"...There are linden trees with several girths
They celebrate in the twilight of the alleys,
Hiding the peaks behind each other,
Its bicentenary."

Linden Alley (Boris Pasternak)

Pasternak said wonderful things about linden trees, and this tree is also unique in its properties and beauty. I'll tell you about it today natural material and how I use it in my work.

Wood

Linden wood is soft, light, little susceptible to cracking, warping, does not dry out, white, characterized by purity and uniformity; easy to process, cuts well, and is widely used in turning.

Linden is good for making souvenirs, toys, carved decor for home decoration, and various wooden utensils. Semenov and Zagorsk nesting dolls are still made from it, Khokhloma dishes are sharpened and much more. Due to its fine-grained nature and ease of processing, linden is used in the production of barrels. Linden becomes softer after steaming, and when dry, it acquires high strength.

This makes it possible to bend sieves, boxes and pads from thin linden boards, and upholster products with complex curved surfaces with thin linden boards. It is much easier to cut out tableware from steamed linden wood: spoons, bowls, ladles, ladles. Basswood is widely used in wood carving because it is easy to carve and has a pure white wood.

Previously, I mainly worked with aromatic cedar, but now I have the opportunity to carve linden. The tree is characterized by uniform density, low shrinkage, good ability to cut in all directions, pliability, and plasticity. I'll show you my carved linden boxes. The wood is really soft and pleasant to work with.

A linden box in the process of carving.

Box "Forest Song" after tinting the stain and wax.

Box "Forest Song".

Box "Gifts of Cedar". Carved from linden.

Box "Owls".

Box "Owls".

Very valuable property Linden is its viscosity. Many craftsmen make boards from linden on which they cut leather, cut birch bark lace, and mosaic elements from veneer, without fear of dulling the knife. At one time, drawing boards were also made from linden. Such boards held the buttons well, and the remaining dents quickly smoothed out. Due to the ease of processing, the ability to hardly dry out and not succumb to warping, casting models are mainly made from linden.

Bast - linden bark - is widely used. Bast soaked in water turns into bast - durable and cheap material, used for the manufacture of sieves, baskets, boxes. Bast shoes are woven from it (from the bark of young linden trees - linden bast). Linden wood is often used to make musical instruments, in particular, for the soundboards of electric guitars.

And finally, everyone’s favorite wonderful tree, linden, is one of the best honey plants. Linden honey is healing, has bactericidal properties, linden color has also long been used in folk medicine, even linden charcoal is used as a medicine. Currently, linden inflorescences are used in liqueur and cognac production, as a result of which alcoholic drinks acquire healing qualities. Man has learned to make comprehensive use of linden - this truly universal treasure prepared by nature itself.

I wish you to meet and love it universal tree- linden! After all, she is a source of inspiration and the creation of new unique works.

04/06/2011 A. F. Afanasyev Updated 06/16/12

In this chapter we will try to understand in detail the solution to the second question that a novice carver faces: where to get and what material to use? I would like to say right away that it is currently impossible to go and buy the necessary workpiece. However, resolving this issue is not so difficult, you just need to worry about it in advance. As a rule, an amateur woodcarver acquires material not when it is needed, but when such an opportunity arises. Even ordinary wood - spruce, pine, birch, beech - is better to stock up in advance, give it a chance to dry, and check for cracking and warping. More reliable tree old, seasoned, as long as there are no wood-boring beetles in it. The source for it can be parts of destroyed houses, discarded furniture, beech planks of a parquet floor, etc. Sawn or felled trees of the desired species, including fruit trees, are also the object of the carver’s attention. When the principle “to the catcher and the beast runs” begins to operate, then the so-called exotic wood appears. For example, the author of these lines accidentally managed to pull out from the fire several mahogany (mahogany) blocks from the packaging of an imported refrigerator that were prepared for burning. Several boards and blocks of mahogany were offered by a collective farm chairman I knew: on the collective farm this wood is prescribed and not always used for its intended purpose. My wife bought two mahogany kitchen boards at a hardware store. Wide board a carver I knew gave in from rosewood; he had three of them. Two large walnut boards were sent by friends from the Caucasus as cargo luggage. Basswood drawing boards, without knots and fairly uniform, are sometimes sold in stores.

Such wood reserves are not acquired immediately, but since carving work is a slow process, the necessary wood will almost always be at hand. At first, a novice carver can use the tips given when describing the first crafts.

We also note that it is impossible to point to a specific type of wood as the best for a beginning carver. The prevailing opinion that linden is most suitable for carving, since it is “easy to cut,” is not always true. The ease of cutting linden wood and its softness are negative qualities for a novice carver: without practice in carving, with a careless movement he can quickly spoil (“injure”) the craft, which cannot be done with hard wood, although when carving it one has to exert more physical effort. Linden requires particularly sharp tools precisely because of its softness, otherwise it does not cut, but gets wrinkled (in some places), which is also not an advantage for a novice carver. Linden is good for a professional carver, when he, masterfully wielding a knife (for example, Bogorodsk carvers), quickly and without much effort gives the wooden block the contours of the future craft.

The choice of wood type for the carver is as important as the question of material in general in applied art (this will be discussed in more detail later): the artistic form is realized in one way in marble, in a different way in granite, and in a completely different way in wood. The same attention should be paid to individual types of wood: light and plain wood will do, for example, for sculpture of a face, portrait (dark solid wood in this case is less expressive); for fine openwork carving it is also better to have plain wood; and spruce or pine, which have a pronounced striped wood pattern, i.e. wood texture, can be used for crafts with large design elements or slotted carvings, where the contours of the cut elements are decisive in the ornament (see Fig. 65). Some scenes have striped texture coniferous tree helps to identify the plot (see Fig. 40) or introduces originality into the carving (see Fig. 39). This will be discussed in more detail in the relevant sections. When choosing wood, we also take into account its hardness or softness, curliness or ability to split easily, resistance to moisture or swelling and warping from water, etc. - qualities that in some cases will be positive, in others - negative.

Therefore, the choice of the type of wood and the source of its acquisition are considered simultaneously with the subject of the carving and the technology for its implementation. A well-chosen type of wood is the beginning of success in your work. You cannot make hasty decisions here, especially since the entire carving process can last weeks, sometimes months, or even more than a year.

Another factor that a novice carver needs to pay attention to is the aesthetic value of the craft, the quality of its execution, which is directly dependent on the choice of material for carving, and on the creative concept of the carver, i.e., from the first steps in the work, the specified tasks interconnected. Let us trace the chain of this relationship.

The carver will be more free in choosing the material if he knows various techniques techniques and technologies in carving: can splice wood into a larger piece with invisible seams; can make a prefabricated product, mount it from separate carved pieces of the same or various breeds wood; can prepare artificial decorative wood for crafts; can use in carving (especially in facial sculpture) a homogeneous molding mass based on sawdust; can combine carving with cladding with a mosaic set of various types of wood; can tint wood; Can cut on dry or wet wood. This, in turn, frees up the carver in choosing a theme, a plot for carving, or, as they say, in this case, favorable conditions are created for the primacy of content, when the content determines the artistic form, and not vice versa: the cylindrical shape of a wooden block dictates the possible artistic form of the craft, to which, in turn, the plot is adjusted.

The above forces us to take a more serious approach to the first stage of the work of an amateur craftsman, which immediately precedes the process of carving - to thinking and nurturing a plan, a plot and to the path of its implementation. It is at this stage that the success of the business is decided. The successful implementation of a planned carving craft is precisely determined by a work process that is well thought out to the smallest detail from start to finish. All this brings to wood carving that sporting interest, sometimes passion, forcing the carver to find every free hour for work. And think: “I wonder what will happen? Is it as I intended, as I imagine?” The same interest makes us rack our brains to find a solution to any problem that has arisen in carving, installation, or composition, which either requires the design of a new tool or some kind of device.

A poorly executed wooden carving cannot be remade. All alterations and options must be thought out in advance (in plans, in drawings, in plasticine), and the only, best option is left for carving.

The more experience the carver has, the more accurately the idea matches the result. And this level will be reached the faster the more serious attitude carver to his craft. You must approach each of your work as if it were an exam, where you need to reveal all your skills, regard each object of artistic crafts as a field for applying your skill at its truest. top level your abilities, consider that this particular craft will be the best. And when performing successive operations in carving, try to make each subsequent operation better than the previous one. Then there will be both quality and artistic level, and not a multiplication of the number of crafts. Then there will be an increase in artistic skill.

A carved product made with love, when maximum patience, research and labor is invested in it, will subsequently bring great satisfaction to the master himself. The same reaction, as a rule, occurs in the viewer to the corresponding carvings. And if the craft is done hastily, as quickly as possible, “to finish,” from the first wood available, then it may turn out to be a source of disappointment and reproach for many years.

So, the type of wood has been chosen, the carving technology has been thought out, and the plot has been determined. We consider the suitability of wood from the technical side, its mechanical and physical properties. First of all, it should be dry, without knots and, if possible, without cracks. Although cracks in unimportant places can still be dealt with, as will be discussed below, a knot can only be improved by inserting in its place some carving detail from the same piece of wood and observing the same direction of the wood fibers as in the surrounding field of the part. .

Note that in some cases of decor, designed with large polished planes, the twisted interlacing of layers of wood around the knots, giving an interesting pattern, is specially played out, even highlighted. Sometimes the knot itself is used for this purpose.

In some cases, it is possible to carve from raw (not dried) wood, but then you need to be able to eliminate the negative consequences of wood drying out during the carving process. The ability to work with raw wood allows you to perform such technically complex crafts ( raw wood it is much easier to cut dry), which are generally impossible to make from dry wood (Fig. 21 and 24). In subsequent sections, we will talk in detail about wood drying, both conventional, under natural conditions, and accelerated, when dry wood is not available and conditions do not allow waiting for it to dry.

Rice. 21. Fish and octopus - sculptural composition (eucalyptus). Fragments of the composition

Rice. 24. Table on a twisted stand. Carving, intarsia (toned pine, acaju, lemon and other woods). Fragments of the table

It is important to draw the carver’s attention to the fact that there are two types of wood moisture: organic, or intracellular, and external - rain. Organic liquid can be removed by natural drying only within a few years, while external liquid can be removed in a few hours. Even a board completely swollen from rain will dry out within no more than a day. In this regard, we note that wood cut in winter has significantly less organic moisture; accordingly, it is drier (sometimes 2 times) and harder than spring or summer. And of course, the wood that is most favorable for the carver is dead wood or fallen wood.

For artistic crafts made from wood, you don’t always need smooth, knot-free wood. Especially for marquetry and intarsia, the original texture of the wood is more interesting, which is obtained precisely as a result of disease or damage to the tree, mechanical interference during its growth. Below we will get acquainted with the characteristics of wood using specific species, we will also describe in detail the properties of burls, and here we will note some of them.

The wood, which has an intricate interweaving of fibers, is used by the carver both as a durable, non-sharp wood (for mallets, handles, axes), and as a decorative one, that is, its flat cuts are used in the form of veneer or facing plates. The texture of such wood is especially beautiful in rounded nodules (bolons) on tree trunks, which are called svil (or suvoy, suvel). Sections can be separated from the strand by sawing for the manufacture of curved branches, brackets, strips, animal tails in crafts, for thin curved parts where straight-layered wood is not suitable. For the same purpose, you can also use curls around knots, especially old, overgrown ones, or around sprouts - dead wood.

Among other features and properties of wood, we note the following. Not all wood is a current insulator. The best dielectric is oak, and poplar, for example, conducts current well. The strength and density of wood increases from the core (middle) to the sapwood part. Also, the humidity in the middle of the trunk is less than in the sapwood, which means that a board cut from the middle of the trunk will not warp when drying, but in the middle part it will be thicker due to the difference in drying of the wood. This is where, in particular, warping of other boards occurs - always with the formation of a convexity towards the core of the trunk.

For these reasons, joining the boards into one shield, if it is not equipped with transverse strips, is done with alternate overlapping of the front and non-front sides of the boards in order to minimize warping of the board. The front, or right, side is the one that is closer to the outer part of the trunk - to the bark. This can be determined by examining the board from the end.

Perhaps the ability to determine the face is even more important for veneer (single-layer plywood). If you turn a sheet of veneer towards the light so that the rays fall at an acute angle and become almost sliding, then small tubercles of wood will be visible on the front side, and oblong depressions will be visible on the non-front, or left, side. Therefore, when veneering, veneer is glued to the base with the non-face side, where the depressions facilitate the flow and retention of glue in them, and the outer, front side is more convenient to process: it is easier to sand off the tubercles than to level the entire surface with the depressions. In the latter case, “grooved defects” often appear when the surface is finished with varnish, which forces one to apply significantly more layers of varnish to remove them.

The marketer or woodcarver does not always have to reckon with the face of the veneer. Sometimes considerations about the expressiveness of the wood pattern prevail, especially when veneer sheets are taken from one pack (knol) and a symmetrical pattern is created with two identical sheets placed next to each other, but one with the right side up and the other with the left side up. Then you need to at least remove the tubercles on the right side of the inverted sheet of veneer so that they do not interfere with the contacting surfaces when gluing.

In packs of purchased veneer, the front side can be easily identified by the paper strips (ties) that glue the cracks together: they are always glued to the front side.

Let us draw the reader's attention to some more data on wood and the conclusions that follow from this. At the same weight industrial wood pine, for example, costs more than cast iron or steel. Incomparably more expensive noble wood. The tree is construction material future, since metal reserves and other natural resources disappear irrevocably, and a tree, on average, grows within tens of years. Wood is even more loved as finishing material, especially nowadays. It is quickly replacing plastic, and this is no longer just an environmental issue. Here, first of all, aesthetics, as well as hygiene, health, and convenience. After this remark, you can more clearly imagine the importance of artistic crafts made from wood in everyday life, especially those made with your own hands.

And if we began to consider wood from an economic and social point of view, then we should take into account that the cost of wood in a wood carver’s product will occupy an insignificant percentage in relation to the labor invested in this product. However, depending on the quality of the wood, it appearance(and if this is not the case, why then make it out of wood?) a lot depends, which is no longer determined by “insignificant percentages.” This suggests a clear conclusion: before starting work, take a more serious approach to the choice of wood, work on the the best material, which is available to the carver in a given period.

All these techniques for handling wood should be mastered by a woodworker; he should not only use it positive properties, but also to hire, it would seem, negative qualities(this will be discussed below). This simplifies the work and produces better results.

Below we will look at the properties of individual types of wood and pay attention mainly to those features that can unexpectedly affect the result or process of work. We will start with the most common types of wood, but we will also describe the properties of those species that come to us as imports or grow in the south of the country, especially since the author was unable to find information about them in the literature. Practice shows that sooner or later the carver uses this material.

– this is an ancient and truly amazing craftsmanship. For large objects (for example, furniture) it is customary to use hard rocks wood, but as for souvenirs, dishes and home decorations, soft ones will do. The most common soft woods for carving are: linden, willow, aspen, poplar, alder, chestnut. Let's take a closer look at each of these materials.

Linden- This is a fairly soft and lightweight material. It is almost not susceptible to cracking and drying out, cuts well and is generally easy to process. Souvenirs, home decorations, wooden utensils- all this is not done without participation linden trees, but for the production of furniture, like any tree soft breed, it is absolutely not suitable.

Willow It is not much inferior to linden, because its wood is just as light, soft, viscous and elastic. It's pretty available material, because willow takes root on any soil. It is easy to cut, grind and polish - in a word, a real find for lovers of wood carving. Willow boards are suitable for relief and flat-relief carving, and mature wood is used in sculptural works.

Aspen is another material that is a real pleasure to work with. It is resistant to low temperatures, moisture, light, wormhole and even acid. Its softness and uniformity were highly appreciated by carving masters, because these properties allow you to make cuts in any direction - the wood does not chip or wrinkle.

Poplar consists of soft and light homogeneous wood, which almost does not crack, and is also flexible to cutting and finishing. But this tree is absolutely not protected from rotting, fungi and mechanical damage, which significantly narrows the scope of its application. Poplar is used very, very rarely in carving; more often it acts as an auxiliary material.

Alder , on the contrary, is quite resistant to moisture, warps little and cuts well, so it is suitable for carving. A chisel, a knife, and other cutting and sawing tools can easily process alder wood. It is usually actively used in areas where little linden, aspen and willow grow, producing sculptures, home decorations and dishes.

Chestnut is a representative of a medium-drying wood species. It absorbs well protective compounds, preventing cracking and rotting. The shape and size of chestnut products remain stable for a long time. These and other properties allow its wood to be used for interior and exterior finishing, as well as the production of exclusive furniture samples.