Keeping my stop cuts from splitting the wood

[-JBergs-]

Hi all and thanks for your time; I have two questions with regard to technique: please note that I always try to be sure I am working with sharp tools…I keep a leather strop next to me at all times and am consistently making several passes on it before during and after my work.

I am practicing some repetitious relief carving on some flat stock – trying to get into moulding type patterns, etc.

FIRST QUESTION:
On this latest piece I drew a circular pattern (inside another circle) and the area between both circles is roughed out so the outer circle is now about a half inch wide…I tried roughing out the background around the perimeter of the outer circle and when I made the stop cuts I split a portion of the circle in two places… I foresee this being a recurring issue in the future when making stop cuts adjacent to narrow areas of the foreground of the carving.

Has anyone had the same issue and if so, how do you combat this? To elaborate on the conditions further, the wood is pine and the outer circle is about a half inch wide, as mentioned, and the area where the wood split is where my stop cut was across the grain of the wood – not perpendicular to the grain but close to it.

SECOND QUESTION:
I notice on my last two relief carvings (first is mahogany; second is made out of pine), that sometimes when I am roughing out the background and I favor making deeper cuts in the wood that the top layer of the wood tends to flake up in larger pieces than I am intending to do with my chisel. So when I push the chisel forward and into the wood the upper layer of wood is pushed upward and the surface is sort of breaking in layers wider than the width of my chisel.

I know I can eliminate this by making shallower cuts but when roughing out larger areas you want to be able to remove the background quicker meaning making deeper cuts and I don’t want the wood to break or flake away – I want it to be sliced or cut smoothly. Perhaps I am cutting too deep (tunneling into the wood) and lifting up the handle too much at the end of the cut thereby breaking the wood above it…I’m exaggerating to make the point but this is even happening when I’m making shallow cuts as well.

Any and all feedback is appreciated! Thank You

[GaDoug]

I'm not the most experienced guy around but here are my thoughts.

1. When making this curved stop cut hold the knife more vertical so that only the tip of the blade is making he cut. If the blade is too flat it can't make the turn and the knife breaks the edge of the cut.

2. If your gouge cut goes too low into the wood – deeper than the edges of it's blade the wood will splinter. If you are not digging too deep your – you gouge is dull.

[chuckbolton]

on cutting your circles-- try using a v-tool. thats what i use when cutting on both side of a slender object in my relief carvings--- keep your edge straight up-- then you can clean up the inside of the circle.

[-JBergs-]

Thanks for the replies boys!

[Donsexton]

Use a sharp 60 degree V tool as stated and for relief of back grounds try a bent macaroni tool and for inside corners use a short bent skew you will need a left and right.

[doris]

hi, i am carving pine right now too, the mucha panel, and it is a little difficult,,,but when your tools are sharp it is easy to do. don´t force your tools too deep. better do several passes,,,forcing tools deep destroy wood fibers even where you cannot see it yet, but later when you want go deeper you will find crushed and compressed fibers,,,ugly... yes, making stop cuts is you need to look how the grain goes, and move in your chisels carefully. pine otherwise splits. its good to make in corners "safety" stopcuts" so cuts not extend into unwanted areas... and,,,if the wood is really nasty in some areas, put the malet aside and make the stop cut with a slightly slicing motion along the fiber direction, alsmost as if you want do a finishing paring cut. you will be surprised how well this works...

[-JBergs-]

Originally Posted by Donsexton

Use a sharp 60 degree V tool as stated and for relief of back grounds try a bent macaroni tool and for inside corners use a short bent skew you will need a left and right.

I'm still learning the lingo here for some of these tools - I know the obvious ones (V-tool) and I know what a skew is but the macaroni tool I could use some help with - also, a photo/pic would be great help-

Thanks to all by the way!

[bigEd_H]

A macaroni tool looks like a flat bottom gouge with the wings extending up and out at a very slight angle. Basically, it looks like a flat chisel with wings. Sort of like this --> \__/