INDENTING AND STAMPING.

The first stage in wood-carving is to decorate a flat surface in very low relief by a process which, strictly speaking, is not carving at all. Let the beginner take a panel or thin flat board, let us say one of six inches in breadth, twelve in length, and half an inch or less in thickness. For this kind of work a finely grained, even, and light-coloured wood, such as holly or beech, is preferable. Draw the pattern on paper, of the size intended with a very black and soft lead or crayon pencil, place it with the face to the wood, and turning the edges over, gum them down to the edge of the panel. Then with some very smooth hard object, such as an agate or steel burnisher, an ivory paper-knife, or the end of a rounded and glossy penknife handle, carefully rub the back of the pattern. When this is done remove the paper, and the pattern will be found transferred to the wood. If imperfect, touch it up.

The pupil may now, with a pattern-wheel or tracer, indent or mark a line or narrow groove in the outline of the pattern. The tracer is the same implement of the same name which is used in repoussÉ or brass-sheet or metal-work. Its end is exactly like that of a screw-driver. To manage it properly hold it upright, and run it along, tapping it as it goes with a hammer of iron or wood, Fig. 20. In some countries a stick of wood about six inches in length, and an inch broad at the butt, is used. Where the wheel cannot be employed, as in small corners, use the tracer. The pointed tracer, Fig. 21, used in leather-work, and in carpentry, is often indispensable for the smaller pattern-work.

When the outline is all marked out in a groove, take one of the stamps, or grounding punches, shown on Fig. 23, and with the hammer indent the whole background, Fig. 24. If there be corners too small to admit the stamp or stamps for the same pattern, then finish them up with a pointed nail or any point, such as a bodkin. The result will be like the simple design in Fig. 23. When this is done, coat the whole with oil, rub it in, and wipe it off with care. Then with a piece of very soft wood polish only the pattern, and finally rub it off by hand or with a stiff brush. This kind of ornamentation is adapted to the covers of books or albums, as it can be applied to the thinnest sheets of wood.

Another way to improve this work is to take the tracer, and smooth down and depress the ground, especially near the pattern edge. This gives an improved relief. Then the ground may be stamped or “matted,” Fig. 24. It may be borne in mind that the pupil who masters this process of indenting with wheel, tracers, and stamps, will be quite able to work patterns in damp sheet-leather, since the latter is effected in the same way with the same tools. Nor does the first step in repoussÉ or sheet-brass work differ greatly from it. All the minor arts have a great deal in common; many of the tools used in one being applicable to others. The pupil who begins with some knowledge of drawing will soon find it easy to work in any material.

The pupil having done this, has an idea of how a pattern is placed or spaced and contrasted with the ground. He may now take another panel, and having drawn the pattern, cut out the outline in a light groove with a very small gouge or a V tool, or a firmer. Let him be very careful to hold the handle in his right hand, and guide the blade with the fingers of the left, and never to let the latter get before the point. Do not cut deeply or too rapidly. Before beginning on the pattern, practise cutting grooves on waste wood. Unless this is done the panel will almost certainly be spoiled. It is usual among carvers to begin with cutting the groove with a V tool, but it is well to prepare for this by using the tracer or wheel.

Fig. 27 represents the effect of a ground which is indented, and to a degree ornamented, by using round stamps of different patterns and sizes. Very good effects may be produced in this way, which resembles diaper-work.

To clearly recapitulate the process, let me observe: That to begin, the pupil must have a smooth panel without knots or imperfections. The pattern is drawn on this or transferred to it. This pattern should be entirely in outline, without any inside lines or drawing between the outside edges, Fig. 24. Take a wheel or tracer and indent the whole pattern very carefully and rather deeply, not all at one pressure, but by going twice or thrice over the line. Then with a stamp and hammer indent all the background and the spaces between the edges of the pattern. Having done this once, take another panel and pattern, and instead of pressing in the outline with a wheel or tracer, cut it with a parting tool or gouge—not too deeply. Then indent as before, Fig. 25.

This stamping the grounds is often miscalled diaper carving, but the diaper is, correctly speaking, a small pattern multiplied to make a ground, and not roughly corrugating or dotting with a bodkin, or pricking. This latter is, of course, indenting. Diapers may be either stamped or carved like any other patterns.

This process of flattening, wheeling, tracing, and stamping wood, though little practised now, was so common in the Middle Ages, that there are very few galleries containing pictures with gold backgrounds in which there are not specimens of it. Very great masters in painting frequently practised it. After gilding the ground, they outlined the pattern with a prick-wheel, which is quite like the rowel of a spur, and often traced dotted patterns with the wheel itself on the flat gold. Black or dark brown paint was then rubbed into the dots. Sometimes the stamp was also used, and its marks or holes filled in the same manner. It is not necessary to gild the background to produce a fine effect. First apply a coat of varnish, polish it when dry with finest glass-paper, then apply a coat or two of white oil paint, toned with Naples yellow, and when it is dry work it with wheel-tracers and stamps. When dry polish it again, and rub dark brown paint into all the lines and dots. Cover it with two coats of fine retouching varnish, and the effect will be that of old stamped ivory.

This first lesson may be omitted by those who wish to proceed at once to carving. It is given here because it sets forth the easiest and least expensive manner of ornamenting wood, and one which forms a curious and beautiful art by itself. With it one can acquire a familiarity with the method of transferring patterns to wood, and with the management of the tracer and stamp. The pattern-wheel should be held in the right hand, and guided by the forefinger of the left, which is a good preparatory practice for the chisel and gouge.

While the tools requisite for this work are few and inexpensive, it may be observed that tolerable substitutes may be obtained for them anywhere. Almost any knife-blade, eraser, or screw-driver can be ground into a dull edge which may serve to trace and press the wood, while a spike or very large nail can, with a file, be so crossed at the end as to make a stamp.

Fig. 27. Indented Ground.