Groovy

I drew the lines onto my cane, then cut small grooves with a triangular file, and now I've got the rattail file working. I need to finish these all the way down, and then probably go back and do another pas to get them deeper. then i need to decide whether I'm going to try to use chisels to cut away the corners or files. I haven't decided yet as each has its own benefits and detriments.

Essentially, filing is slower but more precise. You're taking off tiny particles instead of larger pieces, so it's easier to make sure you don't take off too much. Chisels take off material much more quickly and can still give a nice finish. Really, I'm just not sure which to do. I may try chisels first and see how this wood likes them and the go to a file if the chisels don't work well. I don't know. I haven't done carving this extensive on western cedar before, so it's sort of an experiment.

Here are some pictures of what I've done so far:


These are the lines drawn onto the cane. You can see the angle and width I get from doing 5 lines with a 1/3 twist. Doing more lines means you don't have to cuts as deep with the files to get a good-looking rope braid look to them, but you have to do a lot more of them. I figured it would be easier and cooler to make them wider and less twisty and make them nice and deep.


You can't really see, but this is what it looks like after the triangular file. You really can't get too deep with it, it just creates a bit of a groove so the rattail file doesn't slip all over.


better shot of the initial grooves. You don't need much, really. This part wasn't too tough, just a little time consuming to do all of them all along the cane.

Here's the rattail file and the grooves it cuts. You can see they're rounder and deeper. The grit on the rattail file is much more coarse than the triangular file which means it'll cut a lot faster.


You can really see the shape of the cut on this one. I'll need to go back into these with the triangular file to get an angle into the bottom so they get the right look. I've made a little bit of a diagram showing what they should look like from the side (they'll be angled as well, but you get the idea).


The grooves will be round across the top and come down to a point between them. That's the idea, anyway.