"It is very important to approach it properly, so I am going to give you a few simple exercises and the elaborate designs will come along naturally.
"The work is not new, and evidently grew out of the still older art of notching. Primitive peoples probably saw in it a way to improve the appearance of their various wooden implements. Not only could the edges be notched, but the cutting could be done on flat surfaces as well."
Fig. 54. First cuts in carving
[Fig. 54] at a shows one of the earliest designs. It is simply a border of triangular cuts, and while this may be done with the whittling knife, [Fig. 55] shows two knives which are better fitted to do accurate work.
Fig. 55. Two good types of knife for carving
The positions for carving are shown in [Fig. 56]. Hold the knife in an upright position, with the cutting edge away from you, and the point on the apex of the triangle. Press the knife down and then away from you along one of the sides of the triangle. Place it in position again, and repeat the motion along the other side of the triangle, always directly on the line. This brings the deep part of the cut at the apex of the triangle, and it remains to take out the triangular chip. This can be done in either of the two ways shown in [Fig. 56], by cutting away from you or toward you. It is well to practise both ways, as in complicated designs the direction of the grain makes it necessary to cut sometimes in one direction, sometimes in another.