not dear you can, however, always
;

get your tools ground by any carpenter. Every carver should

therefore, if possible, own one of these grindstones. It will

serve as well for a large class as for an individual. The next

indispensable is the oilstone. This is to be found of different
kinds ; the ordinary Turkey stone, set in a block of
wood, will
answer for firmers, skews, and flat gouges, for finer tools the
best Arkansas stones may be employed. Before using one, let
fall on it a few drops of oil, which is to be kept in a small can

with a narrow spout, made expressly for such dropping. Have

a coarse rag, and when you have done with the stone, always
wipe it clean of the oil. Take great care not to wear a hollow
in the middle of the stone. It is by far the best plan to get
some wood-carver or carpenter to show you how to sharpen
the tools. There are very few places where there is not some-
body who can teach this art. It is usual to have a box-cover to
the oilstone, which should always be over it when not in use, to
prevent dust from .settling on the surface. very little dust A
indeed combined with the oil is a great hindrance to sharpening.
Slips. These are pieces of Arkansas, Turkey, and other
stones,made of a variety of shapes, to
fitthe inside of such tools as cannot be
sharpened on a flat surface, like that ot
oil-stone. They require great care in
handling lest the fingers be cut. To
avoid this, take a piece of wood, and cut
a deep groove in it, exactly adapted to
hold the stone firmly, leaving as much
Fig. 19. Slip Holder.
of it projecting as may be required for
use. Fig. 19. If you cannot obtain a slip exactly suited to
 Tools and Implements. \ j

any particular tool, then grind or cut it to shape on the grind-

stone or with a some carvers use a very coarse whetstone
file ;

adapted to this purpose. The safe method of using a slip when

not mounted in wood is to " lay the back of the gouge at an
inch and a half from the edge on the edge of the table the ;

edge of the tool must be shghtly raised, and the slip can then
be applied with perfect safety and with great effect." (Seaton.)
The V, or parting tool, is sharpen because, until one
difficult to
has had practice with hard to cut down each side in exact
it, it is

uniformity with the other. For this it is necessary to have a slip

ground to a V edge, so as to exactly fit the inside of the tool.
The Strap. This is a piece of hard, smooth leather, glued on
a flat bit of board. This may be prepared with sweet oil and
emery powder, or Tripoli, to be renewed as occasion requires, or
with a preparation of lard and crocus powder. Emery paste
sold at the tool-shop will answer for all ordinary work. When
no strap is at hand a final sharp, or a razor edge, may be given
even on a smooth pine board, especially if a very little fine air-
dust be on it. ^

Sharpening the tools is like threading the needle in sewing,

or putting a point on lead pencils when drawing, something
which is a great trouble, and a constant interruption to earnest
work, yet which must be constantly seen to. Never go on
carving for a second if you find that a tool is growing in the least
dull or " scratchy." There can be no good work whatever with-
out really good tools in perfect order.
It may be observed that tools are never ground quite so much

i7tside as they are externally. Also that this double grinding

gives a sharper cutting-edge ; but gouges require very little

edging inside.
Should the carver be unable to obtain a Turkey or Arkansas
stone, he may use smooth slate, or almost any stone which is
tolerably hard.
14 A Mannal of Wood-Carving.

Wood. All wood for carving should be of the best quality,

well seasoned, and from cracks, knots, or other
free as possible
irregularities. Fine white pine or deal, being very easy to cut,
is suitable for a beginner. Lime and pear-tree wood, like pine,
are even in the grain. American walnut is also easy to cut. It
is of a beautiful dark colour, which is much improved by oiling
and age. With this, but tougher than the preceding, are beech,
elm, and oak. Poplar, yellow deal, and the so-called American
wood (known as poplar in America, Middle States) are useful
for many kinds of work. The carver should accustom himself, as
soon as possible, to oak, as a hard wood is by no means hard
to carve as soon as a little skil is acquired. Bone, ivory, and
pearl-shell, which at the first effort seems to be almost impene-
trable, after a few days are " worked " with great ease.
 FIRST LESSON.
INDENTING AND STAMPING.

HE first Stage in wood-carving is

to decorate a flat surface in

very low relief by a process
which, strictly speaking, is not
carving at all. Let the beginner
take a panel or thin flat board,
letus say one of six inches in
breadth, twelve in length, and
half an inch or less in thick-
ness. For this kind of work a
finely grained, even, and light-
coloured wood, such as holly or
beech, is preferable. Draw the
pattern on paper, of the size intended with a very black and
soft lead or crayon pencil, place it with the face to the wood, and
turning tiie edges over, gum them down to the edge of the
panel. Then with some very smooth hard object, such as an
agate or steel burnisher, an ivory paper-knife, or the end of a
rounded and glossy penknife handle, carefully rub the back of
the pattern. When this is done remove the paper, and the
pattern will be found transferred to the wood. It imperfect,
touch it up.
The pupil may now, with a pattern-wheel or tracer, indent or
mark a line or narrow groove in the outline of the pattern. The
tracer is the same implement of the same name which is used in
repousse or brass-sheet or metal-work. Its end is exactly like
that of a screw-driver. To manage it properly hold it upright,
 i6 A Manual of Wood- Carving.

and run it along, tapping it as it goes with a hammer of iron

or wood, Fig. 20. In some countries a stick of
wood about six inches in length, and an inch
broad at the butt, is used. Where the wheel
cannot be employed, as in small corners, use the
tracer. The pointed tracer, Fig. 21, used in leather-

work, and in carpentry, is often indispensable for

the smaller pattern-work.
When the outline is all marked out in a groove,
take one of the stamps, or grounding punches,
shown on Fig. 23, and with the hammer indent the
whole background, Fig. 24. If there be corners
too small to admit the stamp or stamps for the
same pattern, then finish them up with a pointed
Fig. 20.
nail or any point, such as a bodkin. The result
willbe like the simple design in Fig. 23. When this is done,
coat the whole with oil, rub it in, and wipe it off with care.
Then with a piece of very soft wood polish only the pattern, and
finally rub it off by hand or with a stiff brush, This kind of
ornamentation is adapted to the covers of books or albums, as
it can be applied to the thinnest sheets of wood.

"V_

Fig. 2r. Pointed and edged Tracer.

Another way to miprovc this work is to take the tracer, and

smooth down and depress the ground, especially near the
pattern edge. This gives an improved relief. Then the
ground may be stamped or " matted," Fig. 24. It may be
borne in mind that the pupil who masters this process of
indenting with wheel, tracers, and stamps, will be quite able
to work patterns in damp .sheet- leather, since the latter is
 Indenting and Stamping. 17

effected in the same way with the same tools. Nor does the
first step in repousse or sheet-brass work differ greatly from it.
All the minor arts have a great deal in common ;many of the
tools used in one being applicable to others. The pupil who
begins with some knowledge of drawing will soon find it easy to
work in any material.
The pupil having done this, has an idea of how a pattern is
placed or spaced and contrasted with the ground. He may now
take another panel, and having drawn the pattern, cut out the
outline in a light groove with a very small gouge or a V tool, or
2l firmer. Let him be very careful to
hold the handle in his right hand,
and guide the blade with the
fingers of the left, and never to let
the latter get before the point. Do
not deeply or too rapidly.
cut
Before beginning on the pattern,
practise cutting grooves on waste
wood. Unless this is done the O^A^®
panel will almost certainly be
Fig. 23. .Stamps.
spoiled. It is usual among carvers
to begin with cutting the groove with a V
tool, but it is well to
prepare for this by using the tracer or wheel.
Fig. 27 represents the effect of a ground which is indented,
and ornamented, by using round stamps of different
to a degree
patterns and sizes. Very good effects may be produced in this
way, which resembles diaper-work.
To clearly recapitulate the process, let me observe That to :

begin, the pupil must have a smooth panel without knots or

imperfections. The pattern is drawn on this or transferred to
it. This pattern should be entirely in outline, without any
inside lines or drawing between the outside edges. Fig. 24.
Take a wheel and indent the whole pattern very
or tracer
C
 carefully and rather
deeply, not all at one
pressure, but by going
twice or thrice over the
line. Then with a stamp

and hammer indent all

the background and the
spaces between the edges
of the pattern. Having
done this once, take
another panel and pat-
tern, and instead of
pressing in the outline
with a wheel or tracer,
cut it with a parting
tool or gouge not too —
deeply. Then indent as
before. Fig. 25.
This stamping the
grounds is often mis-
called diaper carving, but
the diaper is, correctly
speaking, a small pattern
multiplied to make a
ground, and not roughly
corrugating or dotting
with a bodkin, or prick-
ing. This latter is, of
course, indenting. Dia-
pers may be either
stamped or carved like
any other patterns.
This process of flatten-
ing, wheeling, tracing,
and stamping wood,
Fig. 24.
 Indenting- and Stamping. 19

though little practised now, was so common in the Middle

Ages,
that there are very few galleries containing pictures with gold
backgrounds in which there are not specimens of it. Very great
masters in painting frequently practised it. After gilding the

' * •: •
'i!^;l:-:S::^^:^y^?/^'^':^.

•»'»':>r\, .•'.: •.•.••••'.•~v'.: :.

?..'••
• ..'.. ••
•• • '
.•
• •..•.'
• *.• •
.'
. «
. •.- • - . I • • • • • • 4'

Fig. 25.

ground, they outlined the pattern with a prick-wheel, which is

quite like the rowel of a spur, and often traced dotted patterns
with the wheel itself on the flat gold. Black or dark brown
paint was then rubbed into the dots. Sometimes the stamp was
20 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

also used, and its marks or holes filled in the same manner.
It is not necessary to gild the background to produce a fine
effect. First apply a coat of varnish, polish it when dry with
paint,
finest glass-paper, then apply a coat or two of white oil
toned with Naples yellow, and when it is dry work it with wheel-
tracers and stamps. When dry polish it and rub dark
again,

brown paint into all the lines and dots. Cover it with two
coats of fine retouching var-
nish, and the effect will be
that of old stamped ivory.
This first lesson may be
omitted by those who wish to
proceed at once to carving.
It is given here because it

sets forth the easiest and least

expensive manner of orna-
menting wood, and one which
forms a curious and beautiful
art by itself. With it one can
acquire a familiarity with the
method of transferring pat-
terns to wood,and with the
management of the tracer and
stamp. The pattern-wheel
should be held in the right
Fisr. 26 Gouge Lines.
hand, and guided by the fore-
finger of the left, which is a good preparatory practice for the

chisel and gouge.

While the tools requisite for this work are few and inexpen-
sive, it may be observed that tolerable substitutes may be
obtained for them anywhere. Almost any knife-blade, eraser,
or screw-driver can be ground into a dull edge which may
 Indenting and Stamping. 21

serve to trace and press the wood, while a spike or very large
nail can, with a file, be so crossed at the end as to make a
stamp.

Fig. 27. Indented Ground.

 SECOND LESSON.
CUTTING GROOVES WITH A GOUGE.

E will now suppose that

the pupil has a piece
of smooth pine wood,
at least six inches by-
six in size, and half
an inch in thickness,
fastened to the table
before him. Let him
draw on it two lines
with a lead pencil,
across the grain, one-
fourth of an inch dis-
tant from each other.
Then taking a Jiuter
or gouge of semi-cir-
cular curve, also one-fourth of an inch in diameter, let him
carefully cut away the wood between the lines so as to form
a semi-circular groove, Fig. 28 a. This is not to be effected by
cutting all wood away at once. A very little should be
the
removed at first, so as to make a shallow groove, then this may
be cut over again till the incision is perfect. Hold the handle
hand, with the wrist and part of the
of the tool firmly in the right
forearm resting on the bench place the two first fingers of the left
;

hand on the face of the blade about an inch from the cutting
edge, to direct and act as a stop to prevent the tool advancing
too fast. Some thumb below
place the the blade, so that it is

held between the thumb and the two first finders.

 Goicge- Work. 23

" Keep your mind on your work —a careless movement may

cause a slip of the tool and ruin it." Let every stroke of chisel

Fig. 28 a. Straight Grooves.

or gouge be made and regulated by purpose and design, not

haphazard, or at random. Think exactly what you wish to cut
or mean to do, and leave no-
thing to involuntary action.
The habit of doing this may
be acquired in the first few
lessons, if you try, and when
it is acquired all the real
difficulty of carving is

mastered.
Never attempt to came any-
thing unless it is fastened to

the table. Pupils who do this

fall into the habit of holding
the panel down with the left Fig. 28 b. Cross Grooves.
hand, and the result is that
the tool slips sooner or later, and inflicts a wound which may be
serious. Always keep both hands on the tool.
 24 A Manual of Wood- Carving.

When the pupil shall have cut perhaps twenty straight grooves
with great care with the gouge, he may then cut cross-barred
grooves, Fig 28 b, and then curved ones as in Fig. 29 a, b, c.

Two sections of a circle thus intersecting form, as may be

seen, a leaf. One, two, or even three lessons may be devoted to
this, but let the pupil go no further until he can cut these grooves

Fig. 29. Curved and Crossing Grooves.

perfectly.He will then find it excellent practice at odd intervals

to carve grooves in circles, spirals, or other forms. Groove-
carving may be regarded as line-drawing, for any pattern
which
can be drawn in simple lines can be of course imitated
with a
gouge.
Very pretty decorative work may be effected by this gouge-
 Gouge- Work.

grooving alone, and in fact it was very common in the fifteenth

and sixteenth centuries, as is shown by specimens in the museums

Fig. 30.

of South Kensington, Munich, Vienna, and Salzburg. The wood

chosen was generally a highly-grained or strongly-marked pine,

the natural yellow colour of which was somewhat heightened by

26 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

staining, oiling, or age. The pattern, generally a leafy one, was

then outlined with a narrow, say one-third inch gouge, and the
grooves painted in with black or brown. This was applied in
many ways, but especially to large cabinets or wardrobes. It is
a very rapid and effective kind of work.
Celtic or Irish (or Runic) patterns, which resemble ropes or
ribbons crossing one another, can be very well imitated by
running these lines with a gouge. Fig. 30. No writer on wood-
carving ever seems to have noticed what beautiful, complicated,
and valuable work can be executed in this manner alone. These
lines can be painted in black, dark colours, or red, so as to
make fine effects in decorative furniture or friezes. It may
also be observed, that when cut they may be used for moulds
for plaster of Paris, papier-mache, and leather. The pupil
would do well to pass a few days in developing simple groove-
work, which is worth perfectly understanding. There are few
who cannot with care learn to cut grooves very well with a
gouge after a few days' practice. I urge that the pupil shall
do this with ease before going further. Secondly, that he shall
actually realize what a great amount of beautiful work can be
made with one gouge of from one-fourth to one-third of an inch
diameter as, for instance, in inscriptions, interlacing bands or
;

any kind of design formed of lines or cords, Celtic decoration,

interlacing ropes or ribbons, etc. The artist who proposes to
master carving for general decoration should pay particular
attention to this simple work.
Beginners in carving are, without exception, so anxious to get
ornaments or leaves in relief, and to produce some kind of high-
class art work, that they pass over grooving and curve-carving
or flat-cutting as of very little consequence, when in fact it
would be in every way much more to their advantage to
develop it to the utmost. The great reason why there is at
present so little decoration of broad spaces in panels, scrolls,
 Gouge- Work. 27

or furniture, by means of carving, is because all carvers

more ambitious work, and
are devoted almost exclusively to
ignore what may be done with a few tools by the simplest
methods.
 THIRD LESSON.
FLAT PATTERNS MADE WITH CUTS AND LINES CAVO —
RELIEVO OR INTAGLIO RILEVATO (CAVO-CUTTING).

HERE is an easy kind of

flat or hollow carving, if

itcan be so called, which

is executed with a gouge

or V tool, or a firmer
alone, but which pro-
duces flat patterns.
Make the design, and
as it is to be executed
almost entirely with lines
or grooves, or small hol-
lows, it must be so de-
signed that the patterns
are close fitting, or sepa-
rated only by lines. Now
and then, or here and
there, a small corner or larger space or cavity may be removed
by a touch of the tool, but as a rule there is little work in it
 Flat Patterns. 29

beyond mere lines. However, as in the gouge-work of the

previous lesson, although anybody can learn in a day or two to
" run " the lines, yet if good patterns be available, remarkably

beautiful and valuable work may be produced .by it. It is as

applicable to cabinets, chests, panels for chairs, or other kinds of
decoration. Of course the lines, or
hollows, or excavations may, as in
all cases, be filled in with colour,
Fig. 31-
This work can often be very well
executed with the firmer (or flat
carver's chisel) alone, and it will
afford good practice to acquire
familiarity with that greatly neg-
lected tool.
Flat or cavo-cutting of this kind
as zvork is only a little advance
on grooving with a gouge, but its
results may be very much more
artistic. It occupies a position be-
grooving and cutting
tween gouge ^.
out the ground, Each of these are
as separated as so many distinct
arts, but they lead one to the other.
Figs. 31-35-
The easiest way to prepare this
work is to execute the pattern on
thewood in Indian ink, and then simply cut away all the black.
The lines in leaves, etc., must be very carefully run with the V
tool all the larger hollows should be cut with a gouge.
; If very
large hollows, or spaces, or grounds are left, they must be
executed as described in the next lesson.
Observe in Figs. 31 to 35 that all the carving is confined to
 Fig. 32-

Fig. 33.
Flat Patterns.
 Fig. 34-

Fig. 35-

Flat Patterns.
32 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

simply cutting away the parts indicated by the black ground.

The fine lines can be best executed with a parting or V tool, and
i-n many instances with the smallest gouge or veiner. Though
not usual, it is excellent practice, when possible, to learn to do
this with a small 7?r;;/^r, or carver's chisel.
These cavo relievo or cnt-oiit flat patterns are as easy of execu-
tion as gouge-work to any one who has learned the latter. They
are not now much studied, but they are capable of a wide appli-

Fig. 36.

cation in large decorative The lines and cavities look best

art.

when painted the next step beyond gouge-work,

or dyed. It is
which represents simple drawing of lines in design, and corre-
sponds to sketching.
Contour or rounding and modelling of course correspond to
light and shade, but plain gouge and cavo-cutting is simple
sketching. Any animal, or a human figure, a vase, flowers, or
vines may be thus carved, the only further condition being that
 Flat Patterns. 33

the outlines shall always be broad and bold. Great care should
be exercised not to make too many lines, especially fine ones,
and in all cases to avoid detail, and make the design as simple
as you can. When in thus outlining an animal you have clearly
indicated, with as few lines as possible, what it is meant to be,
you have done enough, as in all sketching the golden rule is to
give as much representation with as little work as possible, Fig. i6.
It may be observed that familiar and extensive practice of the
very easy gouge-groove work, and of simple flat or cavo-cutting
in hollows, if carried out on a large scale, as for instance in wall
and door patterns, gives the pupil far more energy and con-
fidence, and is more conducive to free-hand carving and the
sweep-cut, than the usual method of devoting much time in the
beginning to chipping elaborate leaves and other small work.
Therefore it will be well for the pupil to perfect himself in such
simple groove and hollow work. This was tlie first step in
mediaeval carving, and was the proper one for general decora-
it

tion. It was in this manner that the old carvers of England and
their masters, the Flemings, taught their pupils.

^^-
D
 FOURTH LESSON.
CUTTING OUT A FLAT PANEL WITH A GROUND.

ET the pupil take a panel and d raw-

on it a pattern, Fig. 37 a. He is to
cut this out in what is called flat

carving, and sometimes " ribbon

work." He begins by ontliiiing,
which may be effected in different
ways. I. By taking a small Jluter
or veiner, or a tooling-gouge one-
tenth of an inch in diameter, and
cutting a groove all around the
pattern just outside of it, but accu-
rately close to it. If perfect in
Lesson H. this will be very easy for
him. n. He may do this also with
a V or parting tool, but the gouge
is better for a first attempt. HL The outline cutting may
be effected by taking a firmer or carver's chisel, one-third of
an inch broad, and placing it " up and down " close to the
pattern, but sloping outwardly, give it a tap with the mallet
 Cutting Grounds.
35

30 as to sink it a very little way into the wood. Do not

cut "straight up and down," but so as to make a sloping bank.
IV. There is yet another way, which is mor-e difficult and seldom
practised, yet which if mastered gives great skill in carving.
Take the firmer or flat chisel, and holding it with great care run
it along the edge, sloping outwards, so as to cut the line accu-
rately. By means of this method the whole work may be very
well outlined. It is not urged as absolutely necessary at a first
lesson, but it is advisable to practise it sooner or latter.
When the outlining is done, let the pupil take a flat gouge

Fig. 37 a.

(ifhe has cut the line with a small gouge), and very carefully
shave away the wood from the ground. Let him cut at first
very little at a time, for his object is now not to make some-
thing to show, but to learn kozv to manage his tools. Do not finish
all the cutting in one part at once, leaving the rest untouched,
but go all over it gradually several times, until it is nearly
perfect. Let every touch tell. Remove the wood at every cut,
and leave no edges or splinters. To do this well you must also
always watch and consider the grain of the wood at the particular
spot you are operating upon it is easy enough to see whether
;

you are cutting with, that is in the same direction, as the grain,
3< A Manual of Wood-Carving.

or across the grain ;

something beyond this that has to
but it is

be looked to. It is all wood, whether cut with

invariable that
the grain or partly across the grain, will be found to work better,
smoother, and with less tendency to splinter either in the one or
the other direction, that is to say, when cut from right to left, or
the reverse, from left to right. The required direction in which

Fig. 37 b.

it will cut the smoothest

is at once shown by the behaviour of

the wood and the quality of the results hence, should the
itself ;

work or surface show a tendency to splinter, if possible cut it

from the opposite direction, and turn the work round on the
bench should that be necessary to enable you to do it, that is, if
vou cannot use the tool in cither hand. Beware above all things
 Cutting Grounds. 37

of letting the hands work mechanically. Think of what you

are about. By learning to cut clean and flat you are taking the

first step towards the siveep-cut," which will come afterwards,

''

and which requires both deliberation and dexterity.

When all is cut out nicely and carefully, take an extra flat
gouge and clean " the floor," removing every trace of unevenness,
Then take a French round nail or bodkin, and with the mallet
fill the ground with little holes so as to make a rough surface
;

or you may use one of the stamps for this. This requires care,
so that the shape of the stamp may not be apparent. It is

advisable to trim with a very sharp small chisel, and with great
care, the edge of the pattern. For this lesson it will be best
not to cut away more than one-fourth of an inch to form the
ground.
If the outlining is done with a chisel and mallet, before
cutting away the ground, go over the outline and cut at a little

distance from the line already cut towards it, so as to remove

the wood and form a V-shaped groove, as one digs with a
spade.
Teachers or pupils are begged to remember that the sole
object of this lesson is to learn how to handle and manage the
tools ;that is, to become familiar with them, and how to learn
to ait a crround with skill and confidence. To do this there
should be much occasional practice on bits of waste wood. There-
fore it is earnestly urged that no beginner shall go further than
the work described in this lesson until he or she can execute it
with accuracy and ease. When this is gained all that remains
to be done is easy.
The reason why the "parting" or tool V is not specially
recommended to beginners for outlining is, that it is the most
difficult of all tools in ordinary use to sharpen. The small gouge
answers every purpose for the work in hand.
To recapitulate, first, we have the cutting away from
38 A Manual of Wood-Cai'-vin^.

between the outlines of the pattern If the panel be half an inch

:

in thickness, it should not be more than a quarter of an' inch in

depth. Cut over the whole very lightly at first, and then go
over it again and again. Do not dig or cut out the whole
quarter of an inch in one place at once, leaving the rest as yet
untouched. Should you do this you will be led to cutting too
deeply in some places. When the hard work is effectively
executed, and nearly all the wood is roughly cut away, the work
is said to be hosted or sketched, a word supposed to be derived

from the French ebaiiche or the Italian abozzo, meaning the

same thing.
After cutting Fig 37 a, the pupil may proceed 'to 37 b,

which is simply an amplification of the same.

 Simple ModcLling.
39

FIFTH LESSON.
CUTTING SIMPLE LEAVES— CARVING WITH THE LEFT HAND-
MODELLING OR ROUNDING— SHADED PATTERNS AND
MODELLING— PROGRESS TOWARDS RELIEF.

T will be very much to the

advantage of the pupil, so
soon as he can cut con-
fidently and correctly
with the gouge or
chisel, to practise with
the left hand as well
as the right. The
younger he is the easier
will it be to form this
habit. A carving tool
is sharpened from both
sides because the edge,
so made, enables the
artist to cut from many
positions without turn-
ing the wood, and when he can use both hands he has the same
advantage to a greater degree. Try, therefore, to acquire a
perfect command of the with both hands, and
tools, so as to cut
in many directions and ways, the greatest care being always
taken, however, that you do not turn the point towards yourself,
lest an unwary slip should produce a wound. When you can
ait with confidence, and do not rely under any circumstance on
splitting, digging, prizing up, " wriggling," or rocking with the
gouge to remove wood, then you can tell beforehand what you
40 A Manual of Wood-Cai'ving.

are about to do. To attain this skill you must frequently

practise cutting on waste wood, and not spend all your time on
perfectly finished work.
The pupil has been instructed in Lesson IV. how to cut
out the ground from a flat panel, leaving the pattern in relief
Very beautiful patterns may be executed with very little finish ;

and a vast proportion of beautiful old Gothic wood-carving

depended far more on outline than on modelling for its effect.
Modelling is the rounding or shaping a pattern to give it form.
Now leaves, in one shape or another, more or less natural, form a

Fig. 38:

great proportion of all decorative design. When they are sim-

plified from the original type, and made merely ornamental, yet
still preserving so much of the original shape that we can plamly

see what that type was, they are said to be " conventionalized."
It is, therefore, very important that the wood-carver should
know how to carve leaves well. He has already learned how
to make the simple outline or groove of one or many with a
gouge, and how to remove the wood surrounding them. He
may now go a step further and cut with great care the elemen-
tary pattern. Fig. 38. Use a flat gouge for gradually rounding
and carving the surface, beginning with the outer or lower edge,
Fig. 38.
 Sijnple Modelling. 41

and working up to the stem. The pupil will do this as well

again, and with far greater confidence and ease, should he begin

Fig- 59-

model-
firstly by making a shaded copy of a leaf in pencil, then
ling it in clay, and then copying this in wood. The time thus
42 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

spent will be gained in the end many times over by the skill and
dexterity and eye-training acquired.
The first step in rounding a leaf is effected simply by
"wasting" or chipping away little by by straightforward
little

cutting. This is the same for convexities and hollows. Such

rounding and undulation is performed by skilled artists with
very few tools, including gouges, skew-chisels, rasps, files, and
the double-bent gouge.
The student may, in the beginning, round and scoop his
leaves with any which seem fit, if he will only cut with
tools
the utmost caution, and keep the implements well sharpened.
A very important and rather difficult part of this work is the
cutting the ribs or stems which run through the leaf One
implement for this purpose is the so-called " macaroni tool,"
but at present it is really very little used, owing to the great
difficulty of keeping it sharp, and its liability to break. Nearly
allveining can be executed with the fluter or large veiner, the
hollow gouge, the V tool, or the flat gouge, according to
circumstances.
" The wood," as Eleanor Rowe " should be taken off
remarks,
in short, sharp touches, and deep and
not by long cuts, and no
attempt should be made to obtain a smooth surface until the
form and general modelling of the leaf is done." The edge of
the leaf may be a little under-cut to give relief; this effect
should be given by a V tool or small veiner. When the leaf is
correct in form, proceed with flat gouges to remove the tool marks,
holding the tool very firmly, and inclining it to an angle of
about 45".
It is advisable for the beginner to cut several simple leaves
with great care. Fig. 39, and,if possible, let him draw, shade care-

fully, and model them all in clay before carving them. He will
be astonished to find how much easier the latter process is, and
with what confidence it can be carried out, after the two former
 Simple Modelling. 43

have been executed. Having for several years had under my

supervision large classes in wood-carving, both with and without
modelling in clay, Ispeak from experience on this subject.
It is to be observed that, as leaves and sprays involve every
possible curve, he who can design, model, and carve them well,
will find no difficulty in executing birds, animals, or the human
face or figure. In their simplest forms, or in flat work, these
are allextremely easy. Then they may be a little rounded, or
modelled, and so going on, step by step, the carver may come to
full relief. Oak leaves are, perhaps, the most graceful of all
objects, and lend themselves to as many forms as the acanthus,
but they are also very difficult in their more advanced develop-
ments. Therefore they form an admirable subject for study.
44 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

SIXTH LESSON.
CUTTING WITH THE GRAIN TURNING THE TOOL — —THE
—
DRILL BOLD CARVING AND LARGE WORK. —
N both large and small carving there
is one common difficulty, the fre-
quent resistance of the grain of the
wood and defects incidental to it.

This question has already been

touched upon in the Fourth Lesson,
where the pupil has been told that
|,
he will usually find the wood cut
more
readily from the one side
towards the other. To this may
be added, that as he progresses
and carves in higher relief he will
not only find the same thing in
working leaves and other orna-
ment, but he will also find that
some portions about these will always cut better, more smoothly,
and without splintering, when the tool cuts downwards, that
is, from the surface towards the background, but with other
and quite adjacent portions when the tool is made to cut the
reverse way or upwards. As a first rule, therefore, so soon as
there is the smallest sign of splintering, try the cut from an
opposite direction to remove it, and it should cease.
Further, the edge of the gouge or firmer cut in certain
if

directions against the grain of the wood, it will " catch," or tear,
or splinter. As another precaution against this, the carver may
shift the position of the wood by unscrewing it, if it is held by a
clamp or holdfast. Thisis more easily effected if he have, in
Fig. 40.
46 A Manual of Wood- Carving.

the French fashion, only three or four nails driven into the table,
in which case he has only to pick his work up and put it into a
different position ; or he may shift his own position. But it is

Fig. 41-

best of all to be able to carve with both hands, a feat which, after
all, is not difficult to acquire, and which comes very soon with a
little practice and to master the art of Uirning the tool about and
;
 Cutting with the Grain. 47

cutting tJi any position, which also comes with practice to an

incredible extent. He who can do this, can manage to cut with
the grain in most cases without shifting the block.
Wood should never be torn or ripped ; everything should be
done by clean, smooth cutting. To make sure of this you must
first of all keep every tool as sharp as a razor all the time, and
always cut with the grain. Cutting diagonally, or partly across,
is still cutting with the grain, and is easier and surer than going

parallel with it.

Mark out the pattern, Figs. 40 or 41, and outline it. The
Greek and Roman workmen, and very often those of later but
early times, with a gimlet, or drill, or centre-bit, bored out
holes here and there, both in wood-carving and in stone, and
worked up to, or around these. They formed beginnings, as it
were, to guide the gouge or chisel. These were often of great
practical utility wherever a small round cavity occurred, but
their chief use inwood was to aid and direct the tool in certain
places where there were difficulties of grain to contend with, or
sharp points or corners of ornaments likely to be broken off. I
was once puzzled know why the drill was so much more used
to
in ancient than inmodern carving, but reflection convinced me
that where decorative work must be done expeditiously or
cheaply, and a little coarseness of execution did not signify, it
was a very great aid.
In the pattern. Fig. 38, the easy to cut; that is
leaf is

to say, one single leaf. Cutting it once more, or repeating it, is

only doing the same work over again yet if this same leaf, or
;

another not a bit more difficult, be repeated twenty-five or thirty

times in a wreath, it will seem to be a very difficult piece of work.
Now, it is a matter of importance to understand that if you can
do a very small, simple piece of wood-carving really well, you
can also by mere patience and repetition execute a piece of work
your
which would seem to be very remarkable, or quite beyond
48 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

power. The illustration to this lesson, Fig. 40, shows what I mean.
Almost any one with care could cut out a leaf, and he who has
done one can repeat it in any other arrangement. Now a vast
proportion of all decorative patterns in flat or ribbon-work, and
even in higher relief, are formed on this principle of repetition,
or of so-called " lobes," who can carve even a little
so that he
neatly may be confident almost from the beginning of being
able to execute even valuable work.
Such a panel as Fig. 41, when once carved, may serve for the
lid or sides of a box, the cover of an album, or any object with
a smooth, flat surface. But I cannot repeat too often this injunc-
tion, to constantly practise cutting on waste wood, so as to
acquire facility of hand, before attempting anything which is to
be shown or sold. It is unfortunately true that, left to himself
or herself, there is not a pupil in a thousand who would not
devote all the time or work to producing show-pieces, even at
the first cutting, instead of practising so as to learn how to pro-
duce them.
When pupils have teachers who are practical and workman-
probable that as soon as they can handle the tools they
like, it is

will be set at bold, large ivork. This is fortunate for them, since
it is the greatest advantage one can have, be it in Design,
Modelling, Wood-carving, or any other art of the kind, to be
made familiar with free-hand, large, and vigorous execution.
 ^

Highly Finished Studies of Foliage.

P 48.
 •

"7^—

SEVENTH LESSON.
THE SWEEP-CUT OR FREE-HAND CARVING — CUTTING
—
NOTCHES IN LEAVES THE ROUND-CUT,

OLDNESS in cutting is a matter of

very great importance, since no one
can carve really well till he gets
beyond chipping or " wasting." To
carve boldy we must use the sweep-
cut. It may be observed that in
modelling in clay there are certain
methods of shaping the material,
which are quite peculiar ; as, for in-

stance, when we press the modelling

tool down or up, and at the same
time turn it to the left or right. This
makes an inclination upwards or a
depression downwards, yet sloping to
one side or the other. It is made

by two movements in one so in ;

cutting with a sword or long knife, if we chop, yet at the

same instant draw the blade, the result is a much deeper inci-

E
 ;

50 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

sion. This is called the draw-cut, and by means of it a man

may cut a sheep in two, or sever a handkerchief or lace veil
thrown into the air.
Very much like this is the double motion of the hand in the
sweep-aU, which must be acquired by all who would learn to
carve leaves well. It is not
quite true that all work
must go through the three
stages of blocking out, bost-
ing, and finishing; for when
leaves are carved with the
sweep-cut they are gene-
rally finished at one opera-
tion. With this cut, which
is usually performed with
a flat gouge, the wood- is
removed so as to give a
peculiar form or curve as —
when a leaf slopes down
and sideways — by a single
but compound movement
that is, we must, while press-
ing the edge, also move it
or give it a slight lateral
motion. This sweep or side-
cut is developed more fully
Fig. 4: and espe-
in sloping larger
rounded surfaces, like
cially
whole leaves, which rise and fall, or undulate. Figs. 41, 42. This
cut, by means of which one can carve with confidence the most
brittle and difficult wood, requires a tool of very good quality,
which must be kept scrupulously sharp. It must be practised
on waste wood till the pupil is a master of it, but when it is
 Free-hand Carvins. 5^

once acquired, wood-carving, as regards all large and effective

work, may be said to really have no further difficulties. With
some it seems to come all at once, by inspiration.
The simplest or first form of the sv^^eep-cut occurs in making
leaves. Every one who has tried this knows that the cutting
the notches or making lobes in the wood, but especially the
shaping the points, is a difficult matter, for if we simply shove
or press the edge of the cutter, as in ordinary ox plane work, the
leaf will probably break, especially if the wood be "splitty,"
uneven, or brittle. Having marked out a circle to include the

lobes of the leaf, we cut a notch half way

between the proposed points, and by shaving
first from one side and then the other, bring

the lea'f or its lobes into shape. Fig. 43. Of

course, in doing this we cut from the point
to the corners.
For the present it will suffice to apply it
in its simplestand easiest form to cutting
groups of leaves. In the previous lesson the
pupil has been told how to cut out a single
"
plain leaf in relief by simply " wasting or
Fig. 43-
chipping away the wood little by little with
a fiat gouge. In like manner it might be filed, or rasped, or
scraped like metal, into shape. Let the pupil now sketch
Fig. 43, and then bost it out, by cutting round and clearing
away as already described.
The dotted lines indicate the original shape or circles in
which the leaves are cut. When it is " all done but the finish-
ing," or bosted, then cut the notches backwards in the manner
already described. And, as I have said, if the pupil has prac-
sharp, he
tised the sweep-cut, and keeps his fiat gouge perfectly
smallest leaves in the splittiest
may cut the finest notches in the
wood without once breaking away a piece.
52 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

The sweep-cut gives perfect confidence, and he who has

acquired and knows how to apply it so as to make any curve
it,

or boss or involution which he pleases, may be said to have

passed from the amateur stage to that of the artist, or at least
of the clever workman. By means of it one can model the most
refractory wood into any shape, and to any one who is expert
at it oak is as easy to carve as pine. Therefore the pupil
should spare no pains to acquire it and it will come sooner
;

perhaps than he expects if he first of all takes all pains to

understand what it really is, and secondly to practise it for a few
hours on waste wood. There are, however, many carvers who
pass months or years in " wasting " away wood by simple
straight cutting or chipping before they get any idea of what a
—
sweep-cut is if indeed they ever learn it. But if the pupil has
previously acquired skill, that is to say, ease and confidence
in running gouge lines and hollow cutting and shaping simple
leaves by straight cutting, he will without doubt find that the
free-hand sweep-cut comes as by inspiration.
 EIGHTH LESSON.
FURTHER APPLICATION OF THE SWEEP-CUT TO
HIGHER RELIEF.

HEN a leaf is in its ordinary

atural condition it is eene-
rally flat, but while
growing or fading it

often and twists

curls
into remarkable and
graceful shapes, which
are extensively em-
ployed in decoration.
Before going further I

would impress it on the

intelligent student that
the mere literal imita-
any kind of leaf,
tion of
it would
so that look
exactly like a real leaf if it were only coloured, should seldom
or never enter within the province of wood-carving as a general
decorative art.
What the pupil should do in copying leaves and flowers, etc.,

or Im modelling them for carving, is to observe their characteristic

shape and contour, to follow all their graceful lines and bends,
depressions and swellings, and give the general expression and
spirit of these without striving too accurately to make a mere
leaf. He should not make it so thin that it would break with a
sligl>t blow. A great deal of the most admired work of the
present day is of this kind, which will hardly bear dusting.
54 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

A leaf may always be cut, as ue see it done in classical and in

ancient work, so solidly and firmly as to resist the wear and tear
of centuries. As nobody is expected to believe that it is a real
leaf when it is palpably cut out of wood or stone, we may as
well conventionalize it keep only a general likeness to
(that is,

a leaf), and make it attractive by grace and skilful combination.

And this can be done if we only cut out the leaf in its general
form and leave a strong base for it to rest on, so that it may be

Fig. 44.

safely dusted or rubbed against. The student should trj' to

understand this, for it will enable him to make all effects
necessary in decorative work, and save him much needless
petty labour.
If the pupil has practised the sweep-cut, and can with
confidence work in any direction, with both hands, he may now
attempt oak-leaves in which there are varied slopes, cavities,
and swellings, 44 and 45. These seem to have been the
Figs.
favourite subjects of the old modellers and carvers. Perhaps the
 Higher Relief.
OD

best designing of the kind in existence is that by Adam Kraft, in

Nuremberg. I repeat here, that the more difficult and varied a

leaf is the more necessity is there for the pupil to model it in
clay, or at least to draw and shade it carefully, before beginning
The reason is this, that, having its principal points in the
memory, it is much easier to reproduce them when cuttino- in
wood ;
we know then when and where to turn the hand or
the tool. And it is well to bear in mind that this practical and
necessarily accurate, though often hasty, sketching and shading
of the workshop grows very rapidly on the pupil, so that, being
driven to it, he learns to do such drawing more promptly and
vigorously than he would in a school or class.
In making the sweep-cut it is necessary to get the bend or
movement, which is directing the gouge in the proper route.
In ordinary cutting we only push the blade forward ; in the
sweep-cut there is a " draw " or side movement as well as a
push. But the Inmd or direction constitutes, so to speak, a
third movement, and this is the most difficult to determine.
To get a certain symmetrical turn or curve we cut icitJiont
seeing, whereas in ordinary cutting or "wasting" we see clearly
just what we are going to slice off, and take it away with
confidence. But with a little practice on waste wood, the sweep
or draw-cut will become so familiar that one can execute the
most difficult curves, not by chipping away, but by a bold sweep.
Amateurs who have taught themselves can generally cut or chip
only straightforward s ; they cannot turn or curve a leaf with a
sweep The combined movement given to the tool in making
the sweep-cut may
be thus analyzed, and if the three distinct
forces applied to the tool be first understood and then kept in
mind in making such cuts, success will soon and easily result.
Suppose we are engaged upon the surface of a leaf which slopes
generally downwards and off to one side, but also has a rise or
mound somewhere in the course of the slope, and most leaves
56 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

have one or more such undulations. With the gouge, straight

or bent, grasped firmly in the right hand, and the two fingers of
the left hand pressed on the surface and side of the blade about
—
an inch from the cutting edge the position already described :

the tool is pushed straight forward for the entire length of

the cut by the right hand at the same time the blade is
;

pushed to the right or pulled to the left by the two fingers of

the left hand to the extent, and as the slope may travel to the
right or the left and thirdly, the right wrist is raised or
;

lowered to cause the tool to travel over the intended mounds

or undulations on the leaf Now these three distinct movements
or forces exerted on the tool merge into one another, and may
be said to be used simultaneously, and are really one continuous
movement, which gives the sweep-cut but the extent to which
;

any one preponderates of course depends upon the particular

shape of the leaf or scroll being carved, and is soon found out
by but little practice upon different forms.
In commencing or bosting out this pattern, Fig. 44, and all
others in high relief, the pupil will do well to observe that he
should select a gouge whose sweep will fit the curve of the leaf in
the part it is intended to begin upon, and placing the edge of the
gouge outside, but quite close to the line, and holding the tool
at a slope so as to cut away from it outwards, give it a moderate
blow with the mallet. Take care not to drive the gouge in too
deeply. This is the blocking out of the leaf, or outlining in the
solid. And in doing this, begin by making or cutting the
general outline only. Leave the second-sized interstices or
hollows for a second cutting, and the smaller notches of the
leaves and fine corners for a final finishing. In this pattern, Fig.
44, also Figs. 42 and 45, the leaves should be of the natural
size, or from three to five inches in length.
Most beginners cut too closely under the leaf, so as to get at
once to relief, which looks like finish. As a rule it is better,
 Fig. 45-

Circular Panel in Higher Relief.

 Higher Relief. 57

whatever the pattern be, in flat ribbon-work or high relief, to

ahvays rather slant outwards. For in the first place, when we
come to finish in ribbon-work, the pupil may find it necessary
to cut so much away round or undercut the pattern,
to bevel or
that (especially when
it is in narrow lines) the thinning away

will quite destroy their proportions. But it is well on yet

another account to be very sparing of this paring away and
undercutting. There are far too many wood-carvers who cut
away under in order to make leaves thin and natural, till
they are like paper, and much more fragile. This is greatly
admired as indicating "skill," and it certainly demands skill of
a common order to effect. But it requires a much higher and
nobler kind of art and will to make the leaves strong and firm,
even if we conventionalize them —so that their curves are really
beautiful. And this may
be done, and at the same time all the
most beautiful and characteristic features of leaves be preserved.
In ribbon or flat carving, a strong shadow or relief may be got
as follows. In cutting, slant the chisel or gouge outwards at
an angle of 45", thus /. When the grounding is finished, cut
under the slope, half way up. The outline will then be like a
<. This sharp edge may be cut away a very little, such as C,
or even into a rounded C in which case there will be a marked
,

line of shadow all round the edge.

Having blocked out the whole quasi-perpendicularly, that is,
in one direction or on one side, proceed to cut away the most
apparent hollows or depressions. With care and measurement
even the beginner will soon find his leaves beginning to assume
shape. If he has not learned as yet to cut and sweep boldly,
he may finish the whole by simply wasting the wood away with
straight cutting, aided by theriffler, or rasp.
file, In fact, for

many beginners, and especially for those who are slow to learn,

this straight cutting and rasping is really advisable, because it

at least makes them familiar with handling tools, and teaches

58 A Alanual of Wooa-Carving.

them how to model and hollow out. Beginners always ex-

perience great dread or hesitation as regards hollowing and
curving " in the round," but when they perceive that an object

isbeginning to assume shape they take heart, and when they

have succeeded with one or two by easy, certain work, even with
the help of rasps, they will carve with more confidence.

Ornament from the Uuomo, Ft.orence.

 NINTH LESSOxX.

CARVING SIMPLE FIGURES OR ANIMAL FORMS FIGURINI —

—
FOR CABINETS SIMPLE ROUNDED EDGES AND
APPROACH TO MODELLING.

EN the pupil has had some

practice in carving leaves and
similar ornaments in
he soon learns to
relief,

deepen or to cut them

higher and higher, and
then to model them in-
to form. He may now,
if he chooses, attempt

some simple animal

forms. A bird, a duck,

or a hare hanging up,

will present no special
difficulty to him, firstly,
if he will obtain one of
Swiss work, already

carved in wood, and imitate it. There are few towns where
6o A Manual of Wood-Carving.

he cannot obtain something of the kind. It is true that

much Swiss wood-carving is not at all to be recommended as

regards style or finish, but it will do very well for a beginning.
The best method would of course be to model a hare in clay
after a dead one. In any case he can make a beginning by
buying some toy animals, carved in wood and not painted.
These are made by being sawn or turned out of wood into the
profile section. This is then sliced into many pieces and each of
these carved, sometimes fairly
well, into an animal. The wool
or hair is imitated in the very
small gouges or V tools, and
sometimes scraped with a rasp,
comb, or other tool. After the
blocking out such work presents
no peculiar difficulty.
The process is quite as easy as
regards the ordinary or grotesque
animals in Gothic carving. Draw
such an animal. Fig. 46 or 48 a
or /;, and having fairly bosted
it out, proceed to very gradually

Fig. 46. round away the edges. If it be,

for instance, a serpent, which is

everywhere round, this process is very simple, especially if after

the cutting we smooth it with files and glass-paper. It will shape
itself. Now the limbs of animals, and even of human beings
in low relief, may this manner to approximate
be rounded in
correctness ; enough for initial ornamental
or to correctness
processes. As the pupil proceeds, and improves in modelling
—
and advances to copying let us say excellent patterns of Re-
—
naissance and classic work he will go far beyond such beginning.
But there is in itself absolutely no reason why, if he only draws
 Simple Figure Carving. 6i

his outlines correctly, he should not begin by this simple Gothic

work.
Whatever a pupil can draw from life or a block, that he can
shadow and whatever he can draw and shadow he can model
;

(or vice versa) and whatever he can model, he can execute in

;

wood nor would the working it out in sheet brass or leather

;

Fig. 47-

trouble him at all. This is the best way to work, so much the
best that, under all circumstances, and in spite of all drawbacks,
every wood-carver should strive with all his heart to learn to
draw and model for in so doing he will learn a great deal
;

more than all three of these cuts put together, for he will most
assuredly have acquired a faculty which will help him in any-
thing which he may undertake.
Having learned to sketch out, bost, and round simple figures,
62 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

I advise the pupil to execute a number of them, with or without

leaves and ornaments. He may thus sketch and cut fishes,
animals of all kinds, human figures in outline, until he feels a
certain confidenceand ease as regards their execution.
What the pupil must do, therefore, in this lesson, is to draw,
bost out, and round easy animal forms. At this stage let him
pay more attention to the few points which constitute general
correctness in a sketch than to minor details. I refer to the

Fig. 48 a. Fig. 48 b.

general distances of the eyes, joints, outlines of legs and back

in a horse, deer, hog, etc.
Simple figures may be executed in flat or ribbon-work, or in
the lowest relief, as well as in any other work.
The Italian carvers, for cabinet making, in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, made great use oi figiirini. Fig. 49, also the
ornament on page 60. These were little statues, generally of
human beings, from three to five inches in length. They were,
in ordinary' work, rather sketched out than elaborately carved,
but the effect was good ; sometimes a hundred of them would
 Simple Figure Cai^ving.

be worked into a single cabinet. These, figuriiii were also very

freely used in later Roman and Roman Byzantine stone and
ivory work, generally as rows of saints or scriptural personages,
every one filling a niche under a round arch. These latter were
often as rudely and simply shaped as it is possible to conceive,
yet, owing to their "making up " or disposition, as subordinate
parts they were in good taste. Any carver with a little practice
can produce them. Rows of figurini in niches were frequently
used for borders, or to surround caskets.

Hanging Box for a Corner.

 TENTH LESSON.
FINISHING OFF— IMITATION OF OLD AND WORN WORK-
WHERE POLISHING IS REQUIRED.

f]
HE finishingolTof wood-
carving depends on
what the work in hand
may be. If it is a piece
of carefully executed
foliage, or leaves (and
leaves, like crocJiets in
decorative art, is a term
widely applied to all
shooting out or grow-
ing ornaments), it is of
course the best plan to
finish only with the
gouge or chisel, so that
the skill of the artist
in clean cutting may
be evident. But it has become the fashion for writers on wood-
carving to insist on it, as a law without exception, that all wood-
carving must be finished by cutting that glass-paper and files
;
 Finishing. 65

should on no account be used, and that a carver should not seek-

to smooth over the surface of his carving, as if to conceal how his
work has been executed. In wood-carving, as in everything

Fig. 49.

a true artist does not go by mere rule. He uses what

tools
else,
he pleases, and finishes as he pleases. He does not confine his

work to a single kind, and declare that everything should be

limited to that in which he or certain experts excel. An examma-
F
66 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

tion of the beautiful and curious wood-carving in the great hall in

Venice will convince any one that other things as well as leaves
may be carved in wood and that when these represent, for in-
;

stance, old books with metal clasps, or household utensils, or

arms, imitation may be legitimately carried so far as to polish
the surface. Again, it may very often occur to the artist to
imitate old and worn objects, such as a pilgrim's bottle, a
casket or horn, for age in this way often gives very beautiful
and curious effects of light and shadow, polish or roughness,
differing very much and very advantageously from the stereo-
typed uniformity of style of too many schools. All of this
requires a wide departure from the no-polish theory.
The truth is that the beginner should indeed learn to cut
clean and well, and to do all his work with an edge, without
files or glass-paper, but there is no law why he should go no

further. A
great deal of the beauty of many old objects comes
from a certain worn look, by which they have lost some crude
defects. We will now consider how such polish may be given.
Draw on a panel half an inch thick, more or less. Fig. 49.
Having bosted it out, very slightly undercut the figure, not
completely, but by rounding the edge a little. Do this firstly
with the chisel, as neatly as possible ; then take files. For
many places in your work, especially for smoothing grounds
where the work is difficult and the curved tool not available, a
bent file is most useful, and these may be had of every shape and
curve. For rough finishing you may use rasps and large rififiers,
for finer work small files. Having brought your work into shape,
you may scrape the ground flat with pieces of broken glass or a
tool made for the purpose, or a chisel. Then take glass or
glass-paper, the former being greatly preferable, and with care
finish still more. It may now
be advisable to oil all the carving,
if oil is to be applied. Lay
oil on with a broad flat brush,
the
but if there are any places which it will not reach, use a smaller
 FinisJiing. 67

paint or camel's hair pencil. Let the oil soak i^i for a few days
in a warm room. Then with a piece of very soft pine wood, rub
with great care. The harder you rub the better the polish will
be, but also the greater the risk of bending or indenting the
surface of the carving ; therefore great care is necessary. The
longer this polishing continued the better the effect will be.
is

Workmen often spend as much time in polishing a piece of

work intended to be handled as it took to carve it.
It may be observed that in using the glass-paper it is often
very difficult to get into certain holes or cavities. These are
reached either by making a bit of the paper into a roll, or by
folding or rolling it around the end of a stick cut for the purpose.
But the most effective way of all is to take a stick, say of the
size of a lead pencil, or according to the cavity,
round the end
with a gouge and glass-paper, dip the end into glue, and, while
it is moist, into powdered glass. When dry these make admir-
able finishers, and they can be again dipped when the glass
begins to wear off Glass may in this manner be put on the ends
of old bent files.
When there are figures of animals, or leaves, or bands intended
to be thus finished and polished all'aiitico, or to resemble worn
work, it is not advisable to put in them too much inside work
or in-lines. Inside work is, for instance, the feathers on a bird,
the hair on an animal, the scales on a fish, the middle lines and
veins of leaves. A very {^\^ lines to serve as indications must
suffice. But the student of old and time-worn carving cannot
fail to draw all these conclusions for himself

The last finish to be given to such work may be executed by

rubbing with the hand. This communicates to certain kinds of
wood and other substances a peculiar polish, which nothing else
can really give.
In a very large proportion of simple flat or ribbon-work the
effect is very much increased or improved by polishing the pattern.
68 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

and leaving the ground rough or indenting it. This is not only
perfectly legitimate, but commonly done in marble or metal
repousse of every kind, as well as leather-work, and yet every
writer on wood-carving repeats as a duty the injunction that
there must be no polishing," and nothing but cutting. This is,
"

indeed, equivalent to prohibiting the application of wood-carving

to furniture, objects to be handled, house and many other kinds
of decoration. But, in fact, there are instances in decoration in
which paint or dyes, French polish, nails or other metal work,
may be most artistically and beautifully combined with wood-
carving, as many thousands of relics of the Middle Ages and
Renaissance prove.
Polishing a pattern makes it shine, while roughing or dotting
a surface darkens it. Therefore, when we want in decoration
bold effects of light and shade, we may legitimately polish the
parts which are in relief Elaborately cut work which is to be
studied by itself in detail, and not simply as a part of a whole,
need not be polished or rough its finish will depend on the
;

conditions of its design.

 ELEVENTH LESSON.
DIAPER-WORK — STAMPED DIAPER-PATTERNS—
CUTTING DIAPERS.

HAT which is called diaper-

work is where the ground
consists of one gene-
rally small pattern fre-
quently repeated at
regular
o intervals. It is

so called from the well-

known diaper or figured
linen cloth, from the
Old French diapre,

meaning the same,

from the verb diaprcz,
diaper, or " diver-
to
"
sifie with flourishings
(Cotgrave). The verb,
according to Skeat, is
from the Old French diaspre, later jasper, a stone much used
Italian, diaspro, a jasper. " Diaper,
for ornamental jewellery.
yo A Manual of Wood- Carving.

to decorate with a variety of colours, or to embroider on a rich

ground" (Anglo-Norman). "There was a rich figured cloth so
called" (Strutt, ii. 6), as "also a kind of printed linen" (Halli-
well). The latter are still common. It is, however, most
probable that the word really comes, as Fairholt asserts, from
Ypres, i.e., d'Ypres, which was famous for such work. Some
writers apply the term to merely dotting, indenting, or roughen-
ing a ground, but it is properly applicable to small figures.
Stamped Diaper Patterns. These may be produced firstly

and most readily by means of wood, stamped or punched, Fig.

23 and 27, and a hammer or mallet. Practise with these first on
waste wood. It is not at first easy to repeat them at perfectly re-
gular intervals, making one the same as the other. The work is
greatly facilitated by drawing lines like a chequer or chess-board
on the ground, and making a stamp or diaper in every dot, or all
along the lines. Punches for this purpose may be had in great
variety. This class of stamped work is very effective for
narrow edgings and borders, and on fillets, which would other-
wise be tedious and difficult to carve. With but little practice this
work can be executed with great rapidity.
Cutting Diapers. There are some patterns which are very
easily cut with a single tool, as, for instance, squares, diamonds,
and triangles. For these a firmer or chisel is sufficient. The
reader will observe that one square, etc., is removed alternately,
and another left. In designing or selecting these, or any diapers,
care must be taken to choose such as fit together exactly. But
any figures of this kind, whatever they are, are well adapted for
grounds.
A more advanced style of diaper-work is made by cutting
lines with the parting-tool or smallest gouge, unless, indeed, you
are expertenough to do it with a chisel or firmer.
This was the commonest kind of diapering on caskets in the
Middle Ages. A
very pretty effect was often produced by filling
 Fig. 50.

A SINGLE Diaper repeated.

 72 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

these lines with darkbrown or black paint. In any case, when

oiled, or as old, and dust and oil or moisture worked
they grew
into them, they became dark. It has already been said that any
kind of mere line-worVi can be executed on a smooth wooden
surface by means of a V tool, or generally by a small gouge. It
may also be effected with a tracing-wheel, or with a tracer, or
with any rather dull-pointed instrument. In hard wood of a
light colour very beautiful effects may thus be produced.
The next step is to cut lines, and combine with these cutting
out and excavating spaces, as in ordinary carving. Nevertheless,
it is not, as a rule, a good plan to make diapers too ornamental
or elaborate ; for this will lead to making them large, and then
they will draw attention from the pattern, is one, or the if there
main figures. When the whole surface is all diaper, as in a
carpet, the diapers may be as large and as elaborate as one
chooses to make them.
There is but one general rule for designing the diaper. Draw
a chess-board, and then by diagonals convert these into " points
up and down," squares, or triangles ; or fill the equal spaces
with equilateral triangles, hexagons, circles, or pentagons, etc'
These may be filled in with any suitable decoration. In Fig. 50
portions of the original surface of the panel have been left as
ridges to separate the diapers, and then every one of the latter
has been carved with the same ornament a rather advanced ;

example, but cut only in moderate relief. Another plate.

Fig. 52, gives a variety of suitable figures in low relief; some two
or three of these should be chosen and repeated in regular order
in neighbouring spaces.
Where the main object
is simple decoration of surfaces, plain

diaper-cutting an important industry, and one by means of

is

which, with no very great degree of skill, beautiful results may be

To draw these and ornament them, consult " Drawing and Designing,"
^

by C. G. Leland London, Whittaker and Co.

;
 Fig. 51.
A VARIETY OF DiAPER PATTERNS.
 74 A Manual of Wood-Ca7'ving.

obtained. Thus, large pieces of furniture, chests, and especially

walls or wainscoats, may be expeditiously adorned by means of
it, even by one who is far from being able to carve in the round

or cut leaves. It may be very much facilitated in many ways,

One of these is to cut out the patterns in duplicate, many at
once in them on the wood, and carve round them.
paper, paste
Then wet the paper, and thoroughly remove it with a stiff brush.
Another plan is to cut out the pattern in card-board, thin brass,
or wood, and stencil it with a lead pencil or colour which will
wash off. Then cut away as before. It is extremely easy, when
we have once cut a certain figure a few times, to go on repeating
' it, and beginners can, therefore, with great advantage, be set at

diaper-cutting, since they thereby acquire not only a familiarity

with the use of the tools, but by dint of repetition familiarize
themselves perfectly with at least one process for the greatest
;

trouble in all arts and studies is. that they do not, at any early
step, sufficiently master any one thing.
 TWELFTH LESSON.
BUILDING-UP, OR APPLIQU£ WORK.

;>;? T will often happen that in carvinc^,

while most of the work is on a le\'el,

some portion, generally the centre,

willrise above the rest, or project
beyond it, illustrated by Fig. 12. It
would often be a waste of wood and
time to cut this out of a single piece.
In such cases we merely glue an
extra piece of wood on, and carve it
into shape. Sometimes in carving a
face, only the nose, and perhaps the
chin, require to be added. It is said
that this method of gluing wood on
to wood to obtain additional relief
was first extensively practised by
Grinling Gibbons.
" is so well under-
In Germany this addition of a central " boss
stood, that in many shops they sell heads or faces of men, women,

or animals, wreaths, and similar centres or bosses for carvers who

can execute flat or ribbon-work, but not high relief In this
 ;

76 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

way very ornamental or showy pieces of work may be executed

with the least possible pains and expense. In the same manner
or, it may be, several pieces, are taken or
a piece of old carving,
saved from some half-ruined ancient specimen, and well glued
on a sound piece of old wood exactly like them in colour and
texture. This is then carved in the same style. In this way
really valuable work may be made, for such half-decayed
easily
pieces of old carving are too often thrown away, and may often
be purchased for a trifle.

Still, this method of applique, or applied wood on wood, though

it may be resorted to in certain cases to save a great deal of
cutting and material, may be carried too far, when it degenerates
into mere manufacture.
Appliqii^ v^oxV. of this kind falls still further into manufacture
when it consists of thin boards, cut into patterns with a fret or
scroll-saw, worked up with gouges, and then glued on wood.
This is Yet it may be borne in mind, though
plain imitation.
most writers on the subject deny it, that while it is absolutely
not high or legitimate art, there is no law and no reason against it
and if a man can contrive no better way to ornament his house,
he is perfectly in the right in doing so, if he thinks fit. And it
he can afford the time, skill, and materials, he will probably
advance from applique \\ox\i to something better. In any case
he will have learned something by it, and it is worth learning.
It is too often the case with high art critics, that they exact
that everybody must have finished taste and high perceptions
all at once, with no regard to expense.

The pupil may now attempt an easy piece of applique woxV.

Take a panel. Fig. 52, and trace on it the pattern. Leave a
blank flat space of the original surface, called the "seat," for the
figures, of their precise size, and then work out the ground.
Where this consists of a diaper, it may be made either by
carving or by stamping. Having finished the diapered ground,
 Fig. 52. Applique Work.
Dragon in Thin Wood, Applique on a Diaper Ground.
 ;

78 A Manual of Wood-Carving

saw or cut out the figures, glue them into their places, and carve
them or the carving may be executed before the application.
;

Applique work is liable to the objection, especially where

large surfaces are laid on, that two pieces of wood are seldom
of precisely the same quality and texture, and that, therefore,
they may sometimes afterwards shrink or swell in different
directions, with the natural result of warping and splitting.
This is sometimes remedied by using screws as well as glue
but the best preventive of such accidents is to cut both the
ground and the piece glued on to it from the same piece of wood,
of course perfectly seasoned. >

In many may be appliqiie or glued

cases frames or borders
on. If the an album or book-cover, the
work be intended for
frame may be made a trifle higher than the central ornament,
to protect it from being scratched when lying with the face on
any surface. This will not be necessary if it be used for a panel
in the side of a box or in a wall.
 THIRTEENTH LESSON.
CARVING IN THE ROUND.

ARVING in the round is cutting

an object which is finished on

every side, as a bust or statue.
It is in fact " statuary." It seems
to be very difficult work to a
beginner, but the pupil who has
mastered the rudiments which
are laid down in this book, and
who can measure and cut a low
relief of an inch, or a high relief

pattern of two or three inches,

will find no trouble whatever in
carving something small in the
something larger. The
round, and in progressing from this to
an indented pattern to
steps in wood- carving from hammering
and very easy if they are
carving a statue are perfectly defined,
thoroucihly mastered one at a time.
difficult to the one who
Carving in the round will be least
modelling-wax. T^.s - especal y
can model his work in clay or ''•
with des.gnnig =">J "°f;"'"e
easy if he alternates carving
'

there should be httle of

carving, that
'n fact so great an aid to
He who modelled anythn,g n, clay
has
he latter without it.
8o A Manual of Wood-Carving.

or wax way, carved it in a soft material, while true

has, in a
carving only modelling with gouges and chisels.
is

There is no difficulty for one who has mastered the first six
lessons of this book, in carving half a duck or fish in relief If
he could carve the other side and join them he would have the
animal complete. F'rom blocking out simple forms, such as
ducks, fish, hares, or game, in high relief, the carver soon learns
how to " rough " almost anything. Having made a bust in
clay, he knows where a bit is to be removed or cut away here
or there. He studies it as he proceeds, alternately in profile or
full-face, and continually measures with callipers and compasses
to see that he is preserving all the proportions. The practice
which he has had in delicately carving, grooving, sweeping, and
modelling leaves, in cutting the hair of game, imitating basket-
work, etc., will all now come into play. As regards fitting
certain tools to form the eye-balls, eye-lids, etc., if the pupil
does not as yet know the measure and capacity of his tools, he
has worked to little purpose. If he should be in doubt from
time to time, let him just carve an eye, or a lip, or mouth, on a
piece of waste wood, and he will have no difiiculty in repeating
it and he who grudges the time for such practice will never
;

make an artist, Fig. 53.

The great difficulty in carving in deep relief and in the round,
is sweep and contour and proportions of the
to get the general
whole, and this is difficult for a pupil who does not design, and
shade, and model, while it is a mere trifle. to one who does. The
cutting and blocking out, which seems to be the great difficulty,
is a merely mechanical process, performed with compasses,
carving tools, and rasps, and sometimes with a steel bow-saw,
here and there. And it presents no difficulties to any intelligent
person who has carefully executed all that is described in the
previous lessons, especially to one who has carved animals and
simple figures, or faces, in high relief.
13
C

c
82 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

It is true that in shops where much large and coarse work is

executed, as, for instance, great pieces for ceilings, figures for
facades, and the like, the sculptor, trained from the beginning
to the sweep-cut and to bold chipping, makes little account of
any difficulty, and proceeds to carve with great confidence. Now
what the student must endeavour to attain is some of the con-
fidence of the mere workman with the culture and knowledge
of the artist. And he should, whenever an opportunity presents
itself, try to see practical carvers of all kinds at work, for in this
way he much which no books give.
will learn
It is to be recommended that the first attempts at carving in
the round be made in soft pine wood, as it is of course most
easily modelled. No one should be discouraged because a first
or second effort has turned out a failure.
I have observed that many writers on the art treat carving in

high relief, or in the round, as if the first effect in it must

necessarily be a human head or figure, that is to say, the most
difficult of all objects. But he who can cut out a wooden shoe,
or a rabbit, or a fish, or the simplest object, on a large scale, on
all its sides, will, if he repeats this till he can do it easily, have

mastered the greatest difficulty which alarms beginners, that of

blocking out from all sides.
In the head by Civitale, full half-round, which may easily be
made full round, the carver may begin by modelling the whole. If
this is not convenient, let him mark out with the compasses the
different dimensions, and carefully bring the whole into form by
first rounding all into a rude shape, and then very gradually cut

away the hollows. No detailed descriptions of exactly what

tools to choose for certain places, or how to work, would be of
any real use to the pupil who has carefully executed the previous
lessons, as he will not have a single cut which he has not made
before, and in this instance a little voluntary ingenuity and reflec-
tion will do more good than any instruction.
Head, bv Cn'riALE. /'. 82.
m.
 APPENDIX TO LESSON XIII.

ON THE USE OF THE SAW.

{By John }. Holtzapjfd.)

The steel buhl saw-frame (Fig. i6) may be very usefully em-
ployed for removing many of the superfluous portions of the
material in the earliest stages of carving in the round, as in large
or small figurini, and for those parts which have to be cut away
to leave the outlines or margins between leaves and other orna-
ments in flat works. In such cases it is to be recommended, for
its use not only saves much time, but also the risk of breakages,
to which the work is very liable when these portions have to be
removed entirely with the carving-tool.
In round carving, the block, more or less roughly marked out
on its surfaces to some approach to its ultimate form with thick
pencil or crayon lines, may be held on the work-bench by the
carver's screw (Fig. lo), or if that be not convenient, or if it be
flat work, it can be held in the vice. A
coarse strong buhl saw-
blade is employed this is first fixed in the screw jaw at the
;

further side of the saw-frame the handle of the latter is then

;

unscrewed until it projects its jaw about half-an-inch, and at the

moment the other end of the blade is fixed therein, the two jaws
are also made to approach one another by pressing the further
side of the saw-frame against the work-bench, with the handle
against the workman's chest after this, the handle is screwed
;

back again until its jaw returns home to its former position.
The back of the saw-blade is towards the back of the saw-frame,
and the teeth of the blade should point away from the handle,
easily discovered by passing the finger along them, and when
the saw is properly strained for use it should ring like a harp
string.
In use, the handle of the frame is grasped by all the fingers of
the hand, except the forefinger, which is stretched straigiit out
84 A Manual of Wood-Carving

along it in the direction of the saw; the latter is pushed straight

forward and withdrawn with moderate pressure, just sufficient to
cause it to cut, and is twisted about to follow the directions of
the lines or curves of the piece to be removed. During the
sawing the outstretched forefinger is an unerring guide for the
direction of the cut.
When a piece has to be removed from between others which
have to be left, as between the body and the bend of the arm, or
between the legs of a figure, a small hole is first drilled through
the block and the saw threaded through it before it is strained ;

and the only necessary precaution throughout in using the saw,

is to leave sufficient material everywhere for perfect freedom in
the subsequent carving by not cutting anywhere too close.
An entirely different method is followed in cutting out moulds,
the pieces to be used for applique carving, and for the outlines of
fretwork or panels pierced with many interstices of which the
surface is afterwards to be carved. These works cannot be held
fast in the vice or otherwise, not only because they are often
thin and liable to fracture, but because, if so held, it is impossible
to attain the desired true, easy-flowing outlines required at once
without subsequent correction, which can be produced without
difficulty when the workis perfectly free.
The professional hand fret-cutter, who produces the best and
most elaborate work, such objects as the long, thin, pierced
panels to be backed with silk for the fronts of pianofortes, uses
a similar, but much deeper, yet light saw-frame made of wood,
with the same steel screw-jaws, hung to the ceiling by a cord.
He sits astride a bench called " a horse," which has two tall
vertical jaws in front of him, their upper edges lined with brass,
or sometimes with cork. The further jaw is fixed to withstand
the thrust of the saw, the other is notched below and springs
open when left to itself, but is closed by a diagonal strut resting
loosely in mortise smade in the face of the bench and in that of
•the movable jaw ;the strut is pulled downwards to close the
jaw on the work by means of a cord passing from it through a hole
in the bench to a treadle beneath the workman's foot. The sur-
faces of his work are, therefore, vertical, and the work itself is very
lightly held, so that he can twist it about in all directions with the
 The Use of the Saw. 85

lefthand, while he keeps the saw steadily traversing backwards

and forwards in the same plane horizontally, with the rifht.
A simpler support, called a " saw table," Fig. 7 b, is used, and
thoroughly answers every purpose for the smaller class of works
which we are considering. This tool consists of an oblong
piece of wood, perfectly flat, smooth and polished on its upper
surface, at the one end of which there is a slot of about an inch
wide beneath, it has a cross piece of wood to keep the imple-
;

ment steady on the bench or table on which it is placed, and a

clamp and screw to fix it there.
The work, first pierced with the holes for threading the saw
through all its intended interstices, has the saw placed through
one of them, strained as before, and is then laid down, pattern
uppermost, on the saw table, upon which it is lightly held and
twisted about by the points of all five fingers of the left hand
planted vertically upon it ; the saw is worked up and down
vertically in the slot by the right hand, the handle below the
saw table. The aim here is to keep the saw working always
in the same place, and to let the curve or line result from the
perfectly free movement of the work alone. The saw-blades
employed are much finer than those previously referred to they
;

are tightly strained in the same way as before, but they are
placed in the frame so that the teeth now point the reverse way,
towards the handle, and the cut, therefore, takes place at the
downward stroke.
The saws in ordinary use, such as the brass-backed tenon and
dove-tail saws and the key-hole saws of the carpenter, also find
constant employment in first roughly shaping and preparing the
blocks and panels to be subsequently carved in their use it is
;

only necessary, as in all sawing upon carved works, to cut just

sufificiently wide of the lines marked to ensure that all saw-marks
will be removed by the carving tool.
 FOURTEENTH LESSON.
INCISED, INTAGLIO, OR SUNK CARVING.

EEP carving, as it is termed

certain writers, is now
known among artists
as incised, sunk, or
intaglio. It is an
advanced form of
gouge-cutting.
It is a very beauti-
ful yet easy kind of
work, which was ex-
tensively practised in
Italy in early times,
and which is deserv-
ing special attention
because of its appli-
cability only to
not
bold, large, and even
—
coarse decoration which was, however, very effective but to —
the most delicate and minute objects. "It may," says General
Fig. 54. Incised Carving.
 88 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

Seaton, who was the first to describe it, which he does with
much enthusiasm, " be called sunk carving, for, contrary to the
usual method, the carving is sunk, while the ground is left at its
original level."Like engraving on metal, it cuts into the
ground, and depends entirely on outline, or drawing, and
shadow for its effects. It is suitable for book-covers, or to be
employed wherever the carving is liable to be handled or
rubbed, because, being sunk beneath the ground, it cannot be
rubbed or injured till the ground itself is worn down.
Take any wood except a coarse one, holly, beech, oak, —
poplar, pear, or walnut, —
and let the surface be well planed, or
perhaps polished. If it be a wood of light colour, draw your
pattern with a very soft pencil, say B B B, on paper, lay it face
down on the wood, and rub the back carefully with an ivory or
other polisher. The work is chiefly executed with bent gouges
and grainers, flat and hollow, with two or three bent chisels and
stamps, and it often happens that a good piece of incised
carving can be executed with very few tools. It is executed
almost entirely by hand, or without hammering.
Choose some simple pattern, your object being to learn how
to cut and not to produce something startling at a first effort.
If the wood be dark, such as American walnut, mark the
pattern through with the prick-wheel or dot, Fig. 54. If the
pupil Jias not perfect eyesight, or expects to carve at night, it

isadvisable to outline this dot line with a very fine camel's hair
brush and Chinese white. This prevents many mistakes. Take,
to begin, a small gouge, a little less than the stem to be cut in
diameter, and run along the
it line. When you cut leaves, get
gradually towards the centre. Then take a larger gouge and
finish the stems.
Keep by you a piece of clay or putty, or moist kneaded
bread, and from time to time take an impression of your work.
This is important, for the real excellence of intaglio carving
w

iz

U
u
G
iX
o
a
a
u
(/>

bX)
90 A Manual of IVood-Carving.

consists in being exactly like relief carving reversed.

its In
this way you once perceive, without any special directions,
will at
what tools to use in your work.
Fig- 55 is a rather advanced example of this class of carving.
The whole of the foliage is cut in cavo relievo, or cavities, with
gouges and chisels, both straight and bent, and the lines upon
them with bent V tools. The duck in the centre may be in
ordinary low relief, to give an effective contrast.
There is another reason for thus learning to make your work
perfect. If you carve in hard wood, you can always use a piece
of sunk or intaglio carving for a mould. When it is finished
take a piece of russet leather, soak it in water till it is quite
soft, press it with your fingers and a sponge for some time with

great care into the mould, and then take it off. If your wood
be well cut, the leather when dry
be quite as attractive as
will
the carving itself, and may be used in many ways. The wood
will not be injured in the least if you wipe it dry after taking
the impression. With such moulds papier-mache casts can also
be taken. I have now before me a beautiful specimen of old'
Byzantine work made in this manner.
There is akind of intaglio
peculiar
carving which may
be called Egyptian,
because the ancient Egyptians used it very
extensively on their monuments. It con-
sisted of cutting out the outline of a figure
in the following manner. On the otitside
the carver cut down perpendicularly, while
"

the inside pattern was not cut away, but

Eo^pytian Cutting.
^^^ only u j
had
i j -i. j j
its edges rounded.

The result of this peculiar groove or cut, straight on one side

and rounded or curved on the other, was a very strong relief
and shadow. It was in fact a simple combination of relief and
incised or cavo carving, by means of \\hich a strong relief was
 Incised Carving. <^\

attained by littlework. The main object was to make the

inscription solid and durable, and at the same time very legible.
The principle, as I have shown, is quite applicable to ornament,
and requires much less labour than even intaglio carving. It is

something more, in fact much more, than mere outlining, and it

is particularly applicable to mural or wall decoration.

Incised carving is often much improved by being painted, and
sometimes varnished. That is to say, the sunken portion is
thus coloured. I have seen white and vermilion used with good
effect, but black and dark brown are generally preferred. Gild-
ing seems peculiarly rich when thus applied in the hollow, as
the shadow gives it a fine tone.
Though the imitation of engravings
is not within the range of

wood-carving, there however, a very pretty and easy art by

is,

which drawing and painting are very ingeniously combined with

a kind of carving. Take a panel of firm wood of lightish
colour, well planed and polished. Draw on it any pattern, or
even an animal, or human figures. Incise the principal lines
with a V tool, or, according to its size, small gouges may be
used. For the fine lines and shading, a tracer, or any point to
indent, not so sharp as to scratch this is a matter of great
;

importance and the wood, which, if possible, should be of box,

;

sycamore, beech, or holly, must be adapted or prepared to take

^ mark without breaking. When all the lines are well in, take
a miniature fitch pencil, and fill in every line with colour, taking
care not to let the paint spread beyond the lines. Different
colours may be used. This is hardly wood-carving at all, but
in skilful handsit produces beautiful and remarkable effects.

It is very effective indeed when applied to leather. As the

colour is Slink in the lines, it is well protected ; this kind of
ornamentation is therefore well adapted to book-covers. I

have applied it successfully to heavy card-board panels prepared

for artists to paint on in oil.
92 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

Ashave said, incised cutting will be found useful to workers

I

in leather,papier-mache, clay, or plaster of Paris, because by

means of it they can make moulds. Another kind of mould is
made as follows : Cut out with a saw the outline of the pattern
ina piece of board thick enough to give the requisite depth.
Then glue the perforated board to another board, the surfaces
of both being of course first planed and smoothed. This
gives the mould in the rough. Then fill in the angles of the
hollows with a composition of clay and size, or putty, or rice
and lime with white of o:^^, or any other suitable cement, and
while it is soft shape it with fingers and tools to the details
of the pattern required. When perfectly dry go over it care-
fully, taking proofs here and there with putty, and correct with
bent files. Then smooth it where it is at all rough, oil it all,

and make your cast.

Boxwood Powder Flask. Old German.

 FIFTEENTH LESSON.
CARVING CURVED SURFACES COCOA-NUTS, BOWLS, HORNS,
:

CASKS, TANKARDS, ETC.

ARVING concave or convex

surfaces, such as the ex-
terior of a horn or the
interior of a bowl, is often
very difficult work, and
though an ingenious
artist will readily find
out for himself some way
to get over such diffi-

culties, it is well to know

at once how the work
may be done.
Horns. The first

difficulty is to fix the

object so as to cut it.

A beginner who under-

takes to carve such a
very hard, slippery, and
unmanageable object as

a horn, will, if he hold it with one hand while he carves with

94 A Mactual of Wood-Carvmg.

the other, inevitably damage his pattern or wound himself.

It very dangerous to hold the work in one hand or
is

between the knees. One way to secure such an object is to

take a board, nail cross-pieces on it over the ends of the horn
so that a portion may be exposed on which to work, and in
this manner one can cut with safety. Again, holdfasts and
clamps may be employed, but the utmost care should be taken
lest these slip away whenever too great pressure is brought
to bear on them. A very good means to keep the horn firm is
to have a piece of wood fast to the table in which there is a hole,
into which the lesser end of the horn fits, while the butt rests,
and is fixed, on the table. Having secured it, outline the pattern
with a V tool or very small graining-gouge, and then cut away
the ground with quarter-fiat, and finally with fiat gouges. The
bent file may be freely used for a horn, and it will be necessary
in many places. When bosted, finish with careful touching or
fine files and glass-paper.
If you wish to colour the horn, one which is chiefiy
select
white. Take a any chemist
solution of nitrate of silver, which
will prepare for you. Be very careful indeed how you handle
it, for it will burn clothes, carpets, or fiesh, and at least stain

your fingers for a long time. With a glass brush, if you can get
one, if not, with a glass point, or pen, or agate point, or wax,
apply the acid carefully to the pattern. If you use wood for this
purpose it will answer, but it is very speedily consumed by the
acid. This will make a yellow, or brown, or sometimes a black
stain,according to the strength of the solution, the number of
times it is applied, and the hardness of the horn. When the
horn is covered with diaper-work, or a great many small figures,
or a close pattern, then always put the acid into the hollows,
and leave the design in white. A black dye for horn, as well
as for metal, is made by combining ammonia with sulphur. It
is very malodorous, but is efifective. Any chemist will make
 Curved Surfaces. 95

it, and will also prepare for you the dyes used for ivory and
horn. It is better and cheaper for the amateur to buy these
than to attempt to make them for himself. In most cases black
and brown are the best colours to use.
If a horn is boiled in hot water, or steamed, it will become so
soft that it may be flattened. Then it is very easy to carve.
The author has in his possession two very ancient and singu-
larly ornamented Italian horns which were thus shaped. Horn,
when treated with quick-lime and hot water, can be reduced to a
paste which can be made into any shape like a cement or plaster.
It becomes hard again in cold water. All old horns were not
used for gunpowder many of them were for wine or other
;

liquors others were used for blowing they all make effec-
;
;

tive ornaments. Carved horns are handsome ornaments when

hung up with cord and tassels. I have made them very attrac-
tive by gilding the raised patterns on them.
To CARVE A Bowl. The exterior of a bowl presents no
special difficulty, if it be well clamped down. It may be secured
with blocks and nails, or screws. But the interior is harder to get
at and much harder to cut. This is, of course, chiefly done with
bent gouges and chisels. It requires care and patience in cases
of special trouble. I have, however, easily succeeded in wearing
or wasting away the ground by the process which will be de-
scribed in carving cocoa-nuts. Wooden bowls, which are well
adapted to carving, may
be bought cheaply at household
furnishing shops. They are of the kind used in every kitchen.
They may be mounted on bases, such as any turner can make,
to which the bowl should be fastened with a screw and glue.
Bowls may be coloured or gilded like horns. They are very
useful for purposes, chiefly to contain visitors' cards or
many
other small objects on the writing, work, or toilet table.
Cocoa-nuts. If it is to be used as a cup, begin by sawing
away the end on which is the " monkey face," or so much as is
96 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

desirable. Sometimes the whole nut is left, to behung up as an

amulet, ornament, or charm, as ostrich eggs are hung up in the
East. Then clean it smooth with a large rasp till fit to carve.
Draw the pattern on this with Chinese white, that there may be
no mistakes. Then fix the nut to the board or table, as with the
bowl {vide p. 100).
The ground may, with patience, be cut away with flat gouges,
and, with practice, this becomes really easy, and more ex-
peditious than one would at first suppose. Or it may be done
chiefly with files. But the most rapid manner of working is by
a "cut" which is described as follows by Gen. Seaton, who,
however, limits it to mere decoration for a ground.
" There is a species of ornament most useful for the bend of

branches, and which is to be seen in Swiss carved brackets.

This may be called the zigzag pattern or ornament. It is in-
tended to represent the cross-fissures and marks that are seen
in the bark of some trees at the end of the branches. It is done
with a flat or quarter-round gouge, the hand swaying from side
to side, and at the same time advancing by alternate
"^"^'^ steps each corner of the tool."

That is to say, put the tool straight up and down, and rock it
from side to side, and it will require little practice to learn it.
But to use it, not for ornament, but a cut, or rather dig, a firmer
or chisel is better than a gouge nor need we be very particular
;

as to the appearance of the marks made, as they are all, in the

end, to be cut or smoothed out. Rock up and down with the
firmer, pressing a little flatter than if the object were to only
make lines, or so as to scrape away some of the ground. Then
from another direction go over this ground, digging and scraping
away again. In this manner a shell may be bosted rapidly, and
by it one can work at the bottom of a bowl when even the bent
tools are of little or no use. When the whole ground is
 Curved Sui^faces. 97

excavated by this process it may be easily smoothed with files

or carving tools. The cuttings from cocoa-nut shell, or waste

bits, may be kept, and when pounded to a fine powder, and
mixed with glue, they make an admirable cement for repairing
walnut or other dark wood work.

Fig. 56.

Casks. A
cask when carved is an admirable object for waste-
papers, or holding canes and umbrellas, Fig. 56. It should be of
wood at least one inch in thickness. If held together by broad
brass or copper hoops it will be much handsomer. A bucket or
pail be carved in like manner; and when lions' heads or
may
other carved ornaments are applied, it will be found that a very
ornamental object may be made with little trouble or expense.
H
98 A Manual of Wood-Caj^ving.

It is easiest to carve casks, kegs, buckets, or firkins, up and down,

or in a perpendicular position, and to stand up while at the work,
as a true carver is sure in the end to do at all his work.

Fig- 57.

Tankards and Waste-Paper Boxes. Tankards, if small,

may be turned from solid wood, but, when large, it is best to
have them made by the cooper, of several pieces, and hooped
 Fig. 58.

Old Irish Tankard.

lOO A Manual of Wood-Carving.

with metal. To make the design for all such cylindrical objects,
take a piece of paper which will exactly go round, or correspond
to the surface, and be sure to make the pattern continuous, that
is, without breaks, unless it be designed in divisions. Wooden
measures, such as are used by dealers in nuts, fruit, etc., are well
adapted to carving for tankards. They may be bought at
general furnishing shops.
The old Irish, and sometimes the Danes, made a rude kind
of tankard, Fig. 58, by fastening together with nails, glue, or
screws, four pieces of oak panel or thin board. It was like
drinking from a box. It makes a useful receptacle for many
purposes.

Cocoa-nut Goblet.
 SIXTEENTH LESSON.
BOSSES, KNOBS, BARS, AND POLISHED ORNAMENTS.

HERE are several small

effects in ornament
which the carver should
study with care they ;

are generally applicable

to most kinds of de-
corative art. The first

of these is the employ-

ment of bossesorknobs,
some left plain, and
some carved, hemi-
spherical or less. They
may be almost flat, but
are always smooth at
the edge and polished.
They were very exten-
sively used in early

and metal-work, and the reader may see

-carving
many illustra-

tions ofthem in the works of Hulme. Sometimes the knob

introduce
becomes a small spot or a mere dot, employed to
ground. The practical theory is that the knob
light into a dark
102 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

represents the plain or ornamental head of a nail used to hold

the work to the wall, or the rivets of armour, which the Goths
transferred from coats of mail to linen and woollen. But the
real reason is to introduce points of light.
Knobs or bosses may be placed wherever there are wide
spaces between patterns. The rule of employing them is either
a few large points or many small ones they must, however,
;

be used sparingly. The principle of introducing them is of very

Fig. 59- Fig. 60.

wide extension. Thus, in all kinds of work, especially metal,,

grapes, melons, and other fruit are introduced solely that, by
their roundness and polish, they may make points of light or
" shiners." Old embossed work in leather and wood-carving-
often owes its chief beauty to the polish, which time and use
have given to the reliefs on it. Of course the employment of
" shiners " or bosses, and of all kinds of smooth polished relief,

should, as a general rule, be sparing, subordinate, and judicious.

Nevertheless, in certain kinds of work, especially in much flat-

H
 Bosses and Knobs. \0'

carving, which is intended to simply ornament

a surface, at no
great expenditure of labour, just as tiles or tapestry might
do,
the stems and portions of the leaves, or sometimes all the
pattern, may be polished as highly as possible, so
as to make
a relief against the dark ground. Grounds are pricked or
punched or dotted to make them dark, and when the oil soaks
into the holes they become permanently darker. Therefore the
pattern is to be in contrast ; and when the object is no more

Fig. 6i. Fig. 62.

than to make a general decorative effect, not perfectly finished,

but like a sketch, may
be polished.
it

There is another curious effect given by crossing the pattern

alone, or the ground alone, with bars, lines, or stripes. It was
very common at one time. In carving, it may be produced with
a small gouge or fluter though not natural, except where it
;

is given in long and short lines to represent the graining of

wood, ithas a good effect simply because it distributes shadow
evenly. It was probably derived from the effect of "ribs" in
cloths, which were much admired by the Venetian painters.
I04 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

Door-knobs are effectively bosses, that is to say, the same

ornamentation maybe appHed to both, as to handles for bureaus,
cabinets, and other furniture. Figs. 59 to 62 will give the
pupil some examples and ideas for carving knobs and bosses.
 SEVENTEENTH LESSON.
TO REPAIR WOOD-CARVING— GLUE— NITRIC ACID GLUE-
PREPARING DECAYED WOOD— ARTIFICIAL WOOD-
FILLERS— SPRAYING— TO MAKE GLUE "TAKE."

T will sometimes happen to a carver that, owing to

bad wood or inadvertence, he splits away or breaks
off a piece from his work. In this case he must
have recourse to glue. This should be of the very
best quality, perfectly light and clean. Glue is
made in what alchemists used to call a balneum
inarice, that is, of a vessel containing hot water,
within which is a smaller vessel. The glue, which
is in the inner pot, is therefore to be boiled by the
heat of warm water, and not of the fire directly.

Before setting it to boil, break it into very small

pieces, say of the size of a hazel nut, and let it
stand in cold water for twelve hours. It will now
be like a thick jelly. Pour off all the water not absorbed,
and put the jelly into the inner pot, fill the outer with water
and let it boil till the glue is like a thick cream. Use it while
in this state.
If you add to the glue, while thus liquid, some nitric acid, say
io6 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

about a tea-spoonful to half a pint of glue, you will have a very

superior cement, which holds faster than the plain glue, and is
much less liable to crack or split. It dries more slowly, which
makes it very valuable for veneering and for large surfaces,
where glue often dries before the whole can be applied. Again,
when an article fastened with common glue is detached, it is
often almost impossible to stick it on again with the same. But
with the acidulated glue this is easy.
The greatest advantage of this glue is, that if it be kept

excluded from the air it will remain in a liquid state for at

least a year, and can be used cold. Its disadvantages are a
very pungent and not agreeable smell, and the fact that,
when corked up, the cork is most certain to get glued to the
bottle, and requires to be broken to get it out, rendering a new
one necessary. This may be avoided, however, with great care.
Stir the acid into the glue with a glass rod or tube.
It may happen that a rotten, broken place is found even in
the best wood ;
or the carver may
obtain possession of a piece
of ancient, worm-eaten, half-decayed carving, and with a very
little skill such pieces can be perfectly repaired. Take a piece
of similar wood, and reduce it to fine sawdust by means of a
rasp. For purpose American walnut and dark old oak, or
this
cocoa-nut which is easily pulverized in a mortar, is ex-
shell,

cellent. Make this into a paste with glue, and repair with it
any broken places. This, if properly made, is quite like wood
itself, and may be moulded into any shape. It " takes hold "
of the ground, and when dry it may be filed into uniformity
with the rest. It may also be cut with ease or trimmed to
shape, or, infact, carved. If there is too little glue in it it will
break too easily, if there is too much it will be too glazy. But
a proper mixture makes it quite like wood.
Scratches and chance cuts may be remedied by merely melting
them with hot water. But for such small defects ^filler is useful.
 Kepalrs. J07

This a kind of paint or liquid cement, the object of which is

is

to up the pores of certain coarse woods and make the surface

fill

fine. The squeezing wax, described in the chapter on making

moulds, is a filler. Others are made by mixing flour with
varnish, etc. Any dealer in paints and varnishes will supply a
filler suitable to any special work.

When a piece of wood-work is so decayed that it is absolutely

dropping to pieces, and cannot eveji be handled, it may be pre-
served and rehabilitated by the following process. Take some
thin glue and water, or mucilage, or size of any kind, and a
spray, that is, one of those articles such as are used for spraying
perfumes, etc., and which are for sale in most chemist's shops.
Spray or sprinkle the glue over the figure, and, if necessary,
gradually throw on it fine sawdust or other powder. As it
dries it may be shaped and worked more freely.
We read continually in the newspapers of the opening of old
tombs and ancient subterranean caves, in which are discovered
dead bodies, bones, dresses, implements of bone and wood or
leather, or even of baked earth, which gradually dropped into
dust a few hours after being exposed to the air. And I have
never known a case in which these objects could not have been
preserved certainly all which I have ever seen could have been.
;

All that is necessary to do is to make a thin size, and very

gradually spraying or sprinkling it on the objects, allow it to
dry, little by little. There are very few cases in which, indeed,
the spray cannot be successfully used. It was by the application
of this principle that Sir Joseph Hooker preserved the ivory
articles brought from Nineveh by Sir Austen H. Layard, and
which would have perished but for him. He advised that they
should be boiled in gelatine. The student who becomes an
expert in such repairing will find plenty to do, and it will be his
own fault if it is not profitable. Nineteen people out of twenty
have not the least conception of the degree to which repairs
io8 A Manual of Wood-Ca7^ving.

may be carried. Some years ago a gentleman in America had

a very curious and valuable vase from the pyramid of Cholula in
Mexico. It was very fragile, being made of the weakest terra-
cotta, and having been broken to pieces, the owner was about
to throw it away, but gave it to me. Some months after I

repaired it so perfectly that the closest observation could not

detect a flaw in I did this by fastening pieces of paper on
it.

the inside with gum, and so gradually bringing the fragments

together, edge to edge, and fastening them with the acidulated
glue. When all were together, there was, of course, a lining of
paper. Where there was a fault or a deficiency outside, I filled

it in with plaster of Paris, rubbed it all even, and coloured by

" rubbing in " paint. This process would have been much easier
with decayed wood.
In gluing ordinary wood together, heat the two pieces first.
This renders them more inclined to " take " the glue. Some-
times it is a difficult thing to hold them together till they " set,"
that is, adhere so firmly that they will hold. For this the clamp,
Fig. 7a, may often be used. In other cases, take two pieces of
wood, put one on each side of the parts to be glued, and
tie them tightly together sometimes clamps may be used to
;

connect the binding pieces, when they are not applicable to

what is to be glued. Strong indiarubber rings or gummed
paper strips may be used in some cases. But with thought,
ingenuity can generally be awakened so as to help one out of
any such difficulty.
A
very perfect resemblance to carved wood may be made by
taking cocoa-nut powder or fine sawdust and mixing it with
the acidulated glue, so as to make a paste as already described.
Then, having ready a mould, either of plaster of Paris or of
sunk or incised wood, and oiling it, take the impression. These
casts, retouched and glass-papered, are quite like wood, and
they may be used for decoration in doors.
 Repairs. 109

The following are also excellent recipes for glue.

Liquid glue. Take of best glue three parts, place them in
eight parts of water, allow them to soak for some hours. Take
half a part of hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid), three-quarters of
a part of sulphate of zinc, add to these the glue, and keep the
whole at a moderately high temperature till fluid.
Exceedingly strong cement for glass and china. Take gum
arable and dissolve it in acetic acid instead of water. It must
be melted in a hottish place ; it will be much stronger if this be
done. The finest quality of sheet gelatine makes a transparent
glue.
 EIGHTEENTH LESSON.
—
COLOURING WOOD-WORK OILING— SODA STAINS AND—
DYES- IVORYING SURFACES— BLACK DYES AND INK.

ARVED or any other

wood is often dyed,
stained, or toned. Some-
times this is done to
make one piece or part
match with another ;
or
it may be to imitate the
effect of age, or to give
hght woods a colour
which will prevent them
from showing defects.
This is effected in many
ways.
Oilmg alone is a kind
of colouring, for all oiled
wood becomes much
darker before long. The
more frequently it is

rubbed in with a pine stick the harder and darker the surface
becomes. I have seen walnut tables which had been thus rubbed
 1

Staifts, etc. 1 1

with a stick or a hard scrubbing brush, until a tea-cup wet with

hot water on the outside would make no mark on them. Had
they been only softly oiled or painted, or varnished, an indelible
stain must have resulted. Care should be taken that the oil is
pure, and that no wax has been boiled in it. A table which has
had wax on it for a polish will always show marks or stains
from hot water.
Soda dissolved in water, and applied to oak with a sponge or
brush, will give it a darker tone, which may be increased by
several applications. Dark tea with a little alum is also useful,
also porter or beer, also a decoction of walnut leaves. In
America butternut gives a very rich indelible dye. Let it be
carefully observed that in using these, or any other colours, the
following rules must be strictly observed. I. Use a sponge or
brush and do not apply the dye profusely or pour it on, as you
will run great risk of warping the wood, or causing it to split.
II. It may
be advisable to dry it near a fire, but in this case
exercise great care that the heat be not too great. III. When
dry, rub the dye off with a rag or soft old newspaper, or chamois
skin. Do this very carefully, and do not be disappointed if it
seem very light and to have taken but little dye. Apply the dye
again, giving it plenty of time to dry between the coatings. Of
course this depends on the dyes used, and the degree of colour
required.
all kinds of wood,
Stephens stains of different kinds, to imitate
or those of Mander (Oxford London), are very good, and
Street,
may now be purchased in every town. As a rule, most of these
dyes are very strong, and it is therefore necessary to dilute them
with water and several applications, instead of putting on
make
the whole strength at once. The diluted dye is carefully painted
over the entire surface with a full flat camel's hair brush, and a
smaller round brush is used inthe corners and smaller recesses.
After using dyes, and when perfectly dry, the wood should be oiled.
112 A Manual of Wood- Carving.

Ammonia. Wood, and especially oak, may be not only stained

of a very dark rich colour, giving the efifect of age, by washing
it carefully with ammonia or spirits of hartshorn, and then
exposing it for some time in a chimney, or otherwise to the
fumes of smoke, especially of a wood-fire if it be possible.
Strong spirits of ammonia, according to Rowe, may be placed
in an open vessel and then shut up with the panel in an air-
tight chamber or box, the wood darkening according to the
length of time it is left in. The ammonia may have to be
renewed, as it quickly evaporates. For small work a glass
shade may be used, or a box can be made with a glass lid, and
after the panel and saucer of ammonia have been placed inside,
the crevices can be pasted over with brown paper. When the
depth of colour is obtained, which can be seen through the
glass, the panel can be taken out. The wood must be so
placed that the ammonia can pass quite round the parts which
require darkening. But for ordinary purposes, it will be found
quite sufficient to apply strong ammonia with a brush or sponge,
and expose it to smoke.
Umber. Common powdered umber, which is used by the
house painter, is much preferable to the Swiss brown liquid
stain to produce an antique brown appearance. The Swiss dye
is entirely too rich and uniform, making everything exactly

alike, or similar to chocolate. But the umber must be properly

applied. Mix it with beer or porter strong coffee is also very
;

good and apply it with a brush. When dry rub it very care-
;

fully, clean, and apply it again. If it be desirable to make the

wood very dark, add lamp-black to the dye, mixing and shaking
it very thoroughly. But always let the first applications be of
umber alone. By adding the lamp-black one can darken the
wood almost to blackness, and if it be very carefully done, and
not in a hurry, and exposed at intervals to smoke in a warm
place, a colour second to none may be thus given.
 Stains, etc. \ \
^

Paint. Wood which is to be exposed to the air must of

course be painted in the ordinary way. But there is another
method of applying oil paint which is not so generally known
or practised, yet which gives very good results. This consists of
rubbing paint with the hand into wood or on plaster of Paris,
papier-mache, or stone. As it is much thinner than with coats
laid on with a brush, it appears more like an innate or natural
colour. This was the finger painting of the old Venetian
artists. The appearance thus produced, when it is skilfully
done, is very different indeed from that of an ordinary coat of
paint, and in most cases it is much more attractive.
Ivorying. Take a panel, the pattern may be carved, or even
produced in the lowest rehef by simply indenting the outline
with a wheel or tracer. Any degree of relief will, however, do
just as well. Apply a coat of thick ordinary copal varnish.
When smooth it with finest glass or emery-paper.
perfectly dry
Then apply the paint two or three coats are better than one.
;

See that the last is perfectly smooth. Then work on the dry
surface with tracer and stamps, as you would on wood or brass.
When finished, take a very small fitch-brush and paint Vandyke
brown into all the dots, lines, scratches, and irregularities. Let
there be a dark line of brown close to the outline of the pattern.
Sometimes the entire ground may be rubbed with brown, allow-
ing an indication or a few dots of white yellow to show here and
there. When dry give two coats of retouching varnish (that of
Sohnee Freres, No. 19, Rue des Filles du Calvaire, Paris, is
specially suited to this work). By using olive, dark and light
greens, a beautiful imitation of bronze can be thus obtained.
In fact, by studying the effects of colour in many kinds of old
objects, we may obtain hints for converting very ordinary wood-
carving into beautiful objects.
Bichromate of Potash, diluted with water to the required shade,
is a good dark dye, but great care should be taken not to spill
I
114 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

a drop of it on the clothing, or to get it on the hands, or even to

inhale its fumes, as it is a poison. Apply
it with a brush.

Black Dyes. Of late years black dyes have been so much

improved that ebony is imitated with holly, hickory, and beech,
to absolute perfection. The best way for the carver, as regards
these and kinds of dyes, such as red, yellow, green, etc., is to
all

go to a chemist or colourman, who will obtain them for him.

For black the following recipes may be used.

I.

White vinegar i pint.

Iron filings 2 ounces.
Antimony (powdered) 2 ounces.
Vitriol I ounce.
Logwood 3 ounces.
Steep it in a corked bottle for eight days.

II.

Gall nuts coarsely broken .... 2 ounces.

Rain water i quart.
Boil down to one half. [Seatoii.)
To stain wood, first apply No. II., when nearly dry put on
No. I. and then No. II. again. It will occur to the reader that
this is really ink, and, in fact, if he cannot get a stain, good
common ink applied a few times and well dried will answer
quite as well. After it has been thoroughly put on, and quite
dry, oil the surface, and rub it well, and it will be found that it
will not wash off from any casual application of water. Some of
the writing inks now made are intensely black and almost
indelible.
 NINETEENTH LESSON.
MAKING MOULDS OR SQUEEZES FOR WOOD-CARVERS.

T will very soon become apparent to every

wood-carver that it is easier to copy from
a model than a drawing, and that this ease
is very much increased when he has made

that model in clay himself. However, it is

also very advisable that he shall, after a

time, practise carving from drawings and
sketches also, as this of itself gives great
skilland accuracy of perception. But he
willvery often need or w^ish to have copies
^ of carvings or casts, and these he may
obtain with ease, if the relief be not too
This is called
great or the object too large.
"taking a squeeze," and it may be done in
two ways. Firstly, by means of squeezing
or modelling wax, which is sold by dealers
in artists' materials. The use of this and
the casting in plaster of Paris is, however,,

^ gienerally tiresome to beginners in carving..

For all practical purposes squeezes in paper-
are quite sufficient.
Paper squeezes. Take any pieces of soft newspaper. Oil the
wood or plaster cast which you wish to copy ; soak, and then
press on the paper and, with your fingers and a sponge or a very
stiff it into every cranny of the original.
brush, poke and squeeze
If thisbe done thoroughly, the hardest part of the work is ac-
complished. Now give the paper a brush of flour-paste or gum
1 16 A Manual of Wood- Carving.

or mucilage, or paste strengthened with glue, and press on new

pieces of paper. To merely copy the original, a few thicknesses
will suffice. Take the squeeze off and let it dry if necessary,
;

touch it up with colour. For this the first coat should be of

white paper. To make a cast, keep adding paper till the whole
is at least half an inch in thickness. Press it as hard as you
can while forming the mould. When it is dry you can paint or
rub the inside with any dry powder, such as whiting, or varnish
it, and then make a cast with the same material, i.e. paper and

paste, or with plaster of Paris. Papier-mache casts, when

rubbed by hand with brown paint, form perfect facsimiles of
old wood-work. Rubbed with bronze-powders they resemble
metals, or they may be ivoried, by the process described in the
chapter on dyes.
and are heavy and diffi-
Plaster-casts are very easily broken,
cult to transportf Wax is by a touch, and it
spoiled almost
readily yields to heat. Papier-mache, when properly managed,
with a little practice gives a mould which is equal to either
for all surfaces except the most minutely delicate. When dry,
such casts may be let fall, or really thrown about, without
sustaining any injury, and they are very portable. It is very
often possible to easily copy an object with paper when plaster
or wax cannot be used at all. The reason why it is not more
generally used is because few persons have taken the pains to
treat it as a plastic material suitable to the arts, or are sufficiently
practised in it to know what can really be done with it. The
wood-carver should do this, because it is a very important thing
for him to keep copies of his works, or to get those of others to
use in his designs. With a little practice, and at no expense,
he can make such casts in a material which is almost as durable
as wood itself
In large manufactories of papier-mache the pulp of paper is
.simply mixed with the paste or size, and put into the moulds in
 Taking Moulds. 117

larg^e masses, and then subjected to pressure. When a good

surface is secured with fine white paper, it is not of much con-
sequence how coarse the paper for the backing may be. For
this purpose it may be mixed with tow or fibre of any kind,
plaster, or fine sawdust, etc., so long as the binder or size be
only strong enough to hold all together. But for all ordinary
purposes waste-paper and paste, thickened with common glue,
will suffice.

Case for Papers or Music.

 TWENTIETH LESSON.
SPOT CUTTING.

HIS is a manner of orna-

menting which can hardly
be called carving, and
= which would not deserve
special mention were it
not that it is so exten-
sively used, being the it

chief method of decora-

tion in all the islands of
the Pacific, and still ex-
tensively practised in
Sweden and Norway. It
consists of small incised
triangles, or " diamonds,"
made with a skew or ordinary chisel, which are arranged in rows
or lines. Simple as the work may seem, it is very effective when
artistically employed and it has this peculiarity, that no other
;

kind of cutting is so well adapted, with very little labour, to

relieve flat surfaces, such as paddles, tankards, spoons, war clubs,
and scoops or dippers.
The triangular incision is made with three cuts by adding two
;

more from the opposite direction we make a diamond, or the

latter may be produced at once with only four cuts, Fig. 6^. To
these we may add the hemi-spherical or cup hollow, which is

made with a gouge, and which, in Scotland at seems to least,

have been the earliest pre-historic beginning of ornamentation
of flat surfaces.
 9

spot Cutting. 1
1

When these triangles and diamonds are tastefully arranged in

lines, and filled in with a composition, or paint, which contrasts

in colour with the wood, the efifect is often excellent. Ordinary

putty, into which a little mastic has been well worked, or plaster
of Paris with size and a little flour paste, with one drop of oil to

^
an ounce, makes a good filler for such a purpose. This may be
applied to any incised cutting. An ivory-like filling, which may

UTATATATAI

Fig. 63.

be stained of any colour, and which was once extensively used

in Florence, is made with rice, lime, and size.
Any pattern which can be drawn in lines may be executed
with good efifect in triangular spots, the base of every spot being
on the line. They may either join one another or be separated ;

both methods produce a good efifect. The spots may be of all

sizes, and are generally not larger than those at the top in the
above illustration.
I20 A Manual of Wood- Carving.

Large triangles may of course be used as well as small ones.

Owing to the ease with which these spots are made, and the
good effect which they produce when blackened, it is not
remarkable that so simple a method of decorating wood is

extensively practised.
By placing a gouge vertically and turning it, as already
mentioned, a cup-like cavity is easily cut. A
row of these is
often very effective.
 APPENDIX.
OBJECTS FOR WOOD-CARVING.
" The most difficult part of making is to know what to make."

N no circumstances should
the Avood-carve! be at a
work
loss for a subject to
on, yet this com-
is the
monest source of com-
plaint, especially among
young artists, that they
"do not know what to
take up." One result of
this is the wearisome
production of panels or
" fancy pieces " without

any definite aim, and a

constant imitation of one
another's work. Unfor-
tunately there
are a
great many who cannot
understand or form any
idea how a pattern would
look when executed.
They will pass it over in
an engraving, but when
they see it actually
carved and made up they
appreciate it. Now the
tutor should teach the
pupils, and the students
teach themselves, to

Fi?. 64.
122 A Mamial of Wood-Carving.

think of subjects, to invent them, to sketch and execute them.

I have found that all workers are invariably more defective in
this respect than in any other, and that it is one in which the
direction of almost every art school in the world is either utterly
wanting, or else leaves much to be desired.
Pupils should be encouraged to look at every object with an
eye to ornamenting or decorating it, so far as that can be done
without detracting from its usefulness. In every school a list of
objects for carving should be hung up, and the workers be
frequently requested to think of subjects to add to the list ;

outline sketches of furniture and other objects should be

supplied. It is not at all understood that even a very little

frequent employment of the mind inventing and planning, no

matter at what, stimulates all the mental faculties to an extra-
ordinary degree.
I therefore seriously urge that the wood-carver shall earnestly

study the following list of subjects, add to it, and at times take
one or the other of them and sketch it with variations. He may
remember while doing this, that any of the ornaments given
may be varied and applied to different things, as, for instance,
the vine on a circular panel may be easily adapted to a square.
Full directions for doing this may be found in " The Manual of
Design,'" price one shilling, which also contains many patterns
perfectly adapted to carving.
The first subject to be considered is What to design or :

make how its surface can be appropriately ornamented and,

;
;

how to produce the best effect with the least work. Mere
elaboration is admired only by the ignorant, and the less
cultivated a pupil is, the more inclined he will be to densely
crowded petty patterns.
If the pupil wants a design for any of the objects described in
this chapter, and if he can draw at all, and has any skill in
' London : Whittaker and Co. Chicago : Rand, McNally and Co.

.<«
 Objects for Carving. 123

adapting or changing a pattern, as, for instance, to make one

which fills a triangle or a square "set" into a circle, or extend
to a long panel or a border, he will find something for any of
them, either in this book, or in the " Manual of Design " already-
referred to. Let him also take pains to collect as many patterns as
he can of all kinds, and keep them in a portfolio for reference.
Every student of wood-carving should remember that if he
has a folding looking-glass, which he can make for himself by
cutting in two a square mirror of, say, six inches by twelve, he
can, out of any pattern in this book, or from any simple orna-
ment whatever, make (with the least effort of ingenuity or adap-
tiveness) a border by repeating it in succession, or a centre
ornament which may be multiplied in whole or in part ad
infinitum. That is to say, he can fill any given space, be it a
Or he can fill such
panel, ceiling, circle, triangle, or hexagon.
spaces by simply cutting out ornaments from card-board, and
placing them together to form vines or outgrowths from one
another.
Panels. A panel defined as a board with a surrounding
is

frame. The word derived from the old English panel, a piece
is

of cloth, Latin pannns, " a cloth or patch " from the same word
;

we \i^v& pane. In wood-carving we practically apply it to small

boards intended to be set in furniture, or walls, or ceilings, or
made into book-covers or box-lids. The uses of panels are
without limit, as they may be introduced into almost every kind
of furniture, such as the backs and sides of chairs, chests, bed-
steads, caskets, window-garden boxes, doors, or wherever a fiat
surface can be adorned. When surrounded with a frame or
several strips of moulding, any panel becomes improved when
the outer frame is not overdone. As a rule the border of a
panel should be plain, so as to distinctly define or set forth the
pattern. For this reason many very ordinary and even rude
subjects "come out" or look well when thus "mounted." A
124 A Manual of Wood- Carving.

series of carved panels makes a beautiful frieze for any room.

A good general size for most work is a panel six inches by-
twelve, more or less, and half an inch thick. In spacing a panel
for ornament the pupil may begin by making one circle in the
centre and one in each corner, so that the five may fill up the
whole space. Convert these into a vine and apply ornaments.
There are of course endless variations of this principle. (Con-
sult the " Manual of Design.")
Chairs. Take any chair, copy it, and then fill the spaces witii
ornaments to be carved. Large, square, high-backed, old-
fashioned chairs admit of the most panelling, and can be made up
by any cabinet-maker or carpenter, vide Fig. 69. It is a very good
plan to always have such objects made up in pieces, carve them
separately, and then have them
put together. It maybe observed
i for beginners, and those who are
not much practised in cabinet-
making, that there is a very sub-
stantial kind of furniture once
made very commonly in Ger-
many, and which has been much
revived of late years. It is made
entirely without glue, nails, or
screws, by simply cutting holes
Fig. 65.
into which tenons or ends project,
which ends are fastened on the other side by holes and pins.
On this principle every kind of furniture can be made by any
man who is ingenious enough to simply measure boards, cut
square holes, and adapt pins to them. Such articles as are
made by this process are very much stronger than any others,
and they have the great advantage that they can be easily
taken apart, packed, or be stored in very small space when not
in use;
and the style is of course more adapted to carving than
 Objects for Carving. 125

ordinary furniture. The writer has in his possession chairs 250

years old made on this principle. The seat is a square nearly
two inches which four holes are bored, into which the
thick, in
legs are simply set, as in a milking-stool. Between the hind
legs two square holes are cut, into which similar tenons made
in the lower end of the back are fitted. In these tenons
two square holes are cut,
just exactly on the other
side of the seat, into which
square pins are driven. Fig.
65. With a very little inge-
nuity or will, anybody can
contrive to make any piece
of furniture on the same
principle. The seats of
chairs and stools, or the
faces of tables, should
never be carved, for very
apparent reasons. There
is plenty of space for the

carver to work at on the

edges and legs, and this
may be made striking
enough by means of
colouring and gilding,
Figs. 64 and 66.
Boxes. These have
formed in all ages favourite
subjects for decoration.
They vary from the
smallest casket to the
chest. A box with the
lid forms five panels, or. Fig. 66. Console or Bracket.
126 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

seen from any point, three. In Italy, of old, they were often
carved without and within. Boxes may be made by simply
gluing, nailing, or screwing together, but they may be so
dovetailed by an expert workman that the juncture is quite im-
perceptible. Vide " Forty Lessons in Carpentry Practice," by
C. F. Mitchell. Cassell and Co. It is a feat in cabinet-making

Fig. 67.
 Objects for Carving. 127

to do and boxes thus joined are very expensive.

this perfectly,
The appearance is much improved by the addition
of boxes
of moulding-strips, bases, and projecting ornaments. The
student is advised to carve or buy a few bosses, such as heads
of animals or faces, and rosettes, and try the experiment of
fitting them to a box or carving them on one, Fig. 6"].
Caskets for Cigars. This appHes also to receptacles into
which glasses for flowers may be put. Take a cylinder of wood,
turned, or made up like a barrel, and fit a base to it, and a
lid. They may be made of very large joints of bamboo,
which may also be beautifully carved, and partly coloured in

Fig. 68. Tray for Cigar Ashes.

the lines, as is common in China. It is best for turned cylinders
and bamboo have them surrounded with metal rings to
to
prevent their splitting. They may also be made square, that
is, as boxes.
Trays for Cigar Ashes. These are best when carved from
 128 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

hard wood, such as box, though any other may be used. It is

much better that they be made rather larger and deeper than
many in use, as ashes are continually being knocked out of
small and shallow ones. They may be round or square, like a
fish or a small book (with a lid), a shell, a tortoise, or a scooped
hand, a face, or a figure of any animal or human being. Fig. 68.
Basket-work. This is very easily imitated in wood, and it
forms a very pretty and fanciful style for many kinds of objects.
Take any kind of basket-work, either that of split osiers, which
are half-round, or Italian rush-work, or American Indian, which
is made of flat strips of ash or pine-bark interwoven, or
Indian rattan, and imitate it with flat gouges or firmers. It is
very easy work, and beginners soon become expert in it. It
improves the effect, when the work is finished, if dark colour
be painted into the depressions. Basket-work may be used for
diaper ground. The American Indian basket-work, in flat strips
frohi one-third of an inch to an inch in breadth, is easiest to
imitate, and may be executed with a single V tool or firmer.
Casks, Small Barrels, Kegs. These are useful for waste-paper
boxes, or to contain canes and umbrellas. When carved and
coloured they form very attractive articles of furniture. They
may be used for garden seats. Heads of animals applique to
these, some for handles to lift them, or else holes must be cut in
them for this purpose, vide Fig. 56.
Frames for Pictures or These give a wide
Looking-glasses.
range to the wood-carver, for all borders are suitable to frames.
Heads may be applique io corners and centres of frames. It is
very much to be desired that designers and carvers would exert
their inventiveness and endeavour to break up the monotony and
feebleness which characterizemost frames, vide borders and
photograph frames.
Horns. Horns may be carved, as previously described, and
imitations of them in wood are easily made. They are orna-
1
 Objects for Carving. 129

mental objects, and useful when hung up to contain small

objects. They can, by steeping in hot water, be softened and
flattened, vide initial to Fifteenth Lesson.
Tiles. These are really panels. They are pieces of wood
from half an inch to an inch in thickness, the size of ordinary
tiles, carved in bold relief with free hand, coloured or not, and

are very useful for house decoration, chimney-piece borders,

cornices, and corners. The tile when employed with much re-
petition becomes the diaper ornament.
Witidow Gardens to contain flower-pots. These are square
chests, as long as the window is wide, and from a foot to eighteen
inches in depth. They may be made with two or three panels,
or one long panel in front, with one at each end. They form
admirable subjects for decoration.
Albums, Portfolios, Book-covers. These are panels, and afford
an infinite range of design and effects in wood-carving. They
may be very beautifully and easily ornamented in mere stamping
and outlining {vide Lesson IL), or by putting in diaper grounds,
or basket-work, or by very low relief carving, in which case there
should be a border in a little higher relief to protect the pattern
from being rubbed. Fig. 70.
Canoes. In many countries large or real canoes are made
from one piece ofwood and elaborately carved. Very pretty
miniature canoes may be made from one to three feet in

length from any kind of wood, and covered with any kind of
ornamentation. It is not necessary to excavate them from a

single block or log, as they may be made from two or more

pieces. They form useful receptacles for many objects.
Panels of Doors. These might be generally ornamented.
Every kind of wood-carving is applicable to them, but it should
be remembered that for all such decoration a large, free, and
bold style is absolutely necessary, and that it is unwise to make
mural work, which should be visible at great distances, out of
K
I30 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

pretty flowers or too delicate work. A

room with good bold
door-panels, wainscot, or dado and a frieze, seems half furnished,
while triflmg and feeble ornaments detract from such appearance.

-^v

Fig. 69.

The great secret of the attractiveness of mediaeval and savage

decoration is its energy. Even eccentricity and grotesqueness
lose all that is repulsive in them when they are simply and
vigorously set forth.
Carved patterns in low relief may be applied to door-panels.
Fig. 70. Album Cover.
132 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

Foot-stools. These are really small panelled boxes, unless

made with supports or
legs.
Benches. Simple
benches are seldom de-
corated, but they are
admirably adapted to
it. Never carve the
seats, they are
unless
made to fold up to
protect them from the
rain, in which case the
under ornaments of
choir-seats or misereres
may be appropriately
used. When the bench
has a back it becomes
a rude sofa or settee or
settle (Anglo - Saxon
setl, a seat). Properly
speaking a settle is a
long bench with a high
back. This may be
carved in panels. There
was an old Saxon and
early English double
chair made to seat two,
which is like a short
settle.
HangingBoxes. These
are boxes generally
Fig. 71. Hanging Box. made with a back, which
IS the longest piece, and which goes above and below the recep-
 Objects for Carving. 133

tacle part. They are useful for newspapers or letters. Every

kind of carving isapplicable to them, Fig. 71.
Key Boxes. These are small hanging cabinets. In every
family there are many loose keys of trunks and furniture lying
about loose, and hard to find when wanted. If there were a key
box they would always be readily found. Make a box or frame,
let us say eighteen inches in length by ten inches width, of four
strips of deal or any wood. These strips may be half an inch in
thickness by an inch in width. Nail or glue them together so as
to form the four sides of a box. Then take one or two or three
strips of thin planed board, and neatly nail them on to form a
back to the shallow box. Now take a panel, which is to form
the lid or door of the cabinet. It will be better to make a
narrow frame of four strips, and set the panel in this, as a door,
with hinges and lock. This is to be hung up on the wall. It will
very much improve the whole if the interior and outside of the
cabinet, or all the deal, be stained to match the door, which, as
it is to be carved, should be of walnut or oak, or some better class

of wood. Then get some small silver or plated-headed nails and

drive them in rows in the cabinet. The keys are to be hung up
on these.
Cabinets. These may be in the nature of upright boxes with
doors, with three sides ornamented, the fourth being placed
against the wall, or three-sided for a corner. The forms of
cabinets are extremely varied, and the artist should pass much
time in designing them. They are of all sizes, from great
armoires for clothing down to caskets. The word cabinet is
derived from the French cabane, a cabin. The earliest dwellers
in Italy made the receptacles for the ashes of the dead exactly
like the cabins in which they dwelt.
Sabots or Wooden Shoes. These serve admirably to carve,
and are very pretty when coloured or ivoried, bronzed in
antique style, or otherwise ornamented. Sabots are useful
134 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

to contain small articles, and may be turned into cigar-ash

holders.
Umbrella Handles. These offer an inexhaustible field for the
designer and carver of small objects.
Tankards. These and all kinds of cylindrical objects are the
same as regards design as panels, only that the pattern when
not in set divisions must be continuous, or going round without
a break. They have been al-
rUF^ ready described.
Pen and Pencil Boxes. A very
convenient form is that of a
round-turned wood, plain, up-
right jar. Small square or round
carved boxes for such a purpose
are not hard to make. They
may be made like towers or
castles, the trunks of trees,
barrels, or almost any hollow
objects.
Pilgrim Bottles and Pozvder
Flasks. Take two pieces of
board, each one inch' thick,
plane them smooth, and saw
both into ovals exactly match-
ing,of, say, six inches by ten.
Fig. 72. Flask.
Cut away the centre from both.
Fit them exactly. Then round each half in such a manner that,
when brought together, they form a round ring, like a French
loaf Then carefully hollow out the centre of both, including
the neck, and glue the halves together. Carve the outside,
Figs. 72 and
73. During the Middle Ages such bottles were
made of many sizes to contain gunpowder. They were carved
from ivory or hard wood, and were covered with a very great
f'ig- 7Z- Pilgrim Bottle.
136 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

variety of subjects, such as deer, dogs, wild boars, birds, cupids,

scenes from the heathen mythology and the Bible, as well as
ordinary grotesques.
Shrines or Reliquaries. This is the conventional name for
boxes or caskets made exactly in the form of houses, the lid
being one side of the roof The shape is a convenient one for a
box. They were covered with ornaments of the most varied or
grotesque kinds.
MiLinmies. The Egyptian mummy or its outward box or
sarcophagus forms an excellent subject for a useful box. Take
two pieces of wood, adapt them to make a box, like the
Egyptian type, that is, the lid being about one-fourth as thick as
the box. Applique or glue more wood on to the lid, in the
centre. The whole may be then smoothed into shape, painted
and gilt, or else carved in low relief, or simply stamped. It may
also be all gilt, and the dot work and shadows painted in brown
or ivoried. Take for model a
real sarcophagus. The work is
not difficult, and the be a very handsome object.
result will
Roman Sarcophagus. This is simply a square box carved in
very high relief, after the pattern of a Roman tomb. The orna-
ments may be applique'. These sarcophagi are very beautiful
when ivoried.
Books. A very pretty pattern for a box an old book of the
is

twelfth or thirteenth century, with itsand other ornaments

clasps
in high relief One of the covers is set on hinges, and forms the
lid. Care should be taken to polish and ornament the whole so
as to look like an original. It was very common to make the
sides of old books of wooden panels, which were carved in high
relief. Silver and brass or iron clasps and studs taken from
such old books may be bought in many bric-a-brac shops.
Staves or Alpenstocks. A
staff four or five feet in length is
more useful for a pedestrian going a great distance than a cane,
and it is remarkable that it should have fallen into such disuse.
 Objects for Carving. 137

In old times in northern countries they were often made square,

the corners being sHghtly rounded, and were then covered with
Runic inscriptions and These were very often
ornaments.
almanacks, so that a man wishing to know what was
the day of
the week or month had only to consult his staff, or to " up stick."
These were called clogs. They might be acceptable and useful
to many tourists. They were commonly carved by the peasants,
and a few may possibly still be found in Suffolk.
Spoons. Wooden spoons are easily carved and ornamented.
It is very curious, that quite apart from any modern slang
attached to the words "spooney" or "to spoon," two spoons,
from their fitting together exactly, are considered in many
countries as a type of matrimony and perfect agreement. In
Wales, as in Sweden and Algeria, it is usual to present a newly
married couple with a piece of wood carved into the form of two
spoons, and I myself possess specimens of such. If anyone
wishes to establish the custom in England he would probably
find that the present would be generally welcome. Two spoons
in one cup are, it is well known, the sign of a happy marriage.
I have seen large wooden spoons carved and painted and
varnished, or gilt two of these tied together with a ribbon were
;

hung up as an amulet to secure peace.

Bdloivs. These are carved in low relief, and may be orna-
mented by simple indentation or outlining and stamping. It is
the easiest course to get the wood and saw it out, half or one-
third inch walnut or oak, and then carve it, and have the bellows
made up. Figs. 74 and 75.
Platters. Take a piece of panel, one-third to half of an inch
in thickness, and saw it out into any shape, such as that of a
a wild boar, a pig, a cat, a rabbit, tortoise, hare,
fish, etc., care

being taken that the shape always approach that of a circle, an

oval, or at least a diamond. Most animals can be drawn fitting
into a circular border, as you can ascertain for yourself by
 138 A Manual of Wood- Carving.

putting a cat or a hare, etc., into a hoop. Indent with stamped

work or carve in ribbon-work, low relief, finish and polish with
care, dye black, and then oil or varnish. These are useful for

Fig. 74. The Wino-Flower,

(jR Anemone. Fig. 75. A Salamander.
interposing between cups, vases, etc., and the table-cloth. Very
pretty effects may be produced by inlaying small discs of pearl
or Lvory to form the eves, etc.
 Objects for Ca rving. 1 39

Lunettes and Spaces. It will often happen that there is over a

chimney-piece or door, or under or over a window, a space like a

semi-circle, or half an ellipse or oval, or square or rectangle of
any kind, which might very well be filled in, and it will be found
that, in most cases, there is nothing more appropriate than wood-
carving. It will be an easy matter for anyone in the least
familiar with drawing to adapt the designs in this work, or in the
" Manual of Design," to such spaces.

False Sofa-backs. When a plain flat lounge or sofa is placed

against a wall its appearance may be greatly improved in one of
two ways. Firstly, a carpet or cloth may be hung on the wall,
just matching it in size and meeting it. Secondly, and this is
very effective, get boards or panels made into a piece, just as
broad as the sofa is long, and from two feet to any height you
please. It may reach down to the ground, or begin with the
sofa. Carve it. This will seem to be the back of the sofa, or a
guard for the wall in any case it will appear very well. It may
;

be made of separate panels, say six or eight inches by twelve or

sixteen, made up into a frame. Such pieces may be placed to
back any kind of furniture which rests permanently against the
wall.
Door Pieces. Panels just as long as the door is wide, and
from one to two, three, or even four feet across, when carved,
form handsome decorations to place above a door they may
;

*
also be used to place above windows. Inscriptions, or simple
figures with ornament, look very well on them.
Outside or Facade Pieces. Many a house, be it mansion or
cottage, which seems utterly prosaic and plain, might be greatly
improved if between its windows, on the outside, there could be
set ornamental panels. These may be painted, carved in stone,
moulded of Portland cement or other artificial stone, and in
many cases carved of wood. Ornamented inscriptions in old
English, and simple figures, are suitable for these panels in any
;
 140 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

case let those who adopt them try not to have the commonplace
cupids and ornaments generally seen in mural decoration. It may
not be in good form to be grotesque, but those who entirely
avoid it are almost always commonplace. Fig. 'j^.

Wood or Coal Boxes. These are square boxes with lids, to be

placed by the fireplace. The coal-scuttle, with the coals, may be
placed in them. In carving everything of the kind it is a good
idea to introduce ornamental lettering and appropriate mottoes.
These may be seen in every fancy or furnish-
Bread Platters.
f^gf^g^^i^ia^^mm^s—. ^ "^^ shop where wooden wares are
^^ _, ,finZ
. _ r^ sold. They can be much improved
^^^^'^ '^^i^^^ ^^oaHII by carving to serve as round panels.
!

Chimney-pieces. These generally

consist of pilaster panels and strips,
and anybody who can execute these
in detail can have them made up.
Jt is desirable for the pupil to copy
a few or many chimney-pieces, great
or small, from real ones, and adopt
\ ^ j^^^^^. TT" u'^^O^^^^gBlli I
the ornaments from them. And as
»»l rV^^i^^'^v^ i^^^^lr they are articles which receive a
great deal of wear and tear and
Fig. 76.
rubbing,it may be well to re-
member that too delicate finish misplaced where scrubbing
is

with soap and sand is sure to set in some day, and where,
at any rate, dusting and other processes are inevitable. After
a few years the foliage or flowers undercut to the last degree,
begin to shed their leaves, and appear broken or ragged.
Good flat-carving, which endures anything, is better than this,
and the roses, even if in high relief, would look none the worse
forbeing solidly though conventionally cut. good chimney- A
piece and a handsome high-backed armchair can be very well
executed by anybody who can do ordinary panel carving.
 Objects for Carving. 141

There is no even the humblest cottage for which

fireplace in
a chimney-piece may not be made.
Its upper portion can in
most cases be made to support shelves or a cabinet when in a ;

corner these of course are triangular. Gothic or ornamented

lettering may be used in the ornament. For this, proverbs or
quotations relative to the fireplace are appropriate.
Beams. When the beams which support the floor above
are left exposed, the room is improved by being made higher.

If these beams are carved, even if it be done rudely, the

whole room seems to be adorned. This is strikingly the
case when the beams are stained a dark brown, and then
touched up a little on the prominent points with gilding. If
it be too difficult to carve the beams in situ or in place, it is

easy to ornament them with applied carved ornaments. Pains

should be taken to make these appear to be uniform with the
wood.
Racks. These may be for umbrellas, hats, garments, pipes
weapons, and other purposes. Great ingenuity and taste can
be developed in designing them. Of one thing let the designer
be very careful. Let him see that the pegs or hooks are strongly
fixed and are not ornamented. I have seen such pieces of furni-

ture, in which a four-cornered sharp-edged flower is placed once

and even twice on a hook, while on others there is at the end a
projection more than an inch in diameter, which is flat on the
back or under side, with a sharp edge. The result is, that when
a coat is hung by the loop on such a peg and is then turned or
twisted once or twice, as often happens, it is almost impossible
at times to get it off.

TJieBoss or round central projection formed a very important

part or speciality in mediaeval wood-carving. It can be advan-
tageously used as a centre, and sets off to good effect surrounding
flat or plain carving. It is sometimes used as a handle for
chests. It is, when a simple half-circle, very easily sketched
142 A Manual of Wood-Carving,

into shape. It may be formed into the head of an animal,

a flower, a single curling leaf, or several leaves. The student
is specially urged to copy as many as he can from Gothic
designs. A boss at the bottom of a bowl, or in a saucer or
plaque, produces a good effect, the concave surface round it

making a beautiful effect of shade, which might be more fre=

quently employed by picture-frame makers. This ornament,

which is very easily made and very striking, is thus prepared.
Get a bowl or a shallow round platter any turner will make;

one for you. Then carve from a hemisphere of wood a head

or a boss of leaves or flowers, or a dragon. Round the bottom
with a file to fit, and with glue and a screw fasten it to the
bowl. The interior of the bowl may be polished, varnished,
gilded, or ivoried.
Clock Cases. A
common clock is not very expensive, and when
it isproperly repainted and set in a well-carved frame its value
will be very much enhanced. A
tower is a very good subject
for a clock case.
Vestihile. The small ante-hall, between the
first and second

door, common in very many

This can be ornamented
houses.
with a wainscot or dados in long panels. It is very often thus
decorated in America. For cottages and country houses, or even
for town mansions, such panels may be beautifully and fitly
decorated with gouge-work in grooves, a flat pattern in simple
cutting-in, such as any person may learn how to execute in a
few hours. Fill in the pattern or cuts with dark paint, and if
exposed to changes of temperament or rubbing, let it be oiled or
varnished. The same work is of course as appropriate to halls
as any other rooms, but the vestibule, being small, may serve for
a beginning.
These afforded inexhaustible work for the
Staircase Balusters.
olden time, and they should be tempting to every
artists of the
wood-carver. It is not at all necessary that they should be
 "

Objects for Carving. 1.43

strictly of open work, in lattices or rails, as beautiful objects of

the kind were once often made in panels. But the carver should
especially be aware of projecting leaves or crochets, as they are
very apt to " catch " garments.
Garden-work. Much bold wood-carving may be executed for
gardens in a great variety of forms. Stands or tables for potted
flowers and tubs may be decorated, panels placed in walls, and
summer-houses made in far greater variety than they are at
present. Poetry supplies an infinite variety of inscriptions
appropriate to gardens, which may
be carved and ornamented.
It is worth noting that statues of Flora and Pomona and
Vertemnus in simple archaic forms were used to protect gardens
and orchards among the Romans, and it would be an easy matter
to carve these in low relief in panels.
Gates. The gates of country places, gardens, etc., afford 9

wide scope and as they are the fa'st

for the skill of the carver,
objects generally seen about a house they may be most appro-
priately ornamented. In this, as in much other work, the art of
the carpenter is combined with that of the carver. It should be,
however, remembered, as regards gates, as of all decoration
whatever, that anything which can ever be in any manner in the
way is not beautiful, sensible, or proper. There should never
be a jagged or pointed ornament wherever it can " catch
clothing.
Bedsteads. The bedstead was of old considered so appropriate
for carving, that I an excellent old Italian work on furni-
find in
ture more illustrations of this article than any other. Even very
simple and cheap ones may be redoubled in value by a little
judicious carving.
Trays. These may be made in great variety, to contain many
kinds of objects. As a rule the tray is a long shallow box, but
it may be carved from one piece of wood, and is then used to

carry objects in, the single piece being necessary to give it

144 ^ Mamial of Wood-Carving.

strength. ornamented with carving the tray forms an attrac-

If
tive object the wall. And it may be here
when hung up on
remarked that one great object of all carving is, that most objects
which are useful in some way shall be ornamental when not in
use. We do not wish to have trays and coal-boxes in the way
if they are plain, but when decorated they serve as well as
pictures to ornament a room.
Coal or Wood Boxes. See Wood or Coal Boxes.
Salt Boxes, Collection Boxes. These very useful articles need
mot be limited as regards contents, nor confined to the kitchen
or to " collection." If the part of the box which goes against
the wall, or its back, be lengthened, the salt box becomes a kind
of bracket. Vide Hanging Boxes.
Shelf-boards. It very often happens that a literary man, or
draughtsman, or architect, though his work-table may be large,
finds it crowded with books, etc. To find place for these the
shelf-board is very convenient. It is simply a board, let us say
one foot wide, placed on two supports, which lift it twelve or
fifteen inches from the table. To economize room these supports
may each be a square open box, in which books may be placed.
The advantage of this shelf is that it may be displaced at any
time when the table is cleared. A
plain board in a room is not
an attractive object, its edge, or even one side of it, may therefore
be carved.
Brackets and Bracket Shelves. These useful objects may be
made in a great variety of forms. The simplest is merely three
pieces of board fastened together in a triangle. In the illustra-
tion, Fig. 'J'],
there are five pieces. The centre of b slopes at an
angle of 45". Bracket shelves are made by hanging two brackets
and laying a board across them. A bracket may be made on a
longer board, and have two or more shelves, it then becomes a
hanging rack or cabinet. Or the support may be a long strip in
which pegs of wood or metal are placed, on which objects are
 Objects for Carving. 145

hung A very great variety of carved or stamped ornament

may be adapted to brackets.

' T TV i-m

a . b
Fig. -]-]. Bracket. The Tannhauser.

Violin and Guitar Cases. In the old times these were often
elaborately carved, and thus formed an ornament, instead of being,
now used, anything but attractive.
like all
Handles for Drawers. The hanging or hinge style of old-
L
146 A Manual of ^Vood-Carving.

fashioned handles,now so prevalent, has the drawbacks of not

being always easy to open or " find," and of frequently breaking.
The knob, which was screwed on, was always wearing out and
getting out of order. The best and most practical kind is made
with a square shank which passes through a square hole in the
drawer. It has also in itself a square hole into which a square
pin is driven, which holds it fast. Carving in very low relief may
be applied to ornament these handles, but it should never be such
as to produce positive inequalities, such as press into, or may
hurt the hand. If the pin be slightly wedge-shaped, it can
never wear out, nor can the handle become loose, since when it
does, all that is required is to drive it in further. A very plain
chest of drawers may be niade much more attractive with a
handsome set of handles. Handles are another form of bosses.
Applied Ornaments. Old Roman bronze coins, such as may
be bought for two or three pence, are often quite handsome
enough to be applied with beautiful effect in caskets, tankards,
or boxes. Lay the coin on the wood, draw its exact circle
with a pin, and do this until the line is rather deeply scratched.
Cut out the disc with great care, so that the coin may fit tightly
into it. For this purpose very thick coins are preferable. Let
it project a little from the surface. Fasten it in with diamond
or Turkey cement. Of course, medals or coins of any kind
may be used. Make a border in the wood round the coin, and
if you like, apply other ornament to this border. Large nails
with circular boss heads are very effective in furniture. Chests
may be beautifully ornamented with them.
Waste-Paper Box. A carved box is much more "sightly " and
solid than an ordinary waste-paper basket. The box may be
carved in a basket pattern, and made rather wider at the top
than the bottom.
Borders. Any ornament continued in a line or strip forms a
border. A wave or one made of hemi-circles, joined or not
line,
 Objects for Carving. 147

with ornaments in every compartment, is a good plan for a

border. So is a vine of any kind. When the hemi-circles are
squared and joined, it becomes the basis for the Greek Meander
or Wall of Troy. Angles and other forms are also used. Any
diaper may be repeated so as
to form a border. Borders
around panels and other
margins, and all along the
edges of boards for shelves,
brackets and most of the
works mentioned in this list,
may be executed in highly
decorative effect, and with
an ease and precision diffi-
cult to attain by carving,
with the hammer an J stamps
mentioned in the first lesson.
Lines are first drawn on the
work as guides to place the
punches to insure regularity.
Pilaster. Though this term
is generally applied to what
may be called a flat-sided
pillar against a wall, or a flat
half pillar, in wood-carving
it means quite as often a per-
pendicular border in relief Fig, 78. Lectern.
Like borders, pilasters are
used in many ways in decoration, as on walls, bureaux, cabinets,
sideboards, tables, or wherever a long " strip " is to be filled.
Base Moulding. This is generally a border which is the lower
portion of a piece of furniture, etc. Thus, if there is a panel
and frame, and under this, just over the " feet," a carved strip, it
148 A Mamial of Wood-Carving,

is a base moulding. Narrow fillets on these may be also

decorated by stamping.
Sideboard or Buffet. Apiece of furniture eminently adapted
to ornament. It may be made with a back or with shelves,

niches, or a cabinet placed on it instead of a back.

Alms Boxes, Money Boxes. These are made up for churches,
generally after Gothic designs, and afford a wide range of
design.
Lectern. A church reading desk. This has always been a
favourite subject with wood-carvers, Fig. 'j'i.

Ends of Pews. A favourite subject for carvers in the days

of old, vide Fig. 80.
Porte-papier. A
very useful article to carry paper, or a sketch-
book, or to press leaves and flowers and convey them home.
Take two pieces of board, from one-third to one-half an inch in
thickness, and six inches by eight in size, more or less as may
be desired. The paper is placed between these boards and
the whole secured with a hand-strap. It is usual to carve a

flower pattern on these.

Ring or Take a board, of any thickness, e.g.
Circular Boxes.
one of two and make of it a disc or circle, using the steel
inches,
fret saw, Fig, 16; then marking out another circle within this,
saw out a ring about three-quarters of an inch in thickness.
Adapt to this a bottom and lid, both, of course, also circular. It
will be like what is known as a cheese box. To double the
depth saw out two rings and glue them together. This will
give four inches depth. Boxes may thus be made of any shape,
such as a fish, and then carved.
Photograph or Mij'ror Frames, or UToimts. Take a piece of
thin board, six inches by four or five, or any size required. Cut
out of one corner of this as much as will be required for the
photograph or mirror, leaving enough wood for a pattern.
These have become very popular of late, Fig. 79.
Fig. 79. Frame for a Photograph, Looking Glass, etc.
 150 A Manual of Wood- Carving.

Triptych. Two folding covers or boards on hinges, intended

to cover a picture or carved or enamelled or inlaid work. These
triptychs may be used reversed as writing desks, or else carved
on both sides, and then when open hung on the wall as orna-
ments. When there are only two boards, as in an album, it is
called a diptych.
Encoignures. Tables made with an angle to fit into a corner
of a room.
Shields. Carved in wood, these form beautiful ornaments.
Incitega. A kind of stand or table for flowers. It was generally

made of rods or strips, but it may be very easily formed like a

box, that is, a truncated pyramid reversed. The sides are carved.
Monopodium or Centre-table. A small circular table supported
on a central stem or foot, used by the ancients at social
entertainments.
Orb. A globe covered with ornaments carved in low relief.

They form very effective decorations.

Finial. A terminating ornament, corresponding to a flower
as a crochet does to a side leaf. Fig. 80, etc.
Coin-brackets. made to fit into the corner of a room.
Brackets
Corner-cabinets. Cabinets adapted to a corner of a room.
There are also coin or corner objects of furniture of all kinds.
Mouldings. These are narrow borders or strips, and are very
effective in giving relief in long spaces. A good effect for a full
may often be made
border, a diaper ground or a broad pattern,
by doubling, trebling, etc., mouldings. By using the folding
mirror a segment of any moulding or border may be converted
into an ornament to fill up any given space, of any shape. There
are several tools specially made for cutting figures in mouldings.
Poppy-heads. There are many cases where carving may be
applied with good effect to relieve bareness. " Such ornaments,
generally small groups of foliage " (though often figures with
leaves), "were formerly placed on the summits pf bench-ends
 Objects f
07" Carving. 151

desks, and other clerical wood-work " (F. W. Fairholt, Poppy-

heads can be placed, however, or adapted, to all kinds of furniture,
with a variation in form. Fig. 80.
Sconce. A wall candlestick, which usually takes the form of a
projecting bracketed support in wood or metal. They originated
in the fifteenth century, and were generally of enriched design.
They may be sawed out of boards, or carved in many forms.
These are thin boards of open
Trellis-screens. lattice-work,
generally made by fret-sawing and subsequent
carving. They are useful to place behind
windows, and for many purposes.
Tynipajium. A triangular space, which may
be with carved ornament.
filled in
Verge or Barge-board. The gable ornament
of wood-work, used extensively for houses in
the fifteenth century. It affords a wide field
for decoration.
Carved circles or rings of wood,
WreatJis.
which form beautiful ornaments, especially
when hung up at intervals. They may be used ("
for picture-frames, Fig. 81.
Acerra. A
square box, on legs or supports.
,Fig. 80.
Heads and Legs. When a cylinder, or square
Poppy- HEAD.
stick, or horn, or oval box, is made to rudely
resemble a figure by adding to it a head and legs, this is so
called.
^dicida. A small house or tower, generally used as a box.
Very effective and beautiful
articles are thus made.
Ante-fix. Ornament carved in stone or w^ood, or made from
terra-cotta, "to give an ornamental finish or to conceal unsightly
junctions in masonry " (Fairholt). There are few country houses
or cottages where they cannot be applied.
CiborinjH, Synedoche. Very richly adorned receptacles in which
I=i2 A Manual of Wood-Ca7'vmg.

the Host is kept. They may be imitated for cabinets. In

Spanish churches they are called ciistodia.

Fig. 8i. Ring-box, Wreath, ok Bread Platter.

Cynia. A moulding consisting of a round and hollow con-

joined, termed cyma recta when hollow above, and cyma reversa
when the cavity is below.
 Objects for Carving. 153

Modillons. Brackets in Gothic architecture, the lower portion

often in the form of a grotesque animal or human being.

Fig. 82. Hand Mirror.

Hand Mirrors. These afford an endless field for design.
Fig. 82.
154 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

Echinus. The egg and tongue or Qgg and anchor moulding,

much hke the heart and dart ornament. It is easily made and
is very etfective. Faces may be cut on the " eggs."
Outlines. Figures of men, animals, etc., cut or sawed out of
boards, and either painted or carved. They are common in
Italian churches. They form very effective hanging ornaments.
Birds can be adapted to beautiful outlines.
Hammer Beam. The projecting end of a beam, often carved.
Hood Moulding. The moulding which covers or surmounts a
doQr or window on the outside, forming a sort of hood or
weather-guard. It is also called a dripstone or weather mould-
ing. It can be beautifully ornamented, and thus becomes a
striking decoration.
Impost. The horizontal moulding on the summit of a pillar
from which the arch springs.
Console. (French.) Brackets in furniture.
Perfume Boxes with perforated lids in which is kept
Chests.
pot-pourri of rose leaves, or a mixture of powdered orris-root and
spice.
Churns. A carved churn is a fanciful ornament, used to contain
papers, etc. The handle is fixed to the cover and serves to
lift it.

Handles for Boivls, Cups, or Boxes. These are sawn from board
from one half to an inch in thickness, and then fastened to the
bowl or box, generally with screws. When gracefully or quaintly
shaped they convert any ordinary bowl or tankard, with very
little trouble, to an attractive ornament. They are almost peculiar

to Sweden and Norway, where they may be seen in museums in

very great variety.
Bark Frames. A
curious and striking ornament may be
made in this manner. Take a piece of cork, oak, or other bark,
which may be a foot in length by six inches. Make in it an
oval or circle, in which carve any subject. The writer once had
 Objects for Carving. 155

an image of the Virgin thus carved, which was much admired.

Dark brown bark is much improved by having gilding roughly
spread on its projecting points. If the ground of the carving be
gilt and the bark left in its natural condition the effect will also
be good.
Three-legged, or Milking Stools. These are commonly carved
on the seat. Ornaments may be carved and better applied
as in Fig. 83.

Fig. 83. Three-legged Stool.

 1

INDEX.
Acerra, 151 Blocking-out, 50, 56
yEdicula, 151 Bold, large work, 48, 49
Album-covers, 129, 131 Bone, ivory, etc., carving, 14
Alms boxes, 148 Book-box, 136
Alpenstocks, carved, 136 Book-covers, carved, 88, 91, 129.
Ammonia as a wood stain, 112 Books and authorities, quoted and
Animal forms, carving, 59 referred to : Caddy, Mr., 3 Fair- ;

Antefix, 151 holt's Dictionary, 151 ; Gibson's

Applique work, 75, 84 ; it may be "Wood Car\-er," 8; Holtzapffel, J.
carried too far, 76 J., 83
2, Leland's " Drawing and
;

Art, " high," and carving, 64, 76. See Designing," 72, 122 Mitchell's ;

" Lessons in Carpentry," 126; Rowe,

also Conventional, the. Rule, etc.
Artist, the, and the workman in wood- Eleanor, 42, 112 Seaton, General,
;

carving, 82 II, 88, 96, 114. See also undei

names, as Gibbons, Grinling.
Balusters, carving, 142 Borders, carved, 78, 146
Barge-board, 151 Bosses, or centres, 75, loi, 141
Bark frames, 154 Bosting, 38, 50, 56
Bars, and other ornaments, loi Bowl, to carve a, 95, 142, 154
Base moulding, 147 Boxes, carving, 125, 136, 144, 148 ;

Basket-work, imitation of, 128 hanging, 132, 133 pen and pencil,;

Beam, hammer, 1 54 134. See also Cabinets, Caskets,

Beams, carving, 141 Perfume, etc.

Bedsteads, carved, 143 Brackets, 125, 144, 145 ;

coin(or corner).
Bellows, carving, 137, 136 150
Bench, the working, 3 screws, ;
5 Bread platters, 137, 140, 152
Benches, carving, 132 Buffets, 148
Bend, getting the, 55 Building-up, or applique work, 75
Bent tools, 5, 95 Butternut as a dye, 1 1

Bichromate of Potash as a dye, 113

Black dyes, 114 Cabinet-making, 124
 1

158 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

Cabinets, 133, 152 ; Figurini for, 59, Collection boxes, 144
62 ; corner, 150 Colouring and staining wood, no
Caddy, Mr., his suggestions, 3 Common-place, the, v. the grotesque,
Canoes, carving, 129 140
Carpentry, C. F. Mitchell's Lessons in, Console, or bracket, 125, 154
126 Conventional, the, preferable to the
Carving, early, 33, 54, 68, 70, loi, 130, real, 54, 57

134, 141 ; objects for, 121. See also Corner-cabinets, 150; firmers, 4
Cabinets, Horns, Italian work, etc. Cramps, or Clamps. See Holdfasts.
Carvings, decayed, restoration of, 106 Crossing the pattern, 103
Carvings, imitation of, 108 Cups, handles for, 154
Case for papers or music, 117 Curve carving, 26
Caskets, 136 ; for cigars, 127. See also Cun-ed surfaces, carving, 93
Boxes, etc. Ctislodia, Spanish, 152
Casks, carving, 97, 128 Cyma, 152
Casts. See Moulds, etc.
Cavo-cutting, 28
Decoration, early, 130 ; of rooms, 130
Cavo Relievo cutting, 28, 32
See also Rooms, etc.
Cellini, Benvenuto, 1
Deep carving. See Intaglio.
Celtic patterns, 26
" Design, Manual of" See Leland.
Cement, for glass and china, 109 ; for
Diaper cutting, 18, 69, 70, 76 patterns,
wood, 97, 106, 146. See also Fillers, ;

70, 129, 147

Glue, etc.
Diptych, 150
Centres, or bosses, 75, 89
Dogs, or snibs, 8
Chairs for carving, 124
Door-knobs, 104 pieces, 139
Chimney-pieces, decoration of, 140.
;

Doors, panels of, 129

See also Lunettes, etc.
Drawers, handles for, 145
Chipping, or wasting, 42
Drawing, 61, 72
Chisels, 3, 10
Drill,use of the, 47
Churns, ornamental, 154
Dripstone, 154
Ciborium, Synedoche, 151
Clamps, or Cramps. See Holdfasts.
Dyes for wood, no
Clock-cases, 142
Coal boxes, etc., 140 Ebony and other black dyes, 1
14
Cocoa-nut goblet, 100 Echinus, 154
Cocoa-nut shell cement, 97 ;
powder, Egyptian intaglio, 90
etc., 108 Egyptian Mummies (boxes), 136
Cocoa-nuts, carving, 95 Encoignures, 150
Coin (or corner) brackets, 150 Engravings, imitation of, 91
Coins as ornaments, 146 Eye-tools, 5
 Index. 159

Facade pieces, 139 Glue, making and use of, 105, 108
Figures, carving simple, 59 acidulated and liquid, 106, 108, 109
Figurini, 62, 83 Gothic wood-carving, 40
Files for finishing, 64 Gouge lines, 20 ; work, 22
Fillers, or cements for wood, 106, 119 Gouges, 3, 4, 10
Finger painting, Venetian, 113 Grain, cutting with the, 44
Finial, 150 Greek, ancient, work, 47
Finishing off, 50, 64 Grindstones, etc., 12
Firmer, the, 3 Grooving, 2, 22
Flasks, cai-\'ing, 134 Grotesque, the, v. the commonplace,
Flat-cutting, 26, 35, 48 140
Flat patterns, 28, 30, 31 Ground punches, 16, 17
Flemish carvers, the old, 2)2) Grounds, cutting, 34
Florence, ornament from, 58
Fluter, the, 22, 34
Foot-stools, 132
Hammer beam, 154
Handles of tools, 1 1 ; for drawers,
Frames, bark, 154 ; or borders, 78 ;

145 ; vSwedish, 154

picture, etc., 128, 148, 149, 151
Hand screws, 5, 7
Free-hand carving, 49
Hanging boxes, 63, 132
Fret bow saw, the, 9. See also under
Heads and legs, in ornament, 151
Saw.
Holdfasts, or clamps, 5, 44, 94
Fret-cutting, 84
Hollow gouge, the, 5
Furniture, carving for, 74; old and
Holtzapffel, Mr. John J., on the Use of
German, 124, 125. See also under
the Saw wood-carving, 83
in
Cabinets, Chairs, Foot-stools, etc.
Hood moulding, 154
Hooker, Sir Joseph, 107
Gable ornaments, 151
Horn, how to colour, 94 ; how to
Garden- work, 143
soften, 95
Gardens, window, 129
Horns, carving, 93, 128
Gates, carving, 143
House, outside ornament of the, 139
Gelatine as a preservative, 107
Hulme, works of, loi
Gelatine glue, 109
German furniture, 124
Gibbons, Grinling, his work, 75 Imitation ot old work, etc., 64
Gibson, Air. J. S., his " Wood-Carver" Implements. See Tools, etc.
quoted, 8 Impost, 154
Gildmg, 141, 155. See also under Incised work, 86
Finishing. Incitega, 150
Glass, and glass-paper, for finishing, Indenting, or stamping, 2, 15
64, 66 Ink as a dye, 1
14
 1 1

i6o A Marmal of Wood-Carvmg.

Intaglio, or sunk carving, 86 ; Rilevato Mummies (boxes), 136

cutting, 28 Mural decoration, 140
Irish fRunic) patterns, 26 ; tankard,
old, 99 Nails, headed, as ornaments, 146
Italian, early, work, 62, 86, 143 Nineveh antiquities, the, 107
Ivory and horn, dyes, etc., for, 95 Norway, ornament in, 154; spot cutting
Ivorying, 113 there, 1 18
Notches in leaves, cutting, 5

Key boxes, 133

Knobs and bosses, loi
Oak, treatment of, in, 112; leaves,

Knuckle-bends, 10 43- 54

Kraft, Adam, his work, 55

Objects for wood-carvers, 121
Oiling in finishing, 66, no
Oilstones, etc., 12
Layard, Sir A. H., his antiquities from Orbs, carving, 150
Nineveh, 107
Ornament, pre-historic, n8
Leather work and carving, 90, 91
Ornamentation, art of, 121. See also
Leaves, cutting, 39, 51, 53, 64
Decoration.
Lecterns, 147, 148
Ornaments, applied, 146
Left hand, carving with the, 39, 46
Oudines, 154
Leiand, Mr. C. G., his " Drawing and
Outlining, 34
Desig-ning," 72, 122 ; design in high
relief by, 81
Pacific islands, spot cutting there, n8
Lunettes and spaces, filling, 139 Paint, etc., in finishing, 68, 91, w^.
Painting, finger, of the old Venetians
Macaroni tool, the, 10, 42 113
Mander's stains for wood, 1 1 Panels for carving, 123, 129, 132
Metal work, repousse, 15, 17 Paper squeezes, 115
Mirrors, hand, 153 Papier-mache work, etc., and carving,
Mitchell, C. F., his " Lessons in Car- 90,92, n6
pentry," 126 Parting tool, the, 10, 13. See also V
Modelling, 39, 49, 55, 61, 79 ; or round- tool.
ing, 39 Patterns for carvers, 74, 122
Modillons, 153 Pattern-wheel, or tracer, the, 15
Monopodium, or centre-table, 150 Pegs and hooks, 141
Mottoes, 140 Pen and pencil boxes, 134
Moulding, hood, 154 Perfume chests, 154
Mouldings and borders, 147, 150 Pew-ends, 148
Moulds, carving for, 90, 92 making, ; Pick, the, 3
•15 Pilasters, 147
 1

htdiex. i6i

Pilgrim bottles, 134, 135 Salamander, a, 138

Plaster casts, 116 Salt boxes, 144
Platters, carved, 137, 140 Saw table, the, 6, 85
Polished ornaments, 102 Saws, and their use, 9, 83
Polishing wood-carvings, 66, in. See Sconces, 151
also Finishing. Scotland, early ornamentation in, 118
Poppy-heads, i i;o, 1 1; i Scratch, the, 8
Porte papier, 148 Screens, trellis, 151
Portfolio-covers, 29 1 Screws, carvers', 5, 7
Powder-flasks, 134 Scroll gouge, the, 5
Practice, 40, 48 Seaton, General, quoted, 11, 88, 96,
114
Racks, carved, 141 Settee, or settle, the, 132
Rasps 66
for finishing, Shaded patterns and modelling, 39
Real, the, not to be sought too strictly, Sharpening tools, 11, 12
Shelf-boards, 144
54
Relics, ancient, preservation of, 107 Shelves and brackets, 144
Relief, high, design by C. G. Leland, Shields, in ornament, 150
81 higher, 53; low, 89; progress
;
Shiners, or bosses, 102
towards, 39 Shrines or Reliquaries (boxes), 136
Reliquaries (boxes), 136 Sideboards, 148
Repairing wood-carvings, 105 Side-cut, the. See Sweep-cut.
Repousse ^\ox\ 15, 17 Skew-chisels, 4
Ribbon carving, 57. See also Slip-holder, 12
34, 48,
Flat carving. Slips, for sharpening tools, 12

Ring boxes, 148, 1152 Snibs, or dogs, 8

Roman Sarcophagus (box), 136 Soda as a dye for wood, 1 1

Roman work, early, 47 Sofa-backs, false, 139

Rooms, decoration of, 130, 139. See Sohnee Fr^res, their varnish, 113
also Vestibule, etc. Spaces, filling, 139, 150, 151

, Round, carving in the, or statuary, 79 Spade chisel, the, 10

Rounding. See Modelling. Spade gouge, the, 10

Router, the, 9 Splintering of wood, 36, 44, 51, 105

Rnwe, Eleanor, quoted, 42, 112 See also Wood.
Rule, "high art," and wood-carving, Spoons, carved, 137
65, 76 Spot-cutting, 1 18
Runic ornaments, 26, 137 Spray, use of the, in preserving de-
cayed objects, 107
Sabots, or wooden shoes, for carving, Squeezes, and " taking a squeeze," 107,
133 III
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l62 A Manual of Wood-Carving.

Staining wood, no Umbrella-handles, 134

Staircase balusters, carving, 142 Under-cutting, 57
Stamping, or indenting, 2, 15. See also
Diaper. V or parting tool, the, 11, 13, 28, 35,
Statuary. See Round, carving in the
See also Parting tool.
yj.
Staves, or alpenstocks, carved, 136 Varnish and carving, 91, 113. See also
Stephens' stains for wood, 1 1
Polishing, etc.
Stools, 155. See also Yoo\.-'i,\V)o\.
Veiners, 5
Strap, the, 13 Venetian finger painting, 113
Sunk carving. See Intaglio. Venice, wood-carving at, 66
Sweden, ornament in, 154 ; spot Verge or barge-board, 1 5
cutting there, 118 Vestibule, ornamenting a, 142
Sweep-cut, the, t,t, 49, 53, 55 Violin and guitar cases, 145
Swiss dye for wood, 1 12
Swiss work, 59, 96
Wainscots, etc., carving for, 74
Tables, 150 Walnut wood, treatment of, no
Tankards, carving, 98, 134 Waste-paper boxes, carving, 98, 146
Tannhauser bracket, 145 Wasting, or chipping, 42
Tea as a dye, 1 1
Wax, for moulds, 107, n5, n6; as a
Tiles, 129 polish for wood, n i

Tool, the, art of turning it about, 35, Window gardens, 129

Wood, for carving, 14, 36, 88, 106 {^see

Tools, 1,3, 82, 150: sharpening, i r, 12 also Grain, Oak, Splintering, Wal-
Tracer, the, 15, 16 nut, etc.) ; colouring and staining,
Trays, carving, 143 ; for cigar ashes, no; decayed, treatment of, 106;
127 imitation of, 106, 108 ; oiling, 66
Trellis-screens, 151 Workman, the, and the artist jn wood-
Triptych, 150 carving, 82
Tympanum, 151 Wreaths, in ornament, 151, 152

Umber stain for wood, 112 7\igzag ornament, ihe Swiss, 96

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