Capital City Carvers

Carving Opportunities

Sept 26-27 Sevierville, TN. Smoky Mountain Woodcarvers Show and Competition at Sevierville County Senior Citizens Center, 1220 W. Main St.

Oct 18-23 Lebanon, TN. Renegade Woodcarvers Round-up, Steve Brown at sbrownwoodcarving.com

Oct 24-25 Asheville NC. Western North Carolina Carvers' annual show at Folk Art Center, Blue Ridge Parkway, Milepost 382

Nov 13-15 Thomasville, GA. Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival. Not a carving opportunity but a great place to view fantastic art works, carving included.

As with everything nowadays, it is suggested that you check to see if the programs are still on the calendar. Those of you receiving Chip Chats or Woodcarving Illustrated will have access to other shows and carving opportunities. The latest issues have some workshops listed that are already cancelled, some are not. Please check before making plans.

Speaking of wood carving magazines, I subscribe to the British magazine Wood Carving. They have been running a column describing different types of knives and methods of holding the knives and performing the carving actions of each. The writers are the principle owners of a company called Hewn & Hone. I decided to visit the website to see what was offered. I happened on an article about sharpening knives used in carving spoons. The in-depth study of the technique amazed me. Boiled down, they use sandpaper and 3M film down to about 3-5 microns. The curvature is specific to the knife blade and is supported by dowels. And if you think I am a few bubbles off plumb when I use my magnifying loupe, then you should know these blokes use a microscope to examine the edge of the knives. I would venture to say the knives are very sharp. Barbara and Robert have said that they carve their figures so they would not have to sand for a final finish. My take on this is that it is more than important to keep the edges of our knives and gouges very keen and honed. We should take the time to strop and pay attention to the way the blade travels through the wood. If there is an excessive amount of "wood boogers", don't try to pick them off with the tip of your knife. You will loose the tip and it will take even more time to repair the knife. Decide what you want to spend your time on, carving or repairing a knife.

KOLROSING

Thanks to Wood Carving and Hewn & Hone for this short tutorial

Kolrosing - pronounced "coal-rose-ing" - is a traditional Scandinavian method for applying a very fine decoration to the surfaces of wooden housewares. It dates back as far as Viking times and was commonly used to adorn items of functional kitchenware such as carved spoons and carved or turned bowls, boxes, and cups. It can be performed with the same tools as used to create the objects although specific tools were developed to make the task more effective and make it easier to achieve really fine, detailed imagery. Kolrosing as a technique does not involve removing any wood, instead it is about scoring or incising a pattern into the surface of the wood and then filling this with a pigment to reveal the design. It is important that the surface of the wood is as smooth and blemish-free as possible, either from a polished finish straight off the knife or a burnished finish created by rubbing a hard object over the project to compress all the surface wood fibers. Good materials for creating this burnished finish could be as simple as the back spine of your carving knife, the back of a metal spoon, a hard piece of antler tine or a polished pebble.

[continued]