How to Chip Carve
About
Basic Chip Carving as a Hobby
Do
you want to learn how to chip carve? Chip carving is a great hobby, especially
if you are stuck in the house for long periods during the winter. We were browsing
some small jewelry chests on Ebay and ran into these beautifully carved chests.
Most were antique. Chip carving was apparently very popular in the early 70's, but the art of chip carving has been around for a long, long time.
The hubby was so intrigued by it's beauty and uniqueness, he wanted to try it, just to see if he could do it. So we went to a craft store and bought some small unfinished jewelry boxes, some stencils and a pattern transfer sketch book. They had some tools there for chip carving, but he wanted some durable ones that were made in Germany.
We found some chip carving tools at a store in Bridgeport called the Woodworkers Warehouse, but they were not cheap. They were like 10 dollars a piece. He bought 2 different types of carving tools. Chip carving knife I and F.
How to Chip Carve
The
first thing he did to get started was practice. He used a small block of soft
pine to hone his skill at making the precise cut in the wood. Of course, you have
to have a design in mind, and draw that design on the wood using a pencil. This
part of chip carving is the hardest part, and the most tedious, because the design
you draw has to be exact.
You can see in the top picture the squares he laid out in the right hand corner. He had to use some very precise measuring tools to make his design. He bought a set of 6 inch Marking Rulers for $28.95, and a 6 inch Marking Protractor for $19.95 and a Speedbow Compass for $14.95.
So now we have invested about $120.00 so far into this hobby, including the boxes. Then he bought a Chip Carving book called Techniques and Patterns by Wayne Barton. This is a great book with pictures of the wood cutting technique. So I would like to recommend this book, if you are interested in this hobby. See a larger picture of this chip carving design.
The
carved box in the picture took about two weeks to make, and then after you
carve it and sand it, then you have to stain it and vanish it. So making a chip
carving box was very time consuming.
The best use for a handmade chip carved box is that it makes a great personalized gift. He carved the name of our daughter on the box and gave it to her as a gift. Of course she will always cherish it.
The first box he made is pictured here, and we sold this on Ebay for $19.00 dollars. Really the money spent and time involved does not make making crafts very lucrative nowadays. People just don't want to pay for the time involved in making this beautiful chip carved art.
So he has giving up on the idea of chip carving as a money making hobby, and the box of all the supplies and a few wood plates and another unfinished plaque and box are on the top shelf of our closet. See a larger picture of the top of his chip carved box. This was taken right after he stained it.
New Pages
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tag?
Prepare for a Recession? - A list of
some things we are going to do to try to prepare for a recession.
We
Put Solar Lights in our House - Why not put outdoor solar lights "inside"
the house?
Wind Turbine Test - We started thinking
about how we could build a wind turbine to generate our own electricity.
Magazines
for Toddlers - I wanted to send some magazines to the grandbaby for something
to do during winter.
