How deep should a stop cut be made?

[-JBergs-]

Hi all!

As a newbie, I'm very much interested in relief carving...and am really getting in to it...and similar types.

I'm wondering how far down my stop cuts should go and if I should do it in increments; in other words; should I make a stop cut at about a half inch and then clear the wood away; then make another stop cut down to the finished depth? (or should I just make the stop cut down to the finished depth on the first attempt)?

Thanks for any feedback!

[TreeWizard]

When starting out the most important thing to keep in mind is to make sure you can control your tool. Making stop cuts in increments makes the most sense as it's the best way to control your tool, as you gain experience you can make deeper cuts before you clear the scrap away.

[Irish]

Paul is right on track. Increments ... !

Small increments give you control over the shape and slant of the stop cut and the depth. As you begin shaping your elements you use the stop cut to define one elements outline and as a break for the gouge and chisel work in the surrounding elements that will be at a lower depth than the first element.

As you work through your first relief carving you may want to leave each area just a little proud (higher or large than the actual measurement) from the planned depth in the wood to allow for extra shaping and detailing. You may want or need to make some changes to the original pattern or you may decide to add elements to the design.

By walking the stop cuts and rough out work down to your final depth you have many chances to make changes along the way. When I am finished roughing out the levels I am not at final depth, nor when I have completed the basic shaping steps. It's not until I am doing the finishing details and undercuts that I 'hit bottom'. Too deep a stop cut too soon can mean that my carving ends up 1/8" or more deeper than I had wanted.

Susan

[pallin]

I agree with the other commenters - that it's best to do the stop cuts in increments. It helps you to visualize the eventual relief of the piece. It also helps to control the "breakout" of the wood being removed. Depending on the wood and grain direction, too deep a stop cut may allow wood to split off that you hadn't intended. This is especially true when working across the grain.
Phil

[Gimpyrks]

What is relief carving?

[pallin]

To Gimpyrks: A relief carving is a design which has some depth to show the shape of the objects - as opposed to flat surfaces with designs incised into them (like chip carving) or "in-the-round" carvings (fully shaped, 3 dimensional figures) like caricatures or wildlife figures. Here is one:

Dachshund - Wood Carving Illustrated Photo Gallery

[-JBergs-]

Thank you all for the thorough responses...

Gimpyrks - to elaborate on pallin's description of relief carvings; when carving on a flat plane the background of the work is "relieved" or removed at different depths to create the foreground, which is the contrasting part of the design and projects outward.

There is low and high relief; the more wood that is removed (the deeper you go), the higher the relief.

Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relief_carving

[squbrigg]

You have recieved some great pointers here, and I will just echo their remarks. As you work you way deeper into a relief carving, continue to work your stops cuts down in keeping with the level you are working on. If you go too deep, you may end up with a secondary ridge that you don't want, so just go gently with your depth. Small increments.

Bob

[pallin]

It should also be pointed out that stop cuts will normally fall along the edge of some raised part of the relief design, so they will blend into the final shape. I made a mistake in my comment (see Note #4 above). If a stop cut is too SHALLOW it may allow the wood to split off beyond the place where you want it to stop.