Further Adventures in Wax Inlay

[MackTheKnife]

This is my second try at the handle of this spoon. I carved off the first try. The less said about that the better!

I learned several things from this exercise.

1. The use of a kohlrosing knife with wax inlay is not only feasible, it works well. For some things.
2. Borders look better done the old-fashioned way: with a v-cut. Maybe even a v-tool since the bottom of the cut won't show.
3. I need to improve my kohlrosing skills! Curves are hard. I drew the circle with a compass, but following the curve with the knife was tough.

Next on the agenda is to practice kohlrossing and produce a better spoon.

[Robson Valley]

"Curves are hard. I drew the circle with a compass. . . . . "
Famous Last Words. I could not agree with you more.

When it is my intention to carve a circle, a V-shaped groove of any depth, I've reduced myself to the following steps:
Draw the circle with a compass or trace around something. If I don't want the puncture mark in the center I stick something else (wood/cardboard, tape-wrapped coin) on top with a loop of sticky tape. Draw the circle and take my center piece off.
I draw the circle with a knife, I like a Moor bent chip knife but usually change directions, pushing the blade with my thumb. It has taken me ages to learn not to try to go too deep with the first or second pass.
For the inside edge of the groove, I will carve 4 x quarter circles to always go down into and with the grain. For the outside edge, same thing but the directions have to be reversed.

A V-gouge cuts one edge with the grain and jams into the other edge. Don't like how the groove looks with one ragged edge.
I use a pair of skew chisels (at 20 degrees bevel) and push them around with my thumb.
This was so frustrating that I found some scrap 1x4 (spruce?) and cut a dozen circles for practice. Mind you, none were less than 1.5" diameter.

[Dileon]

Wax as Inlay ....creative adventure? I bought some encaustic paints and they came in a few days ago.... handmade pigment, beeswax and damar resin. Expensive,.... but I am going to play some....never used it... heated with a hot air gun or heated palette. I know this would work....but it may be too much pigment, but again you can thin it with more beeswax and resin. They even have white which might look good? on a hard wood.

[Robson Valley]

DiLeon: MackTK is onto something, we needs best to pay attention.
His kohlrosing is significant. I have lots of 1" birch plank.

[MackTheKnife]

Go for it, DiLeon! If you're worried about too much pigment (soaking into the grain?), then I would suggest using a sanding sealer on the wood before you begin carving, especially on curved surfaces where there might be some end grain exposed.

[MackTheKnife]

Yeah, Robson, I've thought about doing the circles 1/4 at a time but haven't had the guts so far to try it with the kohlrosing knife. Doing a standard v-cut with the point of your knife leaves you a little wiggle room when you join up the segments of the circle. With the single cut of a kohlrosing knife you've got to be dead on or the discontinuity will show up like a blinding red light. Though, now that you've made me think about it, you could disguise that with some design element like that flower.

That's what I love about this place: the answers that make you think of new answers!

[Robson Valley]

When I'm going to make some sort of a groove, I pull the center line with a Moor large(?) chip knife. The edge is angled down maybe 30? degrees so I can drag it through the wood. I don't believe that I've ever used more than the tip 1/4", if that. Anyway, I'll go around a curve 2X then take one or both sides away with the skew chisels.

Usually, I'll go back and repeat the entire process. I realized that a lot of my insipid relief looked that way because I hadn't gone deep enough.

[Dileon]

DiLeon: MackTK is onto something, we needs best to pay attention...<

I have been experimenting with various wax on cracks and cuts in wood such as what Bob is showing. Noted ... 3 kinds of Paraffin is a hydrocarbon, more noted as a petroleum; although it show it has properties in chemical reactions to the environmental factors and varies with each wood element. The question is....it may show that it could be an inferior property. I prefer micro crystalline wax as this wax is darker, more flexible, has more strength, and more adhesive. Beeswax is a natural wax, as a medium melting point, but add with the damar resin.... could be a permanent solution? I was addressing this to Bob,... although it is well known on this board my communications skills, often do not live up to some people judgments. One of my own concerns was wax seepage, which has occurred a few times, with some wax and woods wondering if the hydrocarbon causes cells in the wood to swell and pushing the wax out to a notable level.???? It is also noted that everyone and anyone share their opinions on this board and anyone can choose to ignore them.

[MackTheKnife]

DiLeon, I have always interpreted your comments as helpful. Apparently you know far more about wax than I do. I have been corresponding with a gentleman in France who has made an extensive study of the Breton wedding spoon. He stated that the Breton carvers used sealing wax almost exclusively. I mentioned to him possible migration of the pigment in the wax, and he said that in boxwood, the traditional material for wedding spoons, there was no migration due to the density and hardness of the wood.

I don't know the composition of the sealing wax I have been experimenting with, but I suspect it is a combination of beeswax and a hardener such as stearic acid. It is much harder than standard candle wax. Hydrocarbons, being, as a class, solvents, could very likely cause migration along the wood fibers.

The only migration I have noted with the sealing wax I am using has been where I applied it to a curved surface or a large angled cut where end grain is exposed. This also happens in kohlrosing where you are rubbing finely ground coffee into the cuts. Even then, on the aspen spoon I was experimenting with, the migration was minimal though it was apparent. As in kohlrosing I suspect that the application of a water-based sanding sealer to the surface before carving would take care of that.

Again, DiLeon, no worries. Your skill in English is miles ahead of my skill in your first language, whatever it may have been.

[MackTheKnife]

Boy, did I learn what not to do on this one! My original intent was to use the wax inlay only on the border around the heart and on my signature on the back. But as I was dripping the wax into the bottom of the heart a big old drop came off and filled the top triangle just below the heart. So I had a brain-storm (I ought to know better!). It'll be easier to fill the rest of the triangles than it will be to struggle carving the wax out of that one, I told myself.

WRONG!!!

I discovered that the deeper the carving, the more likely a bubble will form in the wax. At the point of the triangle (the deepest part) the carving is a little less than 1/16" (1.5 mm) deep. This was enough for a bubble to form at the point of all 16 triangles. That was not easy to correct. I first tried melting new wax onto the bubble voids. That worked OK on the smaller bubbles, but not on the larger ones. After several tries I found a method that worked. Sort of. I took one of those butane charcoal lighters and played the flame over the surface of the triangle until the wax softened enough to slump at least partially into the void. Then, while the wax was soft, I melted new wax onto the area. It took me almost two hours to correct the bubbles, all the time worrying that I would either scorch the wood or, even, set it afire. I guess that's why they call this the "craftsmanship of risk."!

So, a caveat: Beware of deep carvings. The wax will not cool and solidify evenly. This will cause a depressed area or, at worst, will leave a void. So make your chip carvings more shallow than you normally would.