Using plans

[arfer1943]

Maybe I'm unlucky.

I have found that on several occasions that "Plans" are differently scaled between side elevation and "top down".

I now check by measure major dimensions ie front to back, front to ear peaks, ear peaks to tail etc for differences before scaling and using.

I know plans are only that, and the carver is in charge, but it has saved several wastes of time and wood.

[SlowMover]

Good advice...I have cut out a few pieces from patterns in books that I have purchased, and the resulting cut out was really skewed or lopsided. I know I am not the most skilled band-sawist in the world, but after two or three attempts that result in a crooked piece, I too have wondered about the accuracy of the pattern.

As a related question to this thread, how do you all go about insuring proper alignment of the various projections on your block before you saw? I assume (and that may be dangerous) that when doing a two profile block (side and front views) that the only thing important is making sure the top and bottom of the views line up with each other.....it seems to me that lateral displacement of the front view on the profile one will make no difference as they will intersect and give a final cut out that is the proper size...is this correct thinking?

thanks for ny advice...and have a great carving day,

[kdispoto]

You're right on - I've been there too!

[Dagwood]

Something we dont thing of as well.... is in most cases the patterns we love to get are actually drawn by someone else or produced on a computer. they arent the artist original patterns... Just my .02 cents worth

[gtech]

I noticed that too...

Now I transfer the pattern on one side, and draw horizontal lines from that side to the other ones to mark the parts of the carving, like the position of the nose, neck, arms, etc...

It helps to prevent frustations.

Gilles

[johncarves]

gtech is right on... even when both views of a pattern are the same dimension check it, after its on the block and before you start cutting.

It is to easy to screw-up and to hard and costly to fix.

Experience speaks!

[swoody]

I have mainly been a bird carver, but would like to learn to crave caricature figures. I was looking at the book "Tom Wolfe Carves the Civil War. Can anyone tell me how wide the wood should be for the face and body of the featured soldier? I can get the height and thickness from the pattern in the book, but no mention is made of the width.

[Dagwood]

im not 100% sure on this SWOODY but pretty sure Tom uses 2" wood on alot of his carvings. the main thing is carve to preportions of the wood you have on hand. Don Mertz has a great blog about it on his site

[Dull Knife]

Originally Posted by SlowMover

Good advice...I have cut out a few pieces from patterns in books that I have purchased, and the resulting cut out was really skewed or lopsided. I know I am not the most skilled band-sawist in the world, but after two or three attempts that result in a crooked piece, I too have wondered about the accuracy of the pattern.

As a related question to this thread, how do you all go about insuring proper alignment of the various projections on your block before you saw? I assume (and that may be dangerous) that when doing a two profile block (side and front views) that the only thing important is making sure the top and bottom of the views line up with each other.....it seems to me that lateral displacement of the front view on the profile one will make no difference as they will intersect and give a final cut out that is the proper size...is this correct thinking?

thanks for ny advice...and have a great carving day,

Lop sided cuts, some times can be attributed to the saw its self. Have you ever checked to see that the blade and the saw table are at a perfect 45 degrees?

Another possibility is the saw blade it's self. Did you tighten it to the specs for the blades that you are using?

And then again, maybe the block of wood you are sawing isn't square.