"Making moving toys is a form of dissipation," said Ralph. "It is very
fascinating and interesting, but the making of many toys will never
make one an expert woodworker. The accuracy and skill required can be
developed only by actual constructive work. I suggest that we take up a
form of decoration which can be done with the knife.
"There are two ways of making an article in wood pleasing to the eye.
One is by varying the outline, as we did in our match scratchers, and
the other is by some kind of surface ornamentation. There are many ways
of decorating surfaces--carving, pyrography, staining, polishing, etc.,
and very often several of these methods are combined.
"As we have started to learn the possibilities of knife work, I propose
to teach you a form of carving which can be done with the knife alone.
Very elaborate work is done with the regular carving tools. This
requires a great deal of time and skill, but with the knife alone a
wonderful variety of beautiful work can be done even by small boys.
"It is very important to approach it properly, so I am going to give
you a few simple exercises and the elaborate designs will come along
naturally.
"The work is not new, and evidently grew out of the still older art of
notching. Primitive peoples probably saw in it a way to improve the
appearance of their various wooden implements. Not only could the edges
be notched, but the cutting could be done on flat surfaces as well."
[Illustration: Fig. 54. First cuts in carving]
Fig. 54 at _a_ shows one of the earliest designs. It is simply a border
of triangular cuts, and while this may be done with the whittling
knife, Fig. 55 shows two knives which are better fitted to do accurate
work.
[Illustration: Fig. 55. Two good types of knife for carving]
The positions for carving are shown in Fig. 56. Hold the knife in an
upright position, with the cutting edge away from you, and the point on
the apex of the triangle. Press the knife down and then away from you
along one of the sides of the triangle. Place it in position again, and
repeat the motion along the other side of the triangle, always directly
on the line. This brings the deep part of the cut at the apex of the
triangle, and it remains to take out the triangular chip. This can be
done in either of the two ways shown in Fig. 56, by cutting away from
you or toward you. It is well to practise both ways, as in complicated
designs the direction of the grain makes it necessary to cut sometimes
in one direction, sometimes in another.
The rest of this border is a repetition of the same stroke, and the
more elaborate designs are simply different arrangements of triangular
cuts.
In Fig 54, _b_ shows two rows of these same shaped cuts, one row
inverted, to produce a diamond-shaped border; _c_ shows a border in
which the drawing is similar to _b_, but vertical triangles are cut
instead of horizontal ones, as this gives a cut across the grain of the
wood instead of parallel to it, and is a trifle harder.
[Illustration: Fig. 56. Positions for holding carving knife]
Our boys practised on these simple borders for awhile, using knife _a_
and 1/4-inch basswood. The work proved fully as fascinating to Harry
as the making of toys, and it was decided that from that time onward
the outlines of their woodwork should be simpler, and the decoration
should be in the form of chip carving.
[Illustration: Fig. 57. A simple picture frame with carving]
While Harry was practising on these simple borders Ralph made the
basswood photograph frame shown in Fig. 57, and drew the carving
design, as shown, with an H pencil.
To carve this was simply to repeat border _b_. This was so
satisfactory that Ralph decided to try his pupil on finer work, and
the design shown in Fig. 58 was tried. In each case Harry found that
he was making triangular cuts, and removing triangular chips, just as
in the first border, only the triangles were in different positions.
Ralph suggested that they begin to decorate some of the things they had
already made, and the little basswood box shown in Fig. 33 was brought
out, and the design shown in Fig. 59 drawn and carved upon it.
[Illustration: Fig. 58. A more elaborate picture frame]
There followed a number of "backs," which Ralph explained could be
used as thermometer backs, match scratchers, calendars, key racks, and
in other ways. In each case, the design was drawn carefully on paper,
and thence transferred to the surface of the wood with the same care
that it had been done on paper. The designing required considerable
thought.
[Illustration: Figs. 59 and 60. Designs for box covers]
Where a border continued around four sides, the corner became the most
difficult and interesting part of the design, and was worked out first.
(Fig. 61.)
[Illustration: Fig. 61. Straight line designs for thermometer backs]
Very soon the boys found that it was necessary to draw only half the
design on paper, and in many cases a corner or quarter sufficed.
The next step was to initiate Harry into the mysteries of curved
cutting, a departure from triangular cutting.
He was informed that the cuts were still three-sided, one or two of the
sides being but slightly curved.
[Illustration: Fig. 62. Curved cuts.]
Fig. 62, used as an enrichment of a "back" in 3/8-inch gum wood, was
Harry's first effort in curved chip carving. The edges of the blank
piece were bevelled with a plane and Ralph showed his pupil how to do
this by holding the blank against a bench hook. The long sides were
bevelled first, the ends last, to avoid breaking off the corners.
[Illustration: Fig. 63. Key rack]
The key rack (Fig. 63) gave an opportunity to use centre pieces inside
a border, diamonds of the flat surface being left uncarved for the
placing of the screw hooks.
A pencil box for school followed, the various pieces being shown in
Fig. 64. The two sides and ends were made in one strip 1-1/4 inches
wide, and afterward cut to length. To secure this strip of uniform
width, the shooting board shown in Fig. 65 was used, the plane being
laid on its side, giving the 1/4-inch piece of gum wood a perfectly
square edge.
[Illustration: Fig. 64. The pencil box]
Ralph was having his own troubles as a teacher about this time, for he
wanted to reserve Harry's education in the use of bench tools until
later on, when he should have exhausted the possibilities of the knife;
but this method of using the plane was necessary if Harry was to
produce blank forms fit for decoration.
The six pieces being squared up, a 1/4-inch margin was left on all
sides of the pieces to be carved--the top, front, and two ends.
This 1/4-inch space was for the brads.
[Illustration: Fig. 65. Use of shooting board]
The assembling was not done until the carving had been finished, and it
consisted of fastening the long sides to the ends with 5/8-inch brads,
with a little glue on the end grain of the end pieces. The bottom
was put on with brads, and the top hinged to the back by two small
nickel-plated hinges. A little hook and eye from the hardware store
were put at the front to hold the cover on, and two small cleats were
glued to the under side of the cover to keep it from warping.
The time spent on this pencil box was several hours, but the result was
a box the like of which could not be bought.
[Illustration: Fig. 66. Carving designs for pencil box]
Pencil boxes became the rage with our boys, and although they made
several of the same size, in each case the design was different. (Fig.
66.)