Finally got a couple of spare hours to continue shaping this Paulownia fish which I have designed to use up all my short pieces which would normally go in the skip bin.
I mark some bands around the rails to give me a guide.
I dont strictly adhere to them. They just let me know if things are getting out of control. I don't mind too much if my life gets out of control, but like to keep my rails in order.
New planer knives are a must when carving across the grain like this
and being mindful of the "angle of attack" when traversing those acute little ends.
Take the second band off and the deckroll starts to develop.
It's at about this point where all technicality and intricate calculation goes out the window for me and I start to..........wing it!
Fortunately, 35 years of coaxing wood to do things it doesn't necessarily want to do has made the belt sander, planer and other tools feel almost like the palm of my hand is shaping the material away.
I don't go too nuts shaping the nose as I still have to pull this blank apart to chamber it out and I don't want to have very fine ends to deal with. I'll shape the nose last thing.
I keep taking "bands" off the deck until I'm satisfied with the deckroll.
I just use my eye and a straightedge to keep everything symmetrical.
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