[NorthOblivion]

Here's a celtic piece I've been working on lately... it's to be an incense holder for a friend so I've already got the base as I want it and now I'm just working on getting the right depth to the knot design before rounding off the edges. Wish I knew what wood it was but it's just a blank I found not too long ago and decided it would look nice carved. Not too soft but not too hard either... hopefully it'll look good when it's finished. What really gets my goat though is how difficult it is to cut out all the dead space to give the piece more depth (eg. the centre) So far I've been prying in as far as I can with the 1.5mm straight chisel but it's time consuming and pretty annoying. How can I possibly clear out those spaces? Am I going to have to resort to using a drill? Please help!

[squbrigg]

A drill is just what I use to clean out those inside openings, and then a scroll saw. You can do it using a knife or skew blade, but it's a nightmare.

Bob

[Thor]

Very clever idea to use it for an incense burner. Nice looking knotwork. Please show it to us again when you round it off. I like the wood.
Thor

[NorthOblivion]

thanks for the positive feedback! Hmm, I never even considered drilling all the way through until you mentioned the scroll saw, squbrigg... but that does sound like a great idea, I can already imagine it now