Tapered Leg Indent

The Greene & Greene Adirondack Chair features a nice tapered indent on the front legs. This feature is much easier to make than it might first appear. A simple jig (inspired by Darrell Peart’s design) straddles the leg and when used with a router outfitted with a straight bit and guide bushing, its a no-brainer. A perfect indent every time!

Three Leg Options

Now because this is a Guild Build, I like to show alternative options whenever possible. So I decided to try my hand at carving a foot similar to one I saw on a Greene & Greene plant stand. I have absolutely no training in carving so I just did my best to replicate the design and the results were passable. Still needs some refinement and I can definitely use more practice. But you get the idea.

As a third option, I showed how to make a leg that is commonly found in Greene & Greene pieces and it features nothing more than a little slope at the foot on all four sides. Here’s a nice shot of all three leg options. I’m still going with the tapered leg indents, but it was nice to review a few different designs.

Angled Tenons

The next thing I worked on was the side legs of the chair. The trickiest part about these bad boys is the angled tenon. But my Incra 3000 was up to the task! Some careful attention to the miter angle along with a razor sharp dado blade results in perfect angled tenons.

A Close Shave

After a test fit, I noticed my tenons were just a little long. So I decided to shave a few thousandths off using my smoother. I just sharpened the iron last week so I was anxious to see what this puppy could do. After a couple passes I was pulling up .002″ shavings. Now that would put a smile on any woodworker’s face!

If you’re interested in joining us on this build, check out all the features and benefits of a Guild Membership!

The Dogs

And on a completely off-topic note, Jax and Lexi wanted to say hi. Don’t let Lexi’s smile fool you. She’ll rip your face off if you try to come into her yard. And Jax, well, let’s just say he has been working for years on his special trick: balancing a single blade of grass on the tip of his nose.

Please welcome guest blogger, Kari Hultman from The Village Carpenter. Kari’s attention to detail and humble personality make her blog one of the best on the web! She was kind enough to give us the scoop on carving. I hope you enjoy.

There are several types of wood carving: letter, chip, and relief carving; and carving in the round. Carving tools include knives, chisels, gouges, and mallets. For carving in the round, rasps and files are helpful. Gouges come in many shapes and are gauged by their width and sweep (the amount of curve on the cutting edge). Included in the mix are straight, bent, fishtail, in-cannel (the bevel is on the inside rather than the outside), spoonbit, and V-gouges. Many are also available with short or long handles.

Which Tools To Buy

Like any new woodworking venture, it can be a little daunting to know where to start. Several woodworkers have emailed me with questions about which tools they need to carve wood. They ask if it?s best to invest in a set of carving tools. My response is always the same: find a project you like?from a book or magazine?and purchase the tools you need to carve it. Publications will often provide you with a checklist of tools for the project. Chances are you?ll use those tools again because you used them to carve a project you like. Whereas, when you buy a set, there will be one or more tools you will never use.

Now, what type of carving would you like to try?

Chip Carving

Chip carving is the easiest. You need only two tools?a primary knife and a stab knife. Chip carving consists of three basic, rather shallow cuts. Once you master them, you need only arrange them to create your own designs.

Letter Carving

Letter carving can be complex or easy. You can use a large variety of chisels and gouges which match every conceivable shape you need. Or, you can simply use a chip carving knife. With chip carving, however, you will be limited by the type of wood (certain hardwoods can very difficult) and the size of the letters. Instead, use a different technique which requires only one chisel and one shallow-sweep gouge. The size of the tools depends on the size of the letters. With this technique I can carve just about any type of wood and any size or shape letter.

Relief Carving

Relief carving is where you start getting into some money. I do not have a huge variety of gouges, and try to make do with what I have. As you begin to carve, you will realize what you?re missing from your collection. Keep in mind, just as you don?t need to have chisels ranging from 1/16? to 2 1/2? and everything in between, you can often get by with less.

Carving in the Round

Carving in the round is like relief carving only the project is carved on all sides, as with a ball-and-claw foot (the image to the left is borrowed from the internet). Rasps can remove lots of wood in short order, and files refine the shape. There is nothing quite as luminous as the smooth facets left by a chisel or gouge however, so I remove all rasp and file marks with them. I do not use sandpaper to smooth portions of carved pieces?the abraded areas have a different appearance than and don?t blend in with the sheared surfaces created by cutting tools. Plus, sandpaper rounds over crisp edges.

Sharp Tools are Essential!

With any carving, you must have sharp tools. I can?t stress this enough. Dull or semi-sharp tools will only frustrate you and you?ll never produce the results you want. I use ceramic-, water-, and slipstones, and strops charged with honing compound. It?s much easier to maintain an edge by frequent honing than it is to completely resharpen a tool.

Read the Grain

You must also learn to read the grain. The ?petting-the-hair-on-a-cat? analogy never resonated with me. Maybe I?ve been petting cats the wrong way all these years (which might explain the scars), but I came up with a different image?that of a skier. Always carve downhill?with the grain. If you carve against the grain, the direction of the cut will leave the fibers that are ahead of your chisel or gouge unsupported, resulting in tearout. If that visual isn?t working for you, think of grain as walking up or down steps?it?s much easier to walk down a flight of stairs.

Looking For More?

I?ve written about all of the above on my blog, with the exception of carving in the round. I also made a couple videos on the subject. In the search box on my blog, key in phrases such as ?chip carving,? ?lettercarving,? ?relief carving,? and ?sharpening gouges? to find more information. If you?re looking for good books, I recommend Wayne Barton?s book ?The Complete Guide to Chip Carving?and Richard Butz?s book ?How to Carve Wood.? I have not found any book that shows the lettercarving technique I use, but I plan to make more videos on the subject in the future.

This article was written by Kari Hultman, who lives in Pennsylvania and owns a graphic design agency which keeps her in lumber and tools. Any free time is devoted to woodworking and her blog. And ice cream. To see more of Kari’s work, check out The Village Carpenter!

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