Woodcarving Illustrated - How To Magazine for Carvers: Carving a Hillbilly Chess Set

Carving a Hillbilly Chess Set
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Mitchell on 01/17/2010 15:02:00
 
Most of my carvings tend to be small so I can move from an idea to a finished
piece relatively quickly. After creating a few typical hillbilly caricatures,
they took on a life of their own. It turned into a family feud on opposite sides
of a chess board.
I’m not sure if the Hatfields and the McCoys play chess, but if they did, it
would look like this. The king and queen on one side are the mother and father;
the king and queen on the opposite side are the daughter and her soon-to-be
husband—who has a fondness for moonshine. That’s why the bishops are
preachers on one side and moonshine jugs on the opposing side. Mules seemed to
be a fitting substitute for the traditional knights and outhouses are a humorous
replacement for the rooks.
The carving instructions focus on the pawns, awaiting instruction with their
hands tucked behind their backs, but the general technique is the same for all
the pieces. I use a methodical approach to carving represented by the initials
“RBD.” The first step is “R” or roughing out the carving, which is
followed by “B” or blocking out the shape. The final step before painting is
“D” which stands for adding detail.
I use the Ortel V-gouge made by Denny Neubauer to rough out the carvings. The
V-gouge has straight sides like a V-tool, but the point at the bottom is rounded
like a gouge. It is very useful when roughing out and blocking in a carving.
Click here to view 3-D model of this project.