Rough bottom areas in relief carving

[Donduck]

I recently did a relief carving of hearts in a circle connected by ribbon. The areas between hearts was removed to a depth of about 1/8". This area if rough in many spots. How do I remove the material and yet finish with a smooth bottom?

[Thomp]

Don,
I have a palm chizzle i modified for such work it was a 1/2 " straight cutting chizzle with cutting edege on the end,
the modification required me to cool grind down the 1/2" wigth to 1/4 th and regring the cutting edege to a one side grind like japaneese chizzles this way the chizzle handle was raised above the work, the metal was never heated and i didnt loose temper,
although they make tools like this or even bent shanks on long handles but i think youll find them hard to accuire

for short time work exacto makes several end sharpened blades,,,

[Ashbys]

Don if you could post a picture it would help. If the carving area is only an 1/8 of an inch deep it would depend on the opening you have to get ito the bottom.

It isn't the depth which causes the problem it is the way it is cut. There are many different tools for cleaning the bottom.
1) you could use a nail file and sand it
2) you could use a rifling file and file it flat.
3) you could use a spoon gouge , flat gouge or the edge of your knife and scrape it.
4) you could use a dremel of small grinder to clean it.
5) you could use a router if you have the room

There are a lot of different ways , but the size and the areas without being able to see them makes it difficult to give an well informed answer.

Ash

[Donduck]

Most of the areas to be smoothed are 1/8" or 1/4" wide. There is not enough room to sand back and forth. Each heart is about 1 1/4" x 2" and the ribbon is 3/16" wide. The circle of hearts is 5" in dia.

[Ashbys]

I am not a big advocate of power carving , but there are times which the best advantage is a power carver. If you have a dremel , you can use a grinding point. If not many riffling files are round to a complete circle. Since they are small they will fit into the area.

http://www.gesswein.com/catalog/inde...TOKEN=27194983

This is a link to Gesswein, they have swiss made files , but they can be a bit high , but these are excellent quality and will last you a lifetime. There should be one there that will meet you need you can also look to the spoon type and the knife style.

The other option is to cut a nail file down and lay it inside and then press it with a tool.

Or simply scrape it with a skew.

Ash