In the upcoming weeks I’ll be answering the Most Common Questions I get asked about chip carving.
If you’ve been chip carving for very long you’ve probably been asked some of these questions as well.
🕘 How long did it take you? 🕘
I’ve thought a lot about this question because I get asked it all the time.
My usual answer is, “I don’t really watch the clock. I’ll carve some now and some later. But a piece like this would take me about 5 hours.”
When I say it takes me 5 hours for a trivet, the response is usually, “That’s fast!”
So I usually clarify by saying, “I’ve been doing this for a long time and it goes faster with practice.”
But what intrigues me about this question is that quality and craftsmanship are often equated with a high number of hours spent on the piece. I don’t find this true at all! Just because it takes a long time to complete something does not automatically make that piece better than the same piece created in a short time. If one carver is slow and another carver fast, does
it really matter how long it took to complete?
In Fine Woodworking Magazine, the Gallery section contains pieces made by readers and many of these items will list how long it took to complete. It’s quite funny when you think about it because maybe the 1000 hour credenza may actually backfire and reflect poorly on the craftsman who posted it because others might look at it and think to themselves, “Dang, I could knock that
out in a week!” What do cumulative work hours really have to do with the quality of the finished product anyway?
So...getting off my soapbox... rather than explain the false nature of this question, I’ll just give my usual answer. 😀
😱 What happens if you make a mistake? 😱
This question is asked by chip carvers and non-carvers alike. It’s a valid question.
There are three things you can do if you make a mistake.
(Apart from screaming, cursing, stomping, pouting, crying and never carving again.)
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If you have the piece of wood that either chipped out accidentally or was carved away when it wasn’t supposed to be removed, you can carefully glue it back in place. I like to use white glue and a pin (or the point of my knife if a pin can’t be found). Use just a tiny amount of glue. Position it as accurately as possible. Let it dry overnight and then come back to it
the next day. I prefer white glue over super glue because it sets up slowly making it easier to move and reposition into the exact spot.
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Let’s say you blew the piece away or it fell into the pile of chips on the floor. There’s no way you can find it. It's possible, though not easy, to make a piece for the repair. This is quite challenging because this piece needs to fit tightly on all surfaces where the mistake happened. Also, the grain needs to line up and the color of wood match as well. In all my
years of chip carving I can only think of doing this a couple of times.
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Finally, if you make a mistake you can change the pattern. If you removed a chip that wasn’t supposed to be removed, remove all of those same chips throughout the entire pattern. When you’re done, you’ll be the only one who will know you made the change, unless you told your spouse or the guys at the club :-)
❓ Did you use a pattern? ❓
Those not familiar with chip carving may think that we start with a blank piece of wood and start removing one chip after another without any guidelines. I don’t know about you, but if I were to try this I know I wouldn’t be pleased with the results.
