Elimination of Fuzzies on Wood Carvings

[Merle Rice]

I bought 3M Sanding Brushes from Little Shavers and they work great. I got the 1" brush with 6 in a pack. I suggest you get the Shaft for it. It comes in different grits, I got 120 grit and knocks those Fuzzies right off as clean as a whistle. The experienced Carvers probably don't need them, but us beginners need all the help we can get, and the little brushes do the job.
Merle

[Kenny_S]

Don't kid youself Merle, Thos experienced carvers use them also. They are neato or Awesome or whatever word you dislike.hehehehehehehe

[whitecree]

I've been thinking about those, but I'm a notorious cheapskate. Instead, I just keep twisting littler chunks of sandpaper around and removing half my fingerprints while removing fuzzies.

[Mark N. Akers]

Merle;
You will reach a point when you won't sand anything,keeping your tools sharp helps a lot with the fuzzys,also trying to use as few a cuts with the knife,don't keep going over the same spot,make 1 cut and go with it.I don't use any type of abrasive,when I finish carving it ready to go.That comes with practice.

[mark yundt]

Mark A ,,,you have the right idea,,,learn to carve well ,,clean,,and it all takes care of itself.Sharp tools,,clean cuts,,very little sanding is needed to make a carving pristine,,,it should all come out of the chisel if done correctly.All the rest are just stop gap measures to compensate for innacurate or poorly done cuts,,,sandpapers or scrubbie pads are just compensation for poor carvings. You cant get a better finish than what a chisel can do,,,learn to use your chisels and you won't need the rest.Sanding won't make a smoother finish than what a chisel can provide.

[Eddy-Smiles]

Mark...Mark.... Perhaps in my next life (I don't figure that I've got enough time left to get that good in this one).... so in this one I'm with Kenny and need all the help I can get.

[Mark Gargac]

I'm no purist by no means and sanding will definitely not cover up a bad carving.

I like carving faces, and it sure helps to soften some of the hard edges, especially at the V- cuts in creating the wrinkle lines, and then get in good and deep with a detail knife. If the right abrasives are used , you can also do some nice shaping and texturing in the facial area's, giving the skin a more appealing, soft, and realistic look. The benifits of sanding can be many. The trick's to make it look like it has'nt been sanded. If you sand, dont forget to get all grit left by the paper off before going back in with sharp tools, or your going to find yourself standing in front of the honing wheel longer than you might like. There's nothing wrong with using a little progress. If the great masters of the past had power tools, I bet they would have used them!

Love those 3M sanding disc's!

[Wolf Kiessling]

I surely agree with Marc, you just can't beat sandpaper (or any kind of abrasive disc, burr or whatever) for smoothing out hard edges. Marc mentioned faces, and he's absolutely right about that, at least IMHO, but also for stylized carvings or anything else for that matter. I noticed that caricature carvers don't do much sanding and they don't really have to because the tool marks are expected on this kind of carving. When you are doing realistic carving/sculpting, I can't think of any other way to get rid of the tool marks. Look at some of the stone sculptures around, they have certainly been ground down because you don't see any tool marks there. It is true that if you use good sharp tools you will leave no/or almost no fuzzies but you still have the edge where you have cut the wood. It really just depends on what sort of a sculpture you are creating.

Another reason to use abrasives is when you power carve. I, personally, use power plus non-power tools on just about every carving I ever make. I have never been able to do any shaping with power tools without leaving fuzzies that have to be removed.

Just my two cents...........

[mark yundt]

Oh,,I'm not totally against sandpapers and such,,use it myself. I've seen some carvers though think it's a replacement for a chisel or something.And I have said from my very first piece that if the old masters had power they would have used it as well. Michelangelo used drills as in addition to chisels,,and a version of sandpaper ( as well as Gibbons,,used plant leaves) to finish off pieces. Nothing wrong there.It just has to be used judiciously and for the right reasons.That's all I was saying.

[snickerbocker]

I think the sandpaper issue depends on what you are carving. As for caricatures it is our humble opinion that we want all the facets that the tools leave and sanding also affects the paint job negatively. At least the way we paint. Sanding definitely has it's place just not here.