Relief carving with Jack Brooks

[4v50 Gary]

(Note: This is the closest I'll come to a blog)

Day 1: He gives us a history of the rifle in America. German immigrants brought them over here and along with them, the rifle making tradition. The Edward Marshall long walk rifle comes up and Brooks thinks the parts were on the long walk, but that it's been restocked by Albright (Albrecht). He talks a bit about baroque and then the later roccoco that was developed from it. Of course the golden mean comes up and Jack brings out Vol II of Journal of Arms Making Technology (published by the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association) with Barry Bohnet's article on the Golden Mean. Furniture makers and gunmakers pick up on it and apply it to stocks. Jack then goes over several earlier makers, a brief overview of the Moravians and

Like Wallace Gusler, Jack Brooks believes that if you can't draw, you can't carve. Grabbing scratch paper from the copier reject bin to draw on, we spent the rest of the first day drawing acanthus leaves and C scrolls. Like what John Schippers teaches, you take the basic design and then embellish it. I'm actually getting the hang of it and the eraser makers must love me for helping to pay for their children's college education.

Brooks recommends we stick to the simple stuff first and as we develop our skills, to refine our work.

 

[Browning Guy]

I have to agree with the statement on artistic ability. There are several skills in the building of the rifle I have to admire. One is "mechanical abilities" being able to measure accurately, drill, ream, file, sand, thread properly etc. The other equal skill is the "artistic abilities". Being able to picture in your mind what you want, space, lines, geometry for shapes and lines, carving, etc. I could usual do the mechanical but there isn't an "artistic bone in my body". I could make it work and SHOOT, but a thing of beauty it ain't. That is why I look at a handcrafted piece and admire it. I can't DO it but I have to admire the talents of those who CAN do both! My hat's off to them.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Day 2:

We did a little more drawing before moving onto the next topic: sharpening. Learning to sharpen your tools is important. Dull tools only makes the task harder. Jack is unhesitant about hardening his tools (turn to bright red), quenching in oil and after it cools off, polishing and then tempering it by bring it to straw yellow. Then he sharpens it.

He showed us a field technique for checking that the tool is cut at about 22 degrees. Taking a sheet of paper, he folds one corner until it meets another, creating a 45 degree angle. Then like a paper airplane, he folds it again, creating a 22.5 degree angle. You can check the angle you hold the blade against the stone with the paper. Alternatively, you can hold the blade against the stone to see if you are cutting it the right angle.

Holding it at 22 degrees, Jack moves the chisel in circular motions over a rough stone. Going in straight lines or across works equally well. See what works for you. When he can feel the burr, he then strops it and takes the chisel to a medicum stone. Rinse and repeats until he gets to the fine stone. After the chisel or gouge is stropped, he sees if it can shave his hair off his forearm. If so, it is sharp.

One technique he does to is to hold the chisel or gouge against the table edge. He then rolls the stone over the chisel to sharpen it.

After sharpening, we moved onto stock shaping. Out comes the #49 Nicholson and sawdust hits the floor. This is followed by scraping (or sanding if that's what you prefer) until the quaker stock looks like a longrifle butt.

The final hours of the day was spent drawing on our stocks. We expect to start carving them tomorrow.

 

[Panzerschwein]

Very informative. Thanks!

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

I my experience (and training as a die maker) drawing the blade as if you were shaving the stone rather than using a circular motion eliminates the generation of a burr on the edge. For me it is also easier to hold a consistent angle on the blade when drawing it towards you. I will never be a carver though because my artistic ability is somewhere around nil.....

 

[4v50 Gary]

Steelhorserider - Like Jack said, it's the angle that is more important than whether ou draw circles, make horizontal or vertical lines. As for art, I'm no artist but Jack showed us a simplified way of drawing or looking a a drawing. Joe Kindig's book on the Art of the Longrifle shows the same thing. Simple straight lines that get the proportions and angle of the parts with relationship to one another. Then the basic outline in massive curves. The rough details of the figure are drawn in and finally the detailed. It surprised me that he had me drawing an acanthus leaf by the end of day one. It wasn't perfect (I tend to make things too skinny), but the essence was captured. In short, it's all a matter of practice.

Day 3: We finished drawing on the wood today and Jack demonstrated his stamping technique. He explained the gouge numbering system and how he selected the chisels he wanted us to buy for the class (they are the fibonacci numbers and make a continuous decreasing circle). He was the first out of the five instructors I had to explain this to me. Jack's stamping system is to push down and then rock back and forth. He then goes 1/2 over to the next part of the line and repeats the process until the gouge no longer fits the drawing. Then he goes to the next size smaller (or appropriate).

After the drawing is stamped, the outside of the drawing is cut away with a gouge or chisel. Jack also sharpened some hacksaw blades and slices away at the wood until the outline is carved out. Jack also uses modified a wide gouge to clear out the inside of a C. The modification consist of relieving by grinding off the corners and rounding the edges such that from the top it looks like a flattened arch. This requires grinding on a belt sander and then heating it back to red, polishing and then tempering before sharpening. Using that tool, it is very fast to lower the surface of the wood. He also made some small scrapers out of hacksaw blades with which we could clean up the wood.

Tomorrow we start on modeling the carving.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Day 4: Jack showed us how he used various #9 gouges to do modelling. Flutes are easier to cut with the right tools. Some areas of the relief had to be restamped to bring it out better and to clean up around the border.

Apart from cleanup, it's mostly done. I'll use it for wire inlay and afterward want to make a gunstock warclub out of it (it's only a flat half thick stock).

 

[4v50 Gary]

Day 5: We wound down today. I cleaned up the area around the carving and added some mule tracks to make the stock more decorative. Will do more finishing to make the plank of wood look like a long rifle stock. Then next week silver and brass wire inlaid will be added. I'll have to forge a blade to make it into a gunstock war club. It's obviously too flat on one side to be pass as an authentic war club, but good enough for hanging on the wall.

 

[4v50 Gary]

BTW, Jack made a carving knife/badle out of a worn hacksaw blade. He used that blade to shave down the wood. Other parts of the hacksaw blade were made into scrapers with which he could clean up the background material.

 

[4v50 Gary]

With Bill DeShivs' help, here are images of the carvings and wire inlay:




Relief carving was week 1. I did not have my small scrapers with me (can't find them). More time was spent on the area behind the cheekpiece than on the wrist (that was just done in one day). The only reason stain was applied was to bring out the wire otherwise the stock (if it was a serious piece of work) would have been scraped, filed, chiseled away a lot more.

Week 2 was wire inlays. We started by cutting out stars which we traced onto .020-.025 sheet brass and cut out with a jewelers' saw. This was then inlaid into the stock. I opted not to go with a fresh piece of wood but used the existing quaker stock instead. The area where the star was inlaid at begins convex, becomes concave and then convex again. This is a bit more challenging than a flat surface (my classmates did a flat surface).

After the star (or football) was inlaid, we were taught how to make brass wire out of .010 sheet brass. We started with a file first on both sides to impart a slight taper and to create grooves. Using scissors, we then cut out our long strip of brass. This was annealed.

Our inlay tools were made from hacksaw blades and after drawing our design, we used these tools to punch down into the metal for the length of the design. The wire was then pushed in by hand. Where we had crossovers, the wire was snipped at an angle.

 

[J-Bar]

I applaud your courage. Taking a chisel to a gunstock gives me the willies!!

 

[4v50 Gary]

It's just a quaker stock (dummy stock for practice). Carve away! I plan to do something unique to it - if I can get to a forge.