Woodcarving

“ Witness the old coloured screens of Norfolk, the harmonious greens and reds, the proper proportion of gold, the panels adorned with saints on backgrounds of delicate diaper work, and compare these triumphs of decoration with the rougher blues and reds of the average restored screen, and one ceases to wonder why we now prefer the wood plain.
Of late years carving has gone out of fashion; a change has come about. The work is necessarily slow, thus causing charges to appear high. Other and cheaper methods of decoration have driven carving from its former place. ”

“ But it has become the fashion for writers on wood-carving to insist on it, as a law without exception, that all wood-carving must be finished by cutting; that glass-paper and files [65] should on no account be used, and that a carver should not seek to smooth over the surface of his carving, as if to conceal how his work has been executed. In wood-carving, as in everything else, a true artist does not go by mere rule. He uses what tools he pleases, and finishes as he pleases. ”

“ Of numberless examples a 15th-century chest (Plate III. fig. 6) in the Kunstgewerbe Museum, Berlin, may be referred to. The arrangements of foliage, &c., on top, back and front, are typical of Gothic at its best.
End of the 12th century–1300.—As this section treats of wood-carving in Europe generally, and not of any one country alone, the dates just named must be of necessity only approximate. The 13th century was marked not only by great skill both in design and treatment, but also much devotional feeling. The craftsman seems to have not merely carved, but to have carved to the glory of God. ”

“ The carving has nothing of the humour or strong bold relief of the miserere seats of the palmy days of the woodcarver in the fifteenth and early sixteenth 147 century in details that might well have been applied to the Bible-box. The ambition of the Puritan woodcarver never reached figure-work, or he might have represented Biblical scenes if his abhorrence of graven images had not demoralised his fancy. Some of the early boxes have bold carving. We illustrate a fine example (p. 143) of the time of James I., about 1600. The design is floral, which embodies the well-known conventional rose. ”

“ Style.—From the remotest ages the decoration of wood has been a foremost art. The tendency of human nature has always been to ornament every article in use. Just as a child of to-day instinctively cuts patterns on the bark of his switch freshly taken from the hedgerow, so the primitive man, to say nothing of his more civilized successor, has from the earliest times cut designs on every wooden article he is accustomed to handle. The North American Indian carves his wooden fish-hook or his pipe stem just as the Polynesian works patterns on his paddle. ”

“ Though the imitation of engravings is not within the range of wood-carving, there is, however, a very pretty and easy art by which drawing and painting are very ingeniously combined with a kind of carving. Take a panel of firm wood of lightish colour, well planed and polished. Draw on it any pattern, or even an animal, or human figures. Incise the principal lines with a V tool, or, according to its size, small gouges may be used. For the fine lines and shading, a tracer, or any point to indent, not so sharp as to scratch ”

“ It will very soon become apparent to every wood-carver that it is easier to copy from a model than a drawing, and that this ease is very much increased when he has made that model in clay himself. However, it is also very advisable that he shall, after a time, practise carving from drawings and sketches also, as this of itself gives great skill and accuracy of perception. But he will very often need or wish to have copies of carvings or casts, and these he may obtain with ease, if the relief be not too great or the object too large. ”

“ If they are not to be obtained ready made, then take an ordinary long handle, saw it off to the requisite length, say from three to three and a half inches, round the sharp edge of the wood, firstly with a knife or chisel, then with a rasp, and finish it off with glass-paper. See that the tools when set into the handles are well ringed and firm. In most shops it is usual to sharpen them if it be required. After becoming accustomed to such handles the pupil may, as he progresses, familiarize himself with those which are in general use.
There is really only one trouble in wood-carving. ”

“ Of the work of the 19th century little can be said in praise. Outside and beyond the present-day fashion for collecting old oak there seems to be no demand for carved decoration. In church work a certain number of carvers find occupation, as also for repairs or the production of imitations. But the carving one is accustomed to see in hotels or on board the modern ocean palace is in the main the work of the machine. There is no objection to the machine in itself, as it only grounds out and roughly models the design which is finished by hand. ”

“ It is quite unnecessary to pursue the subject of woods beyond the few kinds mentioned. Woods such as ebony, sandalwood, cherry, brier, box, pear-tree, lancewood, and many others, are all good for the carver, but are better fitted for special purposes and small work. As this book is concerned more with the art of carving than its application, it will save confusion if we accept yellow pine as our typical soft wood, and good close-grained oak as representing hard wood. ”

“ II. He may do this also with a V or parting tool, but the gouge is better for a first attempt. III. The outline cutting may be effected by taking a firmer or carver’s chisel, one-third of an inch broad, and placing it “up and down” close to the pattern, but sloping outwardly, give it a tap with the mallet [35] so as to sink it a very little way into the wood. Do not cut “straight up and down,” but so as to make a sloping bank. IV. There is yet another way, which is more difficult and seldom practised, yet which if mastered gives great skill in carving. ”

“ It is a small, dark, dingy cave, with small wooden angels, beautifully carved, festooned over the doorway. As one peers into the dimness of the interior, one has the sense of the fluttering of delicate carved wings. The Woodcarver comes to the door; he has in one hand his chisel, in the other a shapeless block of olive wood. The Woodcarver is old and bowed, but as he lifts his cavernous, dark eyes he smiles, and his whole face is irradiated with a look of the genius of simplicity.
Woodcarver to the war correspondent ”

“ If the wood is soft there is always enough yield to [Pg 135] enable the workman to spring it together. Therefore, until you have learned how to make a true joint, use soft wood.
Poplar is another good wood for the beginner, as well as redwood, a western product.
Hard Woods.—Of the hard woods, cherry is the most desirable for the carpenter's tool. For working purposes it has all the advantages of a soft wood, and none of its disadvantages. It is not apt to warp, like poplar or birch, and its shrinking unit is less than that of any other wood, excepting redwood. ”

“ Finally, the author has endeavoured in these pages to treat wood-carving not merely as a fine art, whose chief aim is to produce specimens of fancy work for exhibitions, and facsimiles of flowers, never to be touched, but also to qualify the learner for a calling, and what nine-tenths of all practical wood-carving really consists of, that is, house and other large decoration, and of work which is to be perhaps painted, and exposed to the air. ”

“ This plate gives two examples of designs for carving by Philip Webb. The upper one is part of a richly carved cornice which was done for a chimney-piece; the carving was executed by Mr. Laurence Turner, from whom the author got his first lesson in wood-carving. The other example is a design on paper for carving to be done in oak. This was carried out in the paneling of the dining-room at Clouds House, Salisbury, and looked exceedingly effective. Much of the articulation on the surface of the leaves, it will be noticed, is got by sharp facets produced by the intersection of gouge cuts. ”

“ In a very large proportion of simple flat or ribbon-work the effect is very much increased or improved by polishing the pattern, [68] and leaving the ground rough or indenting it. This is not only perfectly legitimate, but commonly done in marble or metal repoussé of every kind, as well as leather-work, and yet every writer on wood-carving repeats as a duty the injunction that there must be “no polishing,” and nothing but cutting. This is, indeed, equivalent to prohibiting the application of wood-carving to furniture, objects to be handled, house and many other kinds of decoration. ”

“ The play of light and shade on its vigorous foliage, the variety of its drawing in leaf, vine, and tendril, and the contrast afforded by its bunches of oval fruit, caused it to be accepted as a favorite subject for imitation in all kinds of carving. It lends itself kindly to all sorts of relief, either high or low, in almost any material. It is so recognizable, even in the rudest attempts at imitation, that its popularity is well deserved. ”

“ Fig. 32 contains very little foliage, such as there is being disposed in small diamond-shaped spaces, sunk in the face of the doors, and a small piece on the bracket below. All this work should be of a very simple character, definite in form and broad in treatment.
Fig. 32. Half, Fig. 33. Half
Fig. 33 is more elaborate, but on much [125] the same lines of design varied by having a larger space filled with groups of leaves. Fig. 34 gives the carving to a larger scale; in it the oak-leaves are shown with raised veins in the center, the others being merely indicated by the gouge hollows. ”

“ For example, the new wood can be carved even more prettily than the old, and when the carving is finished, the manufacturer turns over the product to three or four muscular hirelings whose sole duty is to injure furniture. They are armed with large sticks of various shapes, and their activities are limited to chastising the wood with extreme severity. In this way the chests and sideboards acquire, in a matter of half an hour, the scratches and indentations for which slow centuries might otherwise be required. The wood is given the proper color by boiling it with walnut rind. ”

“ Strong indiarubber rings or gummed paper strips may be used in some cases. But with thought, ingenuity can generally be awakened so as to help one out of any such difficulty.
A very perfect resemblance to carved wood may be made by taking cocoa-nut powder or fine sawdust and mixing it with the acidulated glue, so as to make a paste as already described. Then, having ready a mould, either of plaster of Paris or of sunk or incised wood, and oiling it, take the impression. These casts, retouched and glass-papered, are quite like wood, and they may be used for decoration in doors. ”

“ Inseparable from a Study of his own Craft—Importance of the Carpenter's Stimulating Influence upon the Carver—Carpenter's Imitation of Stone Construction Carried too Far.
That the study of wood-carving should be confined to the narrow field of its own performances would be the surest way to bring contempt upon an art which already offers too many temptations for the easy embodiment of puerile motives. Such a limited range would exclude all the stimulating lessons to be derived from the many other kinds of carving and sculpture ”

“ It may happen that a rotten, broken place is found even in the best wood; or the carver may obtain possession of a piece of ancient, worm-eaten, half-decayed carving, and with a very little skill such pieces can be perfectly repaired. Take a piece of similar wood, and reduce it to fine sawdust by means of a rasp. For this purpose American walnut and dark old oak, or cocoa-nut shell, which is easily pulverized in a mortar, is excellent. Make this into a paste with glue, and repair with it any broken places. This, if properly made, is quite like wood itself, and may be moulded into any shape. ”

“ As the days grow warmer, the woodpile invites idlers as well as busy bees and wood-cutters. The big logs are comfortable seats to lounge on while whittling a pine chip, and breathing the mingled [248] odors of the many woods freshly cut and the indescribable woodsy smell brought home in the bark and moss, and listening to the hum of the bees and harsher music of the saws and axe, the sharp, quick swish of the whip-saw, the longer drawn and deeper ring of the crosscut, and the regular beat of the axe,—fiddle, bass-viol, and drum, each with its own time, but all somehow in tune. ”

“ The bark of the dogwood is checkered like alligator skin but with deep furrows that make it very rough. The wood is used for wood engraving blocks, for tool handles, hubs, and cogs. But it is becoming very scarce. The deplorable destruction of the dogwoods comes not so much from the lumberman as from the irresponsible people who tear the trees to pieces in blossoming time. The wanton mutilation of the dogwoods in natural woodlands belonging to cities can be curbed only by policing the tracts. ”

“ Simple Jacobean Wood Carving. Direct gouge work.
In the design—which may occupy or fill the shape and can be symmetrically arranged on a central axis, or balanced—the effect is due mainly to Light and Shade. Further interest may be imparted by the sectional form or modelling of the details, groovings, striations or other textural suggestions.{303}
Backgrounds
The employment of punched grounds in carved work is to be deprecated as mechanical in effect. Sufficient interest is obtainable by the process of cutting back, in the perfect levelling of which the carver need not be too concerned. ”