There is an easy kind of flat or hollow carving, if it can be so called, which is executed with a gouge or V tool, or a firmer alone, but which produces flat patterns. Make the design, and as it is to be executed almost entirely with lines or grooves, or small hollows, it must be so designed that the patterns are close fitting, or separated only by lines. Now and then, or here and there, a small corner or larger space or cavity may be removed by a touch of the tool, but as a rule there is little work in it beyond mere lines. However, as in the gouge-work of the previous lesson, although anybody can learn in a day or two to “run” the lines, yet if good patterns be available, remarkably beautiful and valuable work may be produced by it. It is as applicable to cabinets, chests, panels for chairs, or other kinds of decoration. Of course the lines, or hollows, or excavations may, as in all cases, be filled in with colour, Fig. [31].
Fig. 31.
This work can often be very well executed with the firmer (or flat carver’s chisel) alone, and it will afford good practice to acquire familiarity with that greatly neglected tool.
Flat or cavo-cutting of this kind as work is only a little advance on grooving with a gouge, but its results may be very much more artistic. It occupies a position between gouge grooving and cutting out the ground. Each of these are as separated as so many distinct arts, but they lead one to the other, Figs. [31]-[35].
The easiest way to prepare this work is to execute the pattern on the wood in Indian ink, and then simply cut away all the black. The lines in leaves, etc., must be very carefully run with the V tool; all the larger hollows should be cut with a gouge. If very large hollows, or spaces, or grounds are left, they must be executed as described in the next lesson.