Cutting wood carving: features, choice of wood, useful tips

One of the traditional materials used for indoor and outdoor décor decoration is a tree. There are many techniques of artistic woodworking, but the most effective decorations are obtained when using threaded carving. The beauty and elegance of such products amaze the imagination, while the technology itself is not very difficult.

Features of the openwork carving

Openwork or slotted woodcarving is performed by cutting through or drill the background. In the finished form, patterns and compositions look easy and airy. Openwork carving is a through and an invoice. Through threaded thread "works" on the lumen. An overhead thread is when the cut-out pattern is attached to any substrate, for example, a wooden one, serving as a background.

For cutting through sections, chisels, special incisors, drills or saws are used. The most productive tool is an electric jig saw. The slotted threaded jigsaw allows you to easily and quickly reproduce drawings even the most complex configuration.

Preparation for work

First-time masters should first of all pay attention to the theoretical part. Fortunately, today there is a mass of useful printed and video information about how to properly perform cutting carving on wood, about the necessary tools, about the features of a particular wood, about preparing blanks, selecting drawings, etc.

Having studied the features of the technology, you can tackle the selection of tools. In addition to jigsaw and a set of saws with different tooth sizes, sharp knives, chisels, chisels, drills and drills of various thicknesses, spouts, fillets, abrasive bars and sanding skins will be needed.

Another stage of the preparatory work is the choice of patterns, compositions or genre scenes, for the creation of which will be used cutting wood carving. Sketches can be made independently or found on specialized sites and printed on the printer, if necessary, previously reducing or increasing their size.

Features of different types of wood

The quality, speed and accuracy of the threaded carving depends not only on the skill level of the performer, but also on the wood. Each rock has its own unique properties, which must be taken into account when choosing the material for billet.

• Pine tree . The most affordable and inexpensive wood, but for carving is not suitable, and not only because of the gumminess. The fact is that it consists of hard and soft layers. Cutting and polishing of pine products is difficult to perform because of the difference in structures, since the knife and sandpaper "take" them in different ways. Plus, this breed of wood has a pronounced texture, which distracts attention from the very drawing of the carving, especially if it is shallow.
• Aspen . The threaded thread from this wood is associated with the difficulties associated with the softness of its structure. Despite the fact that the aspen is cut as an oil, the tool "sticks" when cutting, and it itself crumples. For beginners, carvers who do not have the experience of working with this material, it is definitely not worth starting your "career" with him, as, indeed, with pine.
• Birch and linden . These wood species have a beautiful monochromatic structure, necessary hardness and at the same time compliance, which makes it possible to realize even the most complicated and intricate sketches of slotted threads in products.
• Plum . Solid, very beautiful in cross-section and well suited to all types of processing wood. It is great for creating products with a small pattern, for example, women's jewelry.

Where to buy wood for carving

Places where you can get material for work, there are many, the main thing - to find high-quality and dry wood. For example, good workpieces for carving are sold in specialized stores for fans of hand-made and art salons. In addition, you can buy suitable boards in building materials stores or at logging sites. A small enterprise for the manufacture of furniture and carpentry - this is a real storehouse of dry wooden cuttings of different sizes. For carpenters, such waste is no longer of value, therefore, as a rule, they are given away for free.

Another option - wooden packaging (boxes, pallets). One such product will produce one and a half to two dozen blanks.

Rules for drying wood

It should be remembered that for slotted and other types of thread should only use well-dried wood, so as not to watch then with regret, like a finished carved product, drying up, crimped and cracked. Drying of blanks can not be carried out in the sun or next to the heating devices. Wood should dry up arbitrarily in a warm room with good ventilation. It is better to put boards on the ends, laying the planks under them to ensure air access to all sides. By the way, you can dry small pieces in the microwave for several sessions.

The working process

Cutting wood carving, stencils for which must be prepared in advance, begins with the translation of the picture on a wooden workpiece. The background areas to be cut out are selected by hatching. Next to the drawing lines, drill holes of a certain diameter so that the saw blade can be inserted in them.

Further, filing is carried out closely to the contours of the drawing. Narrow webs of hacksaws perform a slotted thread, stencils for which have been picked up complex, i.e. with small details and steep bends. Sawing large parts with straight or smooth lines of the contour is carried out by means of wider canvases.

Helpful Tips

It should be noted that, using large saws, you can get a torn contour, so it's better to prefer fine-toothed files. Drilling is recommended to be done with feather drills, and it should be done from both sides of the wooden workpiece, pre-drilling a through hole with a thin drill.

An excellent way to avoid torn edges and wood scuffing is gluing the back of the workpiece of thick paper.

It must be remembered that the main factor ensuring the cleanliness of the trimming is the sharpness of the tool, therefore, it is necessary to take care of this side of the matter in advance.

Beginning carvers when choosing an ornament should focus on simple images with large details and a minimum of "heavy" corners. Due to the correctly selected pattern, you can reduce the amount of work, resulting in a beautiful product.

Finishing the carved article

After removing the background, the product is finalized to obtain even and clean edges of the pattern. For stripping use steep and sloping chisels of medium and small size. It is difficult to access the chisel of the ornament with a sharp knife. With these tools, the edges of the image are rounded, cutting a thin chamfer or selecting narrow fillets.

The chisel is recommended to be placed at a slight slope with respect to the surface being treated, moving it down and slightly to the side. This method facilitates the debugging process and allows you to achieve a cleaner thread.

The processing of slotted lacework is performed on both sides. After trimming the contours with chisels, the cut out pattern is cleaned with the help of nail files, grinding bars and emery skins.

Modeling of the ornament is made in accordance with the thread used - relief or flat-relief.

The technique of flat-relief slotted thread is used, as a rule, for making decor for furniture, cornices, window frames, shutters, etc. Relief openwork carving allows you to get more elegant products, so it is used to create women's jewelry, screens, fillers for doors and lockers Etc. By the way, openwork furniture doors look even more impressive, if you pull a bright fabric from the back side, against the background of which the ornamental composition will look sharper and brighter.