Creating Your Own Patterns And Cutouts Perry A. Reynolds 2014

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1 Creating Your Own Patterns And Cutouts Perry A. Reynolds 2014 There is a wide variety of Patterns and Cutouts available today for the woodcarver to buy, or in some cases, available free of charge. These are excellent resources for new carvers or for those that have difficulty visualizing or drawing the finished carving. I will show you how easy it is to make a pattern and to make your own cut outs with minimal tools and drawing experience. If your relatively new to woodcarving I would suggest that before beginning this tutorial I suggest that you review another of my tutorials An Introduction to Woodcarving. (available free on my website at This will assist you in understanding woods and grains as well as additional information that you may find useful. Reference materials are readily available on the internet such as pictures and tons of information. Keep in mind that many pictures and artworks are copyrighted so use caution to not intrude on the author, photographer or artists copyright protection. Creating Your Pattern There are many excellent patterns available. Even with using someone else s pattern you still create your own original carving. Many times you will have an idea that is unavailable or totally original and you must create your own. There is a certain sense of satisfaction knowing that you produced the entire work of art without any assistance or guidance. In addition, developing your drawing skills becomes a vital aspect of your carving ability as you reach more advanced stages. You will always have to draw in features when you are carving! When you have a project in mind take the time to draw simple sketches of what you are envisioning. There have been times when an idea comes to my mind and I will just make a quick note. As I have time I begin with child like sketches to begin the process of working out specific details. These type of details include factors such as: Can it be accomplished with a single piece of wood? If so how thick, long and deep will the wood need to be? Will the carving require wood to be glued together to make sure that various grain directions adequately insure a strong carving? Will the carving, using a duck as an example, require the head to be carved separately? If my carving is a bird, animal, human figure, flower or any similar subject matter will it life size? If not what scale will it be? Once these details have been carefully considered then I move to the actual drawing of the pattern stage. Here is a list of what I use: Spiral Bound Notebook (8-1/2 x 11) for thoughts and rough sketches Standard copy paper available at any office supply or big box store. Letter size 8-1/2 x 11 and tabloid 11 x 17. Mechanical Pencil with #5 Lead Non Latex Eraser (Pink Bear is my favorite) Ruler Clip Board (For Letter Size Drawings) Lap Board for Tabloid Size Drawings (a melamine panel 18 x 20 that I bought at Home Depot and cut to size) Blue Tape (for taping corners of paper to lap board)

2 Below is a basic example of drawing your pattern. A good pattern will have a minimum of a side view and a top or front view. By drawing your pattern and refining your design (with the frequent assistance of an eraser) you can work out the basic details so that when you make your cut out, as well as begin to carve, you have a basic guideline or model, to help you through the carving. It is much easier to refine your pattern then to possibly ruin your carving. Hash lines or lightened pencil lines help you plan future details that you will incorporate into your carving. Front Side Rear Front Side Rear

3 As you advance your drawing skills it is helpful to begin including more information in your pattern. Always remember that any details that you can work out in advance will save you aggravation later! The below pattern is one that is available for full size download (Free of Charge) on my website. Though this is a bird carving the principles are applied to all carvings. Lets take a look at the various aspects of this pattern. Since this was created for the use of others I have tried to add as much information as possible so that it has as much information as needed to produce a successful carving! Indicating the direction of grain is very important to insure that grain runs with the beak which needs to have strength. This also gives half end grain and half straight grain to the tail so as both of these elements are less likely to break! Indicating the Feather Layout for both the top as well as underside of wings are useful because the feather patterns as well as the feather overlays are completely different in all birds. Hash lines indicate cut out. Always cut on the outside of your actual lines. You can always carve more off! Cross Sections of the carving can be useful to show the area of the carving that has different features or curvatures. Like the wings the tail feathers layout and coverts (feather type) are different. The wings curvature is shown and h a s m a n y variations. Never make anything flat on a carving as there are no flat areas on any bird. Additional Notes are always helpful.

4 Creating Your Cut Outs Cut Outs are great for beginning carvers or those that do not have the tools to produce their own. With a few simple tools you can make your own Original Carving in any species of wood that you desire! Typically commercially available cut outs and rough outs Basswood or Pine. Regardless of species you select you are still carving someone else s idea. Producing your own cut outs enable you to create your very own Work of Art! The most common tool used to make cut outs is a bandsaw. Though it makes much quicker work of cutting your top and side profiles it is not mandatory. For those that do not have the space or the budget to make a bandsaw feasible the old fashioned coping saw is an excellent alternative. Though slower and takes a little more muscle power, it will give you good results! Coping Saw The Coping Saw has been used for Hundreds of years and still used today by many finish carpenters, cabinet makers, inlay artists and other woodworkers to cut curves. The coping saw is basically is a hand powered scroll saw. The blades are thin so they enable the saw to make twists and turns. Coping Saw Cutting Board Any Board will do but I suggest 3/4 Yellow Pine, available at any lumber store. The notch allows the wood to be on top of the board and the saw to have clearance. By making your cuts and the piece of wood that you are cutting enables you to cut out any profile you desire Cut notch as shown in Board. 7-1/4 Clamps There is a wide variety of clamps that can be used but for this purpose a basic C Clamp will work perfectly and is inexpensive. I would suggest a minimum of two. One to hold the cutting board to a workbench or table and the other to hold the piece of wood your cutting if you find it difficult to hold with your free hand. The first pattern that we discussed earlier requires only a single view to be cut out. On the following page you will see an example of a cut out that requires two views to be cut. This is typical of many carving cut outs such as birds, many animals, and so forth.

5 After clipping out your pattern place it on your wood black and trace the cut out. Using your saw cut out one of the two profiles. Remember to cut Outside of your pencil lines. (This is showing the side view being cut first but you can cut to top view first). After cutting save the areas shaded in grey. Discard piece shown with X. X Take the pieces that you have saved and tape them back on your block of wood just like they were before you began cutting. Use a blue tape (3M or equal) so it can easily be removed later. Tape it all the way around. Now your ready to cut out your Top. Remember to cut on the outside of your pencil marks. I hope that the information contained in this tutorial has been helpful. This is only a primer and as you develop your skills you will find your own individual style and techniques. You are always welcome to any questions or join the forum The Carvers Den on my website where you can post questions and seek the help of the members. Best Regards and Happy Whittling! Perry