Читать книгу Carpentry and Woodwork - Edwin W. Foster - Страница 17

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"Making moving toys is a form of dissipation," said Ralph. "It is very fascinating and interesting, but the making of many toys will never make one an expert woodworker. The accuracy and skill required can be developed only by actual constructive work. I suggest that we take up a form of decoration which can be done with the knife.

"There are two ways of making an article in wood pleasing to the eye. One is by varying the outline, as we did in our match scratchers, and the other is by some kind of surface ornamentation. There are many ways of decorating surfaces—carving, pyrography, staining, polishing, etc., and very often several of these methods are combined.

"As we have started to learn the possibilities of knife work, I propose to teach you a form of carving which can be done with the knife alone. Very elaborate work is done with the regular carving tools. This requires a great deal of time and skill, but with the knife alone a wonderful variety of beautiful work can be done even by small boys.

"It is very important to approach it properly, so I am going to give you a few simple exercises and the elaborate designs will come along naturally.

"The work is not new, and evidently grew out of the still older art of notching. Primitive peoples probably saw in it a way to improve the appearance of their various wooden implements. Not only could the edges be notched, but the cutting could be done on flat surfaces as well."

Fig. 54. First cuts in carving

Fig. 54 at a shows one of the earliest designs. It is simply a border of triangular cuts, and while this may be done with the whittling knife, Fig. 55 shows two knives which are better fitted to do accurate work.