Posted by Dave Bull at 2:46 PM, December 7, 2009
Here's an overall image of the block I've been working on today; it will be used for a karazuri - empty printing.
I snapped a few more pictures after knocking off this evening, just a few minutes ago. The light hanging over the bench is giving a bad colour cast to some of these shots, but anyway, you can still see what's going on (these are clickable for enlargements).
I can't see this much detail while I'm cutting! Once I'm done, I'll pull a quick proof, and will then go back over the whole thing, touching up here and there where lines are too fat, or badly shaped, or nicked. I can see plenty of places that will need it ...
This is a pretty hard block, and it has a very steep 'sakame' (opposing grain); the clearing chisel will only work in one direction. In those places where I can't get 'in there' and have to work against the grain, you can see where the bottom of the cleared area gets very torn. This is a difficult piece of wood, for sure ...
Dave...
This is beautiful just as it is. Those sweeping lines have such a wonderful flow. I'm intrigued to see how this will all fit together at the end.
Diane
Dave, how do you get the areas between lines so flat and even? Mine never look like that.
Hi Dave, nice curvy lines.
A similar carving question. Are you achieving the depth of cut with just one path of the toh? You have such a nice, clean slanted cut even on these narrow lines and in hard woods if I cut anything near as deep I need two or three passes or I'm forcing the blade too much and risking skipping/slipping.
'Flat and even'? I'm thinking that this one is extremely rough!
I'm cutting with a 4.5mm knife, in a single pass, then clearing the waste with standard flat aisuki chisels: 3mm for those wide areas, then 1mm and .xmm for inbetween the lines.
As for 'anything near as deep' perhaps this is a distortion caused by the high enlargement. These cuts are not so deep ... Later today, I'll try and take some shots with a scale included, if I can.
I'm cutting my small winter print at the moment and I'd decided to post a couple of images on my blog with a scale included too. I think it will really help understand the depth and scale of the blocks you're cutting, Dave. Thanks.
And thank you for showing, and explaining the rough patches due to the wood grain. I've found my current block doing the same thing ('softy' Magnolia) in places where the clearing only works in one direction.
