Friday, December 5, 2014

Carving a name sign with a utility knife, part 2

A couple of hours of work was all that required to complete the letters. There are a few tool marks left behind, but after all it is also a hand made sign, so it shouldn't necessarily look like it was moulded in plastic.

The profiles of horses at the ends of the board are my first attempt on carving something that elaborate. One of the challenges compared to letters is the fact that there aren't that many straight lines on a horse.

My first idea was to carve the horse in the same way as the letters, so the shape would be a depression. After looking at the horse I ruled that idea out. The ears and legs are pretty thin, so I think it would have looked strange to carve it that way.

Instead I decided to carve around the horse, so the horse itself will stand proud of the surrounding area.

For this part of the carving I had to stray away from the notion of using inly a utility knife.
This spring at the annual flea market held by the local shop in the village, I was given a small set of carving chisels that looks like they were intended to be used for carving linoleum .
They were far from sharp, and looked pretty cheaply made.
I guess they are from the 70'ies or the 80'ies, based on that they are made in Japan. Newer chisels of that sort would most likely be made in China or India.

I sharpened a pointed scalpel shaped chisel and a small gouge.

I traced the outline of the horse with the scalpel shaped chisel, and removed the material around the horse using the small gouge. This was actually easier that I had imagined, and I think the end result looks OK.

If I was going to paint the sign, I would paint the background red, the depressions should be white. That would give white letters and two red horses on a white background. I think that would look good. But it will be up to my friend if she wants to paint it or not.


The completed name sign.

My Linoleum carving chisels used for carving the horse profiles.

10 comments:

  1. Very nice. I actually was going to ask if you'd carve it this way or in the negative. Good choice!

    What in the heck would anyone want to carve linoleum for?

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    1. Thanks.
      In the late 60'ies up to the 80'ies it was a pretty popular art form at least in Scandinavia, where you would carve in a piece of Linoleum, and then use it as sort of a giant stamp in a printing press.
      We did it while I was at school in something like 3rd or 4th grade.
      I just checked, you can still buy stuff for that hobby.

      https://www.google.no/search?q=linoleumstryk&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=yTqCVOWEDs-KNoPfgcAO&ved=0CB0QsAQ&biw=1920&bih=1075

      Here is a google search for the images. They normally look a bit gloomy because of the black ink and fat lines.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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  2. Real nice,I think you did a great job!

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  3. Once again, top notch work! If I am ever half as good as you I'll call myself a woodworker.

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    1. Hi Bill, Thanks.
      The horses actually came out better than I had anticipated.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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  4. Very well done! No fancy tools needed. That's my kinda project.

    Greg

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    Replies
    1. Hi Greg.
      Thanks for the kind comment.
      I feel a bit like a fraud since I had to use the little gouge for removing the material around the horses. But if you make a less elaborate logo in the ends, like e.g. a star, you can easily do it with a utility knife.
      I have made those name signs before using wood from a pallet. They look equally good in cheap pine or spruce plus they are really easy to work if you choose the soft fast grown versions.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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  5. I have tried "linocut" in the years 60s.
    My brother was much better at it.
    We also tried screen printing. We made our own toy bank notes.
    It has always been more fun with toys we made ourself how crude they were.
    Sylvain.

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    1. I have to ask my children if they still try it at school. I actually liked the smell of cutting the Linoleum. And there was always the competition of who could take the longest cut etc.

      I remember my younger brother got a toy set called "your own post office".
      There was one or two ink pads, some envelopes and papers and a couple of stamps.
      I normally didn't take long before our hands were covered in ink, but that was pretty fun too.

      But most of the time we would fabricate toy guns and play soldier games in the nearby gravel pit. Actually the home made guns were far superior to the store bought ones. They didn't break and you could make those that you had seen in movies.
      We normally fancied the British Sten gun and the Bren machine gun.
      Our children rarely plays with guns, and that is actually OK. But it was fun in those days.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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