carving acanthus leaves in hepplewhite table legs

[dave toney]

Some photos of carving acanthus leaves in a pedestal dining table leg.
leg2.jpg
Layout with template made from brass shim stock, notch on edge used for indexing.
leg1.jpg
Line drawn on side to keep depth uniform.
leg4.jpg
The three stages of carving
chair6.jpg
Finished leg.

[Karl Andersson]

Dave,
Nicely done - I like to see a craftsman who has a combination of skills, and you've obviously developed talents in joinery and carving. I have a couple of questions:
did you set in the curved lines with a gouge first, or just cut them with a v-tool? Also, after rounding the veins in stage 2, did you use a scraper at all or just sandpaper? (I guess just anding, but I've bee experimenting with small scrapers and am curious if anyone else is)
Thanks for the post,
Karl

[dave toney]

Dave,
Nicely done - I like to see a craftsman who has a combination of skills, and you've obviously developed talents in joinery and carving. I have a couple of questions:
did you set in the curved lines with a gouge first, or just cut them with a v-tool? Also, after rounding the veins in stage 2, did you use a scraper at all or just sandpaper? (I guess just anding, but I've bee experimenting with small scrapers and am curious if anyone else is)
Thanks for the post,
Karl

Hi Karl,
I used a v-tool to cut the lines and then just a flat chisel to start rounding and sandpaper to finish.
Dave