Saturday, September 24, 2011

TIP - For Whittling/Carving the Small Santa

Being the slow learner that I am, coupled with learning by doing, I soon realized that the knife blade shape became more important the smaller you whittle.  Soon you realize that when whittlin small faces you are making knife cuts that remove small chips.  In the best of circumstances the areas left after removing these small chips become finished areas/planes of the face.  Take for instance the eye area, between the side of the nose and the eye brow.  This whittled area can be accomplished by removing a triangular chip that is set up by a stop cut at the nose side and at the bottom of the eye brow.  I have found it helpful to use a knife blade that has a tip shaped like this defined area, or smaller.  This will allow the removal of the triangular chip in one cut, without any "fuzzies".  With the blade tip matching (or smaller) than the removed chip; you can get into the tight corner for a nice clean cut.

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