Hello all, I've been turning for several years now - bowls, pens, treen and whatnot and am hoping a few here can point me to some examples of some basic bowl carving. I have some rather plain maple and wish to gussy it up some with a bit of carving. I have a dremel and the basic carving tips that come with it. Now I am not looking for anything really fancy. I have seen some of the magnificent art pieces on the web and am duly impressed. However are there any examples of some really basic designs on bowls out there?
I took a one day class that he gave here in Dallas. He uses a Fordham (a high priced flexible shaft rotary tool) to do his carving. I have tried it with a dremel and it works fine - just slower and the tool heats up quickly. The interesting cross hatching is done with a bit that cuts three parallel tracks and fits in a dremel. I bought mine ($25) from him at the class. If this looks interesting, contact me and I will give you some step by step instructions on how it is done.
I took a one day class that he gave here in Dallas. He uses a Fordham (a high priced flexible shaft rotary tool) to do his carving. I have tried it with a dremel and it works fine - just slower and the tool heats up quickly. The interesting cross hatching is done with a bit that cuts three parallel tracks and fits in a dremel. I bought mine ($25) from him at the class. If this looks interesting, contact me and I will give you some step by step instructions on how it is done. ==================================================
there are the following basic techniques that you may employ:
rotary tools - like your dremel but I find a dremel rather cumbersome - the Fordham type tool (I have a different brand) is good for roughing, the
200,000 RPM type air grinder that is a lower cost variant of a dental tool is really nice for fine work
reciprocating tool - you can get a head that goes in your flexible shaft tool (Fordham, Pfingst, etc) that drives a reciprocating carving knife - these are handy for more "organic" type shapes - first saw this with John Jordan. you can use regular carving chisels but it takes more skill
large fixed flexible sander - a flap wheel, or other configurations - bring the piece to the sander and work away - this is what some of the pros use when they make these very open forms
Oh, and by the way, I'd say that Fordham is an inexpensive flexible shaft rotary tool - not cheap, but it's not particularly expensive and there are others that are more costly by far
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