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Size matters

Peter Benson explores size and scale of carvings

Sculptor crafting small figure under magnifying glass

In this world where fashions seem to dictate how successful anyone is going to be, those who don’t conform to the current trend are likely to have a much more difficult time than those that do. Pop stars and film stars are seldom unattractive, maybe lacking in character and personality but generally good to look at. We ordinary people have to work just that bit harder to make our mark.

As someone who loves to carve very small pieces when I have the opportunity, I am aware that, unless I become very famous – which is highly unlikely – I am never going to earn a living or get paid anything like a worthwhile sum with any of my little carvings. On the other hand, if I tackled a tree stump with a chainsaw and spent a fraction of the time producing a strikingly large piece for someone’s garden or park, or even carved a series of village signs, I could expect a good return for my efforts.

This is not to say that either approach is preferable or has more merit, it is simply that size does matter. The general public seems to consider that, the more there is of something, the more it is worth, where as, so often, something large is much easier to tackle than something that is very small. It really boils down to scale. Small will mean that you will have little difficulty getting hold of materials and the tools you use will probably go into a spectacle case, whereas carving large is a whole different ball game. You have to search for suitable timber, have the equipment to transport it and have a suitable vehicle to carry all your tools. Then you inevitably have to carve outside in all weathers as the partner would not be keen on having it in the lounge or on the trendy patio.

Enjoyable experiences

I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of carving large – with a small team of carvers from Essex I was responsible for producing some very large carvings for the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. The largest of these was a two-and-a-half ton polar bear, followed by a 7f t-wingspan golden eagle, a very large wren and a full-sized male lion, among others. While the experience was very different, it was actually quite relaxing as all the detail was very large and the room for error was significant. However, working with five other carvers on the same piece certainly tested our trust in each other and each piece had to be carved in either a double garage or in the open. Movement was sometimes a problem.

Group of men carving large wooden sculpture.
Carving as a team on a large piece of work

Planning

You are probably wondering by now what this all has to do with the sort of carving you undertake. I suppose, really, that the relevance is in how we plan our carvings. So often with my classes I am faced with a problem from a carver that, more often than not, has no satisfactory solution as he or she would never have got into that situation if some more thought had gone into the preparation. Subtle changes in the design or pose can very often make the difference between whether it is easy or difficult to carve.

When planning your next carving I feel that probably your first consideration should be how big you want it or does it need to be. To a large extent this will be determined by the size of wood you can get. Most kiln-dried wood that you can buy nowadays is not going to be more than 4in thick. You should be able to find air-dried pieces thicker than that from specialist suppliers and, of course, you can carve from a log which can be almost any size.

Bear statue on brick pedestal in outdoor park.
Polar bear in the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire
Aguila Memorial sculpture of a bird in a park
Wren

Movement

The problem is that the thicker you get the more chance there is of the wood splitting as it dries or as you change the stress in the wood as you remove waste. Even very old, dry wood, such as old oak beams, will split as it is worked as a result of this change in stress. If you want to carve from a large log I would advise that you get on with it before it dries out too much. Keep it at a constant temperature, remove as much as you can as quickly as you can manage, oil it with something like Danish oil each time you finish carving it and cover with a polythene or dustbin bag if you can to retain the moisture until you start again. This way it will dry slowly and you run far less risk of it splitting. I have done this with several quite large logs of yew(Taxusbaccata) and walnut (Juglans spp.) and have not had one split yet.

If you can get hold of large pieces of air- dried Lime (Tilia spp.) or similar, I suggest that you treat it similarly–you could get away with not oiling if you want to keep it light coloured. Don’t be tempted to use water on it as you will encourage mould to form. If all you can get hold of is kiln-dried timber and you want it more than 4in thick, you will need to laminate the wood to whatever thickness you require. This is where the fun starts.

Two men working on a large tree stump
Starting to carve a deer

Other issues to deal with

I suppose I am jumping the gun a bit because I haven’t mentioned any of the other issues you face. Have you got the right tools and, do you have what is necessary to hold a large piece of wood securely while you are hitting it with a mallet and large tools? Are you actually strong enough to keep up the continuous banging that will be necessary? Have you got somewhere to put the finished product? Many carvers I know get all enthusiastic about what they are carving only to end up with the finished piece being consigned to a box in the loft because a partner doesn’t like it, or there is nowhere for it to go. What a shame and possibly a waste of time.

If you are still determined to carve big, think a little about what wood you want to use. Some woods, such as lime, do not laminate well. You can end up with considerable colour variation as well as pronounced joint lines which can spoil the end product. On the other hand, woods such as mahogany, oak and walnut, in all their variations, laminate very well with little sign of joins and colour differences providing the right care is taken in the preparation.

Wooden deer sculpture in a green garden

Carving in relief

If carving in relief in any fairly thin wood, especially lime, care needs to be taken to ensure that you carve on the inside of any circular pattern formed by annular rings as, otherwise, the wood will almost certainly bow as you carve it. With oak, as well as any strong-grained wood you may choose to use, I would always advise that any wide board is cut into narrower boards and then turned from top to toe before gluing back together again. This will prevent bowing.

Thick timber laminations

If you intend to make up a thick block by laminating, it is important to match grain pattern and colour where possible and check with the end grain to make sure that you don’t join pieces with the annular rings going in the same direction. It is essential that all joining faces or edges are absolutely flat so that glue can be spread evenly and leave no glue lines. This can be achieved with careful planning and regular checking. I have found that using good quality PVA glue, suitable for the conditions of where the wood will be placed, has never given me any problems.

One other consideration with laminating is whether your bandsaw, if you intend using one, will cope with a large piece of wood. If not, you would be well advised to do any cutting out before you glue the pieces together. Just check that you can still clamp the different pieces together satisfactorily once they are cut out. The big advantage of carving larger pieces is that you shouldn’t have too much trouble carving any detail, provided you have done your homework, as you may well have several attempts before you have gone too deep into the wood. Generally any carver will seldom take off enough wood in the first two or three runs at it so carving can be fairly stress-free.

Close-up of a wooden board
This has been joined for a restoration that will be painted or gilded. If left natural the join lines would be very obvious
Wooden sculpture of a man with glasses
This is actually made up of five pieces of American white walnut (Juglanscinerea) laminated vertically with almost no sign of any joins

Small carvings

Things are very different when you start to carve small or very small. The easy part is that there should be no difficulty obtaining suitable pieces of wood. Anything will do as long as it has a close grain able to take fine detail. This means that it will probably be very hard so good, sharp tools are essential. A number of manufacturers nowadays produce suitable micro-tools, but most miniature carvers that I know still make their own tools or modify others to suit what is required. Gouges, chisels and scrapers can be made from masonry nails, old files and rotary bits similar to those used by dentists. Dental scalers and probes can also be modified to make very good tiny chisels and gouges. What it generally boils down to is that the carver reaches a point where they haven’t got a tool to do the job required, or that will not reach an inaccessible corner, so a new tool design is born.

Wooden carving of a snail
This snail on a plum (carved by my friend Russell Birch) is less than 50mm long and shows the amount of detail that needs to be put into a netsuke or netsuke-style carving
Wooden sculpture featuring a small, carved beetle.
The underside of the snail

Form and detail

While carving netsuke or other very small pieces does mean that the carver is of ten creating challenges that frequently are doomed to failure, the average person probably won’t want to spend the hundreds of hours that are necessary, especially if there is a risk of failure. Therefore, before any carving is proposed, a few questions need to be asked.

  • Do you have the tools to give good, crisp cuts that will stand up to examination under a magnifying glass?
  • Are your eyes good enough to see what is needed? If not you will certainly need a magnifier of some sort.
  • Do you possess the skills to make fine, delicate cuts and are your fingers strong enough to hold the piece while you are carving?

All right, you might not want to carve that small, but you could apply some of these questions to many of the carvings that you can see today. Remember that the smaller your carving the smaller the detail will be. You cannot expect to carve realistic eyes in a face that is only an inch or less tall, yet many try to do so.

The smaller you go the more you need to ask yourself how much detail you really need to include. Correct posture or face shape in a figure can give character, expression and movement; drapery can have flow and direction without individual creases being carved. In general, the smaller you go the more you can tend to try to over-carve a piece, thereby spoiling it. In many cases the inclusion of fine detail can enhance a carving but it cannot convert an indifferent design into something special.

Wooden sculpture of a person with cap
This figure has no face or hands carved yet the body language is still there
Wooden sculpture of a woman and child
This shows a mother and child at firework night. The heads are 50mm tall and I think about the minimum size on which an average carver should expect to be able to carve realistic facial detail. Very detailed minute carvings are a self-indulgence to prove that you can do it; they have little to do with reality. And why should they? But, as my old mother used to say: ‘Nothing worth doing is easy’. Or was it: ‘Nothing easy is worth doing.’ Something like that

A closing thought here is that, if you imagine how far away from your subject you would need to be for it to be the size of your carving, how much detail would you be able to see?

Further reading

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