Relief Carving Bench Hook

[Brownie710]

I took everyone's advice and went with the Little Shaver's Kit. I sat down with my first piece of basswood to begin to do a relief and realized that when using two hands to control my tool the wood slides all over (rookie mistake I know). I remember years ago when I was doing lino cuts I just used a metal bench hook. Is there a similar version for woodcuts that would be big enough or is there an easier way to secure your piece of wood to carve? Thanks for the input!

[RUssL.]

The short answer is "yes".
I have two bench hooks for carving. One has a working surface of about 12" X 12" and the other is about twice that size, if not larger. I'm at work and don't have the measurements or the hooks here.

There are plans, if you need them, all over the web for bench hooks.

There are other means of holding wood on your bench, and I have a bunch of those, too.

The items I use most frequently, for all kind of wood-holding tasks on my bench, are Lee Valley Bench pups along with their (or other) bench dogs. Bench pups (look 'em up at Lee Valley Tools) are one of the greatest, simple wood working jigs ever invented if you ask me.

I use them with my bench hooks, too, where I have drilled 3/4" holes in the bench hooks that line up with similar-sized holes in my bench.

Later,

Russ

[AlArchie]

A bench hook for relief is about as easy to make as anything. Take a 16" x 16" or thereabouts 3/4" thick piece of plywood and tack a 1"square piece of pine along oposite edges. One of these will drop off the edge of your bench and the other will hold the piece you are working on from sliding around.

Al

[twilli227]

There are two ideas in this this thread:
Red Oak Bracing Table

and a link to this this one:
Woodcarving, Bracing Table for Relief Carving, Carving Instruction

These should give you a good stating point.

Todd

[Brownie710]

Thanks fellas, I appreciate the advice. I figured I could just fashion one but wanted to make sure there was not some special way/considerations I was overlooking. I have what I need right by my bench. Thanks again.
Gratefully,
Josh

[James A]

I usually use just a C-clamp for my relief carvings. What is the advantages of using a bench hook? Also, what do yall think of using peg board for holding a relief carving? In a video I have of Ivan Whillock, he uses them for some reliefs.

[dhjrcarver]

Have you ever tried using those rubber anti-slip mats?We used those at a releif carving class I took with Diane Harto this last weekend and the mats worked well. They have good holding power and you can turn the carving when needed with ease.

[RUssL.]

I use C clamps and the anti-slip mats, too.
C clamps need to be undone to reposition your work and that can get to be a pain.
Anti-slip mats are not trustworthy enough when dealing with razor sharp edge tools. They might hold your work...then again they might not. Ooops!

A bench hook leaves the work free to turn whenever you want and yet offers positive, dependable holding when you push the work back into the corner where the bracing pieces meet.

The screw through the back of pegboard (ala Ivan Whillock) is okay, too. The only problem I have with that is sometimes I like to "recycle" wood and use the other side if the original side doesn't work out the way I like...and then I have screw holes in the back I was going to "recycle"...

Russ