Learning to carve letters in wood

[Yorkshire Sam]

I want to try to learn how to carve letters ( ie names) in wood. Been looking all over for pointers of how to start, tools needed, etc. Unfortunately all seem point to wood carving in general ( which I have no real interest in). Anyone point me in the right direction into how to learn the techniques?
The few that I have found all relate to using a router .. again something I don't want to do. Just hand carving letters with chisels etc.

 

[Jacob]

I want to try to learn how to carve letters ( ie names) in wood. Been looking all over for pointers of how to start, tools needed, etc. Unfortunately all seem point to wood carving in general ( which I have no real interest in). Anyone point me in the right direction into how to learn the techniques?
The few that I have found all relate to using a router .. again something I don't want to do. Just hand carving letters with chisels etc.

You don't "try" to learn - you just learn. No "trying" - you just get stuck in.
I thought this video was good http://www.finewoodworking.com/how-to/v ... asics.aspx
The main thing is to have a go with whatever tools and wood you happen to have, and not be put off by making a mess and wasting wood. It'll get better with time!
Not that I can do it - but I know you and I could do it if we put the time in.

 

[marcros]

i have only had a play a few times, doing the odd letter, but I found this useful.

http://www.woodworkersinstitute.com/page.asp?p=468

 

[bugbear]

IIRC Chris Pye's range of tuition books includes one dedicated to lettering.

(later)

Found it:

http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/home/books#a3

You'd probably want vol 1 (core techniques) as well.

I saw a guy at a local County Fair doing lettter carving (professionally). He had 3 bevel edged
chisels, 2 flattish gouges, and a light mallet as his full kit.

BugBear

 

[charvercarver]

Chris Pye has an excellent online class for around £5 a month, it covers all forms of carving but he is paticularly noted as a letter cutter. His books are good as well.

The thing you'll find with carving, including letter cutting, is that you can always find two equally accomplished carvers who will give you completely opposite advice about everything. The main thing is to find a technique that you click with, at the end of the day if it works it works.

 

[custard]

Letter carving was part of the apprentice training I received, you had to carve your full name in a cabinet that you'd made. It was one of the elements of the syllabus that had people most apprehensive, everyone nervously joked about changing their name to IAN FINN or TIM HAT! The only tools were you're own chisels plus a random assortment of indifferent workshop gouges, all badly in need of a sharpen.

We printed out our names in a Times Roman type face and then laid it out on a piece of scrap, the instructions amounted to no more than a few sentences, and we were off.

A huge collective sigh of relief quickly broke out as we discovered that, as long as you're reasonably adapt with tools, you can quickly get to 80% or 90% of perfect at letter carving. Which for a working furniture maker is plenty good enough. Of course, that last 10% on the road to perfection might take a life time, but as long as you concentrate and don't have two left thumbs you can master basic letter carving in under twenty hours of practise. You might not be quick but you'll have some basic competence. That's not much to acquire a skill that is pretty special. Yes, you can get the Chris Pye books, but honestly, you don't really need them. In some ways they're counter productive as you might come away from reading them thinking you need all the tools and the special slip stones and all the rest of it; you don't, you just need the commitment to give it a go, even if you only carve IAN FINN to prove to yourself you can do it before buying some gouges!

The bigger issue is then having the confidence to put it into practise on a finished piece of work, where you've already invested 100 hours or more of effort. But that's true of many elements of furniture making, from inlays to gun stock mouldings, they all happen right at the end of the project where if you mess it up you're back to the very beginning. The general view at the workshop was that anyone who did letter carving on a little wooden tablet and then inset that into a piece of furniture had failed as a craftsman. I agree with that, if you're not prepared to chance what you've created in order to make it even better then you should hang up your tools. Besides, inset letter carved panels look rubbish.

One other point, letter carving is one of the very few ways an independent furniture maker or ambitious hobbyist can compete in today's market. Adding that one simple skill to your portfolio allows you to produce something that Heals or Aram or any of the other top end furniture stores can't match.

 

[AndyT]

I followed the FWW video that Jacob linked to a few years ago and successfully produced a new house name plate for a friend as my first go.

Your computer makes setting out suitable letters at the right size easy, which is really important. A good typeface is Perpetua, which was designed to resemble the famous lettering on the Trajan Column. If you work in Word or similar, you will find that the formatting options include "outline" which you might prefer, though I was happy using the boundary between black and white as my line.

You can just stick the paper to the wood and cut through it, or else explore printing options to find "mirror image" and if you print out with a laser printer, or make a photocopy, you can transfer your pattern to the wood using a domestic iron. It's probably quicker and easier than tracing over carbon paper.

I found a small chip carving knife was ideal for serifs, with ordinary bench chisels for the straight cuts.

Do practice on hardwood, not pine: it's much easier to get a crisp edge in.

 

[Lons]

Hi Sam

The best book I ever read was by Ian Norbury - http://iannorburyshop.weebly.com/relief ... ering.html If you shop around it comes up on ebay and isn't expensive in paperback format. Worth the money if you want to do it properly and theres a lot of other relief work in there as well. Local library might have it as well! Otherwise just have a go. You don't strictly need all the profiles advised and remember you can turn the chisel over to reverse cut as well.

I've done quite a lot of lettering over the years but I find it boring tbh as I'm much more interested in 3 dimensional woodcarving.

cheers
Bob

 

[JakeS]

You can just stick the paper to the wood and cut through it, or else explore printing options to find "mirror image" and if you print out with a laser printer, or make a photocopy, you can transfer your pattern to the wood using a domestic iron. It's probably quicker and easier than tracing over carbon paper.

As it goes - you can get a faint transfer very easily with face-down toner and a domestic iron. If you want a really good transfer, paint a little acetone on the back of the paper before ironing. The acetone dissolves the toner a bit, which makes it transfer more easily, but it evaporates out quickly so the toner sets on the wood. And don't use the household iron or you will never hear the end of it!

 

[gasman]

I do quite a lot of carved letters - I quite often make personalised napkin rings etc as gifts
The tricks I use as as follows:
1. Print out suitable font on adhesive labels
2. stick letters / words onto the wood
3. Cut outline with brand new mounted No 11 scalpel blade
4. Use 1/8, 1/4 and 1/2" chisels and a couple of gouges to carve with
5. Have the object mounted in a moxon vice i.e. high up, with a very bright light source
6. use a pair of dental loupes
7. finish with no 15 scalpel blade - the small curved one
It takes about 20 minutes per letter to get it right under the loupes - then it looks very good by naked eye

HTH

 

[novocaine]

I saw this the other day while digging around youtube, it is not the hardest of carvings and it isn't really "the correct technique" but it works and shows you can do it with very rudimentary tools.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx7oHa5aMqY

 

[bugbear]

5. Have the object mounted in a moon vice i.e. high up, with a very bright light source

Is that your own coinage, or from a trade?

BugBear

 

[Yorkshire Sam]

My thanks to all for your posts, it has helped a lot and given me a bit more confidence to 'get stuck in and give it a try'!

 

[bugbear]

I would buy or scrounge some cheap mahogany type wood (e.g. sapele) to practise on; it cuts and carves very nicely.

BugBear

 

[monkeybiter]

I think you may have better results with Beech or ABW, I've found Sapele to be very splintery in places.

 

[gasman]

sorry Moxon vice not Moon vice

 

[AndyT]

Cursed auto corrupt feature!
I thought you'd discovered a new sort. ;-)

 

[JakeS]

I think you may have better results with Beech or ABW, I've found Sapele to be very splintery in places.

Seconded - bits are nice to carve, other bits split easily. ABW is probably my favourite (although pretty expensive!) and I've also found maple or sycamore to be decent (just harder - in the "more hard" sense rather than the "more difficult" sense).

 

[Lons]

ABW is probably my favourite (although pretty expensive!) .

I presume you mean American Basswood Jake!

Certainly not my favourite carving wood. Soft and easy to carve but useless for anything that's going to be handled much as very easily marked, even with a finger nail.
Not a patch on Lime or better still boxwood which are both harder, little grain orientation and take a much crisper detail. Boxwood especially is superb imo

Just my twopennerth.

Bob

edit:
Sam.
I notice you are in Crook. If you ever get anywhere near Morpeth, give me a shout and I'll give you some sapelle to practice on. I agree with the others but if it's free it's worth a go. My first ever carving of a Peter Berry gofer was in sapelle and I managed.

 

[marcros]

ABW is probably my favourite (although pretty expensive!) .

I presume you mean American Basswood Jake!

Certainly not my favourite carving wood. Soft and easy to carve but useless for anything that's going to be handled much as very easily marked, even with a finger nail.
Not a patch on Lime or better still boxwood which are both harder, little grain orientation and take a much crisper detail. Boxwood especially is superb imo

Just my twopennerth.

Bob

edit:
Sam.
I notice you are in Crook. If you ever get anywhere near Morpeth, give me a shout and I'll give you some sapelle to practice on. I agree with the others but if it's free it's worth a go. My first ever carving of a Peter Berry gofer was in sapelle and I managed.

American Black Walnut...