Pawistik
03-28-2006, 12:29 AM
OK, I'll be the first to start things off here. I am building a kayak and wanted to add a personal touch to it. Since the boat is for my wife, I decided to copy the celtic knot pattern from our wedding bands, and turn it from the band shape into a disc. The first obstacle was actually drawing out the pattern and converting it from band to disc. This I accomplished with the aid of some simple knot design software, then based on that I drew the pattern out freehand. I am no artist so this was a major challenge. The second challenge was the fact that I'm not a carver either and aside form having none of the appropriate tools, I have no skills either.
I went to the local Windsor Plywood and picked up a chunk of basswood and using a block plane shaped it the match the profile of the peaked deck of the kayak. I then traced out my pattern (actually 1/4 pattern, rotated to complete the circle) onto the basswood and with a newly purchased beginner's carving set and chip carving knife from LV I set to work removing everything that wasn't supposed to be there.
The carving process went reasonably well I think and my amateurish efforts resulted in something that looked not too terrible. Since the basswood is so light in colour, it was a bit hard to see the relief of the carving so I used pyrography to give the carving some texture and add depth where the knots go under each other.
The next trick was to cut a hole in the kayak and fit the carved piece into the deck of the boat. This I accomplished with a circle cutting jig on the dremel. Only problem is that due to the peaked deck, the hole didn't match that well with the carved piece. So I carved out the hole so that there was a fairly consistent gap which I then filled in with very thin slips of walnut. I also filled in the center of the carved piece with a peaked walnut disk. The process of getting this thing set into the deck of the kayak was far more complex than I anticipated, but it's nearly complete now.
I hope some pictures will help to clarify.
Through the process I learned a few things about how to carve so it was a valuable exercise from that point of view. It is far from perfect, but then again, so am I. Next time though, a simple compass rose inlay would be easier.
Cheers,
Bryan
ps. My kayak building blog is at http://pawistik.blogspot.com
I went to the local Windsor Plywood and picked up a chunk of basswood and using a block plane shaped it the match the profile of the peaked deck of the kayak. I then traced out my pattern (actually 1/4 pattern, rotated to complete the circle) onto the basswood and with a newly purchased beginner's carving set and chip carving knife from LV I set to work removing everything that wasn't supposed to be there.
The carving process went reasonably well I think and my amateurish efforts resulted in something that looked not too terrible. Since the basswood is so light in colour, it was a bit hard to see the relief of the carving so I used pyrography to give the carving some texture and add depth where the knots go under each other.
The next trick was to cut a hole in the kayak and fit the carved piece into the deck of the boat. This I accomplished with a circle cutting jig on the dremel. Only problem is that due to the peaked deck, the hole didn't match that well with the carved piece. So I carved out the hole so that there was a fairly consistent gap which I then filled in with very thin slips of walnut. I also filled in the center of the carved piece with a peaked walnut disk. The process of getting this thing set into the deck of the kayak was far more complex than I anticipated, but it's nearly complete now.
I hope some pictures will help to clarify.
Through the process I learned a few things about how to carve so it was a valuable exercise from that point of view. It is far from perfect, but then again, so am I. Next time though, a simple compass rose inlay would be easier.
Cheers,
Bryan
ps. My kayak building blog is at http://pawistik.blogspot.com