Tuesday 22 July 2014

More antique books, cleaning up the rust pile and carving.

Last Friday, I received another antique French woodworking book: "L'ÉBÉNISTERIE" by Henry Havard. While it is not on the same scale as Roubo, it was an interesting read. I may try to procure some of the other volumes from that collection. I am now also looking on antique architecture, drawing and carving books.

The rust pile is rapidly shrinking as I have been pickling antique files in molasses water for a few weeks now. I must say that I am very impressed with the results and I may try it out on a saw plate. As usual, I forgot to take picture of the process... I have rescued a box of antique files and rasps with this method and they do look brand new. While I was in the rust pile, I checked if I had any carving gouges but unfortunately came out empty handed.

While waiting for season 34 of The Woodwright's Shop, I have been watching (again) the last 7 seasons during my commute... which included quite a few bits on molding and carving, so now I've got a new itch to scratch. I have been doodling acanthus leaves, roses, camelia and vines for a week solid now. It is quite surprising as carving was the medium I enjoyed the least in my art classes... I loved clay, photography and technical drawing but loathed drawing and carving. Tonight, I watched pretty much all of Mary May's videos on youtube and added a pile of related content to my "watch later" list.