A Manual of Wood Carving in Twenty Lessons

Originally published in the 1900s, this book is almost the only one which treats wood-carving in a general and extended sense, and regards it as an art widely applicable to ornamentation, and not one confined to small chefs-d'œuvre and prize toys, facsimiles of fruit and leaves, or the like. It is the first book in which the sweep-cut, which is the very soul of all good and bold carving, has ever been described.

Skills in wood-carving, as in every other art, is to be attained only by thoroughness. The student must be careful to master the first lessons, and to go no further until these can be executed with ease and accuracy. This will be greatly aided if the book is read with care, and not used for mere reference.

The work consists of a series of twenty progressive lessons, the first being extremely easy; and that these lessons lead so gradually one to another that the last are no harder than the first to one who has gone on carefully from the beginning. This will be found to aid teaching and self-instruction greatly.

Every item of information will be found under its proper head, and not scattered here and there through different chapters: for every lesson is complete in itself, and from the first the student is taught how to produce some satisfactory work of its kind.

Contents Covered:

• Publishers' Note
• Introduction: Woods, Tools, and Sharpening
• Indenting and Stamping
• Cutting Grooves with a Gouge
• Flat Patterns Made with Cuts and Lines -- Cavo Relievo or Intaglio Rilevato (Cavo-cutting)
• Cutting out a Flat Panel with a Ground
• Cutting Simple Leaves -- Carving with the Left Hand -- Modelling or Rounding -- Shaded Patterns and Modelling -- Progress towards Relief
• Cutting with the Grain -- Turning the Tool -- the Drill -- Bold Carving -- and Large Work
• The Sweep-Cut or Free-Hand Carving -- Cutting Notches in Leaves -- the Round-Cut
• Further Application of the Sweep-Cut to Higher Relief
• Carving Simple Figures or Animal Forms -- Figurini for Cabinets -- Simple Rounded Edges and Approach to Modelling
• Finishing off -- Imitation of Old and Worn Work -- Where Polishing is Required
• Diaper-work -- Stamped Diaper-patterns -- Cutting Diapers
• Building-up, or Appliqué Work
• Carving in the Round -- On the Use of the Saw
• Incised, Intaglio, or Sunk Carving
• Carving Curved Surfaces: Cocoanuts, Bowls, Horns, Casks, Tankards, etc.
• Bosses, Knobs, Bars, and Polished Ornaments
• To Repair Wood-Carving -- Glue -- Nitric Acid Glue -- Preparing Decayed Wood -- Artificial Wood -- Fillers -- Spraying -- To Make Glue "Take"
• Colouring Wood-Work -- Oiling -- Soda -- Stains and Dyes -- Ivorying Surfaces -- Black Dyes and Ink
• Making Moulds or Squeezes for Wood-Carvers
• Spot Cutting
• Appendix: Objects for Wood-Carving
• Index