Hello, friends!
In this post, we'll look at the properties of some tree species.Why "some"? There are a lot of tree species. Therefore, we will give a description of those that are of greatest interest to a woodcarver.
Wood is usually divided into three groups according to the degree of suitability for carving: very hard, hard and soft.
There are also sound wood (apple, pine, oak, ash, etc.) and non-core wood (alder, spruce, linden, maple, aspen, birch, etc.). Heartwood is wood that is darker on the inside of the trunk than the rest. The layer of lighter wood around the heartwood is called sapwood. Well, the drier the wood, the harder it is. I have several aspen blanks ( soft rock), which have lain for 12-14 years. So, in terms of hardness, they are not inferior to birch.
In my message, I will arrange the tree species according to their suitability for carving and turning. The evaluation criteria are the availability of wood, how it is cut and processed. If you read this article to the end, you will know which wood is better to use for a particular other work. This will help facilitate your work and avoid unnecessary mistakes.
Linden. This best material for carving, "champion" among wood species.Wood white color, pinkish-brown transitions are found closer to the core. Annual rings are almost invisible. The wood is soft and viscous. It is cut very easily, the cut is even, shiny. It is perfectly polished. Suitable for turning (famous nesting dolls!). During storage, it almost does not dry out and does not warp. It is a pleasure to work with linden. It is suitable for all types of carving.
Aspen. Legends attribute completely mystical properties to this tree. They say that a ghoul can be killed with an aspen stake. Judas allegedly hanged himself on an aspen and that is why the leaves on the tree constantly tremble with fear. And the boletus caps are red from Judas' blood. for carving.
The wood is soft and light. The color is white, sometimes with a greenish or bluish tint. The texture is weakly expressed, but the polished product looks very beautiful, like mother-of-pearl. It is easy to cut. There are features. Nearby layers of wood can go in the opposite direction. chips, you need to change the direction of the cut in these places. It is easy to grind, but there are also nuances. Since the wood is not very uniform in density, coarse-grained sandpaper(sandpaper) "mahritsya". It takes a very long time to grind, using medium and fine emery skins. Therefore, it is better to bring the product with cutters under "0" in order to immediately grind it with medium or even fine sandpaper. When working on small and thin details, it gives chips. Therefore, you need to be very careful. Suitable for all types of carving. golden brocade.
Alder.When freshly sawn, the wood is white, in air it quickly becomes red-brown. When dry, the color changes to light cream. The texture is weakly expressed, with brownish specks, dashes, stripes. The wood is soft, uniform. It cuts well and easily. The cuts are smooth and clean .Excellent sanding.Incorrect storage gives deep cracks.Suitable for all types of threads.
Birch.For a Russian person, this is a special tree. Probably no one wrote about birch so beautifully as S. Yesenin:
green hair,
Maiden chest.
O thin birch,
What did you look into the pond?
Birch wood is white, with a yellowish tinge. and turning works. Very beautiful in texture are birch - the influx of wood on the trunk of a tree. A well-defined "marble" wood pattern with a mother-of-pearl sheen and radiance is characteristic of a birch suvel. peacock eyes". Suveli and caps are widely used by wood carvers to make vases, bowls, caskets, etc.
Poplar.The wood is soft, light and uniform.The color is white, the annual rings are clearly visible.It is easy to cut and process.The wood is not dense.Therefore, when the cutter is directed perpendicular to the annual rings with a mallet, it can be crushed.This must be taken into account.Suitable for all types of carving.
Pine.Coniferous heartwood. The core is brown-red. Annual rings are clearly visible. Particularly beautiful texture on the tangential cut. The wood is light, soft, easily pricked. It is difficult to cut on the tangential cut. types of thread, including for turning.
Spruce.The wood is white, slightly yellowish or with a pinkish tinge. Annual rings are clearly visible. Spruce has a light, soft wood, it is easily pricked. It cracks when dry. brownie, geometric carving. Due to the knotty and heterogeneity, it is rarely used in relief carving.
Rowan.Rock with a beautiful red-brown core. Sapwood is white, sometimes contains brown and black layers. The wood is hard, heavy and durable, well processed with cutters. decorative works small size.Easy to sand.Dries out a lot during storage.Susceptible to cracking.
bird cherry.The wood is strong, viscous and heavy. It is well cut, sanded and painted. It warps a little when dried. But the wood of the bird cherry tree is hard to grind. It can crack when dried. In an adult tree, the wood is red-brown with black veins. Suitable for most types of carving, turning works, making jewelry (jewelry), small handicrafts.
Sweet cherry.Sound wood.Wood is yellow-brown, to brown, with a very beautiful texture.Dries quickly.Wood is hard, cuts well, but with inaccurate work it gives scuffs and chips.It smells good.Excellent polishing.Suitable for relief, three-dimensional carving, turning work , crafts and souvenirs.
Pear.Wood from pinkish-brown to red-brown.Heavy, hard, but cuts perfectly in all directions.It can be used for making small crafts with fine detailing of the pattern, for relief, three-dimensional carving, turning.Dried wood does not warp or crack .Perfectly polished.The polished surface looks very nice.
Apple tree"Apple trees in bloom - such a miracle!". Indeed, a wonderful breed for carving. Heartwood. The heartwood is red-brown, the sapwood is white-pink. The wood is dense, hard, and cracks when dried. Even a workpiece that has lain for several years gives cracks during processing. turning products from an apple tree. Very fine carvings can be made on an apple tree. Small handicrafts, figurines, souvenirs, caskets look great.
Mulberry or mulberry tree.Wood color yellowish to yellow-brown. Hard wood, but well cut, sanded and polished. Allows you to work out very fine details.
walnut.Heartwood. Heartwood grey-brown. Sapwood grayish with various shades up to black. Root and butt with a very beautiful texture.Easy to cut and process.Very beautiful turning products.On them you can get color transitions from white to black.Suitable for relief, three-dimensional carving, crafts and souvenirs.
Maple.The wood is homogeneous, white with well-defined tree-ring boundaries. The wood is strong, heavy and hard. It is difficult to cut, but the cut is very clear and smooth. It is well ground and polished. Polished products look very beautiful. Suitable for all types of carving and turning.
Red tree.Although it does not grow in Russia, you can get it. Wood in color from yellowish-pink to red-brown, almost cherry in color. and is painted well. Suitable for making various panels, figurines.
Ash.Heart rock, light brown, with a brown tint. Sapwood from yellowish to pink. The wood is large-vascular, hard, beautiful texture. finishing it is necessary to primer (fill the pores) to level the surface. Read about filling the pores
Acacia.Heartwood. Heartwood dark brown to crimson, sapwood from white to yellow-green. Very strong, hard wood. beautiful texture.The cut is shiny, smooth. It is cut with difficulty, it is polished well. beautiful jewelry, crafts and souvenirs. Good for turning work.
Oak.Heartwood. The heartwood is yellow-brown to dark red. The sapwood is light yellow. Everyone knows that oak wood is very strong and hard (" strong as an oak!"). Oak has a beautiful texture, especially on a cross section. Suitable for all types of carving, especially for volumetric. It is hard to cut, it is polished well. Since oak wood is large-vascular, it must be primed before finishing - fill the pores. The best finish for oak wood it is considered wax. It is subject to cracking. Beautiful turning products are obtained from oak when transverse turning.
boxwood.Light yellow wood species with a characteristic pleasant smell.Very hard, difficult to cut.Allows you to cut through fine details.Excellent for making small crafts, souvenirs, figurines.
So, we examined the characteristics of the most common tree species. Most of them grow in middle lane Russia.
I hope this information will be useful for you.
All the best and goodbye!
Evgeny Devikov
Artistic woodcarving
novice carvers-amateurs).
Sverdlovsk
Regional house of culture of trade unions
Sverdlovsk Regional Trade Union Council
Editor I.I. Zolotova
Explanatory drawings made by V.M. Zolotov
Responsible for the release of A.L. unnamed
Artistic woodcarving. Methodological recommendations to help beginner amateur carvers. Sverdlovsk, DC of the Regional Council of Trade Unions. 1991 (updated, modified in 2015).
Practice shows that amateurs artistic carving woodworkers come to their hobby on their own. The path to mastery can be long and difficult if the beginner did not have the initial methodological assistance and the necessary advice.
Assistance in mastering the craft you are interested in and in mastering its secrets, according to the author of the manual, is not so much in memorizing recipes as in creative testing of recommendations in practice, followed by a discussion of the result among colleagues and always taking into account the data gleaned from new literature.
Cutter's workplace and tools
Not all carvers have the opportunity to get a room for classes. Therefore, it is necessary to properly organize workplace at home, in the collective garden or in the country.
The hardest thing to do is in our communal apartments. It is not easy to single out such a corner in a family occupying a separate apartment in high-rise building. The fact is that for work the cutter needs carpenter's workbench or a solid wide table, a heavy chubak for cutting wooden pieces on it, a place to store raw materials, timber, logs and boards. We need cabinets and shelving for finished products. This is the minimum, and it is not easy to allocate enough space all at once.
Amateur carvers, each in their own way, organize the workplace.
The lecturer of the Ural Polytechnic Institute B.P. Podolinsky. He fenced off the third part of the living room with a solid glazed wall, made a passage in it opposite balcony door. It turned out something like inner veranda with access to the balcony. For the hostess, this is perhaps the best option, in which shavings, sawdust, dust, smells of turpentine, drying oil and varnish almost do not penetrate into the apartment, and in dry weather you can put the products on the balcony to dry. In addition, the "veranda" is well ventilated at any time of the year, and there is enough space for one person to work.
Another amateur carver S.I. Tabakin, author a large number He always worked on cultural compositions made of wood at a small but strong old desk, adapting it to store tools and lime blocks-blanks. Finished products were arranged under glass on shelves and racks in the passage room of his small two-room apartment.
Amateur craftsman A.E. Pervushin, living in a one-room apartment, installed a professional carpentry workbench in the kitchen, and hung a shelf above it for storing tools.
Yu.E. Khropin, who graduated from the city courses for wood carving enthusiasts (teacher V.Z. Feldman), chose a different option for organizing the workplace. Following the example of Tabakin, he adapted the old desk and attaches to it a sliding workbench bought in a hardware store. This device is convenient in that it simultaneously serves as a vise for fixing workpieces.
An experienced amateur carver V.I. organized a workplace differently. Volegov. His idea was that the carving and carpentry table could be set up and taken down quickly. This is convenient in conditions of shortage of living space.
He rallied the well-planed wide boards one and a half meters long. To one end of this tabletop I attached stubborn legs on hinged hinges, connecting them together with a strong proleg on wood glue. From below, on the opposite end, I strengthened two clamps from metal "gramophone" coupler locks. Two wide persistent hooks from these locks were firmly screwed from below to the edge of the window sill kitchen window. The details of the tie-locks are so reinforced and designed that the connection of the tabletop with the window sill is made instantly and so firmly that the resulting workbench is able to withstand a heavy load. The unfastened tabletop with attached stubborn legs is stored after hours in a narrow wall behind kitchen cabinet. This design is simple and practical.
The main requirement for the desktop of the carver and carpenter is its stability and strength. An experienced Ural craftsman E. Babi, who worked back in the twenties, argued that a wobbly, swinging workbench is doubly tiring, exhausting the worker. The most suitable countertop height is at waist level. Its surface should be smooth and parallel to the floor. When installing a workbench or desktop, you should align the horizontalness of the tabletop by level, and check the state of the plane with the edge of a long ruler, then eliminating all irregularities.
Constantly take care of the safety of the quality and cleanliness of the surface of the desktop;
You can not chop on the countertop with an ax;
Do not drive nails and staples;
Screws must not be screwed into the table;
Do not throw tools, boards, other heavy and damaging objects onto the surface.
And it is also useful to remember as a requirement: a good and clean workbench is a good and clean job.
Workplace lighting
The carver's workplace should be well lit, and the light should be soft, not creating a thick shadow. It is best to place the table near the window, and window panes should be washed regularly. For evening work, it’s good to illuminate the table from two or even three points using fluorescent lamps. Firstly, such lamps are economical, and secondly, they give a soft and even light without forming a thick shadow. The shadow always interferes with the work of the carver. The light source must be on the left, provided that it works right hand. lamp artificial lighting should be hung above eye level so that the light does not blind the master. It is nice to attach an adjustable visor to such a lamp.
Tools and their storage
An amateur carver works on his work, usually by hand. For manual processing wood, the following tools are needed: a saw, a planer, a brace (a hand or electric drill with a set of drills), several narrow and wide chisels, a set of semicircular and flat chisels, a joint knife of two or three sizes and, of course, Bogorodsky with a long beveled blade.
Cutters essential for beginner carvers.
To work with hardwoods (birch, oak, apple tree, pear), you also need a wooden hammer with a short handle - a mallet. With a mallet, light blows are applied to the upper part of the handle cutting tool- chisels or chisels. Without her help, no mortising work is possible; it is difficult to select a background in a flat-relief carving.
On sale, tool kits for amateur carvers have become widespread, but practice has shown that even a novice amateur should not rely on the quality of these tools. The carvers gradually collect their collection of working tools, looking for the tools they need on market days from old junk dealers. Here you can sometimes find chisels with the Solingen brand and even English semicircular curved chisels. Often there is a solid domestic instrument.
The first operation with which work on the product begins is often the sawing of wood. You have to cut both across and along the fibers. If the carver intends to make a carved casket, then he cannot do without sawing spikes and lugs.
The nature of sawing wood corresponds certain form saw teeth, their sharpening. The cross saw has teeth in the form of isosceles triangles. Longitudinal equipped with oblique teeth. And the saw used for mixed sawing has teeth in the form right triangles. The distance between the tops of adjacent saw teeth is called step, clearance between teeth sinus. The saw tooth has a base (it is connected to the blade by it), a top and a height, which is determined by the distance between the base line and the top of the tooth.
There are several of them: a two-handed saw, a bow saw, a hacksaw, an award and a jigsaw.
A two-handed saw is used to cut a log or board into blanks, getting a rough, not clean enough cut.
The bow saw is the main and reliable tool for carpenters. It gives a clean, precise cut, and therefore is readily used for both transverse and longitudinal sawing bars, boards, slats, and often when sawing spikes in carpentry strapping.
A hacksaw performs all the same operations as a bow saw, but gives a less clean cut. Hacksaws with a narrow blade and an oblique tooth are used for curvilinear sawing of patterns by hand.
The award is used when a wide surface is required to be cut, and it is not handy to use another saw.
With a jigsaw, through patterns are made in thin boards. Such a canvas is suitable for making blanks when replicating complex patterns and mosaic work using the marquetry technique.
The rules for handling a saw are simple. She is always picked up by the arm in accordance with the length of the arms and the width of the grip of the fingers.
Keep the canvas taut at all times. Weak wags, goes out of risk.
With a large divorce, the saw jumps in a dry tree, especially in oak and maple.
Do not make the machine at the saw heavy, and the frame narrow: the narrow one rotates in the hand, it is difficult to saw with it.
Never tighten the machine with wire: it does not stretch the canvas, but only spoils and disfigures it.
Do not leave the saw strung overnight.
Never spread the teeth with a screwdriver, but make a special mold.
Do not sharpen teeth on a knee or on a workbench. Make a wide wooden vise for this.
An ordinary board is not immediately smooth enough. Therefore, before you put it into action, you must first cut it off. This is done using plows.
In textbooks, 14 types of plows are usually considered, but for a start we will limit ourselves to four.
Sherhebel this is a planer with a piece of iron, the cutting part of which is sharpened in a semicircle. It is used for rough initial planing, or peeling. The oval blade removes large irregularities, leaving an uneven surface.
Plane tool for cleaner planing. However, strict, quite clean, does not accurately level the surface, because it has a block of small length and is not able to eliminate irregularities of great length.
Jointer a plow with a long block (1000 mm) with a piece of iron installation angle of 45-47 degrees. It is used for precise alignment of the planed surface. Type of jointer semi-joiner , in which the block is half as long.
cycles steel thin plates fixed in simple machine with a handle. Chips or pile are removed with a cycle, the selected background is leveled. After carefully pointing and straightening the blade of the scraper, it is necessary to “direct the burrs”, which ensure the effectiveness of the scraper.
Carpenter's tool for chiselling wood. Standard Width bits are accepted within 6-20 mm, the thickness of the blade is from 8 to 11 mm. Chiselling is a common operation used to create grooves for joiner knit spikes. Wood carvers, creating artistic furniture, constantly meet in practice with chiselling operations.
Chisel
The carver will never allow himselfpustyle her in daboutbogus business.
The chisel has the following parts: shank , on which is mounted cutting , or pen, whisk , or expansion in front of the shank, the front part of the handle rests against it; neck , that is, the transition from the rim to the blade; blade , by which the shape, width and thickness of the chisel are judged. The width of the chisel is taken within 4-50 mm, the thickness of the blade is from 3 to 4 mm. A blade sharpened from the free end is called a chisel blade.
There are flat and semicircular chisels. The latter include those in which the blade has a curvature along the longitudinal axis.
There is a more detailed classification of chisels as a professional cutting tool. The classification is based on their shape, and the shape, in turn, significantly affects the purpose of the chisel in the work of the carver.
straight chisel with a flat blade and a straight blade, it is most often used for cleaning the background in relief carving. Convenient for wrapping the pontura of the rezbba and removing different kind chamfers.
A sloping chisel with a barely noticeable curvature of the blade along its longitudinal axis got its name from its curvature. Such chisels are also called semi-flat.
A semicircular chisel with a noticeable or large curvature of the blade along the longitudinal axis. Such chisels may have a curved neck. They can perform steep and deep recesses. The blades may have some curvature of the entire blade, and then they are convenient in working on high relief.
Consider kinds cutting tools, which some carvers consider to be related to chisels, while other carvers consider them as an independent tool.
Tsarazik a tool for selecting narrow grooves and veins, similar in appearance to a narrow semicircular chisel with high sides.
Geismus , or corner. A tool with a blade bent at an angle of 50-70 degrees with a side width of 5 to 15 mm, designed to cut thin lines and veins in the surface of a tree. Requires very careful sharpening, patient finishing and careful editing.
Clucase a cutting tool shaped like a hook due to a curved long neck with a short blade and all the profiles inherent in chisels. It is used primarily for selecting the background in the corresponding types of carving, for making deep bas-relief carving.
cant a cutter sharpened on a long straight chisel at an angle of ~ 15-20 degrees. With this tool, the background is selected, chamfered, and the pattern of the relief carving is cleaned up.
And there is another kind of jambs:
Joint knife with a short blade (40-50 mm from the handle) with a blade width varying from 10-15 mm to 25-30 mm.
For convenience, these knives have a flat handle.
Note that a joint with a short blade is especially convenient for making geometric, and most of all trihedral notched carvings.
All cutting tools should be made of excellent carbon steel. A good tool holds a careful sharpening well and saves the carver's time, which makes it economical. A cutting tool should be razor-sharp. If this is not the case, then it is better not to use it. Even the ax that the carver uses must be honed so that the working part of his blade can easily shave off the hair on the master's wrist. For axes, first of all, are a carved tool, and only sometimes a planer. For an experienced carver, a sharp ax often replaces a planer, chisel, and even a jamb-cutter.
Storing woodcarver's tools requires certain but simple rules. They should be kept clean and sharp. After work, before you remove the tool, you need to sharpen it again. If they do not work for a long time, then it is necessary to cover the honed blade with a light layer of oil to prevent oxidation and rust. Many cutting tool makers make small cases out of foam to protect the blade. Tools are hung from wall rails and shelving to protect the cutting edge of the blade when not in active use.
For storing tools, a novice master can recommend a simple and convenient wall cabinet. It is best to adapt a packing box with a hinged lid with "gramophone" type locks (shown in the picture). In such boxes, their 10 mm plywood is delivered to communications enterprises and computer centers spare parts for equipment. This is an almost finished tool cabinet. It is only necessary to attach rails with nests for chisels, shelves for plows and nests for ranked drills. It is convenient to hang such a cabinet on the wall, and place the tools on only the back wall, but also on the side walls and on the door from the inside. You can hang it on a table or workbench. It is recommended to decorate the free outer planes of the cabinet with a set of art wood using the marquetry technique or applied carving, and in the simplest case, simply paint it to match the color of the wall.
Fixtures and devices
At a home workplace, an amateur craftsman is unlikely to be able to use a woodworking machine. However, he can use some devices and devices that facilitate the work of a woodcarver. This is, first of all, electric drill nozzles . Wherein, cutting attachment a more scarce commodity than the drill itself.
The nozzle converts the rotational movement of the drill into reciprocating movements of the saw, allowing, with some skill, to quickly and efficiently perform a large amount of sawn ornamental carving. For finer, miniature work, a jigsaw is used.
It may be useful for a beginner to use a device that was formerly called "Gnome", and now there are modern analogues with a flexible drive with a chuck-holder into which interchangeable cutters are inserted. Some hobbyists adapt a decommissioned dental drill to work with hardwoods (boxwood, black ebony and pear). She has a significant advantage over the old "Gnome" lighter tip and less noise.
A necessary device in working with wooden sculpture is useful for fixing the workpiece on the table. In the brochure you will find a drawing according to which you yourself will make a figure holder.
Tree and its species
The carver always knows that no matter what kind of wood he comes across, it is suitable for carving crafts. Of course, there is a personal attitude of the master to a particular wood, but there are also favorite species. Relying on the taste of carvers, with whom I had a chance to communicate in the Urals for more than fifteen years, and, moreover, for a decade I led an amateur association of artistic woodcarving, I learned that in Yekaterinburg they did not hide their addictions. For example, the carver N.K. Zevakhin especially preferred to work with birch, S. Sumin and I.M. Krasnoperov with a birch burl, V.I. Lugovykh with linden, V.I. Volegov with oak, and T. Belova with plane trees and mahogany (mahogany).
Among amateurs, there is a view on the unsuitability of certain species for carving (poplar, Japanese bird cherry, makoa, pine). I will pause on this controversial thesis about the unsuitability of these breeds in order to give beginners a reason for independent reflection:
I also took another example of the suitability of ordinary pine for carved art work from personal practice.
Sconce in my apartment done from pine (1981).
The secret, apparently, is not so much in the type of wood as in the personal interest of the performer. Probably, we can agree that the choice of a tree is affected by both the objective shortcomings of a particular species, and subjective reasons, generally called the "human factor".
Each study guide gives the concepts of hardness, plasticity, texture, texture, characteristic defects of wood. A beginner learns that the hardness of wood depends significantly on moisture, that at fifteen percent humidity it is twice as hard as 30 percent.
Raw wood is easier to cut, but only a dry thing can be cleanly processed. A novice amateur should boldly take on any tree, mastering the specifics of each in practice. To begin with, it is enough to mention a couple of dozen common breeds that a young carver will undertake to work with.
There is a white locust (tree) and yellow locust (shrub). White locust almost does not crack and does not warp, this is an extremely high quality, especially for turning. The wood on the cut has a yellow, yellow-greenish and even olive-green color with clear growth rings. In the finished edition, the natural color of the wood darkens, becoming very beautiful.
Shrub acacia has a beautiful bright yellow color, used for miniature crafts. Well polished with small shavings in paraffin.
Hawthorn.
In old trees, the wood is reddish or red-brown in color, while in young trees it is yellowish, rather hard, well polished.
Occurs as white beech , or hornbeam , and red beech . The hornbeam has a grayish-white hard and durable wood red beech when processed, finely spotted, reddish or light brown. Solid and durable.
There is an old recipe that makes imitation ebony out of hornbeam.
It was recommended to dissolve 8 weight parts of aniline sulfate in 10 parts of water and cover the craft with this solution. After drying, walk with a solution of copper in hydrochloric acid (one part copper to twenty-20 parts by weight of hydrochloric acid). As a result, the product acquired a matte black color, reminiscent of ebony wood.
It has a slightly reddish color, easily takes on color. Carvers willingly use it for small items. The old masters enhanced the natural color of the cherry with a simple technique: they diluted the lime with water until a slurry was obtained and dipped the craft into it for a short time. Then they took it out, wiped it with a rag and dried it carefully to prevent cracks.
Mike Pointer. Bust of the architect Wren Cherry.
The wild pear is best for work. The wood is dense yellowish-brown, occasionally white. Favorite tree carvers. Incomparable carved pear furniture. The wood cuts cleanly in all directions and polishes remarkably well.
The color of wood depends on the age of the tree and is yellow, light brown and gray-ash. The material is hard, heavy and durable. It is especially good for large things covered with small areas embossed carving or carving with about felled background. For example, interesting works made of oak were made by an amateur carver V.I. Volegov (Yekaterinburg).
Products made of stained, or "black" oak are especially valued. This is the wood of an ordinary oak, which has been in the muddy (covered with mud), stagnant water for several years, which is why it has blackened to its full thickness, and is very durable.
Oak products are best waxed. Ural craftsmen who worked with imported oak used an old recipe for oak waxing.
Beeswax was melted down with turpentine, green and wood oil in a very small amount of this composition, the product was rubbed with a piece of cork, then rubbed and polished with a cloth to a matte sheen.
All old recommendations require preliminary tests due to the fact that the quality of wax, turpentine and other products has changed significantly. industrial production. And the wood itself, due to the current environmental conditions, differs from the previous physical and chemical parameters. Each old recipe must first be mastered by personal practice.
When processing wood, the use of encaustic gives good results. It is prepared like this:
Five parts beeswax to two parts turpentine. Replacement is possible: instead of wax, paraffin, instead of turpentine, refined gasoline.
Crushed wax or paraffin is melted in a water bath, and then, having extinguished the fire, in order to avoid catching fire, turpentine or gasoline is poured into the wax (paraffin), stirring with a stick. The composition is applied to the tree with a brush. After four hours, the surface of the product is burst with a brush, then polished with a cloth.
This operation should be repeated, since not all the pores of the tree will be filled with encaustics the first time. The advantage of both methods is that over time it is enough to wipe the tarnished product with a cloth, and the shine returns again.
An excellent material for a carver. Birch wood is quite hard, but warps and cracks if not properly dried. Therefore, when cutting a birch craft from a fresh or undried workpiece, you need to have a plastic bag on hand so as not to leave the workpiece in the air, but put it in a bag, preventing the wood from drying out and shattering.
Birch Cap.
A material common among Ural cutters for all kinds of crafts. This is a household name " smelting", or pathological growths on a birch. There are three varieties mouth guard: needle, brush, suval.
When working with a birch burl, you will need to independently familiarize yourself with additional literature, since there are many features in cooking , removing the bark , in choice of cut, looking for better texture (drawing wood on the cut and in drying ..
The wood is white and brown. It is well processed, polished, painted, but does not have increased strength.
It has a fairly soft and viscous wood, suitable for carved art crafts. In the Urals, in the old days, professional carvers made carved iconostases from cedar. For example, the Busygins in 1782 built such an iconostasis in the Yekaterinburg Epiphany Church on the city's market square (now the square named after 1905) "from dry, clean kelp forest on sturgeon glue."
Favorite tree of carpenters and furniture makers. On some streets of the former Sverdlovsk and in squares, American maple grows with wood that resembles ivory after finishing.
An amateur carver V. Zaika successfully works with it (caskets and caskets).
"Smelting", or outgrowths, at the root of the maple and not on its trunk have a beautiful texture in the context. Our colleague Igor Krasnoperov successfully used a huge maple growth to make a large decorative vase.
Maple is difficult to open, but it is well planed. It is classified as hardwood. There are many varieties of maple, but the masters most willingly take only 5-7 of them.
Common maple . It has a pleasant yellowish color. Poorly accepts varnishes, but easily and beautifully polished.
sugar maple . Dense, with a wavy-stream pattern of fibers. Crafts from it are very beautiful.
It differs from other varieties of sugar maple in that the treatment of wood with vitriol gives the product green color , while other types of maple turn blue.
Silver maple . With dense, very white wood.
maple spotted . A hard rock that has a silvery-white, sometimes slightly yellowish color with dense round sparkles. Well accepts lacE but poorly polished.
known vintage mordants to give white maple wood different shades.
A beautiful yellow color was given by treating the products with a mordant, the composition of which is one part of potassium chromate per 100 parts of water. Soft in tone and strong brown coloring was given to maple crafts by diluting iron cups in weak nitrogen acid, diluted with water. The product was covered with the prepared mordant and then dried by turning it over hot coals. A noble black color was acquired by maple crafts after the next treatment with solutions of aniline sulphate and chromic.
Close in common maple, but differs from it in a pinkish tint and b about higher wood density.
Highly solid wood, well polished, has the color of boiled cream. Excellent in the half.
Sycamore. Darker than regular maple, with a beautiful grain pattern. Before the revolution in the craft and merchant environment sycamore called "peacock tree" because of the beauty of the texture.
Juniper.
Another name for heather. Dense flexible wood is white in young bushes, brown-yellow in old ones, has a pleasant resinous smell that lasts a long time in the product. For this, juniper crafts are valued by signs. Suitable for miniature work.
American walnut. It has a uniform ash-brown color. The structure of the trunk is straight, almost without knots, which ensures the straightness of the sawn material and attracts carpenters and woodworkers to this breed. On american walnut there are no growths, or "smelts".
Caucasian walnut . Has a pleasant brown with veins of various shapes. Well cut, tinted and polished. An excellent material for artistic products of carved furniture, frames for paintings, ornamental panels and sculptures.
The trunks of the Caucasian walnut often have "smelting". On this breed, they sometimes reach incredible sizes. Specimens up to a hundred pounds in weight are known. If we do not take into account the value of "smelting" on the Caucasian walnut, then the rest of the wood of both types is not inferior to each other in quality.
It has white wood, often with a greenish tinge. The texture is almost invisible and does not affect the choice of pattern for carving. It is easy to cut, but requires great care from the carver when finishing, because it does not accept stain well, and it takes on a dirty look from it.
Has a dense timber light tone with dark streaks, especially visible under polish and varnish. The mountain ash, cut down in winter, is of value, because the spring one cracks and warps strongly. It is good to make small art products from mountain ash.
Very hard light yellow rock. Suitable for fine art carving, well polished. Beginners should not be intimidated by the hardness of boxwood, because it works well with conventional tools.
Souvenir "Stalin's cap". Sochi, 1957. Powder box.
Hard, dense yellowish wood with purple veins. Moves and cuts perfectly in all directions. Takes polish and varnish well. All this makes the scum an excellent material for woodcarving.
In the old days, they knew how to enhance the texture of lilacs with the help of simple recipes.
"If a craft or plywood made of lilac is covered with a weak solution of vitriol oil or nitric acid, then the veins turn bright purple-red," the Yekaterinburg newspaper of the 19th century told fans.
Fans are advised to be careful when diluting sour about you. Pour into water drop by drop, protecting the respiratory organs and eyes from splashes and fumes. At home, use a wet gauze bandage in 4 layers. It is better to seek help from any chemical laboratory.
Very hard and dense tree light with many veins: yellow, pink, reddish, brown, brown.
If the plum is boiled in lime water or lye, then the veins in its texture will especially appear.
Quite soft for processing, but durable material. Finishing almost always requires deresining the surface. Pine is mainly used to decorate wooden buildings. Almost all sawn carving in the Urals is made of pine.
Its exceptional softness makes it difficult to process, allowing it only with super-sharp tools. Extreme fragility makes poplar suitable for products in which elegance prevails over strength. All types of poplar growing in the Urals are approximately the same in terms of wood quality, but even in the century before last, craftsmen preferred silverlanguid poplar . Products from it were covered with a colorless varnish, which gave them a special beauty. Palace furniture in the Empire style, now stored in the State Hermitage Museum, was made by Russian craftsmen from poplar.
Reminiscent of the structure and physical properties of a pear, but harder and more frizzy, which complicates the carving and subsequent finishing. Apple processing is carried out according to the rules for working with solid wood pears.
The wood is hard and dense, has much in common with a pear. Ash is very good in furniture, has some resemblance to oak. It is used for the manufacture of durable doors and large joinery, but is not suitable for small and elegant crafts.
Ash flows with expressive dark veins go to the finest carvings and are highly valued by connoisseurs.
When harvesting a tree in ridges, the cutter must remember that the bark must not be left on them. Wood is affected by marble rot, which makes the wood unsuitable for artistic carving, it is impossible to achieve a clean, shiny cut on it.
Types of artistic woodcarving
Before you start marking a workpiece or board for carved ornaments, you should learn a few simple rules Preference should be given to a board with a straight grain, without a rich pattern of texture, because the natural pattern of the board may conflict with the ornament conceived by the carver. The wood should have a moisture content of about 10 percent. It would not be superfluous to remember the calculations about the moisture content of wood, made by master P. Burda from Kaunas: in a tree that has lain in water for a long time, the humidity is 100%, in a freshly sawn 50-80%, air-dry tree that has been lying in the air for a long time 15-20% , and in a room-dry tree 8-12%.
The surface of the board before applying the thread to it must be prepared and planed cleanly. However, in no case should it be sanded with scissor paper, because the smallest particles of abrasive, crammed into the pores of the tree, will greatly damage further work carver.
Before you start carving, you need to draw a drawing on a tree in a one-to-one scale, that is, in full size. From paper, the finished drawing is transferred to tracing paper, and then through carbon paper to the prepared wood surface. It is also recommended to cover the transferred drawing with one layer of ordinary polish. It dries within 10-15 minutes and the surface is ready for carving. Before applying the first cuts, it would be nice to fix the workpiece to the table with a clamp.
It must be borne in mind that the authors of different teaching aids sometimes use different terminology. For example, in one case called "contour engraving" contour carving. Otherwise " wedge-cut thread"refer to trihedral carving. One textbook calls bracketed carving, and another textbook calls it nail-like. One source mentions overwhelming carving, and in another overwhelmed. Etc. By the way, both those and other formulations have an equal right to exist and are not erroneous.
Geometric carving
The most common and simplest, for work it is enough to have one cutter with a width of two centimeters and no more than a dozen narrow chisels. Geometric thread requires preliminary marking (marking tool ruler, compasses, thickness gauge).
Need to mark with a thickness gauge at the same distance from the edge of the workpiece at risk from all four sides. You can perform this operation by setting aside the desired points with a compass and drawing lines with a pencil along the ruler. Divide the rectangles inside the markup along the ruler with parallel lines so that they are at equal distances from each other. Keep in mind that on conifers ah, it is more difficult to draw a parallel line with a knife than on hardwood.
The blade of the knife is driven without the help of a ruler, directing the knife only with the effort of the hand along the line. The blade can deviate following the pattern of the texture, and this must be constantly monitored. It is necessary to put the knife-cutter vertically in relation to the plane of the board at the beginning of the line and cut it with its toe into the edge of the line to a depth of one and a half to two millimeters. At the same time, the grip of the knife handle is free: four fingers of the hand on one side clasp the handle with part of the butt of the blade, and the thumb is raised and rests against upper part handles.
The knife along the edge of the line should be drawn towards you and the handle tilted to the right at an angle of about 30-40 degrees. It is better to work while sitting, and the plank with the picture is turned upside down in itself. While guiding the knife, adjust so that the heel of its blade is held closer to the surface. This makes it easier for the blade to smoothly cross the oblique lines of the texture, reducing the likelihood of possible chipping of the wood. However, the heel must not be allowed to enter the wood; this will damage the surface and make it unsightly.
Finishing the movement near the end of the dash, the heel must be lifted and the movement completed with one toe of the blade, without going beyond the boundary of the dash.
This whole operation is called " incision". The next thing to do is " pruning": turning the board, repeat the same movement of the knife, but along the other edge of the line, stepping back about one millimeter. Now, by removing the free-cutting chips that have a track-angle section, we get a groove in the board. Its shiny and smooth edges are the first sign correct execution work.
It is not easy to drive the knife across the fibers. Harder than along. The board must be fixed on the side with a clamp, turning the long side towards you. The incision is made at an angle of 45 degrees with the knife handle deviated from itself. Then, turning the board on the other side, cut in exactly the same way. Upon completion of all this work, we will get a checkered pattern (Fig. 5).
If the same grooves are drawn and cut diagonally, we will get a "grid" pattern. In the latter case, it should be learned that the first notch is first made along all the marked lines from right to left, and then, turning the board, the second notch is made from left to right along the perpendicular to the already made notch.
After that, pruning is done in the same order. The grid may not work the first time. It is not the material that is to blame, but the novice master. With skill, everything will work out well. You don't just have to retreat. Success depends on the correct position of the lesion in the work, and this will come with training. Geometric carving is distinguished by a variety of techniques and a set of elements; they can be found in the recommended list of references at the end of the manual.
contour thread
This is one of the varieties of geometric carving. Her technique involves cutting along the contour: the pattern is, as it were, drawn with a sharp cutting tool. At the same time, the same familiar methods of notching at an angle and counter cutting with a turn of the board and an inclination of the blade are performed. Samples of traditional folk outline carving can be seen on some Russian spinning wheels, when genre scenes from Russian urban life were cut out in outline. This carving technique is often used today, especially by graphic designers when decorating shop windows and recreation areas in hotels (Fig. 6).
Trihedral notched thread
At the heart of this type geometric carving lies a pattern of trihedral notches made in the plane of the board. From the combination of such triangular recesses, squares, rhombuses, circles playing with chiaroscuro are formed, and from them "suns", "radiances", and other rosettes are assembled.
The drawing is marked with a compass and ruler. The carving technique is as follows: the base of all the triangles from which the pattern is made is cut with the sperm. To do this, the cutter blade, inclined at an angle of 45 degrees, sticks into the beginning of the base of the triangle and is led towards itself with one movement of the brush. So all the triangles are cut. And, finally, in the final stage, the board is rotated at an angle of 90 degrees, the cutter blade is placed with the toe towards itself and, starting from the line of the undercut base, all the triangles are cut one by one with sequential advancement from right to left.
Some carvers for b about For greater precision in the movement of the knife, support the blade with the thumb of the left hand holding the board.
If the trihedral notch has to be cut across the fibers, then the notching-cutting movement is carried out in the opposite direction, that is from the top to the bottom of the shape. Feeling right choice direction of hand movements comes with the acquisition of skill. The main rule is the requirement to cut with a sharp tool along the layer, and not against it. A beginner picks it up pretty quickly.
Nail (staple) carving
The same applies to the type of geometric section. It got its name from the element in the form of a bracketed notch, reminiscent of a nail. Perform such an element sharp semicircular chisel with a blade width of 5-12 mm. With a vertically placed chisel, a shallow notch, or notch, is first made, and then a trimming is made from the convex side of this notch with the same chisel at an angle of 60 degrees. Along the fibers, the nail-like notch is cut in this order: incision on the left and undercut on the right. Across the fibers, the incision is led towards you, and the undercut is away from you. Knowing how to make such recesses, anyone can already, for example, decorate a frame with a bracketed pattern and move on to a more complex pattern.
relief carving
Unlike notched cuts, it creates three-dimensional images on wood surfaces, including ornaments that protrude above the background at the same height throughout the relief. There are five main types of it: carving with an oval contour, with a pillow background, deaf with a selected background (fryazhskaya), openwork, laid on. To perform them, you need straight and semi-circular chisels ranging in size from 3 to 25 mm, cranberries with a blade width of 2-15 mm, tassels (3-5 mm) and a joint knife. Their local species of wood for such carvings are suitable for all clomes of poplar.
Carving with oval outline
Carving with pillow background
This is a variation of the previous type of carving. Rolling up here is carried out in two directions, both for the lines of the contour and for the background itself, but if from the side of the background the contour rolls up gently, then from the side of the drawing it is steep. The essential difference between these two types of carving is that compositions carved with an oval contour are drier and more groovy, while those carved with a pillow background are more juicy and saturated.
In artistic furniture, the composition of planes illuminated by obliquely incident light, designers propose to create with the help of a carved relief. Both oval-shaped threads and pillow-back threads are excellent for this purpose.
Experts consider one of the transformations of carving with a pillow background and its development the so-called carving with a selected (or selected) background, the pattern of which is organized and solved according to the rules of carving with an oval contour and remains flat over the entire surface, and its edges oval rather steeply.
The only difference is that the background itself is selected to a certain depth. And the picture from this becomes clearer, more embossed, and the play of chiaroscuro is more expressive. This flat-relief type of carving is recommended mainly for very small pieces of art.
Blind carving with selected background
It should not be confused with flat-relief, which has some similarity in name due to the selected background. Such a carving in the old days in Rus' was called fryazhskaya (fryazi is the old name for the Genoese, immigrants from Italy). In the 19th century, it was called deaf ship carving, dugout and brownie. It was used for decoration 
large objects: ships and residential buildings, especially peasant huts in the Nizhny Novgorod Volga region.
A sample of a deaf house carving: the gates of the Mayurovs on the street. Kirov, 55 in the Verkhne-Isetsky village (Yekaterinburg).
The drawing is applied to thick, cohesive boards. A vertical incision of the same depth is made along the entire border of the pattern, and in accordance with it, the background is selected with chisels, selected according to the width of the gaps between the details of the pattern. Having selected and leveled the background at the same depth, the master proceeds to modeling the details of the ornament of multi-petal rosettes, acanthus leaves, or burdock, as it was called in the peasant environment, and then to the figures conceived by the artist.
openwork carving
This type of flat-relief carving is simultaneously included in the slotted group, where it is adjacent to such types as slotted contour, through, overhead and pasted. Therefore, we will briefly say them immediately after the openwork carving. Openwork carving differs from others in that it has no background, it is chosen completely. And to this is added the finishing of the workpiece by applying strokes, grooves, ovaling or accentuating the elements of the pattern. This type of carving is very effective. But completely removing the background deprives individual curls of the pattern, lintels and other delicate details that can easily chip. In order to prevent the loss of details of the pattern, it is necessary to place an even planed board under it, removing the background.
First you need to cut all the holes in the selected ornament, make a rough cut along the entire contour using chisels, and then model the shapes of the pattern itself in accordance with the sample or the existing pattern. At this stage of the work, cranberries, joint knife, geismuses(corners).
Slotted contour thread
It is carried out along the borders of the contour of the picture, forms around it open slots of the edges of the board. It is used most of all for finishing furniture and making interior items.
This type has other names: "lace slot", "openwork", "silhouette", "vipilovka" in each case, sawing is the basis of the execution technique, and therefore, when talking about a through thread, the term "saw thread" is often used.
Nowadays the most convenient tool to carry out through thread is an electric drill with a set of interchangeable nibs (broadband, special sharpening, flat drills) and a nozzle for cutting patterns. Saw patterns wooden buildings garden and country houses, facades of rural huts. Eto sawed out the ornaments with a jigsaw, he was practically prepared for making a through carving, because the rules are the same: a drawing is applied, holes are checked in the areas to be removed, a saw blade is inserted into the hole and sawing is carried out strictly along the line of the drawing. The only other material for cutting is a well-planed board, usually pine with a thickness of one to 2.5 cm. If sawing is done with a saw by hand, then use a hacksaw with a narrow blade or bow saw with a well stretched canvas.
Applied thread
Such a thread is of two types, depending on the goal set by the carver: to make a relief-modeled overlay or a flat-graphic in the style of a through saw thread.
In the first case, the part is cut out separately, modeled, and then the finished part is nailed onto the surface to be decorated.
Such carving is used in decoration and in the restoration of monuments of wooden architecture.
To create the impression of an allegedly blank carving with a selected background in separate places The ognament is trimmed with a slight bevel under the surface of the pattern, so that when applied, the detail seems to live, separating from the background. This technique originated in the technique of blind carving with a selected background and is not accidentally used to imitate it.
In the second case, the execution is carried out using the technique of through carving; it can only be useful when decorating a building with sawn ornaments. In the former Sverdlovsk and on the outskirts, examples of applied carvings are still preserved. Novice carvers, if desired, can get acquainted with them without leaving the city.
adhesive thread
In furniture and iconostasis, this type of carving is often found. It is believed that this name was invented, as well as 
technology carvers of iconostasis.
This kind of carving is rather a professional technique than an independent or original type of carving. The work itself is done using the openwork technique, the first version of the invoice or in the manner of the Flemish carving, but the part at the stage of a still rather rough blank is glued onto a flat board, most often with a lining made of cardboard or thick paper, so that later it would be possible to separate the finished part from it without much difficulty. grounds. When it is completely cut out, it is carefully separated, the "sole" is carefully cleaned, and glued to the surface of the decorated object. Thus, the double-pasted pattern fully deserves its name.
It is impossible to ignore the existing connections of carvers in the literature of the concept: relief, bas-relief, high relief, because works made in one technique or another are sometimes called " relief carving", bas-relief and " high relief carving".
embossed An image is called if it rises above the background over its entire surface. This means that blind carving with a selected background belongs to the group of relief carvings.
In principle, types of flat-relief carving should also be included here, BUT the view was established that "compared to other types of flat-relief carving, relief carving is the most decorative," and on the basis of this, reliefs seem to stand out in a group of more artistic types. In the literature, even a recommendation is given to an amateur mastering relief carving to pre-sculpt either the entire relief composition or the most complex elements from plasticine, and only then proceed to carving. It is believed that in relief carving the height of the relief does not exceed five millimeters above the background. If the background is removed in the relief, then such a carving is called "openwork relief".
Bas-relief called compositions with a sufficiently high relief, that is, a height of five or more millimeters, the elements of which are plastic, designed taking into account the play of chiaroscuro and organic with the background, which is also involved in the composition. At the same time, the details and figures on the bas-relief should not protrude above the background by more than 2/3 of their own thickness. This is the requirement of all modern teaching aids. If we look at the literature early XIX century, then there the norm is less: "The bas-relief is a sculptural work, the figures of which protrude on the plane no more than half their thickness."
High relief compared to the bas-relief, it is performed in a higher relief, that is, if you follow modern standards, more than 2/3 of the own thickness of the figures and details above the background of the product. And in accordance with the strict requirements of the old sources: "The high-relief image with figures protrude above the plane by more than half of its thickness."
sculptural carving
Belongs to the highest class of artistic woodcarving. It has two directions close to each other in terms of execution technique: curly (flemsky) carving and production of easel sculpture in the tree.
Figured (flemsky) carving. It has a high carved relief, in different places rising apart. height from the background and detached from it by separate sculptural elements. Figurative carving was previously fruitfully used, for example, in furniture art by excellent court craftsmen.
easel sculpture. This direction is willingly developed in wood carving by many lovers and masters of arts and crafts. Sculpture in wood requires, as a rule, soft wood - linden, aspen, walnut. Our club carvers also successfully use pine, cedar, birch, although it is still recognized as the best material. Linden : it is plastic, has a uniform texture, neutral color.
Aspen requires pre-parking, which gives it softness. In addition, you should always remember that it is not so well tinted.
Nut the next after linden is a desirable material for sculptural carving, but it is more difficult to get it in the Ural conditions.
Various tools are used, and first of all, semicircular chisels 5-40 mm in size, klukazzy with blades 10 to 20 mm wide. Practice Bogorodsk carving developed a convenient knife, which is called "Bogorodsky" with an elongated beveled blade. Such a tool is also necessary for a novice woodcarver. We also need a light, sharply sharpened ax for the initial chopping of a log or blank.
Work on easel sculpture must go through the following obligatory stages:
the choice of a sculptural sample or drawing up a drawing (sometimes accompanied by a preliminary modeling of the product in plasticine);
finding wood without defects;
blank notch;
rough volume processing:
revealing sculpture;
final finishing.
The finished plastic work in uniform light and expressive play of chiaroscuro produces the desired impression on the viewer only by the effect of harmony of artistic forms. Today, even a novice amateur will not open a sculpture or a carved panel. On this account, it is useful to sit down the statement of the specialist drawing teacher G. Bouffier, who back in 1912 wrote in the Handbook of Stucco Art of the Share of Schools and Amateurs: “You can, by the way, resort to paints here, although this very rarely succeeds and requires great knowledge Paints sometimes enliven this undeniably, but more often they give the plastic work a pomp and kill the subtlety of its decoration, which is especially important for a true artist.
wood carving finish
When choosing a method of finishing a finished carved product, one must proceed both from the general features of the work of art, and from the specific features of the material and techniques of the carving.
Whitening
It happens that at the end of the work, a novice carver discovers a heterogeneity of the product in color, stains, pollution of the tone of the wood. In this case, the surface of the product should be bleached. It is good to use a fifteen percent aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide mixed with ammonia (so that you can feel the strong smell of ammonia).
This liquid should be abundantly moistened with the bleached surface of the wood and left for several days. As a result, it will acquire a uniform whiteness. The method is good because it does not require subsequent washing or cleaning of the wood, the solution penetrates shallowly and does not cause cracking of the surface.
Deresining
Acetone, gasoline, turpentine or a solution of soda ash is used. With a cotton swab dipped in one of the listed liquids, the surface of boards and softwood blanks is treated. After deresining, it is necessary to dry the tree well in a shaded, cool place.
Finishing preparation
Preparation operations include: 1. Filling; 2. Sanding.
Filling make for large-pore wood for oak, ash, walnut. It gives the wood a smooth finish and prepares it for waxing, polishing or varnishing. To fill the pores, there are special primers, mastics and actual pore fillers, for example, KF brands produced by the industry. Since carving on light wood is mainly finished with transparent coatings, fillers are also chosen to match the color of the wood being processed. The composition is applied and rubbed with a hard brush or brush, the excess is wiped off with a cloth and after daily drying in normal conditions again treated with the finest sandpaper. After that, the surface of the product can be coated with polish or varnish.
grinding not all carvers are commendable. Many people think that woodcarving preserves the marks of the cutting tool, especially in sculpture. However, most types of carving require smoothing surfaces, for which amateurs use scrapers, and fine sandpaper for thorough grinding. The finer the skin, the better result. It is better to grind along the fibers. Elements carved pattern must be sanded separately, avoiding
rounding and erasing the edges made by the cutter. If the pattern is rubbed with sandpaper, then it is not polished, but damaged.
Carvers are usually proud of their work and the material they choose, and while polishing the design, they try to make sure that the product does not turn into an imitation of ceramic or bone.
Grinding refers to fluff removal. To do this, wipe the finished polished product with a wet swab. When the surface is completely dry, pile removed with worn sandpaper (sandpaper). This operation must be performed twice.
Waxing
Suitable for waxing beeswax, vegetable and mineral. Here is one of the waxing recipes.
Take 8 parts of light beeswax, one part of light rosin powder, 4 parts of turpentine and on low heat (in a clay pot) all this is melted together. When the finished composition has cooled, it is applied with a brush to the product and immediately rubbed with a brush. Then leave for a day so that the pounded mass is absorbed and dried. It remains only to grind with a cloth or felt to a uniform shine.
Polishing
It is produced by polishes: hard rock polish diluted with alcohol, and soft ones undiluted. It is better to polish carved works, except, perhaps, only for planes decorated with trihedral-notched carvings, where there is no convex relief.
Varnishing
The modern rule of artistic wood carving does not really approve of varnishing. There's even a term for it, "blowing". Exhibition and evaluation committees reject such exhibits, preferring a calm matte surface to a shiny varnish.
Varnishes are different alcohol, oil, nitrocellulose. Some amateurs successfully apply nitrolac, heavily diluted with acetone, and cover it with ready product for once. Others two or three times, but no more. A thin protective film almost no shine. There is another way.
They take an old film on an acetate base, wash it off in hot water the emulsion layer, after drying, is finely cut, poured with acetone, in which it is completely dissolved. Such a coating is also done once; it does not give a "cheap" shine at all, does not change either the tone or color of the wooden product.
This method is designed for processing natural untinted wood. And tinted or stained wood looks richer under oil or alcohol varnish. The fact is that the dark stain hides the texture to a certain extent, and the varnish reveals it well.
At the same time, it must be said in defense varnish coating wooden products, especially interior items of candlesticks, sconces, furniture, curtain rods, frames for painting, which protects them well from dust, is easy to clean when cleaning, while the waxed surface quickly gets dirty, gradually fades, and after a year and a half or two again requires cleaning and a new choice for coverage.
Instead of completingSo, a novice amateur carver briefly got acquainted with the problems and individual techniques of artistic woodcarving. More detailed recommendations and he will receive advice by reviewing the literature at the end of the pamphlet.
Mastering the techniques of carving will be fruitful in communicating with other trained carvers.
At the meetings of lovers of artistic woodcarving in the club Ya.M. Sverdlov, new works of carvers were constantly discussed. In the photo, the head of the amateur association (and the author of this brochure) analyzes the shortcomings and advantages of the panel of one of the amateurs. Listener N.K., far left Zevakhin at the same lesson told how he makes decorative vases. He usually prefers to work with birch.
The manufacture of decorative vases is complicated by the difficulty of chiseling the inner cavity of the vessel. With a wide body of a vase and a narrow neck, this is difficult to do. I adapted in my own way. I start work with a birch chock. I choose a half-walking log, saw off the ends, as they are usually cracked, and the middle is mine. I am preparing it for a decorative vase with a carved floral ornament. Risks I prepare more often flowers from nature. Uvizhk kupavki draw kupavki. Like the leaves I draw them. Therefore, I am in constant search, and I don’t throw out sketches, but collect them. Over time, I accumulated
a lot of drawings from nature. Preparing a drawing for the next vase, I use the "collection", try it on and finish it.
The technique includes preliminary sawing along the workpiece and sampling the cavity with an "open aprobe" from two halves of the future vase. After cutting the workpiece, I again fold the half to the half, and in the draft I adjust them approximately (approximately). With a compass at the end, I take half the diameter and mark from the side where the neck of the vase will be. Then on each half with a chisel I choose, as it were, a "trough" of the inner cavity of the vase. At the same time I cut the pattern on outer sides both halves. When everything is cut and selected, inner part it is necessary to cleanly zepolize, and then finish the external design of the vase on its halves, leaving for the time being a rough pattern in the docking part of the halves. I mentally divide the surface of the vase and process them sequentially. Leaves or flower petals are cut with a joint knife. I cut out the drawing with all the details., carefully. I'm in no hurry to glue the finished halves until I finish everything. work. And only then I trim the cycles and polish them with sandpaper. Then I glue the halves of the vase to each other with PVA glue and tie it tightly so that the gluing does not move. So I let it dry overnight. In a day I untie and boldly refine the entire vase The best coverage I think varnish-zapon on alcohol.
There is also the opinion of the carver Ivan Pertovich Krivovid:
The cutter must always be careful when working. Draw a picture, and then correct it. The drawing should be clear, crisp and not stain the wood. I remove the background with a knife and chisels made from broken needle files. I cut out the ornament immediately cleanly, moving around the drawing in a circular fashion, for example, clockwise, and I don’t return to the place I have passed. Everything related to the choice of background, I do and finish at this stage of work. Having chosen the background, I begin to "lift" the leaf over the leaf, the berry over the berry. I think about this operation in advance while working with the background, which I choose purposefully and consciously in such a way as not to make the subsequent operation smaller. to "raise" the detail above the detail, you need to have an acceleration between the top of the pattern and the background. This needs to be taken into account right away.
While working, I hold the product in my hands, on the table or on my knee. I don’t torture the tree with a clamp, I don’t crumple it. I cut out the decorative one for quite a long time, about a week, working on it eight hours a day. I smooth the front side only with a knife. I do everything without a machine tool, by hand, including blanks.
Favorite materials are beech and birch. I do not tolerate gluing, I never glue the work. If I break it, I draw it out.
I have a little secret: I collected a collection different leaves, which at one time I drew from nature and transferred to tracing paper. Now I can easily and quickly compose any ornament for a limited space of the selected workpiece. I simplify the drawing myself and change it. But I don’t try to copy a tutelka into a tutelka, I leave room for imagination.
I cover the finished thing with a solution of hot wax in turpentine. I also use nitrolac NTs-218, strongly diluting it. I cover the products with a very liquid varnish in three layers, but occasionally in four. I dry the first layer for 30 minutes, the next ones dry longer, but I don’t allow “clouding”.
"I decided to make a Russian carved chair "Arc, axes and mittens" according to the project of 1870, the idea of the carpenter V.P. Shutov. It is traditionally oak. When preparing my project, I began to collect a suitable oak, but in the conditions of the Urals such a tree does not roll on the street. I collected everything I could find: two boards from an oak office cabinet and some oak trimmings. furniture store, thinking that something would happen to me by chance, but they sold discounted old office chairs. I looked closely - a genuine oak. This stuff has been helpful. I disassembled the chairs into parts, cleaned and polished each one, glued it into bars desired thickness using epoxy glue. When I completely finished work on the chair, covered it with carvings and varnish - it turned out monolithic: the complete impression that the chair was made of solid oak bars and boards. The secret, of course, was: when jointing the details for gluing the bars, I adjusted them with textures in such a way that the gluing line could be mistaken for a line of a natural pattern. And I succeeded."
Superbly done by M.I. Volegov oak chair was successfully exhibited more than once at exhibitions, including the Museum fine arts Yekaterinburg.
Living and working in the evenings with woodcarvers at odd hours and exclusively on a voluntary basis, I had the opportunity to establish correspondence with craftsmen outside the city in the country and abroad. I sent them photos of my work, and they sent back theirs.
This is how I became friends with the excellent carver Barry McKenzie, a former aviator and now author and publisher of the illustrated Chip Carvers Newsletter about woodcarving.
Pine and spruce
By the appearance of a growing tree, hardly anyone confuses pine and spruce (Fig. 1 of the insert). However, let me point out at least one feature, by which they can be unmistakably distinguished: in Scots pine 2 (Fig. 10) pine needles located on the racemes in pairs (some species of pines have more), in spruce 1 they are dispersed singly along the branches. It is desirable for a woodcarver to distinguish between spruce and pine by wood, but this is already much more difficult to do. As for wood, pine has a darker core and light sapwood (the outer part along the trunk), spruce does not have a core, it belongs to the so-called non-core wood species. But this sign is unreliable - in a pine tree only at the age of 30-35 years (according to the literature), and even then not always, a core appears. At the carver, the workpiece can turn out to be only from one heartwood, when there is no color border between the dark heartwood and light sapwood. There are also pines with a slightly distinguishable color difference between the core and sapwood, which is especially characteristic of the outer surface of old lumber.
But there are other signs of the difference between spruce and pine that a wood carver should be aware of. It is their combination that allows in some cases to accurately indicate the breed. Freshly planed spruce wood is bright light (pine is darker, ocher), the contrast of its growth rings is less pronounced. From time to time, spruce darkens more slowly than pine, but their tone is still gradually evened out. Pine wood smells like resin, and the smell spruce wood reminiscent of the smell of her needles. In the texture of spruce, the straightness is clearly expressed, it is easily pricked. In its longitudinal section, small, isolated, as if inserted, torn off from the rest of the wood and running away from the core of the knots are visible; they even sometimes fall out of the craft during work.
In terms of texture, pine is easily confused with larch, also heartwood, especially since adult pine has the same large growth rings. Their difference in resin ducts recommended in the literature (they are larger and more numerous in pine) is difficult to implement in practice. A reliable sign is to lower a piece of Wood 5-7 mm thick into the water: in two or three weeks the larch wood will get wet and sink.
Among mixed unedged boards coniferous wood, spruce boards differ from pine boards in dark, up to black, and smoother bark. The bark of larch on the boards under the influence of atmospheric oxygen and light acquires a red-cherry color, sharply different from the color of the bark of pine and spruce. In addition, larch boards are noticeably heavier. In larch, even young, a large dark brown core is clearly distinguished, and narrow stripes on the sides remain on the light sapwood, while spruce does not have a core at all, while pine has a narrow one, and then only on wide boards.
For a woodcarver, softwoods are convenient because of their availability. Thanks to them widespread use in construction, in the manufacture of household crafts, you can easily find the right blank for carving. However, pine and spruce also have significant drawbacks that limit their scope in carving crafts: the causticity of wood and its striped texture. Therefore, it is best to use pine and spruce for carving large crafts with large elements. This is a house carving, decorative panels on the walls public spaces, carving in gardens, parks. In such a carving, wood imperfections can either be leveled or even beaten. Thus, contrasting stripes make large fields of carved panels more expressive, they can be emphasized by firing, toning.
Convenient softwood and for slotted carving, the pattern or ornament of which looks like a silhouette (Fig. 11). Basically, all slotted, as well as overhead carving in home decor is made of spruce (more often) or pine (we will get to know this in detail when studying house carving). But also on flat surface carved crafts for the interior, an experienced carver skillfully uses strips of coniferous wood. They turn, for example, into an interesting pattern on the smooth curved and polished surface of the vase.
Large-layered bright coniferous wood is not suitable for making a small mask (a mask here means a sculptural image of a face) of a woman or a child, but sometimes it can give additional expressiveness to the mask of an old person. The same contrasting stripes of spruce or pine can make up the decor of a simple conditional or ritual mask of a simple form.
The woman's mask in fig. 12 is stylized and is part of the ornament. Here, the texture of the wood does not interfere, but is successfully used, brings poetry to the product, the craft intrigues the viewer: is it really all made from a whole piece of wood? It is the drawing of the layers of the tree that summarizes the composition.
On fig. 13 we again see how the master plays with the layered structure of coniferous wood, uses it as a cameo material: he sculpts a form, linking it with light and dark stripes of wood.
Finally, we advise the wood carver to consider that the striped texture of softwood can be used for smooth polished panels surrounded by carvings. Such
we sometimes see the reception in house carvings. The striped wood of spruce or pine does not interfere with the mask ornament (Fig. 14-16), which can be used to decorate the wall of the house and for the upper part of the architraves. If the carving is painted, it can be made up of various types of wood.
In the same forest, you can find various pines that differ both in appearance and in the properties of wood. So, a pine tree grown in a dry high place has a harder, dense wood, the texture of which will also be with dense, narrow rings (remember at least ship pine). And a pine tree grown in a low, sometimes swampy place has more softwood. A mighty, thick withered pine among young trees once grew alone. Its wood in the core part will have a beautiful spectrum of wide growth rings. And the outer layers, dating back to the time when the tree encountered growth hindrances, will be marked by anomalies: curling in places of overgrown old knots and damage; pitching (areas impregnated with resin) - the result of protracted wounds; resin pockets - also resin-impregnated parts of growth rings.
It is even more interesting for a wood carver to compare the individual properties of spruce and pine (as well as larch), which manifest themselves in the process of wood processing.
Usually pine or spruce is easily cut, sawn and planed. But pine that has stood for a long time (dry forest) or that has been lying dry is difficult to cut, sometimes crumbles. When falling, the workpiece or craft often breaks. In some places, the wood of a lying pine, especially if its partial decay has begun, is cut with extraordinary difficulty, crumpling the sting of the blade. It is almost impossible to cut such wood with a semicircular chisel across the fibers, it is necessary to rotate it around the longitudinal axis with simultaneous pressure on the chisel - to create a more effective cutting force by moving the blade. The hope in this case is planing with a knife made of strong steel at an angle of 45 ° to the direction of the fibers.
The wood carver needs to avoid such areas on pine wood where delamination has already begun: the resinous layers have become completely hard, and the soft ones have burned out. Under pressure, such wood is not cut, but only crumpled, springy and breaks. When choosing wood, you should also avoid those areas on the pine trunk that have darkened from the long lying of the tree on the ground, although they do not look like rotten ones. When wet, such wood seems strong, suitable for processing, an ax blow on this place is sonorous. But after drying, it does not cut at all, the tool becomes dull from it, and, no matter how you fight, it will still have to be replaced with healthy wood.
In this regard, it is useful to draw the attention of the cutter to the fact that "soft" and "easily cut" material by the tool are not always the same. So, for example, the skin is used to straighten the blade of a knife (this is also used by wood carvers) or a straight razor. Cutting leather, a material softer than wood, dulls the knife more. And the cutter of a lathe is blunted from wood more than from steel.
Considering the external similar signs of pine and spruce, the carver must take into account that the contrast of the growth rings of these wood species decreases over time, the wood acquires a generalized deep ocher tone. If the contrast of the stripes spoils the craft, it should be borne in mind that this drawback will decrease over time or completely disappear. Conversely, when contrasting growth rings are used for additional decor products, the achieved effect will decrease after the wood is exposed to light.
Note that the color of the heartwood and sapwood gradually levels off over time. This applies to both pine and larch, although there are disease-prone pine woods where the sapwood is even darker than the heartwood.
Let us draw the attention of the wood carver to the fact that often not all the positive properties of spruce and pine are used for decorative finishes threaded product. Obviously, the reason for this is the availability and abundance of the material, which causes insufficient "respect" for it.
(by the way, in many countries where this abundance of conifers is not present, pine, spruce and especially larch as construction material more expensive than mahogany). A more careful attitude to our conifers and the study of them opens wide opportunities using the described trees. It has been noticed, for example, that the warmest tone (yellow or orange) has a mature pine wood. Separate tarred areas of a dry pine that has stood in the forest for a long time resemble amber. Such wood retains its shape and hardness, does not soften from heat. It is good to make beads, berries, decorative inserts in intarsia from it. The author conducted an experiment on collecting tarred pieces of pine wood, made from them a grape brush, recruited from chiseled berries. Aged in the sun and varnished, it really seemed amber, and individual berries shone through like grapes. Even the stripes of the annual layers, with their certain orientation and the turn of the chiseled berry, made the carving even more expressive. The most suitable tarred places in a pine trunk for such a purpose are knots running inside the trunk and places where the tree is injured (tarring). With such brushes, recruited from chiseled berries, inserted with legs into holes on wooden base brushes, it is good to decorate the outer contour of any frame or use them to decorate a carved column, for example, in house carvings (see Fig. 18 and 27).
The tarred parts of the pine should not be tarred before varnishing: this makes them dull and gray. This happens due to the fact that the resin (resin) dissolves in the oil.
It is advisable to combine a dark-ocher brush from the resinous parts of pine in an ornament with lighter white leaves of grapes from the same pine, but made of heartwood or sapwood. Type-setting wood can also be used for leaves, using strips of annual layers of leaf components as leaf veins, as well as varying the pattern of veins with the width of the strips, depending on the direction of the leaf processing plane to annual rings. For the main veins, it is advantageous to make inserts from dark veneer.
The core of an old large pine with large annual rings is very beautiful in longitudinal section and along and across the rings, it has an amber hue and looks like lemon Tree. This wood especially turns yellow when the craft from it is exposed to the sun and aged for one to two weeks, then oiled and again aged in the sun and air. At the same time, the contrast of annual rings softens, the general ocher tone deepens. From the core of the pine, you can select areas of lighter rings for making berries from them, yellow inserts for intarsia.
Unlike spruce, pine wood is characterized by an interlacing of the fibers of the trunk with the fibers of the knots extending from this trunk, which gives an interesting pattern in the cut. This is now used by some carvers for the manufacture of chiseled or multifaceted vases, stands for stationery. As a blank for such crafts, the so-called whorl is used - part of the trunk with branches. The more knots depart from the trunk in this place, the more interesting the drawing on the craft will turn out. The threaded product can be made from one whorl, and from a set, where several small whorls are preliminarily glued layer by layer on flat machined surfaces and with their most varied orientation to each other. It is clear that in this case At the forefront of technology is the adjustment of the surfaces to be glued, i.e. preferably the presence of machine processing.
Even more interesting crafts using gnarled pine can be obtained by gluing the product with layers of such wood. It does not have to be a chiseled or faceted vase. By manual selection and fitting along curved, curved seams, it is possible to obtain a product of any shape, and individual parts can be solid-cut from the same pine or wood that contrasts in color (for example, from linden, birch). For a vase, such details can be a lid, a handle, a bottom (base), an inclined ornament, etc. (in Fig. 47 of the insert, a vase is made in this solution, but from a different material, similar to striped pine). When gluing crafts with layers of pine wood using sawdust kneading on carpentry glue, it is not necessary to accurately fit the joints of curved surfaces, as well as in the gaps in the seams, you can insert between the gluing parts additional detail any shape and any size, but in harmony with the wood pattern.
Pine wood behaves interestingly, which, due to the disease, has acquired a reddish or even bright red hue. These reddenings come across on various places of a trunk. As a result of the experiments carried out by the author with such wood, it turned out in one case that the oiled and aged wood gradually lost its completely beautiful shade and turned into ordinary wood. In another case, such reddening was detected in a large trunk of a long-standing dry pine. Under the influence of light and oil, this wood, with a slight tarnishing of the red tint, acquired a pronounced contrast of growth rings, while the resinous layers turned dark red, the texture of the wood became exceptionally elegant and decorative. It is especially beneficial to turn such rings (bands) into wide ones, orienting them according to the shape of the surface to be treated.
Let us also draw the reader's attention to the fact that the long, thin roots of pine have exceptional flexibility and are therefore used for artistic weaving. This can also be used by a woodcarver when it is necessary that a bent part be reliable and convenient in a carved product (for example, the handle of a small vase, the tail of a monkey). Some craftsmen use spruce roots for this purpose, which are also suitable for artistic weaving.
We will talk about other properties of pine and spruce that manifest themselves during its processing, as well as about the technology of processing this wood itself, when describing house carving, where coniferous wood is the main material.
Larch.
Larch 4 (see Fig. 10) is the only European coniferous tree with needles falling for the winter. It is the most common in our country. There is more of it than spruce, pine and fir combined. Moreover, it grows much faster than these trees (1 m per year). In addition, it has the highest yield. And only two factors prevent its widespread use: firstly, when it is in water for a long time, and therefore, the possibilities of alloying are limited, and secondly, this wood is more difficult to process than pine and especially spruce. It is heavy, dense, its strength and density is 30% greater than that of pine.
However, larch has a valuable property - it is resistant to decay, especially in conditions of severe wetting. Piles, supports, sleepers, telegraph poles, dams, moorings, ship formwork are made from this wood, and without special impregnation. In addition, larch is the champion among trees in terms of frost resistance. Products from it, found in excavations in Altai, lay for 25 centuries. The wheels of the war chariots of the Scythians were also made of larch.
We also take into account the fact that larch is a long-liver. True, in some foreign literature, spruce and fir (up to 700 years) are considered long-lived among conifers in Europe, and the life span of larch and pine is taken up to 300 years. But in the Sayans there is larch up to 900 years old. (The longest-lived tree found on the American continent is the Mexican Taxodia, growing in Santa Maria del Tula, about 6,000 years old.)
The thickness of the trunks of such trees can be judged by the fact that the larch planted by Peter the Great on the shores of the Gulf of Finland has a trunk with two girths. Such large sizes of the ridge make it possible to conceive a corresponding craft, which is impossible to make otherwise than from a whole tree trunk. Of course, this in no way means that you need to cut off for carving. relict trees, but the opportunity to meet thick trunks in larch is greater than in other trees.
Larch, like pine, is a sound breed. It has a pronounced large dark core, the texture is also similar to that of pine, but brighter and more decorative, so larch is often used for furniture cladding. The signs and rules for using it in carving are similar.
When dried, larch wood is more prone to cracking than pine and spruce.
We have already mentioned that some craftsmen boil the larch bark on purpose to obtain a red dye, which is used to stain the wood. True, the author of these lines has not been able to test such staining for light fastness over time or come across data about it in the literature. The reader is given the opportunity to experience this property in practice. It must be assumed that for staining the most suitable wood larch itself, as well as for staining walnut tree an alcohol solution of the distillation product of ground nut shells or the juice of this tree is used.
Fir
Fir (see Fig. 10) is a non-core tree (like spruce). Its wood is the lightest. Therefore, fir is very soft and, along with cedar, is the least resistant to impact dents. In terms of splitting strength, the wood of both these trees ranks last among the wood of trees of other ornamental species.
Fir is used for handicrafts, which should be light, and also instead of spruce, including for the production of musical instruments. It has a particular application in the production of pulp.
A distinctive feature of fir wood is the absence of smell. But its bark smells strong and very pleasant. The needles of white, or European, fir (there are about nine types of fir in our country) are soft, on the reverse side of each needle there are two white stripes. Fir balsam is obtained from the bark, and fir oil is obtained from needles and branches.
In house carving, boards made from this wood can be used as a background for slotted and laid on carvings. For embossed and even more complex artistic crafts, it is better not to take fir.
Cedar
The scientific name of cedar is Siberian pine. According to the physical mechanical properties it is located between Siberian spruce and fir, but is more resistant to decay than them. Cedar is very well cut and processed in all directions. By the way, pencils are made just from cedar. For carving, including brownie, it is a valuable material, especially since it has a beautiful texture and a pleasant yellow-pink or light pink color of the core. Annual rings and the transition of the core to a wide yellowish-white sapwood are not sharp, shaded.
The wood has a characteristic smell of pine nuts. Unlike other conifers, cedar has the largest resin canals (a sign for recognizing wood species). It is not resistant to impact and splitting, but in terms of resistance to cracking during drying, it belongs to the group of resistant species (like spruce, pine, fir, aspen, linden, poplar). The density of cedar is insignificant, it belongs to light rocks, it cuts very well under a carving tool, it does not wrinkle.
Birch
Its wood is the lightest (white with a yellowish or reddish tint), which is taken into account in carving, marquetry, and intarsia. On the radial split, you can see narrow shiny and short transverse stripes - core rays. There are also longitudinal brown dashes - core repetitions.
Birch wood is homogeneous, fine-grained, well cut. It is convenient to use it for small crafts (Fig. 17), since birch reacts to temperature and humidity and can warp in large products. For the same reasons, birch carvings are best oiled with vegetable oil, which, due to its slow drying, has time to penetrate deeply. The oil will protect the wood from moisture. It is even safer to keep dry birch for 4-5 hours in hot oil, linseed or sunflower, but do not boil, because in boiling oil birch, especially if not dried, can crack or even darken and char. With moderate drying in natural conditions, birch does not crack (only small cracks are possible from the end), so the birch block can be dried sanded. On outdoors birch wood rots quickly, even if it is protected from rain. Therefore, birch is not used in house carving.
Beautiful carved crafts can be made from the butt of a birch, especially in places where the ridge passes into the roots. The texture of such wood with spectacular moiré stains is advantageous to use in polished smooth surfaces, for example, in the deepening of the bowl of a vase, sometimes with intarsia with other types of monotonous dark wood or with incised marquetry.
Ordinary smooth and polished birch wood has the ability to reflect light differently depending on the direction of the fibers. At the same time, its color changes from restrained grayish to bright light, when the luster of wood appears. This is used by marketers to vary colors and shades. For example, from the same sheet of birch veneer, you can get both the sky and the clouds on it. If small pieces of veneer various shapes glue the surface of the craft, you get an interesting shimmering background. The cutter needs to know this. In this way, it is possible to close defects in wood or flaws in carvings, for example, on the surface of a vase. Facing such a surface can be done with inserts from other types of wood, i.e. apply the marquetry or intarsia method (see Fig. 232).
The indicated property of birch wood (especially due to the fact that it is very light) also has negative sides: its pieces cannot be joined, since the seam will certainly be noticeable, and the joined parts will differ from each other; flaws on wood cannot be masked with inserts and covered with putty. For example, on the table top (see Fig. 32 of the insert), in order to make the tone of the interlacing tape uniform, it was necessary to abandon the marquetry lining of the table top (from making this tape in a docked form) and use a more laborious intarsia method: cut on a flat field of a tabletop covered with ordinary plywood, the entire top veneer, except for the pattern of the tape ornament, and glue the veneer of a different color in this place.
Birch has one special property compared to other known types of wood: it has the least resistance to splitting in the radial direction. This is also used when chopping birch firewood, always directing the ax to the core of the churak. The same property was used earlier by peasants and shoemakers for piercing plates from birch blocks, from which shoe wooden nails were then made. Also, such plates easily succumbed to sharpening with a knife from the side of one edge when moving the knife tip forward (see Fig. 107). The wood carver will remember this feature of birch, which is easy to process and, if necessary, uses in his work.
As for the split in the tangential direction, the birch is quite strong.
From birch as a break-resistant wood, ax handles are made for axes subject to power loads, for example, when chopping firewood, as well as handles for tools.
Aspen
Folklore has created an aura of mysticism and mystery around the aspen. In proverbs and sayings, it is characterized unflatteringly:
"Aspen is ugly, bitchy and noisy."
"Aspen does not burn without kerosene."
"The aspen whispers all the time, damned tree" (aspen leaves on long legs and constantly in motion; according to legend, Judas strangled himself on the aspen).
"There is blood under the bark on the aspen" (the bark under the skin is reddish).
"Fever and teeth are spoken on the aspen" (the bark of the gums is rubbed until it bleeds).
Aspen wood is also not favored as an ornamental material in the special literature on woodworking: it occupies one of the last places in terms of the percentage of output of parts of excellent and good quality during processing - planing, milling, turning, drilling. But wood carvers love aspen, like linden, for its ease of processing, for its light tone, fine fiber texture, and for the fact that it is affordable and even more common than linden. In the handicraft industry, aspen is also "respected" for the fact that it is not afraid of moisture, for its low density. Only Siberian fir and poplar have a density less than that of aspen, while linden has the same density. Therefore, aspen is used to make light toys and dishes. Previously, troughs, tubs, and gangs were made from it. In addition, it does not crack and does not prick from impact. In addition, aspen peels well - shingles are made from it, matches are made.
Those who are familiar with it better look at the aspen in a completely different way. It turns out that healthy tree aspen, if it dries out for at least two or three months, burns very well without kerosene. When aspen burns, the chimney of the furnace is cleaned from soot, since it has amazing ability burn during its combustion the soot that remains in the furnace from other tree species. Therefore, it goes to the furnace of rural and regional baths, village houses, boiler houses. It is here that a woodcarver can find a churak for handicrafts of small sizes with blind carvings, and he will not be mistaken if he does this in advance, for future use. The fact is that aspen has another completely unexpected property - a strong increase in strength during exposure. With her lightness! The practice of our ancestors confirms what has been said, although it does not fully reveal all the reasons and secrets. It turns out that the walls of the huts built of aspen many years ago still amaze with their strength, whiteness and purity. The ax bounces off such wood, at best it sticks only shallowly. It is not for nothing that aspen is now used in villages for the manufacture of shelves and benches in baths, for facing their walls - it is hygienic, bright and clean, not afraid of moisture, does not warp or crack.
It also turns out that experienced villagers make handles and handles for agricultural implements, when the combination of lightness and strength, just from aspen, is worth its weight in gold. Only for this purpose it is necessary to cut down a young aspen in the spring, when the wood is filled with juice, and allow it to dry well in the shade - to dry out. Then it will become both light and strong, like a bone. Obviously, the aspen does not just dry out, some kind of polymerization occurs under the action of the components of its juice.
Oral legends say that they did the same with the harvesting of aspen logs for construction, only on each of them two or three grooves were made along the log on the bark so that the wood did not rot during drying, and the necessary juice was preserved in moderation.
For the same reasons, when drying an unskinned aspen trunk, some of the branches were sometimes left on its top, which pulled excess moisture out of the wood. To obtain the ideal aspen wood, its trunks were harvested along with the birth of a son in the family, and it dried up until the son was separated from the family and a house was built for him.
The best ax for a carpenter and joiner, as well as for a home craftsman, is also made from well-aged aspen. It is not only light, but it also does not bruise the hand, does not fill corns, which usually happens when working with a birch ax handle, polished and slipping out of hands (although it is better to buy an ax handle for an ax for chopping firewood from birch: its fracture strength does not depend slept from the time of year).
The woodworker, of course, will take into account these remarks about aspen - he will not miss the opportunity to stock up on aspen aged for years, but cut down in the spring. It turns out that, depending on the exposure time, the carver can use aspen of any hardness. The craft, made of soft aspen, acquires hardness over time, becoming not only resistant to splitting, but also to accidental dents from impacts.
Another property of aspen deserves attention, which is a vice in woodworking, but a godsend for a carver in house carving. This is the presence of a hollow and rot in the middle of large trunks. From them you will get a beautiful hollow carved column (Fig. 18), and you need to choose wood until an annular layer of the desired thickness is formed in a damp trunk and do not worry about drying the workpiece further: in this form it will not crack, but will only shrink more densely (see. section on wood drying). In this case, there is no need to achieve the strength of seasoned aspen.
In terms of shear strength, aspen is similar to linden and surpasses conifers in this, as well as poplar. And in terms of resistance to splitting from impact, it stands next to birch and ash, even ahead of beech, oak, maple, walnut, linden, coniferous trees. This indicates the viscosity of aspen.
The author also tested aspen aged for several years in carving (Fig. 19), it proved to be very good. As if the cross cut of the aspen turns out to be uneven, on appearance even loose. But it's worth cutting it sharp knife as a clean, even cut is found. Such aspen is cut elastically, even tight, with effort, but the surface is good in all directions, it is perfectly ground and polished. If you grab a part of the trunk with a branch to a knot to prepare a craft, you can get a game of texture when finishing this place, not at all like aspen, but in warm colors, somewhat reminiscent even of Karelian birch. You just need to avoid the core of the aspen - in the craft it will be a loose dark brown strip.
Taking into account the indicated properties of aspen, it is especially advantageous to use it for crafts with blind carvings, for making complex, one-piece ornaments or such decorations as in Fig. twenty.
Let us also mention the famous property of the silvery glow of aspen, which we observe on the roofs of the cathedrals of wooden architecture of the North of our country covered with plowshares (figured carved planks). The fact is that, as we have already mentioned, any wood that is not protected by varnishes or paints becomes gray and gradually collapses and rots. Unpainted aspen also turns gray, but unlike other types of wood, it is more resistant to weathering and, having acquired its silvery gray color with a metallic tint over several years (according to some reports, for 8-10 years), it retains it for many decades. . The use of the plowshare in the roof was reinforced not only by the interesting shape of the plowshare itself, but also by the successful use of the silvery color of aspen in it, playing on the relief of the roof and forming a whole range of transitions from light and sparkling illuminated places to dark gray, almost black, in shaded recesses. It must be assumed that for the plowshare the old masters used just high-quality wood blanks, i.e. cut down during the filling of the aspen with spring juice.
It is precisely this enchanting silvery glow, which cannot be compared with any decorative color, that the restored ancient hipped-roof church of the Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery near Vologda, transported there from another place, possesses.
Note that the cold gray color combines favorably with red and burgundy. This is taken into account when restoring some churches and cathedrals made of red brick with gray lead or even painted roofs, slopes, and tents.
In appearance, aspen can only be confused with its related poplar (aspen has a second name - trembling poplar). She, like the white poplar, has a smooth greenish-gray bark, brownish at the base, cracked (in old trees). But the aspen leaf, in contrast to the poplar leaf, is ovoid (Fig. 2 inset).
Linden
This tree has a very soft wood, easily cut with a sharp knife (a dull knife will crumple some loose places). On the scale of hardness of 50 European and exotic wood species, linden is in first place (the softest). Therefore, it is widely used by professional carvers to make various crafts. If you have experience and a sharp tool, linden carving does not require much effort, the ability to cut significant amounts of wood with a knife often makes it possible to do carving with a small amount of tools. But linden, like aspen, is quite suitable for the manufacture of complex reliefs of deaf house carving.
Linden has valuable feature- little change in shape. That is why drawing boards, models in the foundry, dishes, barrels for honey and other food, blanks in the production of hats are made from it.
But the linden is famous in woodcarving as good stuff for geometric carving and for small crafts: shelves, coasters, frames (Fig. 21, 22). However, for solid works of relief carving and for sculpture, it is better not to use linden: it is easily vulnerable both from blows and from accidental disruption of the chisel, and the light tone of linden and its delicate texture do not allow repairing flaws. Of course, if a linden product is intended for subsequent painting, then this drawback can be easily eliminated.
Note that sometimes there is such a kind of linden, especially overdried, which is difficult to cut: the wood is wrinkled, and the tool quickly becomes dull.
If the carver decides to use an old drawing board for ornament (previously they were just made of linden), then it must be borne in mind that only areas where buttons were not pressed in can be suitable for carving with a transparent finish. The place from the tip of the button after processing will stand out as a spot on a light background of linden wood. Artificial sealing of such places with tinted putty will also not work: even a carefully matched putty color will be noticeable under certain lighting conditions. In general, the contact of any wood with metal leads to its darkening, and with prolonged contact of some types of wood with iron - to blackening (for example, oak).
Linden grows very slowly, but is a long-liver: small-leaved linden lives up to 800, and large-leaved linden lives up to 1000 years and reaches a diameter of 3-4 m. But large-leaved linden penetrates to the east of Europe only to Western Ukraine and Moldova. It blooms two weeks earlier than the small-leaved linden.
The most characteristic species features of linden are as follows: later flowering time than other trees, fruits are smooth ball-shaped nuts 4-6 mm in diameter, the reverse side of the leaf has barbs of hairs in the corners of the veins (see Fig. 2 inset). Other features: the leaf is heart-shaped, pointed; blooms with small yellowish flowers with a characteristic pleasant (honey) smell; the bark is dark gray, furrowed.
Its wood is light, soft and viscous. It cuts very well, does not prick when carving, is not brittle, does not crack when dried. The end of the wood is processed well and can be used for the front side of the craft, for example, for making ornaments on flat end cuts with round blanks(Fig. 3 inset). Alder is especially good for small miniature crafts, such as intarsia, where inserts of yellow and brown tones are required (see fig. 38 of the insert). Viscous and malleable for processing in all directions, it is used in such critical products as musical instruments: in some types of accordions, all wooden details are made only from alder. Alder burl is especially valuable for artistic crafts.
To strengthen yellow dry alder, usefully treated surface, periodically wetting with water, hold in the sun, and then varnish. It is even more effective to moisten the craft with the juice of the same, alder, wood.
Fresh cut white, i.e. ordinary, alder (in total, about 15 species of alder grow in our country) quickly turns yellow, up to orange tones, but then the bright yellow color fades, the wood turns gray, although the end remains quite yellow. Dry wood in split and cross section also not a bright yellow color, but under oil or drying oil it again acquires, although not as bright as in a fresh cut, but a fairly intense, uniform color that distinguishes it from other types of wood. Under the influence of oil, alder acquires a particularly rich yellow color from the butt, which can be used to tone out handicrafts made on end cuts, or such details that we spoke about when describing resinous pine knots. For example, a carver can use this property if he decides to make some kind of house carving decoration using the natural color of various types of wood and coating them with oil (fruits, flowers in a garland - Fig. 23). In this case, it will be useful to combine alder details with ocher, deep-colored details made from internal resinous pine knots. Suitable for this purpose are the heart part of the apple tree, and the pear imitated with crapp-lacquer (artistic paint) under mahogany, as well as the imitated alder itself (see the description of oak wood).
A characteristic negative property of alder is that it is very poorly drilled (the last place among the known ornamental species). Another disadvantage of this wood, uniform in texture and color in the total mass, is that it often contains core repetitions in the form of longitudinal narrow brown dashes, and sometimes in the form of darker wide inclusions.
In sunlight, alder wood loses its orange hue in two to three months, its color becomes similar to the color of aged pine wood.
Species signs of alder are as follows. The fruits are woody cones on strong stems 14-18 mm in size, which is especially noticeable in winter. In black alder, the leaf is obovate or rounded, bluntly chopped off or even having a notch; the trunk (only in black alder) is elongated, straight. Black alder got its name from the black-brown color of the bark with cracks. Flowers with earrings in black alder are formed since autumn and bloom in March. In white (or gray) alder, flowering is two weeks earlier, its leaf is broadly oval, gray-green on the underside, the bark is smooth, gray in old age. White alder wood is slightly lighter and stronger than yellow-red black alder wood.
Pear
Its wood is especially delicate, fine-textured, very beautiful in small crafts and in combination with other types of wood (intarsia, mixed carving technique). It is useful for the carver to keep in reserve blocks and canvases of old T-series, once made from pear wood. When making carved wooden frames internal edging made of pear wood (partial strips from the T-square) can be very useful in combination with wood of many species, both light and dark tones. It is easy to do and looks noble. From a pear, for example, a twisted edging is cut out on the tabletop (see Fig. 32 of the insert).
A garden or wild pear can also be used in house carving, of course, it is better for highly artistic details. By the way, wild pear wood is better suited for carving, it is more viscous, almost does not crack.
The pear requires careful carving, with power techniques it gives chips, and not along the fibers and not in a straight line. With light tinting with krapplak (art paint), the pear successfully imitates mahogany, and with the help of
carcass or black nigrozine, it can be turned into an artificial ebony (ebony) tree.
The pear has another amazing feature - to resist splitting from impact, especially in the tangential direction. Of all the common ornamental wood species, only the most durable white locust wood is ahead of it in this. Even the wood of hornbeam, elm, birch, ash is inferior to pear in tangential splitting strength. Here, of course, its extraordinary viscosity affects.
In terms of resistance to splitting in the radial direction, the pear occupies an average place among the wood of other ornamental species.
The pear warps a little from atmospheric influences - a property that is also useful for house carving. It is no coincidence that earlier patterns, drawing t-height rails, frames of optical instruments were made from a pear.
Characteristic features of the species difference of an ordinary pear: in the leaves of a round-ovate shape, the petiole is longer than the leaf blade, the lateral short shoots end in a sharp spike.
Beech
This wood is an excellent ornamental material for interior decoration (Fig. 24). Beech is not suitable for house carving, as it is extremely hygroscopic and warps when wet. If, for example, the entire treated surface of a beech plank is wetted, it will bend until it completely loses its shape. So, for crafts, if there is a danger of moisture getting on it, you can use only well-oiled beech.
Beech can help out a novice carver when he does not have more suitable material in stock.
Beech has a fine-textured wood; it is easy to recognize it among other types of wood by short strokes on a longitudinal, especially tangential, cut. These strokes seem to have been applied evenly over the entire surface with a thin pen in brown ink. Beech does not have a core, the wood is yellowish-reddish, sometimes dark, similar to mahogany. Beech is characterized by the presence of wide core rays, which are clearly visible on the radial section in the form of curved spangles directed perpendicular to the wood fibers.
Beech cuts very well, although dry wood crumbles and pricks in fine carvings across the grain. This drawback can be reduced by lightly wetting the area being treated, but before wetting one place, the other should be allowed to dry, bearing in mind the hygroscopic nature of the wood.
Beech is a champion among other common ornamental wood species in terms of its ability to be well planed, processed on lathe, bend in a steamed state (in this it is second only to a nut). Resistant to splitting, but unstable to cracking. Subject to decay. In everyday life, it is used to make drawing rulers and squares, shoe lasts, parquet, furniture (especially cribs and playpens). These end-of-life items can be used for carving.
Characteristic features of the difference between the forest beech (or European): the bark is smooth silver-gray; leaves are simple, entire (i.e., without denticles along the edges), wavy; the fruit is trihedral, sharply ribbed nuts 1 cm in size are located two in a spinous cupule (Fig. 4 of the insert), when ripe they fall to the ground.
Beech grows in Western Ukraine, the Caucasus and the Crimea.
Poplar
Its wood is very soft, light, its density is even lower than that of linden and aspen. Therefore, poplar is used for the manufacture of wooden shovels, troughs, dugouts, plywood. It is a sound rock with white sapwood and a light brown heartwood. The softness of poplar is a disadvantage for carving - it sometimes wrinkles, and is not cut, especially when working with chisels, chisels, and is not resistant to dents from impacts. It is susceptible to rotting, fungal attack, unstable to splitting from impact. In the very last place among the most famous species is poplar in terms of the percentage of output of parts of good and excellent quality: when planing (21%), milling (3%), grinding (in this it is slightly better than only linden, which has an indicator of 17%). Worse than poplar, only alder is drilled (it has an indicator of 64%). The only advantage of poplar compared to other species is that it is easy to hammer a nail into it - the wood does not crack. In this case, only willow can compete with him. But screwing screws is easiest in poplar.
As can be seen from the above characteristics, it is better not to use poplar in carving, but to use it for such auxiliary parts, such as, for example, background boards on which an overlay thread is mounted with nails and screws, background shields for attaching an overhead thread and on which a contour ornament is cut out house carving.
Also in house carving, soft poplar can be used to make a hollow box of a carved decorative column or other large parts (see Fig. 477 and 479).
The most valuable and distinctive quality of poplar (albeit, some of its species) for a woodcarver is the unusually beautiful flat cuts of its butt. Such wood is used for the manufacture of veneer for facing expensive furniture. In house carving, this veneer can be used for panels and panels in carved frame, well protecting them with transparent waterproof varnishes. At the very least, you should not pass by the butt or hemp of a felled poplar. It can go into making a large decorative vase, part of a column, etc., where large and smooth polished surfaces will bring out the ornate pattern of its texture.
By the appearance of the trunk and bark, white (or silver) poplar can be confused with its related aspen. But the white poplar has different leaves (see Fig. 3 inserts): not rounded, like those of aspen, but five-lobed. Black poplar differs markedly from aspen in its dark gray bark with deep longitudinal cracks and triangular or rhombic leaves, wedge-shaped at the end.
Apple tree
The wood of the apple tree is heavy and dense. It has an almost brown heartwood, very different from the creamy sapwood. It has a number of undoubted specific properties useful for carving small interior crafts, as well as in intarsia, where the deep ocher tone of its sound part is appreciated. In house carving, it is used only in small crafts and in overhead carving. Performing large crafts from an apple tree is practically impossible, since it cracks badly when dried. Not only in a short, gnarled and knotty trunk, but also among the branches, it is difficult to find a whole area suitable for carving, especially since the apple tree itself or its branches are cut down when they die and often already rot. Rotten wood, if it is also dry, is cut with great difficulty. It is viscous, dense, sometimes crumpled under the blade, it is especially difficult to carve from the end and in the core part, where it sometimes crumbles into small crumbs and dust. It is necessary to adapt to the direction of the wood fibers with short sliding cuts of the knife. When cutting the ends of the board with a semicircular chisel, a rotational movement of the tool is performed while advancing the blade with the help of thumb left hand. In the direction of the fibers, the apple tree is cut much easier, and if you use the sliding movements of the knife, you can get shiny, even cuts. The apple tree is sawn very well: therefore, wherever possible, a saw should be used.
The inconvenience of working with an apple tree also lies in the fact that due to the great effort when using the tool, and this is due to the density and viscosity of the wood, it is often necessary to grind the tool. Sometimes the blade of a knife or chisel even crumbles.
Perhaps it is more interesting to use in the apple tree for carving the raw wood of its young knots, which for some reason are removed from the tree. It is completely homogeneous, without a core, white and dense. Perfectly cut with any tool and in any direction, very well sharpened, drilled. Therefore, it is used only for some overhead parts, especially round (also turned) or with a figured tip, jewelry (Fig. 25, a, c). True, it is necessary to take measures against cracking of the wood that dries up then in the finished part.
Let us give one example, where the young raw wood of an apple tree has undoubted advantages over other tree species. We are talking about the manufacture of chains of round rings, where the rings are made of raw wood apple trees are easily sharpened and do not crack when dried (they only decrease slightly in diameter). The ring of raw wood can be broken and, using the springy properties of wood, two others, whole, can be inserted into it, and then the gap can be glued again - this is how the chain is assembled. Of course, such rings from the end cuts of an apple tree, turned or made by hand with a circle cutter, can be used both for decorating house carvings and for carving interiors.
As for the use of the dark ocher core of the apple tree for the manufacture of artistic crafts from multi-colored natural wood (see "Oak"), here: the apple tree will take its rightful place.
Here are the species characteristics of a /wild apple tree: the bark is light brown, flaking off with scales; elliptical toothed leaf with four to five pairs of veins; petiole shorter than lamina.
Cherry
The wood of the cut down old cherry tree should be saved for use in woodcarving. It is hardly suitable for house carving, but it is quite suitable for interior crafts.
Cherry wood is dense (heavy) and viscous, but cuts well in all directions. The texture of an adult tree is surprisingly elegant. Its core is wide and dark in the form of darker and lighter rings, the sapwood is narrow, light, sometimes completely white, especially in knots and in young cherries. wood drawings different trees sometimes very different, but each time they are original and beautiful. Young shoots are often completely white and uniform, and perennial cherries in longitudinal, oblique and transverse sections have a clear striped texture in the form of large, wide dark (burgundy and brown) and light stripes. In the dark stripes of mature cherry wood, layers of overgrown bark and other anomalies are sometimes found. In a decorative sense, this is even interesting, but often leads to defects: in places of overgrown bark, cracks, delaminations, and chipping can form, which will require gluing and puttying. However, such corrections are not at all difficult to make, especially since dark wood they will be invisible.
As a decorative wood in carvings for interior crafts, cherry is perhaps superior to whorl pine and juniper. From it, especially using oblique sections of young trunks, branches, it is good to make miniature crafts in the form of key chains, brooches, bracelets, i.e. crafts in which there should be a smooth polished surface (see Fig. 211). For relief carving, cherry wood is not very suitable because of the striped texture; in this it is similar to larch and pine.
In house carving, the use of cherry is limited, in particular, by the small size of the blanks. But using the decorative texture of cherry in small panels or rosettes on a flat (perhaps even convex) smooth and polished surface is perhaps tempting (Figure 26),
Distinctive species features of bird cherries: the bark is reddish-brown, peeling across with thin films; the leaves are ovate, serrated along the edges, on the petiole of the leaf there are two reddish glands, just like in bird cherry.
Oak
Oak wood can be attributed to the most suitable for house carving: hard to crush, strong enough to split, well planed, perfectly drilled and processed on a lathe, excellently polished, even bends in a steamed state (barrels are made from oak in everyday life). But the most valuable quality of oak in house carving is that it is a long-liver, is not afraid of moisture, and does not warp.
The main volume in oak wood is occupied by a yellowish-brown, sometimes dark brown core, which sharply turns into a narrow light yellow sapwood. The annual layers are clearly defined. Distinctive feature oak textures: wide flame-like core rays, clearly visible in the transverse and especially in the radial section. It is here that the beauty of oak is especially manifested. In the interior, oak is used for small and large crafts. It is curious that the carved wall panels made by Peter I were made of oak.
Oak wood cuts like any other hardwood. True, sometimes there are also such species of oak (there are about 450 of them in total), which are cut with great difficulty and greatly blunt the instrument. The disadvantages of oak wood include, firstly, porosity, therefore, before coating with a transparent varnish or paint, it is sometimes necessary to use a filler, and secondly, the risk of cracking during drying and very long natural drying (7-8 years).
In oak house carving, you can make any products and details: from complex high-relief (solid-cut and prefabricated) panels to small overhead and attached parts. And carved massive doors made of oak, covered with weather-resistant transparent lacquers, often decorate buildings, especially administrative ones. In practice, the reader can use (and then, obviously, on occasion) only small blanks of oak wood, from which it will be possible to design some kind of isolated ornament or applied carving. Of course, it is not advisable to paint oak; for this purpose, more accessible wood should be used.
When working with oak, it should be taken into account that it is very sensitive to vegetable oil (sunflower, linseed, natural drying oil, etc.) - stains often appear on its surface from oil. Oak wood must be coated with quick-drying, weather-resistant clear varnishes.
It is possible to make a carved composition from oak parts in combination with parts from wood of other species that are related to it in color (walnut, pear, apple, alder, beech), and maybe contrasting in color (ash, aspen, linden, young wood). apple and cherry trees). Imagine a column with twisted garlands, flowers and fruits, which can serve as a support for the entrance arch, gate (Fig. 27), or the same semi-columns instead of pilasters on the facade of the building, at its corners. But, of course, here we do not consider the reality of performing such crafts in terms of composition and possibilities. This is just an example of the use of oak wood. However, the author also pursues another goal - to push the reader to an interesting, original idea. In this case, it will be most difficult to make from pine or larch (spruce, aspen are also suitable) the central pillar of a twisted column or the core of a semi-column so that it does not crack. For this purpose, the half-column rod should be made hollow, and for this you will have to make a special tool - an adze. The round column also needs to be hollow and will require a special tool to make it. Find oak blanks for garland leaves (at least old parquet) or small blanks for making fruits, flowers, acorns, etc. from apple, pear, alder, walnut, resinous knots of pine is not difficult at all. Even beech in the form of small balls (pistils of flowers) or birch in small volumes can be used here, although on condition that they are protected from getting wet.
For small embossed interior crafts, it is better not to recommend oak wood to a novice carver, because due to its hardness, porosity and oil fear, it is a lot of trouble.
Very good for intarsia and marquetry bog oak like "natural" ebony. But you can only find it by chance. In our central strip of Russia, rivers often change their course, washing away either the right or the left bank. In such cases, it is possible to wash out from the shore the trees that once sunk during the rafting, including oak, which over time became stained. Moraine can be oak structures and details of sunken ships, oak piles that were once driven in, protecting the shore of a lake or river from erosion, even boards from old beer or wine barrels.
However, it is also possible to make oak stained artificially. It has been noticed that the place of the wood, which was hit by a bullet during the war, becomes very dark. By analogy, if you put oak veneer plates in a container for several weeks and sprinkle them with layers of wet iron filings, they will darken, and you will get an interesting color. Probably, the mention that has come down to us from ancient times is based on the same principle that in order to give an oak craft a dark color, it was placed in molten lead. We will talk about this in more detail in the "Burning. Firing" section.
Nut
Of the two types of nuts that grow in the CIS, the most common is walnut, or Caucasian. Its wood has all the properties necessary for carving. This valuable wood used for the most exquisite small and openwork crafts (Fig. 28). Only with an abundance of walnut wood and the intention to make highly artistic carvings of exceptional quality can one use it for the exterior decoration of a house.
The wood of a freshly cut walnut is light, but in the product it darkens, becomes brownish with a reddish or yellowish tint, sometimes the tint is gray. Such overflows of color are explained by the fact that the wood of the core is darker (brownish-gray in color), gradually turning into a wide grayish-brown sapwood. Annual layers are wide, slightly sinuous, visible on all sections. Walnut wood is tender and soft, well planed, it is one of the best woods for drilling and turning, in addition, it bends well when steamed. In terms of resistance to splitting, it is between pear and oak.
The finest patterns can be carved from walnut both along the grain of the wood and across them, so it is especially readily used by carvers for geometric carving on caskets, vases, chiseled crafts, etc.
Let us draw the reader's attention to the fact that an alcoholic solution of the distillation products of crushed burnt walnut shells is a good brown stain, similar to natural, used for staining wood (see "Tinting"). A walnut burl with a reddish tint is considered the most valuable among all tree species (its mass reaches 1600 kg).
Another type of walnut of our country - Manchurian - has a beautiful silvery glow on the cut. Valuable black walnut grows in North America, got its name for the dark brown bark. The wood of some types of imported walnut in some places is completely dark, almost black. This walnut is used in the form of veneer for furniture finishing. In marquetry, walnut veneer is valued not only for the most dark color natural wood (among veneers), but also for its extraordinary softness, which makes it easy to cut (especially wet) in all directions with a knife, and even scissors, to make any small curly cuts, crooked branches from it and not be afraid that they will split. Walnut wood behaves in the same way in carving.
Characteristic species features of the walnut: like other types of walnut, the core in the branches is discontinuous; the leaves are unpaired-pinnate, composed of five to nine leaflets, the terminal leaflet (unpaired) is the largest.
Maple
This tree has many varieties. All breeds are mostly light colors, hard, heavy, non-nuclear. The texture of the wood is homogeneous, with small sparkles or with a characteristic ripple and silky sheen. Its color is white with a yellowish or pinkish tinge. Sometimes there is a defect - a false nucleus of a greenish-gray color.
Maple is cut with effort, but the thread is clean, its surface is well processed. In this sense, light-colored maple wood is a good substitute for linden wood as a softer and more wrinkled material, or birch wood as a more prickly and weather-resistant material.
Sycamore maple (or false sycamore maple, white), which has a light, slightly yellowish wood, is most widely used in carving. Particularly valuable are its influxes (caps), called "peacock tree" or "bird's eye" for a spotted beautiful pattern with sparkles, for interesting stains in the texture with a strong interlacing of fibers and for a magnificent play of light and shadow. As well as Karelian birch, sycamore maple sags are used in the form of thin plywood for decorating even smooth surfaces.
In Canada, the sycamore maple is called sugar maple and is cultivated for the corresponding purpose, while in Europe it is bred only for decorative purposes. The place of its natural growth is the south of Europe (to Western Ukraine), cool and humid places of mountainous terrain.
From maple, as hard and viscous wood, they make blocks for planers and jointers, for soles for these and other tools, shoe blocks. In terms of resistance to indentation and chipping, maple, along with hornbeam and ash, is second only to acacia. Bigleaf maple wood, as well as black plum and walnut wood, produces 100% excellent quality parts when drilling. It is resistant to fungi and insects.
Characteristic species features of Norway maple (or sycamore), field maple (or paklen), also American (or ash-leaved) are: clawed leaf shape, double-winged fruits.
Ash
Ash wood is very dense, hard (heavy), sound. The heartwood is light brown, gradually turning into a wide yellowish-white sapwood. In cross section, light continuous wavy lines are visible along the rings. Ash wood is strong for splitting, but cracks when dried. However, successfully dried ash in handicrafts is resistant to cracking. Given its strength and ability to bend, ash is used to make skis, oars, tennis rackets, arcs, stair railing, handles for tools, it is widely used in the manufacture of furniture and joinery.
Ash wood is quite suitable for complex relief carving in both large and small crafts (Fig. 29), although it is cut with effort.
The bark of growing ash is dark gray, with longitudinal cracks.
Characteristic species features of ash: seeds with tongue-shaped wings hang in bunches among the branches, which is especially noticeable with the onset of winter; leaves pinnate with 9-13 oblong leaflets (see Fig. 4 inset); black buds in winter.
Rowan
Rowan wood has a pronounced dark core of reddish-brown color, which in the product, being covered with oil, becomes yellowish-brown or grayish-brown. The sapwood of the mountain ash is wide, reddish-white, the annual layers are clearly visible. The wood is dense (heavy), hard and very viscous, has the ability to resist shock well, therefore it is used for making handles for percussion instruments, in turning products. In general, in terms of mechanical properties, mountain ash stands next to beech, slightly inferior to it. Rowan wood has a characteristic sheen, rather a glow, which is sometimes used in decor. As an ornamental material, this wood has not found application, and the reason for this, obviously, is its viscosity, which sometimes turns into the ability to bend, so blanks or parts can be deformed.
A wood carver may be interested in the mountain ash, which is unusual for wood (in general) in the color of its heart part, which after oil treatment becomes more like a stone with specks and dark stripes from growth rings, with a changing grayish glow-glow when turning crafts. This means that in house carving, mountain ash can be useful in combination with other multi-colored woods, such as apple, alder, pear, beech, walnut, resinous pine knots (see "Oak"). Rowan can be successfully used for interior decoration. It is interesting to use the heart part of the mountain ash for the manufacture of women's breast jewelry.
Hornbeam
Its wood is heavy and hard, in terms of physical and mechanical properties it is similar to ash, but without core, grayish-white with a greenish tinge. The annual layers are wavy, of uneven width, visible only at the end. It cracks a lot and warps when it dries. The extraordinary hardness of the hornbeam, resistance to abrasion and splitting from impact (only white locust is ahead of it in this) make it possible to use hornbeam for the manufacture of gears, screws, axles, shoe nails and tool handles. The density of the hornbeam is 2.1 times higher than the density of, for example, fir, and the resistance to splitting is 3 times greater than that of fir.
The hornbeam is suitable for carving, but it is cut with great difficulty. Good imitation of ebony.
Characteristic species features of the common hornbeam: the trunk is grooved (i.e. not round, but ribbed), the bark is smooth green-gray; the fruit is a slightly flattened ribbed nut, sitting at the base of an overgrown three-lobed leaf cup (see Fig. 4 of the insert). In the CIS (in Belarus, in Ukraine, in Russia - in Far East) five species of hornbeam grow.
Elm
Elm wood is heartwood with a gradual transition from a light brown heartwood to a wide yellowish-white sapwood. The properties of elm are similar to those of ash. It also has the ability to bend well, so it is used to make wheel rims, sled skids, clamping screws in workbenches, clamps and other carpentry crafts. The ability of the elm to bend (and taking into account its light tone) should also be used by a woodcarver, for example, for making curved contours and framing in decorative panels, house carving ornaments (see Fig. 253). By the way, we note that young shoots of bird cherry are also well suited for this purpose.
Characteristic species characteristics of smooth (or common) elm: leaves are ovate, asymmetrical at the base, smooth above, roughly twice serrated along the edges; the flowers hang in a bunch on long pedicels (see Fig. 4 inset).
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus wood is one of the best for carving, but mainly residents of the south of our country can use it. Different types eucalyptus (about 30) grow mainly on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and Crimea, as well as in Azerbaijan. The wood is dense (heavy), often curly, superior in strength to oak and black walnut, but cuts well in all directions. Due to the hardness and presence essential oils dry wood is not touched by the wood borer and it almost does not rot. The large thickness of the tree allows you to design almost any craft (Fig. 30-32), which is especially valuable for house carving. Thick trunks are not uncommon in eucalyptus thickets, as this tree grows quickly, draws moisture strongly and is even used to drain marshy places.
The wood varies from very light or light ocher to deep red in various trunks and subspecies. Sometimes in one trunk there are strong deviations in color from light on the outside (sapwood) to dark in the core. There is also a color difference due to the graininess of the wood. After oil treatment and exposure to the sun, the tone of the wood is compared, but the desired play of color transitions remains.
Eucalyptus wood is so fine-grained and dense that it allows cutting even a sculpture of a head or a mask from the end of the trunk (see Fig. 7 of the insert). The texture of the wood on the end is the most uniform, and its tone is rich and deep, and it is much easier to repair cracks on the end with inconspicuous inserts.
The rich tone of eucalyptus wood from the end is especially beautiful in dark red species.
As a generalization of the above characteristics, let's draw the reader's attention once again to the fact that in terms of all properties, red eucalyptus can be put in first place among the "elite" species for carving: in appearance it looks like mahogany with a deep red-brown tone; allows you to choose an interesting texture with large stains for smooth polished surfaces, use a uniform surface large area at the end for mask sculpture; cut a large-sized craft from a whole piece of wood (see Fig. 31 of the insert); use dark wood for decorative contrasting finishes in combination with light wood, etc. And the main thing is that eucalyptus is good, although tight, cut in all directions, does not give chips and is not too susceptible to injury when the tool comes off (Fig. 33 and 34).
These comments will be taken into account by the home master and, on occasion, will not miss the opportunity to stock up on such wood.
Eucalyptus is also grown at home as a remedy for flies and mosquitoes, as well as to maintain air sterility.
Typical species features of eucalyptus: the shape of leaves and fruits.
Lemon Tree
Lemon tree wood is a very fertile material, it is completely uniform in color and texture, like birch or linden wood, but after aging, the lemon tree craft acquires a noble ocher-yellow tone and, with good processing, becomes similar to amber.
One has only to wonder why the lemon tree is so rarely found in carvings. Obviously, this is due not only to ignorance of its favorable properties for carving, but also to a misunderstanding that wood crafts with a natural color are, in all aesthetic indicators, higher than stained or tinted. And in tinted crafts, the quality and type of wood do not play a role: it would be a tree without knots and cracks, and the color can be made any (of course, for insertion). Only in fiction you can sometimes find a description of the exquisite furniture of former times with lemon wood trim.
It is clear that when talking about lemon wood, one has to keep in mind a small amount of it for intarsia or inlay. But, perhaps, the carver will have the opportunity to purchase this wood in the places of growth, where this tree is periodically cut down. This means providing yourself with the most valuable material for exquisite carvings (see Fig. 25, b, Fig. 35-38).
The diameter of the trunk of a lemon tree does not exceed 20 cm, and with such a thickness, it is not uncommon to introduce a mass of gray wood unsuitable for carving. Yellow, brightly saturated tone most often have branches from the trunk and young trees. Therefore, when designing crafts using lemon tree wood, you can only rely on small details from it or for installation from separate parts (see Fig. 22 of the insert).
The tree is very dense, viscous, although it is easily pricked along the fibers. The color of freshly cut wood is light with a yellowish tinge. It cuts easily across and obliquely. After finishing with oil or varnish, it turns yellow, and the end sections (across the fibers) become more saturated yellow, which can be used to vary the color in the installation of carved products and in intarsia. So, in the above-mentioned oval frame, grape bunches are made of a lemon tree, directed towards the viewer, and the leaves are made along the fibers. This gives the frame an interesting combination of yellow tones. In the grape clusters themselves, different colors of individual sections of wood (taken from one and different trunks) are used - from yellow to almost orange at the ends of the clusters. Although over time the orange hues partially changed and became a deep golden ocher, the play of color still remained interesting.
It should be noted that the color of the olive tree is very close to the deepest tones of the lemon tree and they can be used in pairs: this will noticeably enrich color scheme crafts.
Among marketers, veneer made of laminated brittle wood with bright yellow stripes is widely used. It has the brightest yellow color of the known wood species, for which it received the name in the practice of lemon or "lemon" marquetry. Sometimes even in the literature it is simply called a lemon tree. Note that there is nothing in common between the indicated veneer and a real lemon tree.
The lemon tree with gray wood in the carving looks ineffective, has a dirty, moldy look, and brings dissonance into the overall ensemble.
By the appearance of the growing tree and by the wood, the lemon tree can be confused with the orange tree. They are similar in properties and thread.
Juniper
Juniper wood is used for small crafts, has a beautiful, reddish, sometimes striped and wavy texture, is somewhat darker than spruce and pine, with a high density (1.5 times greater than the density of cedar wood), homogeneous, flexible, not hard, convenient for carving, not swells when wet and almost does not decrease in volume when dried. These properties, combined with a pleasant smell, put it in an advantageous position compared to other types of wood when making beads, brooches, inlaid bracelets, combs and hairpins, teapot coasters (when heated from a teapot, the wood begins to smell pleasant). By the way, the smell of juniper is very persistent; products made from it, which have lain underground for millennia, retain their characteristic smell.
The texture of juniper is especially beautiful in cross section. Therefore, with steamed (in hot water for 4-5 hours) cross-cut plates, some craftsmen paste over wooden products or simply use such plates to make, for example, caskets.
Juniper as a plant has many other useful properties and is under protection. You can cut down for crafts only dry branches and roots. From juniper, as well as from cedar, pencils are made.
Karelian birch
Karelian birch is similar in texture to birch burl, and in some places even resembles marble. It is also warmer (ocher) than ordinary birch in general tone. When examining individual sheets of Karelian birch veneer, one is amazed at the extraordinary variety of colors and patterns. In some places, the fibers of the wood are directed along the trunk, but always with small, but curved spots, sparkles are scattered throughout the field. Gradually, the overall tone thickens, the layers of wood and fibers twist, intertwine, more light sparkles and contrasting dark yellow spots and blotches appear, which are surrounded by a brown border - elongated leaves are obtained. irregular shape, brackets, ticks, specks, sometimes there are dots, also brown, and in some places almost black.
Sometimes the texture resembles a stormy sea with waves and some objects swaying on them, and then suddenly a mountain landscape appears with a rockfall (dark blotches). If a marketer or carver wants to veneer a countertop or even a box with Karelian birch veneer, he will have to pick up many pieces in order to achieve uniformity of the field, joining the pattern and texture of the fibers, but still, such a smooth transition, as in nature, will not work. This means that it is better to mount the tabletop field in pieces separated by some kind of ornament, lines (see Fig. 32 of the insert), or very skillfully join pieces of veneer along curved lines.
This precious wood you can not cut, transfer to shavings, to sawdust. It is cut only by planing on veneer in a steamed state.
Karelian birch is a state value, it is not only under protection, but also under careful observation and study. At the beginning of this century, from the last surviving place of growth of the Karelian birch - from Belarus - they exported up to a hundred more wagonloads of selected wood per year. Before the war there were only two artificial plantations, during the war they perished. And now every Karelian birch tree is registered.
We cite these data so that the carver does not raise his hand to cut down the Karelian birch, but to take measures for its reproduction is both a patriotic and spiritual duty. So let's give some more information. Until now, science is not clear what the Karelian birch is: is it a tree with a wood disease such as burl, or is it a species of birch. It grows (or rather grew) wherever birch grows in general, and not only in our country, but also in other European countries. The name "Karelian" is purely conditional. With self-pollination, not all birches in the offspring grow Karelian, a fourth of them become ordinary birches. When crossed with other types of ordinary birches, the Karelian birch reproduces from 20 to 60% of its own kind. The most reliable way of propagation is the grafting of cuttings from a young Karelian birch (with pronounced features) onto young birches of ordinary species.
Outwardly, it is difficult to distinguish Karelian birch from ordinary birch. Approximate signs will be as follows. It grows scattered, sometimes in groups, but interspersed with other birches, curly, low. The ornamental part of the trunk in blanks ranges from 90 cm to 3 m. The diameter of the trunk is rarely more than 30 cm. The trunk has a noticeable thickening from below, bumps, tubercles, knots on the bark. To accurately determine the type of tree, but only as a last resort, you should cut out a piece of bark the size of a tourist badge, remove it and hold it so that no light falls on its inner surface, especially sunny. Quickly examine the surface of the exposed trunk: in Karelian birch it is not smooth, but in tubercles, wrinkles, grooves, often directed along the trunk. Then insert a piece of bark back, press it well and seal it with a plaster, and even better tie it. It will settle down in two or three weeks.
So, speaking of Karelian birch as a material for a carver or marketer, we mean the veneer of this wood. Having wetted or steamed it, it is possible to veneer not only a flat, but also a cylindrical and conical surface of slight curvature. In combination with a birch burl, the carver can, for example, veneer a vase if he figures out how to close the joining seams - using decorative inserts or false carvings from other wood. It is clear that the cap should be used in those places of the vase where the lining flat sheet veneer is difficult to make (on the so-called non-developable surfaces). Let's not lose sight of the combination of Karelian birch veneer with a butt sometimes similar to it in wood pattern - the root knot of a birch.
In conclusion, we note that in the future, with the acquisition of experience, the cutter can use Karelian birch veneer for facing non-developable surfaces (see Fig. 38 of the insert).
Red tree
It has dozens of varieties. It got its name from the acajou tree, or mahogany tree. In our country, it is also called "svitenevo tree", it is imported from tropical countries. "Mahogany" (or "mahogany") includes a wide variety of wood species. I say as the most valuable variety mahogany rocks goes to art and decorative crafts(Fig. 6 inset). Its wood has a light gray, sometimes greenish sapwood and a red heartwood. On the treated surface, sparks (small parallel strokes) are visible, grouped into dark and light stripes. But if you look from the opposite side, the light strip turns into a dark one and vice versa. This is how the shine of wood manifests itself: the tree sparkles, lives. The same thing happens if you change the direction of the lighting.
This effect should be taken into account, since in a small mask or figurine it can be negative (the stripes will give spots on the face and body), and in a larger mask it can be positive: when the viewer moves, the mask seems to come to life due to the play of tones.
For carving, the tree is quite complex - it is not viscous, sometimes porous and brittle.
After finishing, a product made of any mahogany will definitely darken over time (although the lower grades of a pale red color do not darken and sometimes even brighten). No varnish will protect him from this process. This property should be especially taken into account by those who are engaged in marquetry or intarsia.
Therefore, when finishing a finished mahogany carving, it is better to cover it with vegetable oil (linseed, sunflower, saffia) and expose it to the sun for one or two days. Under the influence of atmospheric oxygen and light, the tree will darken intensively, acquire a deep dark red tone. Only after that it can be finished completely, as will be discussed later.
rosewood
Meet different kinds rosewood with wood of various shades, but they are all very beautiful, decorative; especially popular dark brown wood with purple tint and with unexpected transitions from red and dark red tones to completely black. In a flat cut and when polished, rosewood reveals a striped pattern associated with the direction of the layers and grains of the wood. But when carving, it makes no sense to take into account the direction of the fibers: in appearance in a chip and in structure, wood resembles anthracite coal - it also crumbles with chips in small pieces and crumbs in any direction. It has to be cut with a metal saw both in the transverse and in the longitudinal direction.
It is advantageous to use rosewood for contrast with other types of wood (intarsia, marquetry), as well as for small crafts with smooth, polished surfaces (see Fig. 214). It is well polished from the end with the formation of an almost uniform dark wood pattern.
There were cases when rosewood caused allergies when working with it (irritation and itching of the skin, swelling of the face).
Rosewood - wood South America and East India. It is also called violet tree or jacaranda.
Caps
A cap is not a tree, it is a painful growth on it. It appears on many trees and weighs more than 1 ton. In section, it resembles marble. The pattern of twisted fibers, curls and knots (a consequence of the accumulation of dormant buds) is always very beautiful on a smooth polished cut surface, it is individual for each cap. Especially beautiful is the burl of those trees that have a striped wood texture or contrasting combinations of colors, such as pine (rare).
As a material for carving, cap is of no interest: a carved (indented) surface and a spotted, striped texture will interfere with each other. On the one hand, the relief of the carving will not look, on the other hand, the pattern of stains, weaves and the cap itself will disappear. The author of the book made an attempt to carve a sculptural piece (see Fig. 12 of the insert) from a birch burl. Even for the face of an old man, the cap turned out to be too spotty material, dark blotches and dimples had to be tinted with mastic.
Burl is very good for crafts with a flat and slightly relief surface, but, like Karelian birch, it is mainly used to make peeled veneer for finishing wooden products. Its wood is very valuable and it is not advisable to convert it into shavings and sawdust. Only from small pieces of burl, which cannot be put on veneer, they make small crafts - bracelets, beads, brooches, chess, cups, desktop stationery.
A wood carver may be interested in a burl for making such a craft, where its smooth surface is combined with the relief surface of carvings from other wood and, obviously, in contrasting color: for example, birch burl with mahogany or dark walnut (imported), walnut burl with birch, linden. Probably, it will also look good on a table or wall plate made of burl with slotted thread along the edges and even better with a dark-toned set of marquetry at the bottom of the plate (see a similar craft, lined with Karelian birch, in Fig. 38 of the insert).
It is unacceptable to cut down a tree because of a burl. It is also impractical to cut the burl from the tree if it goes around the trunk, since in this case the best part of the burl for carving will be damaged, and the burl itself will be dissected. Only in those cases when it is possible to cut off the entire cap, it makes sense to carefully separate it as a painful growth. Such actions will not harm an adult tree.
Cap can be purchased from logging or sawmilling, where it can end up in waste. At logging, the so-called kapokoren sometimes comes across, i.e. outgrowth on the root node (practically on the stump of a sawn tree).
It should be noted that the cut of poplar or birch at the place of transition of the trunk to the roots, even without being hit by a burl, often has a very interesting twist. The wood of the interweaving of the branching fibers of the roots is combined here with the straight and calm wood of the trunk, which can sometimes lead to an unexpected decision: texture stains and sag are used for a flat surface, and straight-grained wood is used for carving (carved, high relief, sculptural). The use of such wood for the manufacture of bowls and vases with iridescent, as if mother-of-pearl, surface has become a tradition of many wood carvers. Of course, it is even more interesting to use a caproot for this purpose.
It is better to store the cap in a dark place, as it can crack in the open air from rain and sun. Home master on wood, it is better to cut the burl into plates or small blanks for the intended crafts. In order to speed up subsequent drying, as well as to give more high quality(viscosity, golden color, non-cracking) burl blanks should be boiled for 5-6 hours. In addition, craftsmen of past years, after evaporating the kapokorn blanks, kept them in a hot furnace placed in cast iron interspersed with layers of wet birch sawdust during the day. This operation was repeated three or four times until a golden burl was obtained. In this regard, we note that we have already mentioned the use of tree sap to tint other wood and to enhance our own color (see "Pine and Spruce", "Alder", "Walnut").
boxwood
This is an evergreen shrub-type plant of the southern countries. Two types of boxwood (out of 40 known) grow in Transcaucasia. Boxwood is famous for its hardness and durability. As an ornamental wood, it is primarily used in woodcarving (Fig. 39). It is cut with difficulty equally in all directions, and not every tool is able to "take" it. Therefore, some masters use dental burs and special cutters on a flexible hose rotating from the motor (cable in a flexible tube) to process it. But because of valuable properties boxwood, it is not advisable to process it in this way - the surface turns out to be unclean, with ruts and depressions, which significantly spoils the product from such a fine material.
The color of boxwood is light yellow-ocher. According to the author, this best wood for the sculpture of the mask (face) of a child and a woman, where a fine transfer of form is required and where inclusions that are foreign in color or texture are contraindicated, especially since the color of boxwood is closest to the flesh.
Boxwood is polished very well, sharpened just as well, and therefore is widely used for small exquisite chiseled crafts.
Due to its strength and uniformity of wood in all directions, some musical instruments (for example, flutes), weaving shuttles, engraving boards, buttons are made from it.
The choice of wood species for carving is dictated by the purpose, type and shape of the product. For carving, wood is mainly used with a homogeneous and uniform, without deviations, structure, with an inexpressive pattern of wood fibers - texture.
So, for fine carvings, hardwoods are used: linden, aspen, willow, mountain ash, birch, pear, maple, Walnut, chestnut, oak, etc., conifers are not suitable here.
Some soft hardwoods require constantly sharpened tools and, of course, special care in work.
The wide layer speaks of the looseness, fragility of the tree.
The parallelism of the growth rings is a sign that the tree has a relatively rectilinear internal structure. For carving work, this is an excellent material.
Single trees tend to produce cross-laminated wood due to twisting when the wood fibers grow under the action of the wind. In such trees, in addition, there is a displacement of the heartwood closer to the sapwood in one place (on the north side). Here, the fiber has a dense structure. During drying, such a tree cracks and warps strongly. Therefore, felling single breeds is not recommended.
The age of the tree is also important. Young wood is soft and friable, moreover, it is easily exposed to mechanical damage, and the old one is not resistant to rot, therefore, wood of the middle (mature) period is chosen for carving. So, for oak, this period is from 80 to 150 years, for birch - from 60 to 70, for pine - from 80 to 90, for ash - from 60 to 70 years. The age of a tree is determined by the number of growth rings on a cross section of a fallen tree or by the thickness of the trunk.
AT practical work the moisture content of the wood must be taken into account. The following terms are used to denote different degrees of wood moisture:
● wet – long time in water;
● freshly cut with humidity: conifers - above 82%, softwoods - 60-93%, hardwoods - 36-78%;
● air-dry – stored outdoors for a long time, humidity 15–20%;
● room dry – humidity 8–12%;
● Absolutely dry – humidity approx. 0%. Absolutely dry wood is used for many types of artwork: ornamental carving, carpentry and cooperage, Bogorodsk carving and must be pre-dried to a moisture content of 10-16%.
If the processed products will be used outdoors (window trims, etc.), then their humidity should be equal to 15%. It is necessary to dry wood for such products under a canopy for 3-6 months. If the products are intended for use inside the house, then the wood must be dried in the room.
Freshly cut wood is unsuitable for carving. As it dries, it shrinks in volume and warps. An overdried tree, even in conditions normal humidity will inevitably absorb moisture from the air and swell, leading to cracking.
Underdrying and overdrying have a stronger effect on hard and dense rocks and weaker on soft and loose ones.
In folk art crafts, two methods of drying wood are most widely used: atmospheric and chamber. With atmospheric drying, the materials dry in a barn or outdoors under a canopy, with chamber drying - in drying chambers different volume.
Before you take up a knife, you need, first of all, to learn to listen and feel the wood. Experienced Master already by the external signs of the trunk determines the degree of suitability of the material. The absence of small ray cracks at the end (cut) indicates good quality wood, and large cracks indicate the presence of empty spaces - cavities that will give a marriage when sawing the trunk. In pine, such cavities are filled with resin. If there are cracks in the annual layers, then the wood is unsuitable for carving. Therefore, do not rush with the selection of material for the future product. First you need to look closely and tap. Using this technique, you can find all the weak points of wood, the degree of readiness for dressing and processing. So, for example, you can determine where the knot sits in it, where the inside is loose, where the wormhole has wound up, where it is dry, and where the wood is too damp or young.
It is not recommended to combine different breeds for carved blanks, due to the non-uniform degree of drying. So, hard, heartwood dries out much less than sapwood, so the sapwood areas of wood warp more, but warping will be barely noticeable at the center board. Based on this, the master must harvest the wood himself. Why do you need to know at what time of the year to make blanks of a particular breed, the aging period, storage conditions, etc.
And yet, which tree is better to take?
Of the soft hardwoods, linden is the most preferred. In addition, it is the best material for a novice woodcarver. Linden has a soft, homogeneous structure, rather viscous wood, which is equally easy to cut along and across the fibers, is not very susceptible to warping and cracking. The disadvantage is the low hardness, which limits the scope. As a rule, small objects are made from linden wood: carved toys, dishes, caskets, shelves, wall decorations.
native Russian carved material birch is considered with its white, hard and resilient wood. It is uniform in density and cuts well, although it is more difficult than linden. The relief of the carved surface is clean and clear. Birch stains and finishes well, but is subject to severe warping. Therefore, it cannot be used for the manufacture of large parts. From birch wood it is better to make small pieces of furniture, carved and chiselled overhead decorative elements.
Often used wood red and black alder. It is also homogeneous viscous material, easy to process. It is well cut, painted, warped a little.
Few people know that aspen is suitable for carving, the silvery, luminous wood of which has all the qualities necessary for carving. It is homogeneous in structure and, although somewhat more fragile than basswood, can be successfully used in any kind of carving.
Poplar in its properties is close to linden, but when carved, it can be easily chipped. Therefore, on the wood of these species, it is best to perform large-relief carving.
From solid hardwoods, oak, walnut, beech, pear, maple are used.
Oak is considered a classic carving material. It has a uniform density in the dark and light areas of the annual rings despite the large structure of the striped structure, as well as viscosity and unusual strength. But oak wood is hard and brittle, which makes it difficult to carve. This breed is best used for making large decorative elements, as well as overhead parts. Oak is well turned, painted and polished. Allows you to perform both monumental and small chamber compositions.
Walnut cuts well in all directions, does not chip, so it can be used to make the finest carvings. Walnut wood is used for the manufacture of furniture, highly artistic carvings of small forms.
Beech is close to oak in hardness, but is chipped even more. It paints and finishes well.
The pear is easily and cleanly cut in all directions, warps little and is well colored and finished, but has a high hardness. Its wood is used to make small souvenirs with embossed carvings, overhead decorative details for furniture.
Maple has a homogeneous but hard wood. It cuts cleanly and without chips, but hard; well dyed and finished. Its wood is used in mosaic and turning works.
However, it should not be limited to hardwoods. After the carving technique has been mastered, the methods of work will be studied, you can also take on conifers with their pronounced striped texture - spruce, pine, fir and more durable larch.
When choosing conifers, it is necessary to take into account the density of annual rings. The thicker they are, the denser and more uniform the wood. For contour and geometric carving, any of the listed breeds is suitable. You just need to keep in mind that the pattern of wood layers has a serious impact on the appearance, shape and size of the elements of the planned composition. For example, when working with pine and larch, the patterns should be large and deep enough. It is dictated:
● firstly, on cuts the texture stands out with very juicy, bright, clear lines, interfering and distorting the depth of the patterns, so small elements are lost in the wood pattern and the carving on its background is poorly visible;
● secondly, softwood is very fragile and uneven in density. It is easily chipped over the layer, especially if the elements of the pattern are small, which is why the work takes on an untidy, chipped appearance. In large elements, these shortcomings are invisible.
As for species such as linden, aspen, birch, they can be covered with the finest pattern that is not clogged with the natural pattern of the fibers. And since the wood of these species is uniformly smooth and quite viscous, even small elements do not chip off.
From conifers for carvings, pine and spruce wood can be successfully used. Decorations for window and door frames, cornices, walls of houses, etc. are cut out of pine. This is usually a large-relief carving. Due to the resin content of pine, carved decorations made from it are durable.
Spruce is softer than pine and cuts more easily, but it has many hard knots, it is less resinous than pine, so it is less often used for carving.
When choosing wood for carving, it is necessary to avoid such defects as tortuosity, fiber inclination, sprouting, knots, cracks, rot, wormholes.
Boards intended for carving are cut into blanks on circular saws and processed in size on jointers and thicknessers. Of great importance is the cut of the board - radial or tangential. It is easier to cut along a radial cut, the board warps less, but the carving is not as expressive as on a tangential one. For large carved parts, it is better to use radial cut boards, and for small ones - tangential cut.
If the carved parts have a large width, then the workpiece is obtained by gluing individual bars or planks. Polyvinyl acetate glue can be used for gluing. The bars must be selected so that the cut and direction of the annual layers are the same, otherwise it will be difficult to carve, and the appearance of the product may deteriorate significantly, especially when stained with water-based dyes. The glued workpiece is aligned along the layers on a thicknesser or planer.
Threading on large parts is best done before they are assembled into a product. In this case, the details must be carefully processed and fitted.
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