Flat Plane Carving

[STAR]

Seeing I have just self promoted myself out of the Beginner's Forum I decided I would have a look to see what my fellow graduates are up to.

Now, if I can be so bold for this beginner graduate to ask. What Is the difference between Flat Plane Carving and some of the other carvings like Santas, and Caricatures? They all look the same to this try hard.

Pete

[Rich2008]

Pete;
Flat plane carving originated in Scandinavia, and was brought back to life by Harley Refusal (goggle him). All the carving is done with only a knife, and the cuts are not rounded as in figure carving. All knife cuts are left visible, with long flat planes. He has several books, and teaches classes on Flat Plane in Decorah, Iowa at the museum. His carvings are mainly immigrants that emigrated to America at the turn of the century; farmers, Wood choppers, skiers, house wives working the farms way back when. Hope this helps.
Rich.

[Buffalo Bif]

I'm no expert, what follows is my opinion/interpretation, most of which has been formed here in this forum. I prefer to think of FP as whittling rather than carving, to distinguish between the use of only a knife vs multiple tools, and to limit the size of (most) FP pieces. FP involves a minimum number of cuts to convey the impression of say a leg or a nose, and relies on the play of light and shadow between adjacent cuts to imply more detail than is actually carved. For instance, a leg might be cut as a unequal six sided 'cylinder' rather than rounded off and/or sanded- three to six cuts creates a leg (or arm or whatever) as opposed to an untold number in other styles. That's alittle simplistic. There are many examples of whittled and or flat plane work outside of the FP forum here, in the caricature and holiday forums or elsewhere. some people employ FP style in on one part of a piece but not on all. FP does not mean you can't have curved surfaces.
In my imagination I see the origins of FP as a working man with a belt or pocket knife whittling a toy on the wagon ride to and from his work. A working knife would have limited the types of cuts he might make, and time or talent might have limited the amount of detail he was able to impart. It was a blue collar hobby or pasttime, as opposed to a profession. I think you have to bring some imagination when you look at FP work, it is not realism.
Again, this is all my opinion and personal thoughts on FP. I'm looking forward to future posts in this thread.
I'm no master Whittler, but I've tried to practice this style as much as I can, take a look at the more recent entries at my blog and let me know if they help. There are a lot of fine FP carvers here, browse their galleries if you get a chance.

BfloBif
Blog at www.bflobif.com

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Thanks for the explanation Rich and Bifo. I am gradually getting my head around this carving caper and on Sunday will be actually opening my wallet and picking up some Jelutong to practice with and turning into wood chips.

I also hope to get a few knives to start while I am still researching what tools best fit my purpose. I have good relations with the Woodcraft store in Stanford L.A. as my daughter is in L.A. a few or more times a year and Ingko the owner delivers the items in person to her Hotel.

Great service and a real nice person. It sure makes it hard to shop elsewhere. I can't imagine too many places here that will go that little bit further for a stranger hon the other side of the world.

Our arrangement came about by introductions from internet forum friends and now after three years we have built up a good business relationship.

Thanks again guys I hope to show some of my work when I get past the wood chip stage. Now I have to, Practice, Practice, Practice.

Pete