THE SWEEP-CUT OR FREE-HAND CARVING—CUTTING NOTCHES IN LEAVES—THE ROUND-CUT.

Boldness in cutting is a matter of very great importance, since no one can carve really well till he gets beyond chipping or “wasting.” To carve boldly we must use the sweep-cut. It may be observed that in modelling in clay there are certain methods of shaping the material, which are quite peculiar; as, for instance, when we press the modelling tool down or up, and at the same time turn it to the left or right. This makes an inclination upwards or a depression downwards, yet sloping to one side or the other. It is made by two movements in one; so in cutting with a sword or long knife, if we chop, yet at the same instant draw the blade, the result is a much deeper incision. This is called the draw-cut, and by means of it a man may cut a sheep in two, or sever a handkerchief or lace veil thrown into the air.

Very much like this is the double motion of the hand in the sweep-cut, which must be acquired by all who would learn to carve leaves well. It is not quite true that all work must go through the three stages of blocking out, bosting, and finishing; for when leaves are carved with the sweep-cut they are generally finished at one operation. With this cut, which is usually performed with a flat gouge, the wood is removed so as to give a peculiar form or curve—as when a leaf slopes down and sideways—by a single but compound movement; that is, we must, while pressing the edge, also move it or give it a slight lateral motion. This sweep or side-cut is developed more fully in sloping larger and especially rounded surfaces, like whole leaves, which rise and fall, or undulate, Figs. 41, 42. This cut, by means of which one can carve with confidence the most brittle and difficult wood, requires a tool of very good quality, which must be kept scrupulously sharp. It must be practised on waste wood till the pupil is a master of it, but when it is once acquired, wood-carving, as regards all large and effective work, may be said to really have no further difficulties. With some it seems to come all at once, by inspiration.

The simplest or first form of the sweep-cut occurs in making leaves. Every one who has tried this knows that the cutting the notches or making lobes in the wood, but especially the shaping the points, is a difficult matter, for if we simply shove or press the edge of the cutter, as in ordinary or plane work, the leaf will probably break, especially if the wood be “splitty,” uneven, or brittle. Having marked out a circle to include the lobes of the leaf, we cut a notch half way between the proposed points, and by shaving first from one side and then the other, bring the leaf or its lobes into shape, Fig. 43. Of course, in doing this we cut from the point to the corners.

For the present it will suffice to apply it in its simplest and easiest form to cutting groups of leaves. In the previous lesson the pupil has been told how to cut out a single plain leaf in relief by simply “wasting” or chipping away the wood little by little with a flat gouge. In like manner it might be filed, or rasped, or scraped like metal, into shape. Let the pupil now sketch Fig. 43, and then bost it out, by cutting round and clearing away as already described.

The dotted lines indicate the original shape or circles in which the leaves are cut. When it is “all done but the finishing,” or bosted, then cut the notches backwards in the manner already described. And, as I have said, if the pupil has practised the sweep-cut, and keeps his flat gouge perfectly sharp, he may cut the finest notches in the smallest leaves in the splittiest wood without once breaking away a piece.

The sweep-cut gives perfect confidence, and he who has acquired it, and knows how to apply it so as to make any curve or boss or involution which he pleases, may be said to have passed from the amateur stage to that of the artist, or at least of the clever workman. By means of it one can model the most refractory wood into any shape, and to any one who is expert at it oak is as easy to carve as pine. Therefore the pupil should spare no pains to acquire it; and it will come sooner perhaps than he expects if he first of all takes all pains to understand what it really is, and secondly to practise it for a few hours on waste wood. There are, however, many carvers who pass months or years in “wasting” away wood by simple straight cutting or chipping before they get any idea of what a sweep-cut is—if indeed they ever learn it. But if the pupil has previously acquired skill, that is to say, ease and confidence in running gouge lines and hollow cutting and shaping simple leaves by straight cutting, he will without doubt find that the free-hand sweep-cut comes as by inspiration.