More Plates

Very nice, how big around are they? How did you do the etching?

-- Mike. mwurm13@yahoo.com

These are great!

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

A good layout with crisp cuts. I like it.

-- Tony, Sacramento

fantastic job!!
So impressive.

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

You really should do a blog how you layout and carve these they are so beautiful. thanks for sharing these with us.

-- A thing of beauty is a joy forever...

Sweet!!! I really like your chip carving style. Great job, Colin.

-- Dennis Zongker

Very nice.

-- Rob — I've cut it off twice and it's still too short!

Very nice chip carving

-- ~ Inspiring those who inspire me ~

wow….these are great…Colin…how long do these take.?

-- Matt, Napa, CA...fun is beautiful...just trying to have some fun...

Thanks for your comments.

Jockmike2 The large plate is 14” with a 2 1/2” outside border, the smaller plates are 8”

For the large plate.
I have a book of different fonts of varying sizes for the letters and use tracing paper to compile the words, The first thing to do is choose the diameter that the letters will sit on. Each block of words are done seperately and then spaced around the chosen diameter to give balance. Once I have the tracing paper taped in place I slip carbon paper under this and trace through the letters to transfer the designs onto the wood. Then the chip carving begins, followed by the staining and the spray urethane finish.

The little plates are drawn with a compass first of all, with straight lines radiating from the centre point, I simply sub divide the quarters into eights, eights into sixteenths until I get the divisions I am looking for. I then make up curves on a pieces of card and draw this curve from the centre point to touch the outside diameter at one of the radial line junctions, then repeat this all the way round. You can see this clearly on the right hand plate. The centre plate is exactly the same process except with the addition of the card template then being reversed with the curve drawn both clockwise and anit-clockwise. I usually do this first on paper to see if the design looks right before I transfer this to the wood.

jm82435
I would do a blog if I knew how to do this, I will investigate for my next project.

Napaman
The large plate takes around 4 hours to get the design traced on, and I guess another 6 – 8 hours to do the carving. then comes the staining and varnishing but this doesn’t take long to do.

The smaller plates only take an hour to draw the design, and approx 4 hours to carve, it all depends how many chips require cutting.

I hope the above makes sense, I will try to do a blog so you can see visually what I mean.

cheers Colin

-- Colin, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. "Every craftsman was once an amateur"

holy cow. it sort of looked liked it was done by a laser engraver. you have some strady hand and sharp tools Colin.

-- The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

Wow! Beautiful!

-- I'm a wood magician... I can turn fine lumber into firewood before your very eyes! - http://www.woodworkersguide.com