In the past I have done some relief carving but haven't tried chip carving and in particular the Swiss method of chip carving described by Wayne Barton in his book "Chip Carving. Techniques and Patterns". In chip carving, wood is removed in pieces (i.e. chips) from the wood to make a design directly rather than shaving or sculpturing the wood to form a design as in carving or relief carving. In this method you only need two tools, a cutting knife and a stab knife. The cutting knife or Kerbschnitzen is named after chip carving or "engraving carving" used in Switzerland and Germany.
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| Cutting Knife made by Pfeil purchased from Classic Hand Tools, UK |
My first attempts at chip carving were on the base of a display-stand made from green ash. The 1 1/2 inch hole is for the pedestal of the stand. I used the Pfeil cutting knife by holding it as shown in the diagrams in Wayne Barton's book. I found this a good natural hold and had no difficulty making the cuts although I did wonder about wearing a glove but I will see how I progress.
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| This is the tulip design shown in Wayne Barton's book with a 4 x 4 mm triangular border. |
I continued learning the techniques by following the designs and notes in Daniel Clay's book, "Chip Carving. Techniques for Carving Beautiful Patterns by Hand". This uses the methods described in Wayne Barton's book but with more information on particular designs and holding the knife. I used limewood for this and followed the layout given in the book. I did not use a stab knife at all and couldn't see a need. Also I found no need for gloves following the techniques described by these authors.
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| Each of the faces has a design, in fact the ones illustrated on the front of Daniel Clay's book that are based on the "Seed of Life". |
Rather than waste the test boards, I made two boxes. The first pictured above was made with rebate corners with strips of sapele and a yellow poplar top, just waste wood I had at hand. I found that the poplar was also easy to chip carve.
The practice boards, one and two, featured in the book, were carved from larger pieces of limewood and subsequently assembled into a larger box, this time incorporating beech pieces for the rebated corners.
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| The limewood practise boards made into a storage box. This time the corners are beech and the bottom was 5 mm plywood. The wood was finished with danish oil. |
Working with larger chips can be challenging as it requires the knife to penetrate deeper, which sometimes makes the top of the blade uncomfortable. It's crucial to keep your thumb close to the knife blade, rest your knuckle on the workpiece, and adjust the blade's angle at intersections, all of which are detailed in the books. Among my preferred designs are the "Tulip Pot" featured on one side of the box and the "Seed of Life."
