"I like this new work better than anything we have ever done," said
Harry one day when he and Ralph were up to their ears in carving,
whittling, and designing.
Ralph smiled as he remembered Harry's intense interest in making moving
toys. "As I told you once before," he replied, "this is not new but
old. The people of northern Europe have done it for centuries, and the
reason is not hard to find. In Norway during the long winter it gets
dark very early, in some places at three o'clock in the afternoon, and
does not become light again until nine o'clock in the morning. The
result is very, very long evenings, when it is much more comfortable to
work indoors.
"At an early era the people developed this beautiful art of carving,
and spent their long evenings in working at it. They became very
skilful and as most of the household utensils were of wood, it was not
at all unusual to see the household furniture, even to their bread
boards, beautifully carved."
"By the way," said Harry, "can't I make a paper knife now? You know you
said I could after I had learned to use the knife!"
"Yes, I think you might try your skill on something of that character
now. It will be quite a change from this flat work we have been doing.
It will require a harder wood, however, than you have been using, as a
paper knife must be thin and strong at the same time.
"The Swedish carvers use apple wood a great deal for their paper
knives, but as this is rare with us, suppose we try rock maple. It is
white in colour, close grained, and hard."
As usual, they worked up their design on paper first and sketched in
the carving shown in Fig. 79.
A piece of rock or sugar maple was first squared up and laid out in
pencil as shown at _B_. In order to get the outline to conform exactly
to the drawing, the form was cut out of paper and traced on the face of
the wood. The blank form was then whittled out to the pencil line, and
sand-papered smooth as shown at _c_.
Maple proved to be a hard wood to whittle.
Notches were cut at _d d_ after drawing the edge view on front and
back edges. The blade and handle were then whittled down to lines _e_
and _f_.
[Illustration: Fig. 79. Two designs for paper knives]
"Whew!" exclaimed Harry, "don't ever give me any maple to whittle
again."
"Well, you wanted to make a paper knife, didn't you? A paper knife that
would break when it fell on the floor wouldn't be of much use, and you
are not through yet. The blade must be cut down to a fairly sharp edge
on both sides now."
This was done by bevelling the edges as shown in _h_ and the bevel
gradually cut back to the centre line, as shown at _i_ and _j_. Harry
concluded that this was the hardest work that he had ever done.
[Illustration: Fig. 80. Key rack designs]
"Now you understand," said Ralph, "why I couldn't allow you to make a
knife at first. All the training I have given you was necessary before
you had the requisite skill and control of your hands. The carving will
be easy for you because of all this practice. Skill is something which
comes that way. Why, if I should give you the problem of making that
first key rack over again, you would do it in about one third of the
time, and very much better than at your first attempt. You have been
gaining skill without knowing it.
"Just to show you how much you have advanced, I will give you one or
two key rack designs to be decorated with chip carving. When they are
finished, take them into the house and compare them with the first you
made. I think you will be amused at the difference. That original piece
of which you were so proud will seem a very crude affair now."
"All right," said Harry, "but I should like to make one more paper
knife first if you don't mind."
"Very well; make up a new design, because no artist ever duplicates his
work," said Ralph with a mischievous smile.
The smile was premature, however. The boy had not been designing
woodwork for nothing. The design is shown at No. 2, Fig. 79, and even
Ralph, severe critic though he was, had to admit that it was "pretty
fair."
"Looks like a table knife," he said seriously. "However, it is your own
design, so go ahead and make it. Try a piece of cherry this time. It
makes a good wood for carving, and is not quite so hard to whittle as
maple."
The different steps in the process of cutting this out were the same as
in No. 1, Fig. 79.
[Illustration: Fig. 81. The blotter pad]
The key rack shown in Fig. 80 was comparatively easy after making
paper knives. The bevelling of the curves at the ends was the only new
feature of the knife work.
[Illustration: Fig. 82. Method of using the spokeshave]
The making of presents went rapidly onward from this time. The next
article to engage our woodworkers' attention was the blotting pad,
made of two pieces of black walnut fastened together with the screw
handle. (Fig. 81.) The blotter is bent around the curved face of the
lower part, and the ends gripped between the two parts by tightening
the screw. These handles with screw attached are of brass, and can be
obtained at any hardware store.
The upper piece was bevelled, and a circular space in the centre left
plain to provide for the handle, the rest of the space being carved.
The making of the curved face on the bottom was too difficult for the
knife, so the boy worked it out with the plane and spokeshave shown in
(Fig. 82).
When these blotter pads are finished with the brass handle, coloured
blotter and hand-carved top, they are very attractive, and make
acceptable presents.
Toilet boxes were next in order, and there seemed no end to them;
glove boxes, collar boxes, handkerchief boxes, boxes for storing away
photographs, etc. Those for collars were square, viewed from the top,
while glove boxes were made long and narrow.
The construction of these called for the use of carpenters' tools, and
Ralph was not ready to start his pupil on this branch of woodwork yet,
for several reasons.
In the first place, it meant a halt in the fascinating work of carving,
and they had not yet exhausted the possibilities of knife work. So they
tried the plan of buying ready-made boxes from the stores. This was
not entirely satisfactory, as most of them were of basswood, soft, and
easily carved, but so white that it became soiled too readily. This
difficulty finally led to a unique scheme. They stained the wood a dull
ebony, and found that the design showed very clearly in gray pencil
lines, easily carved.
The carving came out white on a black background, and proved quite
satisfactory for the coarser designs. The finer work, however, did
not show to advantage, and the method was adopted of leaving certain
portions of the surface plain.
One of the glove box designs is shown in Fig. 83.
The lines made in this black and white carving by the veining tool are
very effective.
[Illustration: Fig. 83. Design for glove box]
The boys had just gotten nicely at work one afternoon when Harry
remarked very seriously: "On what subject shall our lecture be this
afternoon, professor?"
A block of white pine hurtled across the shop, but Harry ducked and no
one was hurt.
"No," said Ralph, "you can't start a discussion to-day. I've been
thinking that you will have to take up the use of bench tools pretty
soon, because you are really doing this work backward."
"What do you mean?"
"Why, you should never decorate anything which you haven't actually
made."
"Well, haven't I made everything we have carved so far?"
[Illustration: Fig. 84. Double photo frame]
"All except the boxes. When we bought those boxes, that was a signal
that it was time for you to begin constructive work. It has been a big
problem to give you carving to do on articles in the flat that you
could make with the knife. We will make a few picture frames, carve
them, and then leave our carving until you can construct anything in
wood. You will always be able now to design carved work for any given
space; one of these picture frames, however, is going to be a rather
severe test of your skill."
Fig. 84 shows the first photograph frame they took up, a simple design
in one piece.
The openings for the pictures were cut out with coping saw and knife
and bevelled. The bevels on the outer edges of the frame were planed.
[Illustration: Fig. 85. Carved picture frame]
Fig. 85 shows a problem in designing for irregular spaces, and the
design is a typical Swedish form. In both of these frames it was
necessary to provide a method of holding the photo on the back.
This was accomplished by tacking on two strips of 1/8-inch basswood on
each side, and the bottom as shown in Fig. 85, the narrow strip being
1/4 inch wide, and the top one 1/2 inch wide, making a groove 1/8 inch
deep to receive the picture. If it is designed to have glass in front
of the photo, the narrow strip must be 1/4 inch thick in place of 1/8
inch.
The problem of polishing carved work is rather a difficult one.
Ordinary varnish or shellac cannot be used to advantage, as on flat
surfaces, because it fills up the spaces and ruins the effect.
Perhaps the best method is to dissolve a small quantity of beeswax
in turpentine, and rub in with an old tooth or nail brush, which is
comparatively soft. This will not injure the carving, and will protect
it from dampness and dust, as the wax hardens. It should be put on when
about the consistency of soft putty.
[Illustration: Fig. 86. Palette photograph frame]
The photo frame shown (Fig. 86) was the last form our boys attempted in
the flat.
It has the advantage of simplicity, only one kind of cut being used;
but the long flowing lines, which must be first drawn on the wood
free-hand, require all the patience and skill one can command.
The form in outline is the artist's palette, and the opening for the
picture an ellipse.
All the lines in the carving converge to a point to the left of the
centre of the opening.