rounding question

[carver75]

Hi everyone im new to this site and new to carving. I am curious on how to round square blank edges. i try but i cant get it. and im limited on tools also i mainly use 2 xacto knives and a a 1 inch chisel and a 1/4 inch chisel. and few pocket knifes! any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated! thanks

[Claude]

Welcome to the forum!

First take off each corner. How much? Looking at the side of the block, you want the cut area to be about 1/4 of the way across the blank. Do this all the way around and you end up with an 8 sided block. Now look at the end of the blank. Do the 8 sides all appear to be about the same width? If not, (and it probably won't be) take off a little bit more on of the new sides that use to be corners that seem to slim. Look at the end of the block again and see if it looks better. When you get the block so it looks like it has 8 even sides (look from both ends!), then take a little bit off each of the 8 corners (again, about 1/4 of the way across the side). When this is done, you'll have 16 sides and it will seem almost round. Again, look at it from both ends and make sure it looks like a circle not an oval or egg shaped. If one area sticks out to far to be a circle, take a bit more off.

An alternate method. On both ends of the block, draw a cross from corner to corner. Where the two lines cross is the center of the block. Get a compass (circle drawing tool - cheap ones are at the supermarket where they sell pencils and other school supplies), and draw a circle using the crossed lines as a center point. Don't be surprised to find that the circle goes clear out to the side on two sides, but not on the other two - just means your block of wood wasn't exactly square. Now that you have the circles drawn, start taking off the corners as described above. When all the wood outside the circular line is gone (look from both ends!), you have a cylinder, or circular piece of wood.

Claude

[Sean R]

Hello carver75. The link I am giving you is to a very good friend of mines site. He is very well known on this site and his website is a wonderful place for all kinds of info and teachings on carving. Give it a look you will love it
WoodBeeCarver » Blog Archive Whittling Exercises A-B-C’s

Good luck with your carving it is a wonderful hobby if it bites ya
Sean

[carver75]

thanks for the replies they helped. i got the corners rounded alot better... now its just practice practice.

[Whittled Thumb]

If you are going to use XACTO knives, make sure they are carving knives. Not those little scappel things. I have three Xacto wood carving knives with three different types of blades. A rough out blade and two detail blades. The blades shouldn't be those flimsy things. They should be the type D still blades (you will see the difference immediately) I use those three knives and I just re-sharpen and strop the blades to keep them even sharper than I bought them. You will never round off a block with dull or insufficient knives.

Carve On!