[doris]

hello, i need some advise (and sorry, if this post get longwinded...)...

i want carve a new full figure in the round, have ideas in my head of how design should be, and have a linden wood board 6.5cm=2.5'' thick, which would let me carve that figure in about 30cm=12'' height. that is about same size as mary poppins was. though this is a nice size for having a figure on display, it is still so small, it makes me big problems when carving the small face, and small hands (because of my eyes). so, i would like carve that figure in about 50cm =20'' height. for that i need about 12cm=5'' thick wood. my idea is to try glue two pieces of that linden board together, and this leads now to my questions :

1) i have no powertools, the boards are only saw by sawmill, they are not planed, so not really flat, actually a tad bit warped, and a little rough. i wanted try to flatten them with sandpaper, glued to a flat block, large but so that i can grab it comfortably. then glue them together with white wood glue. will that work ? or is there another better method with handtools (which?) only ? (i dont mind hard work, if i can know it will work in the end, but i would hate to do that work if it is doomed to fail because the idea is wrong...)

2) although the wood i want glue together is from the same board, it still can happen that the glueline shows, right ? my figure will have not many choices where i can put a glueline to hide it, because of the planned design, i will try to put it so that at least it not runs through the face... so in case the glueline will show disturbingly strong, how can i hide it after carving ? which options would i have to hide it ?

3) suppose i managed to glue the boards together. next issue i had on mary poppins was she was shaky when i worked on her in upright position with mallet. so, this time, i want as fred has advised me, make a base for the carving included in the carving block already, and screw the base with that on my desk.. so, i think i need extra glue up wood, in front and back to make a big enough square so that the figure would stand stably while i work on it . is that right ? or would the square 5''x5'' suffice which i obtained by glueing the two pieces togehter ? (i will work heavily with the mallet on the figure while roughing out...)

please let me know your opinions to these questions, since i ask to figure out if i can try carve big or if i better should care it small ...

[squbrigg]

When laminating two boards together, the faces should be as flat and smooth as possible. Using the sawmilled rough lumber that you have, it really should be run through a planer first. To try and do it by hand without a good smoothing plane would be difficult. If the board isn't too big, using a square to check your work, you could try to "carve" it flat, checking and marking the high spots regurlarly and then sanding flat using a sanding block and again, a square to check the surface. It take an experienced carpenter to do it by hand.

Perhaps you could try to find a woodworking shop that could plane the wood for you. They wouldn't charge you much and would be much easier. Or perhaps a friend or neighbour has a planer at home that would plane the boards for you. I have done both until I finally went and bought my own planer. I'd offer to plane them for you, but I think that the trip would be not really cost efficient for you.

I would also suggest that you use yellow carpenters glue to bond them together when you have them ready. Clamp them and you will have a difficult time finding the seam once you have done your carving.

The two pieces glued will give you a good base, 5" square is a good size, but you will still need to secure it in some way, when banging away to rough it out. You could attach it to a wider board temporarly and remove the board when you are finished.

As far as the seam, there are many ways to hide that, orient the seam so it does not show up on the face, have it run sideways (ear to ear instead) instead of down the forehead and nose.

Wish I could be more help. I am looking forward to watching your progress on this one. I do so enjoy your work.

Bob

[brian bailey]

Doris,

I build furniture from rough lumber. Your plan to use sandpaper to flatten two faces of the board for a glue-up isn't advisable.

You need to take the board to a woodworker that has a jointer, not a planer! The machine will joint the board's face flat so you will have an acceptable glue line.

I would also mark your board so that when you do the glue up, the grain is running in the same direction as it was when it was still an uncut board.

[doris]

thank you bob and brian. your information helps me a lot. so i see it is not a good idea to try to make the board flat by myself. glad i asked, have saved me a lot of trouble. thank you so much :-)

[Fred Zavadil]

Doris,


I have to strongly agree with Bob and Brian. You will not be able to do it by hand. You can sure try, but it will not work. You need to take your wood to a woodworking shop (or somebody who works with wood) and ask them to do this for you - if it is done properly, you should not have a big problem with the glue line.

What I use for laminating is the white wood glue - I think this is the carpenter's glue (I am really bad on names or exact terms).

Basswood (linden wood) does not have a very strong grain, so, when I am laminating it, I do not really look much at the grain, I pay much more attention to the color of the wood and try to match the color (had some really bad experience in the past) - but Brian's suggestion to mark the wood will work.


To secure the carving, I screw the base to a piece of plywood first (bigger than the base) and than screw the plywood to the carving stand - in your case to the table. Mind you, my carving stand is screwed to the floor.

Hope you find somebody to help you with the wood.
Fred

[hruukki]

Hi Doris,
if you, despite everything, need to resort to planing the boards by hand: 1. get a really good plane and 2. use a glass plate with marking chalk smeared on it, to check for flatness. When you rub the piece of wood to the chalked plate, the chalk naturally sticks to the places that stand out. Of course it's a lot of work but also good practice for, hm, trying not to get frustrated probably... . I'm a bit too lazy to go places so I do this - for smaller pieces it works quite OK, so far. It so happens I'm just about to start a project about the same size - I'll let you know if it ends up in the trash can because of the joint.

Henri

[ragiarn]

I am glad you asked the question as I was thinking about the same problem. Another suggestion, especially if you are going to use Basswood (linden) is to go to this website ( Heinecke Wood Products ) They sell Basswood in all sizes and standard blocks in sizes up t0 4x8x 12. They also advertise "Any size block you want can be ordered!". You may be able to order just the size you want without going trough the trouble of planning and gluing,

Doc

[doris]

ah fred, you seem know me very well, because you say "You can sure try, but it will not work."... lol... but i will resist this urge of trying, (thanks though henri for the tip, i collect it and maybe later on a smaller glueup i can use it), i know i would feel so bad if i make board flat by hand, glue it, carve many hours, and finally some openings in the glue line appear while carving because my flattening did not make really flat. ...ragiarn, thanks for the link, but i am located in europe, i guess the traveling costs and import taxes for the wood would be too high. but you are right, thinking of buying wood in a prepared block of the wanted size. need only find a shop where i can get a good quality here. ... thank you everybody, i appreciate very much your taking time to help me :-)