rough around the edges (and valleys)

[WhiteShaman]

Greetings,

As I progress, I notice a notable difference between my work and others and that is the cleanliness and sharpness of the edges and valleys.
I assumed this is because my tools are not the best.
Are there tricks to cleaning up your finished work that you all would like to share?
Blessings,
James

[mdallensr]

A couple of general points:
1. Your tools must be sharp, really sharp, all of the time.
2. Make your cuts complete; don't leave them short. If you're chip carving or just making stops cuts, the chip should fall out. Otherwise, you'll start picking at it to pry it loose. That's not going to leave a clean carving, and it will damage your tools. Don't get that bad habit started.
3. Choose your carving wood wisely. The best tools and carving technique won't overcome a bad piece of wood. Even experienced carvers can struggle with some unusual types of wood. When you're new to carving, don't make it tougher than necessary by trying to carve really hard or gnarly wood.
4. Learn to make slicing cuts, particularly across grain when creating an edge. Move your knife or gouge in a slicing motion rather than just pushing it straight through a fragile edge.
5. Find Chris Pye's book on carving basics, usually at a library or carving club, and read about his techniques. Look at his carvings and the clean detail he gets. He's a big proponent of slicing cuts and sharp tools. Good luck. Mike
Mike

[WhiteShaman]

Thanks Mike!

[brent]

You can skew the blade or gouge and it will leave a smoother cut depending on the direction of the grain. Make sure as always, your tools are their sharpest.

[Dan S]

Hey there,
They were right on with their tips. Another one that I use is that when I am doing a stop cut I'll leave a bit of extra wood on the part I am carving into. When I have removed the wood to the depth I need to then I'll take off that last bit leaving a clean edge.

I hope that made sense...

Dan

[WhiteShaman]

Thanks Brent, Dan!
All of these tips will help me when I finally get some good tools!
Blessings,
James

[LMiller]

One or two more?

It took a while for the entire concept of wood grain to be second nature to me. Think about the way it runs and how you can best carve taking into account the grain orientation.

Always attempt to cut from high to low. From the highest elevation to the lowest elevation. If you are carving a nose for example, cut from the top of the nose to each cheek in separate cuts. Same with the cut from the nose into to the eyebrow. Always from the highest to the lowest.

Good Luck!

LMiller

[WhiteShaman]

Thank you Lmiller, that is good advice and I can see how it can help me stop breaking the nose tips off!
The grain thing confuses me though, I seem to be locked in most of the time on which way I cut or gouge by the size and shape of things (no room).
I also noticed that a cane I just did a woodspirit in of some unknown darker hard wood allowed me to use my gouges with ease but the good Basswood I just bought won't let me use them at all.
It could just be my cheap tools though.
Thanks again for your tips!
Blessings,
James

[Mitchell]

Can't really add to what others have said.

Common topic for beginners...

Here's a previous post: Rough edges to depth cuts

You can search for more by using "cleaning fuzzies" or something similar.

[Dileon]

It is not the tool, but for me it took over a year to learn how to make my tools razor sharp.....and learning some are faster then others. I have some really junk chinese tools, and they are sharper then some of my prize ones. Still learning until you get it....keep on trying. Meantime the fuzzies are everywhere. You can sand them out, you can burn them out with a wood burning unit, you can file them out with finger nail filing sticks (drug store), you can get a fixed blade razor and cut them out carefully (Lynns old reliable.) I use a dremel with foredom bristle brush that is great for cleaning out fuzzies and I got a mini wood carving files that will get those fuzzies til you learn how to sharpen....like I said it takes time....and there is alot of other methods to kill those fuzzies so read post and threads about them....