THE ART OF LETTER CARVING IN WOOD

Tenth Beatitude, 2013. Chainsawn split poplar; acrylic paint. Informal condensed Roman. Notice how the texture of the cut surface has been enhanced by painting and rubbing back.

First published in 2022 by
The Crowood Press Ltd
Ramsbury, Marlborough
Wiltshire SN8 2HR

enquiries@crowood.com
www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2022

© Martin Wenham 2022

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 71984 004 3

Cover design: Sergey Tsvetkov

INTRODUCTION

Of all the materials used for lettering: stone, vellum, paper, wood, metal and textiles, wood is one of the most varied and versatile, yet is by far the least used. Apart from minor inscriptions in churches and old houses, there are very few historical examples in Britain before the nineteenth century, and most of the latter were part of the revival of medievalism (as for example at Tyntesfield in Somerset) and have little relevance to contemporary lettering. Even in the twentieth century revival of calligraphy and fine lettering wood was little used, and it is only in the past forty years that well-designed and carved lettering in wood has begun to make much of an appearance. This is all the more surprising because wood is one of the most easily available and attractive materials in which to make inscriptions. As discussed in Chapter 1, by no means all woods are suitable, but among those which are, there is a very wide variety of hardness, durability, colour and surface texture. Most woods are relatively cheap, widely available and can be cut or joined into any size or form the maker requires. Wood also offers unrivalled opportunities for the use of colour to enhance its form and texture and to emphasize meaning, as discussed in Chapter 15.

Perhaps because there is no long tradition of hand-carved lettering in wood as there is in stone, there is no standard way of carving letters in wood: each craftsperson seems to develop her or his own methods. The basic method of carving set out in this book has been developed from what I learned from a retired professional furniture carver in the 1960s, and uses the classic v-section letterform which is familiar from lettering in stone. This method, with an appropriate range of tools, makes it possible to carve letters in a wide range of woods and styles, in sizes from 10 to 100mm high, or even larger. Some other forms of lettering are explored in Chapter 14.

Although v-section lettering in wood may look similar to work in stone, and use similar designs, the letters are carved in a completely different way. In stone, letters are usually carved from the mid-line out to the edge. The chisel cuts the stone into dust or chips which immediately become detached from the workpiece and fall away. V-cut letters in wood, in contrast, are usually cut from the edge inward to a central vertical cut. This cut is necessary because wood is tough and resistant to splitting, so that the material being cut away has to be detached by the carving tools rather than falling away spontaneously. This in turn means that lettering in wood is usually done on a horizontal workbench, rather than at a steep angle as in stone-carving.

The skills of designing and drawing letters and grouping them into words and inscriptions are far more difficult to learn than the carving skills, though in the few books on the subject far less attention is paid to them. The first part of this book (Chapters 1–6) is based on the use of a basic upper case (‘capital letter’) alphabet which beginners are advised to copy and trace, while at the same time learning to draw it freehand. By using a ready-made alphabet, the skills of design and drawing are at this stage largely avoided rather than confronted, which means that learning these skills is ‘unfinished business’. This is taken up in Chapters 8–11 and 13, work on which is needed in order to keep making progress. Experienced letterers can, of course, adapt the instructions given here to carve their own designs.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

First, read Chapter 1 for some very basic information about wood as a material and to find out what tools and equipment you will need. None of the items discussed is a luxury: all are necessary, and the cutting tools will need a significant amount of preparatory work before they can be used for carving letters. If there is delay in obtaining equipment or making it ready for use, it is helpful to use the time to practise drawing and tracing letters.

When you have assembled your equipment and prepared your tools, read Chapter 2 carefully to familiarize yourself with the range of operations needed to cut the basic alphabet. You may find it useful either to try out these operations on scrap wood, or prefer to try cutting letters straight away, as set out in Chapter 3, referring back to Chapter 2 when you need more information. Chapters 3–6 form a sequence, introducing all the letters of the basic alphabet in an order determined by the operations needed to cut them, starting with the simplest and proceeding to the more complex and demanding. It is recommended that you work through these chapters systematically to build up your skill-base, drawing and carving each letter of the alphabet at least once. It can be very helpful to write the date on the wood beside each day’s work and keep all your trials. Doing this will help you to check on progress and give you a library of three-dimensional letterforms to which you can refer.

Chapter 7 introduces some ideas for using your basic letter-carving skills. Chapters 8–11 are again a sequence, aimed at developing skills of drawing, spacing and design in the context of more complex and classic alphabets. From Chapter 12 onwards there is no fixed sequence, so it should be possible for you to move on in your own way and develop any of the topics which interest you.

CHAPTER 1

MATERIALS, EQUIPMENT AND TOOLS

Wood is the main support material for trees and a major part of their internal transport system. In temperate climates all trees grow wood seasonally, with fast growth in spring, slower growth in summer and autumn, and dormancy with no growth in winter. This cycle is reflected in their wood, which grows in layers round the trunk and branches known as annual rings. The outermost few annual rings, called sap-wood, are frequently paler in colour, softer and less durable than the inner, or heart-wood. In some woods such as oak the difference is obvious, but in many others it is not. However, using sap-wood should be avoided wherever possible.

Wood samples, mid-1980s. Each wood has its name; the samples were made for visitors to handle during demonstrations of carving. This is an early version of my sloped Roman.

Fig. 1.1
The Sea (detail), 2019: Olive ash. Cursive italic with the grain vertical.

To support the branches and leaves, wood has to be not only strong but also very tough: that is, resistant to splitting. The main strength of wood comes from long fibres which are aligned more or less along the length of the trunk or branch. This alignment of the fibres gives wood its grain, and its direction may vary, even in the same piece of wood, from straight to curving or even wavy. Nearly all woods are much weaker and more easily split along the grain than across it. This is because in cutting along the grain the blade is mostly separating fibres rather than cutting through them. Toughness or resistance to splitting along the grain is, however, a very desirable property in wood, and one which is critical in deciding which woods to use for letter carving, and how to carve them.

A variety of woods

The woods of broadleaved trees are known as ‘hardwoods’. The European woods most suitable for learning to carve letters are sycamore and beech. They are pale in colour, fairly uniform in texture, fine-grained and, above all, tough along the grain. Both are moderately hard, beech being the harder of the two. Birch has similar properties but is not as widely available. North American readers should find the wood of the tulip-tree (confusingly often called ‘yellow poplar’) good to begin to work on, though rather soft.

Fig. 1.2
CA (detail), 1993. Oak. Detail from carving for the cover of a book on wood carving. Condensed formal modern Roman; notice the even growth of the wood, which is of very high quality.

Fig. 1.3
Italic a (detail), mid-1990s. Pearwood. Notice the sharpness achievable in this fairly soft and fine-grained wood. Detail from Summer Haiku (see Chapter 16).

Fig. 1.4
Verbum Tuum 4 (detail), 2009. Quarter-sawn oak with its characteristic figure. Again, this shows the sharpness achievable in high-quality wood.

Oak and ash can be excellent for letter carving, but both are usually harder than beech and neither is ideal for learning on. Their spring-wood grows very fast, with big water-carrying vessels (‘pores’), so that it is weaker and softer than the summerwood. These are called ‘ring-porous’ woods and need to be cut in the right way to be reliable for letter carving (see below under ‘Selecting wood’). Both are coarse-grained but can be very attractively figured. Oak is also the only European wood which will resist decay and last well outdoors for up to fifty years, so is the obvious choice for outdoor lettering, but it is critical to avoid including sap-wood (the pale, outermost layers) in the workpiece because it rots very quickly.

Other hardwoods

Other woods which may be available, though they are often hard to come by, are the fruit woods: apple, pear, plum and cherry. All are excellent for letter carving, but if you have a choice it might be better to save them for finer, finished work when you have mastered the basic skills. The finest woods of all for lettering are probably holly and hawthorn. Both are very hard and are usually available only in small dimensions, but can yield letters of great sharpness. Very fine North American woods are American cherry, black walnut and hard maple, all of which are available in the UK.

Woods to avoid

At least to begin with, avoid all ‘softwoods’ from conifers such as pine and spruce, as most of them are extremely difficult for beginners to carve cleanly, though they can be useful later on. Lime (linden) wood is much used for figure-carving, but is too soft for most lettering. Tropical hardwoods range from the excellent to the dreadful, and are best avoided because those which are tough enough for lettering are mostly very hard, and some of them can blunt tools very quickly. One unsuitable American wood is red oak, which has a very coarse grain and open ’pores’ which can make painting difficult.

Selecting wood to work on

If you can, always go to the timber supplier’s yard and select wood for yourself. To begin, planed boards are needed; a good size is 10 × 1 × 60cm. The direction in which the board has been cut is important in ash and oak; less so in sycamore and beech. When selecting boards, look at the end of the board where the wood has been cut across the grain; the annual rings should be visible. If the rings run more or less at right angles to the face of the board the wood is ‘quarter-sawn’, and this is ideal. If the rings are at a steep oblique angle, this is quite acceptable. If they run more or less parallel to the face, the board is ‘flat’ or ‘slab’ sawn, and should not be used unless nothing better is available. Especially in ring-porous woods such as ash and oak this is important, because in flat-sawn boards the weak spring-wood may split away from the wood under it as the face is cut into.

Fig. 1.5a
End and side-grain of oak, beech and ash. Notice the different angles between the annual rings and the various board faces: about 90° in the quarter-sawn oak (left), 40° in the beech (centre) and 0–20° in the slab-sawn ash (right). Notice also the spring and summer-wood in all three, and the prominent water vessels in oak and ash (ring porous).

Fig. 1.5b
The face of slab-sawn ash. Notice the prominent layers of spring-wood. These may be liable to fracture, so carving ash or oak cut in this way may be risky.

Fig. 1.5c–d
The faces of quarter-sawn oak (left) and beech (right), showing their characteristic figures.

Having selected a possibly suitable board, it is advisable to look closely at the face to see the direction of the grain. This will rarely be completely straight, but boards with big changes in grain direction should be avoided if possible, at least in the early stages of learning. Other flaws such as knots, splits or growth disturbances are usually obvious and boards with them should be rejected.

EQUIPMENT

Workbench

The ideal workbench allows access to the workpiece from all sides. It is very important that it should be of the right height to minimize back-strain. This height of course depends on the stature of the worker, but a useful guide is to make the working surface of the bench as high as your hip-joint (not the crest of the pelvis), i.e. about 55 per cent of your overall height. The nearest to this ideal I have found is a steel-framed folding portable workbench, mounted on four blocks to bring it to my working height of just under 1m. To start with, lightweight cellular concrete blocks can be very useful for raising a workbench, but it is worth making blocks of exactly the right height. A very effective pattern is to make four blocks of 18mm plywood in the form of triangular prisms, 25mm on the side and of the height you require. Stability of the workbench can be increased by cementing coarse abrasive sheet to the top of each block with contact adhesive and screwing small rubber feet to their bases.

Fig. 1.6a
Folding workbench set up on blocks to give the correct working height, with tool-rack at the back. The user can have access from all sides by moving the bench to different positions for different projects. There are three light sources: the window, an extendable lamp and a fixed lamp on the left. The movable jaws and bench-stops allow boards to be held securely.

Fig. 1.6b
The back of the workbench, showing the tool-rack and the plywood screen which shields the user from the tools when working from this side.

Fig. 1.7
Block to raise workbench to working height. This is a triangular prism of 18mm plywood with coarse abrasive sheet glued to its upper face and three small rubber feet, which together give maximum stability.

Modern folding workbenches have two other advantages: their tops open and close like a vice and they have movable stops which fit into holes on the working surface. Together these can be used for holding flat boards very firmly. If the board cannot be held in this way, use a G-clamp with a square of thin plywood to prevent damage to the board.

Grinding and sharpening equipment

The work of preparing and sharpening carving tools is treated in detail below, under ‘Carving tools’, but a list of equipment is given here. Carving tools (chisels and gouges) need grinding and shaping to make them suitable for letter carving, and to do this by hand is very difficult. You need access to a slow-running grinding wheel, cooled by a water-bath and with a rigid tool-rest. This is needed only occasionally, but it is necessary, not a luxury. High-speed bench-grinders cannot be used on cutting tools because they will cause the tool to become over-heated, softening the steel so that it cannot be sharpened properly.

Fig. 1.8
Slow-running electric grinding-wheel cooled by a water-bath. The white bar is a rigid horizontal tool-rest, to which is attached a gauge marked in centimetres to facilitate grinding of consistent bevel angles.

You will also need a small fine sharpening stone called a gouge-slip for honing. The most generally useful is a hard white Arkansas stone, a natural stone from the USA: a stone 75mm long is big enough. A gouge-slip has two rounded edges of differing curvature for honing the inside edges of gouges, and two flat faces for honing the edges of chisels and the outside edges of gouges. Artificial slip-stones are too coarse for honing carving tools.

Fig. 1.9
Left: hard white Arkansas slip-stone. Notice the two rounded edges for honing the inside edges of different gouges, and the flat faces for honing chisels and the outside edges of gouges. Right: home-made strop for chisels and gouges. Notice that one edge has been rounded off: this is for stropping narrow-radius gouges (e.g. No.6). The two edges of the leather covering meet at the other edge.

For final sharpening, a strop and strop-dressing are required. A simple strop can be made by cutting a piece of broom-handle partly down the middle and covering the half-round with leather, using a contact adhesive. The leather used should be flexible and have a fine ’nap’, rather like suede, on one side. The leather then has to be treated (dressed) with a very fine abrasive paste. The best available seems to be Autosol metal polish, available from car parts dealers and online. Other metal polishes are ineffective. A good hand-lens (×10 magnification) is very useful in checking that edges have been well-ground and polished.

Lighting

Good lighting is critical to letter carving and a good work-lamp is essential equipment, not an accessory. Fully mobile and positionable lighting with a long reach is necessary and LED lamps are recommended. When working after dark, it is useful to have a secondary light source such as a ceiling light behind you in addition to the movable light in front, as this makes it possible to see angles and junctions more clearly.

Managing tools safely while working

When working, cutting tools must remain easily accessible, but they are sharp enough to cause serious injury if mishandled. In particular, it is important to ensure that they cannot roll off the bench and fall, since this could both damage the tool and injure the user. Most folding workbenches have holes in the top for removable stops, and when exposed these can be used as a tool-rack, having made sure that the handles will not fall through. A better solution is to make a tool-rack and attach it to the back of the bench with bolts, adding a sheet of thin plywood to cover the exposed blades. A wall-mounted rack, out of reach of children or visitors, can be useful but you need to have very easy access to the tools while working. An alternative to a rack is to make a tool-tray in which the tools are separated by bars and their edges protected by offcuts of carpet or other soft material.

Fig. 1.10
This home-made tool-tray is an effective alternative to a tool-rack. The square dowels keep the tools separate and carpet offcuts prevent damage to their edges.

Equipment for drawing and tracing

You will need:

• A3 layout pad

• A3 tracing pad

• Removable adhesive tape (drafting tape)

• 60cm ruler

• B, HB and 2H pencils

• Plastic eraser

An A3 drawing-board with a clip and a table-easel to support it are also very useful, as are a set square, a pair of compasses and an A2 cutting mat. Access to a photocopier is a great advantage, though not essential.

You will also need, at least to begin with, some kind of carbon-paper to trace down letters on to wood. The best kind is black pencil carbon, which can be obtained from office suppliers; blue pencil carbon is too greasy and can be very messy. Carbon-paper transfers can be difficult to erase, but fine abrasive paper will usually remove marks easily. ‘Tracedown’ papers available from art materials shops are excellent, and though the grey (graphite) one rubs off rather easily, the red one is very effective for tracing on to light coloured woods such as beech and sycamore.

Cutting tools: chisels and gouges

The tools needed to begin carving letters are relatively few and simple, but they do need to be prepared well and maintained immaculately.

Fig. 1.11a
The seven tools recommended for carving letters: three straight chisels, one skew chisel and three gouges of different curvatures.

Fig. 1.11b
Edges of a chisel and a gouge. The chisel has a bevel ground on both sides and a slightly curved edge; the gouge has only one bevel, on its outer face (not visible), and its curved edge has also been rounded during grinding. Notice that there is no bevel at all on the inside (concave) face of the gouge.

The cutting tools used are chisels, which have flat blades and nearly straight cutting edges; and gouges, which have a trough-like profile. Carving chisels, unlike those used for carpentry and joinery, have a double bevel, i.e. the blade is ground from both sides. Gouges have only a single bevel, on the outer (convex) side of the blade. Tools with a v-shaped profile (parting tools) are not used for letter carving. Buying sets of tools selected by the maker is not recommended because such sets always lack tools which are needed and include others which are not.

Modern chisels and gouges are identified by number and their width in millimetres (or inches). Most modern makers use a similar numbering system to indicate the profile of the blade, and all the tools needed for incised lettering are ‘straight’ i.e. their blades are not bent, though gouge edges have a curved profile. No.1 is a straight chisel, No.2 is a skew or corner chisel and Nos 3–6 are straight gouges. The higher the number of the gouge (from 3 to 11), the smaller the radius of curvature of the edge. Thus, a No.3 gouge is flatter (has a larger radius of curvature) than a No.6, but care is needed in ordering because not all stockists carry a full range of curvature and curvatures vary somewhat between makers. The Swiss maker Pfeil uses a slightly different numbering system: their skew chisel is numbered 1S and their No.2 is a very shallow gouge, but otherwise their numbering is similar.

All these tools are available in a wide range of widths, but only a few are needed to get started in letter carving.

Choosing cutting tools

There is a wide range of carving tools available. Buying old tools is risky unless you are an experienced wood-carver, or can be advised by someone who understands your needs. As with modern tools, some are excellent and others very poor: reliable names include Addis and Herring Bros. In particular, old gouges pitted with rust should not be bought, as they need special and skilled re-grinding on the inside face before they can be sharpened adequately.

Of the new English tools currently available, the best appear to be those made by Ashley Iles. New tools by other English makers do not appear at present to be of the quality they made in the past. Some consistently excellent tools are made in Europe and are available from specialist suppliers. Pfeil (Swiss) and Stubai (Austrian) are both of very good quality and highly recommended, but care is needed in ordering gouges.

To begin carving letters in wood you need seven cutting tools: four chisels and three gouges. These are:

• No.1 straight chisels, widths 6mm, 12mm, 18mm

• No.2 skew chisel, width 12mm

• No.3 straight gouge, width 6 or 8mm

• No.4 straight gouge, width 6 or 8mm

• No.6 straight gouge, width 6 or 8mm

If ordering Pfeil tools, select skew chisel 1S and gouges 3, 4 and 6; if ordering Stubai, gouges 3, 4 and 7. From most makers these tools will be supplied ground and honed, complete with handles, but they need to be specially ground for work in lettering (see below).

At intervals throughout the book, suggestions will be given for extending this basic range of cutting tools as your skills develop and the letterforms require different cutting profiles.

Mallets

A mallet is rather like a wooden hammer, used to drive chisels and gouges when arm and hand strength cannot exert a large enough force to make the cut required. Carving tools should never be struck with a metal hammer. Mallets are very much a matter of personal preference; the essentials are to have a tool which you can hold easily, and which will enable you to strike straight and effectively. Some prefer a round carver’s mallet, others a carpenter’s mallet. If you do not know which you are likely to prefer, a small beechwood carpenter’s mallet is probably the best to start with.

Make sure your mallet handle is smooth, rounded and comfortable. Any angles should be smoothed off as they may cause discomfort or skin abrasions, even though a mallet should never be held tightly. If a mallet does not deliver enough force, a very effective alternative is a dead-blow hammer. The head is a plastic-covered cylinder filled with lead shot, which has minimal bounce when the tool is struck and will not damage wooden handles.

SHARPENING CUTTING TOOLS FOR LETTERING

New chisels and gouges are usually supplied ready-sharpened, but with straight edges and right-angled corners which need re-shaping and re-sharpening before they can be used successfully for letter carving. This is a three-stage process. Grinding shapes the edge of the tool but leaves it rough; honing and stropping smooth and polish this rough edge, producing a cutting edge which needs to be, literally, razor-sharp. As already noted, grinding carving tools requires a slow-running grindstone which is cooled by a water-bath.

Grinding tools for lettering

Grinding chisels

Carving chisels are ground with a bevel on each side. The aim when grinding is to make the chisel edge with both bevels slightly concave (‘double hollow-ground’), with a slight curve to the edge and corners which are slightly obtuse rather than right-angled. The overall angle between the shoulders of the bevels should be about 22° and a sharpening gauge is needed to measure this. Precision gauges to measure a range of angles are available and very useful, but you can make your own from stiff plastic sheet cut with a scalpel.

Fig. 1.12
Form of the edge and double bevel of a chisel ground for letter carving (a and b). The ‘double hollow-ground’ profile is formed by the grinding wheel. The broken lines show the edge and bevel as supplied, before grinding. Notice the slightly curving edge and obtuse corners, which make a chisel ground in this way a much more flexible tool for lettering than a straight-edged one would be.

Drawing (c) shows the ground edge in a 22° bevel gauge cut with a scalpel from thick plastic sheet. This gauge can be used for both chisels and gouges, and is very useful in maintaining consistent cutting properties when grinding or re-grinding tools.

Fig. 1.13a
Position of a straight chisel on the grinding wheel. Notice that the edge is straight across the grinding face. The tool is held in position, and the downward force on it regulated by the index finger. The marked gauge-strip helps in grinding to a consistent angle.

Fig. 1.13b
Position of a skew chisel on the grinding wheel. Again, the edge is straight across the grinding face, so the tool has to be held obliquely from left and right to grind both faces.

The chisel, whether straight or skew, should be held on a fixed tool-rest with its edge straight across the grinding face of the wheel. You will need to experiment (an old carpentry chisel can be useful) to find the exact place on the wheel at which the edge needs to be held in order to grind the bevels to the correct angle. This distance can usefully be marked on a plastic strip fixed on to the tool-rest (with waterproof gaffer-tape) parallel with the wheel to act as a gauge. The chisel edge should be pressed lightly but firmly on to the wet grindstone and the chisel turned over frequently so that both sides are progressively ground to the same amount. Getting the bevels correct is a slow process; do not try to hurry it by pressing hard. The slight curve required on the edge of the chisel is formed by turning the wrist to rotate the chisel handle slightly while keeping the centre-line of the blade parallel with the wheel, so that the corners are ground away a little more than the centre.

As you grind a set of tools, make sure that you vary their placement across the thickness of the grinding-wheel, so that the whole of the face is used. This will help to prevent a trough developing in the middle of the grinding face. When you have shaped the edge to the correct shape and angle, finish off each side very lightly: this will reduce the ‘rag’ on the edge (see below) to a minimum.

Grinding gouges

Gouges are ground in a way somewhat similar to that used for chisels, but with two important differences. First, the 22° bevel angle has to be ground on the outside (convex) face only, so the edge of the gouge has to be placed somewhat nearer to the tool-rest than a chisel, and again the distance forward should be noted on the gauge-strip. Secondly, the gouge handle has to be rotated while keeping the blade in line, so that the whole of the curved edge is ground, and then rotated a little more to round off either corner and make the edge a little ‘bull-nosed,’ as chisels are.

Preparing ground chisels and gouges for honing

When a chisel or gouge has been ground it will usually have a ‘rag’ of very thin metal clinging to the edge proper. This is sometimes called ‘burr’ or ‘wire edge’ and should be removed before honing the edge. The ‘rag’ is made worse by heavy pressure on the blade while grinding, so always try to finish very lightly. A good way to remove the ‘rag’ is to push the blade into a piece of scrap softwood. When doing this, keep the blade vertical and do not tilt it at all, or you may damage the newly ground edge.

Honing and stropping chisels and gouges

For the final sharpening you will need a slip-stone, a strop and strop dressing (see above under ‘Equipment’). To hone well, all stones need a lubricant or they will become choked with very small metal particles. An Arkansas stone should be lubricated with light oil such as cycle oil. Common practice when honing, as set out in books on carving, is to take the tool to the stone and move the tool. In honing lettering tools this is reversed: always take the stone to the tool and move the stone, keeping the tool still.

Honing a chisel

The slip-stone is held in one hand and the blade of the tool in the other. Hold the chisel with the shoulder of the bevel and edge both resting on the flat face of the slip: this point can be felt by tilting the chisel in and out a little. Now tilt the blade out a little, so that the edge alone is resting on the slip at a very shallow angle. Press the stone lightly on to the tool edge and move it gently left and right so that the stone moves along the edge at a very shallow angle; to begin with, the tool should not move at all. The sideways action should be a rocking movement of the wrist with no independent movement of the fingers, in an arc which is slightly oblique to the chisel edge. Once this movement is established, and keeping the movement of the stone constant, rotate the chisel slightly, first one way and then the other, so that the whole edge is brought into contact with the stone. Having honed one side of the blade, turn the chisel and hone the other in a similar way.

Fig. 1.14
Position of the hands, slip-stone and chisel when honing. The stone has been lubricated with a drop of light oil. The tool is held with its edge on the stone and the bevel lifted slightly away from it, and is kept still throughout. The stone is moved in an arc along the edge at a slight angle, by a rocking motion of the whole hand and wrist, with no finger movement at all.

If a chisel (or gouge) has been well-ground and the ‘rag’ removed from the edge, it will need only a light honing. It is useful to look at the edge through a good hand-lens (×10 magnification) to see the effect of all stages of sharpening. Honing should remove the minute grooves caused by grinding at the extreme edge, but no more, leaving a smooth edge which is ready for stropping.

Stropping a chisel

The final stage of sharpening is stropping, which polishes the finely honed edge to a mirror-finish of extreme sharpness. The leather of the strop should be coated lightly with strop-dressing; the flat face is used for chisels. Place the bevel of the chisel flat on the strop face, lift the chisel handle and draw it towards you, holding the edge firmly down on to the leather. Repeat this action several times, rotating the chisel handle slightly so that all of the edge is stropped, then do the same with the other side of the edge. Now look at the edge, with a magnifying glass if possible. The whole of the edge (a very narrow zone) should be highly polished on both sides. Wipe the bevel clean with a piece of soft rag, very carefully. The chisel is now ready for use.

Fig. 1.15a
Stropping a chisel: strop dressing has been rubbed onto the strop face. The chisel is drawn firmly down the strop with several strokes, rotating the handle slightly to ensure that all parts of the edge are stropped. Notice the use of a non-slip mat under the strop.

Fig. 1.15b
Stropping the inside edge of a No.6 gouge: this is done on the rounded edge of the strop. The inside edges of shallower gouges are stropped on the rounded face and all the outer edges on the flat face.

Testing sharpness

A well-sharpened chisel is literally razor-sharp, and needs to be if it is to cut cleanly. A traditional way to assess sharpness is to see whether the chisel or gouge can shave hairs cleanly from your forearm: a very effective test, but one which needs to be carried out with great care! A somewhat less effective but less risky test is to hold the tool lightly, with its edge resting upright on your thumbnail, then try to move it at right angles to the edge. A well-sharpened blade will ‘bite’ the nail under its own weight and resist being moved; a poorly sharpened one will skid over the nail.

Honing a gouge

This is done similarly to honing a chisel, except that the curved edges of the slip are used to hone the inside (concave) edge of the gouge. Having removed any ‘rag’ from the ground edge, hone the inside surface first, moving the curved edge of the stone across the edge of the tool at a shallow oblique angle. This should be done as little as is needed to give a smooth edge, to avoid making a ‘lip’ on the inside edge of the gouge. The outer edge is honed much as a chisel is, except that the tool handle has to be rotated much more, so that all of the edge is honed, including the rounded corners, while the movement of the stone is kept constant.

Stropping a gouge

This uses the curved face or edge of the strop, whichever is the better fit, for the inside edge of the gouge and the flat face for the outside. After applying strop dressing, strop both edges firmly, manipulating the gouge so that all of each edge is polished.

Maintaining sharpness

Unless a blade edge is damaged it is not necessary to re-grind it unless it is worn, and it should be possible to maintain sharpness over several months or even longer, depending on the amount of use, solely by stropping the tools. Most beginners strop their tools much more frequently than is necessary, but stropping will not remedy poor grinding and honing. As a tool is used and stropped, the edge is gradually worn away, progressively removing from the bevel the grooves left by grinding. The tool is still sharp, but the edge is convex and needs to be held at a steeper angle to make it cut, so it becomes more difficult to make delicate cuts. At this point the edge needs re-grinding.

If the edge is badly worn, it needs re-grinding on a wheel, but if wear is moderate and a wheel is not available, the edge can be improved by hand-grinding. This can be done on a small ‘Washita’, ‘Carborundum’ or similar whetstone or, very effectively, on a coarse diamond grinding plate. The stone is used as a slip-stone is when honing, except that the bevel is ground at both the edge and the shoulder, by holding the hollow-ground bevel as flat on the stone as possible. Chisels should be ground on both sides and gouges on the outer (convex) side only, until the polished edge has been completely removed (use hand-lens). Remove any ‘rag’, then hone and strop the edge as usual. After two or three hand-grindings the tool will need a full re-grind on a wet wheel, but with care this will not be for at least a year for a frequently used tool, and often much longer for others.

Storing cutting tools safely

Cutting tools ready for use are potentially dangerous and must be stored safely when not in use. If a protected rack is installed on the workbench or on a wall, tools can be left there safely from day to day, as long as children do not have access. The easiest longer-term storage is in a traditional canvas or leather tool-roll in a drawer or box. If the tools are not to be used for a while, especially in winter, oil them lightly before storage to prevent rust forming. It is equally necessary to house cutting tools safely while they are in use (see above under ‘Managing tools safely while working’).

CHAPTER 2

BASIC OPERATIONS

As you are learning to cut a variety of letterforms and until you have mastered the various techniques, you may need to refer repeatedly to information on the basic operations of letter carving in wood. To avoid unnecessary repetition in the chapters which follow, this information is presented here. You are recommended to read this chapter carefully before attempting to do any cutting, to gain an overview of what is involved. Having done that, there is no one route or progression which suits everybody. You may choose to work your way through the basic operations described in this chapter, trying them out, preferably on a moderately hard wood such as sycamore or beech. Alternatively, you may prefer to begin cutting letters straight away, starting with Chapter 3 and referring back when you need more information or encounter problems. It should be emphasized that the carving method described here is not the only one possible, or in current use, but it is one which has been developed over many years of successful teaching.

Cutting by hand (workshop photograph). The left hand is pushing the chisel with power-grip; the right hand is controlling the blade. Notice the butterfly nut and bolt securing the tool rack to the back of the bench.

HOW LETTERS ARE CARVED IN WOOD: AN OVERVIEW

Although letters carved in wood may in appearance be very like those cut in stone, they are formed in an entirely different way, dictated and limited by the tough, fibrous nature of the material. The wood must be fastened securely to the bench. The centre line of the letter is cut with a vertical downward stabbing cut to the full depth of the letter. The letter is then formed by cutting wood away on either side at an angle of about 50° to the wood surface. This is done in a variety of ways: chopping, slicing, rocking and chasing, depending on the direction of cut at that point in relation to the grain. These different ways of cutting are treated in detail later in this chapter.

Fig. 2.1
In memoriam G.M.H. (detail), 1997. Weathered oak with acrylic paint. All the basic operations are used in a varied piece of lettering such as this.

Fig. 2.2
Basic form of the v-cut.

(a) The v-cut is formed by cutting vertically down the mid-line of the letter to the full depth of the letter, then chopping or slicing out wood from the edges to form the sloping faces.

(b) Because the angle at which the wood is cut away is more or less constant at about 50°, the width of the letter at any point determines its depth.

The 50° angle between the cut face inside the letter and the surface of the wood should be kept as constant as possible throughout a letter and inscription. This means that the depth of the letter is governed by (and is about three-fifths of) its width at any point. Thus, in a curved letter such as O, the depth of the letter changes continually as one moves round it, whereas in a letter such as E, where narrow stems meet wide ones, definite junctions are formed.

SAFETY NOTE

Basic safety dictates that hands must always be behind the cutting edge, and you should never cut towards either hand. Beyond that, the ways in which chisels and gouges are held in the various operations of lettercarving are very personal, depending partly on the size and shape of the worker’s hands.

Holding chisels, gouges and the mallet

For almost all work, only three grips are necessary, all of which use both hands at once: one to hold the tool handle, the other to control the blade and hold the mallet if one is being used. All three are versions of so-called ‘power-grip’. Precision grip, where the tool is held like a pen or pencil, is rarely useful. If a mallet is being used, the mallet-hand places the cutting tool in position. If a mallet is not being used, the ‘free’ hand may be used both to place the cutting edge in position and to control it as the cut is being made.

Fig. 2.3a–c

Simple power-grip (a). This grip is always needed when using the mallet. The hand not holding the tool either strikes with the mallet or, if the mallet is not being used, guides the blade as the cut is made.

Modified power-grip (b) and semi-power grip (c). Neither of these grips can be used with the mallet. When using both, the ‘free’ hand is used to place the tool edge and guide the blade as the cut is made. It is often necessary to use both grips with either hand.

Simple power-grip

The simple power-grip is used when driving a chisel or gouge with a mallet, either for stabbing or chopping. A right-handed person holds the cutting tool in the left hand and the mallet in the right. Most people find it difficult to use the two tools ambidextrously, but it is a significant advantage if you can, and a useful skill to learn.

Modified power-grip

This grip is needed for a variety of cuts when the cutting tool is driven by the hand, arm and back muscles rather than with a mallet. It is important to develop the ability to use chisel or gouge in either left or right hand using this grip. Although it can be a powerful grip, it gives a very high degree of control and so can be used for very delicate cuts, especially when the blade is controlled by the ‘free’ hand.

Semi-power grip

Again, it is important to be able to use this grip with either hand. The cutting tool is held, much as a screwdriver usually is, with the end of the handle in the palm and the index finger extended down the ferrule or blade, acting as a brace. The tool and hand are driven by the arm and shoulder, and when using this grip it helps, whenever possible, to keep the forearm in line with the tool. Particularly when chopping or shaving, this may mean working with the elbow sharply bent and pointing upwards. This grip is usually the only one which can be used to make chasing cuts.

Placing the edge and guiding the blade

When using any cutting tool and grip it is usually necessary to place the edge precisely, and often to guide the blade as it cuts, with the ‘free’ or mallet-hand. When not using a mallet, precise placing can most effectively be done with the index finger, middle finger and thumb. When using a mallet, hold the mallet balanced in the crook between index finger and thumb, using the index and middle fingers to place the edge of the blade precisely. Working in this way avoids the need to put the mallet down and pick it up again for each cut.

Fig. 2.4a–b
Hand positions for precise placing of the tool edge. Without mallet, two fingers and thumb can all be used (a). With mallet, the index and middle fingers alone are used (b). Notice how the mallet is held balanced between the thumb and index finger as the edge is placed. This avoids the need to keep putting the mallet down and picking it up again for each cut.

Holding and striking with a mallet

In letter carving a mallet is normally used only when hand, arm and back strength combined are insufficient to drive the tool. This can be the case with a cut of any kind, but is most often necessary when stabbing or chopping against the grain. The mallet should be used only when necessary. Precise tool control when using a mallet is inevitably more difficult than it is when the cutting edge can be controlled by the ‘free’ hand. When using a mallet, control is often improved by striking the tool lightly to bed the edge in, before striking it with the full force required.

Fig. 2.5
Mallet striking a chisel. Neither hand is gripping tightly. The right hand is in effect throwing the mallet-head, not pushing it.

Although mallets are very much a matter of personal preference, the same principles govern their effective use whichever shape or weight is used. The arm is a lever system which pivots at shoulder, elbow and wrist. Any mallet is, in effect, an extension of this system. When striking with a mallet it is neither necessary nor desirable to grip it tightly. What a practised user is doing is throwing the mallet-head: the arm and hand make it move in an arc to strike the end of the tool-handle, but they do not push it, and both should be relaxed and in control at the moment of impact.

Tool control and direction of cutting

Precise orientation of the cutting tool as you strike or push it is one of the most difficult skills in letter carving. When a tool is being placed or is cutting into wood, its orientation and therefore the way it cuts can be varied in all three spatial dimensions. To understand this, it is helpful to hold and move a chisel, resting its edge lightly on a piece of scrap softwood.

First, keep the faces of the blade vertical and rock it gently from side to side on its slightly curved edge. This is the way the blade is moved in making rocking cuts. Secondly, rest the centre of the edge lightly on the wood and tilt the blade at right angles to the edge. (Never tilt the blade with the edge embedded in the wood: you may snap the edge off.) This direction of movement controls the angle between the inside face of the letter and the wood surface. Finally, keep the blade vertical and change the direction of its edge by rotating the tool handle. This movement controls the angle at which the cut is made in relation to the shape of the letter and the grain of the wood.

Deciding on the direction of cut

Whenever you cut along or obliquely across the grain of the wood, it is necessary not only to make your cutting-tool take the right line to form the letter, but also to cut in the right direction in relation to the grain. This is important with all woods when making any cut which is not directly across the grain. When a blade cuts into wood along the grain or obliquely the wood always splits, to a very variable degree, along the grain in advance of the edge, i.e. in the direction in which the cut is being made. This happens because even when fully sharp, the blade acts as a wedge, forcing wood fibres apart as well as cutting through them. The overall principle is to cut so that any splitting will run into the waste wood, i.e. into the letter itself, rather than into the workpiece. To ensure this, you have to look carefully at the relationship between the line of the grain and the line you wish to cut.

Fig. 2.6
Deciding the direction of cut. This drawing shows two letters on wood with variable grain direction. The arrows show the directions in which cuts would have to be made. Any splitting will occur along the grain ahead of the blade, in the direction in which the cut is being made. The principle is that this splitting should always run into the waste wood (i.e. the letter itself), rather than the workpiece.

Fig. 2.7a–f
Cutting tools can be moved in all three spatial dimensions. Here the tools are being moved simply as a demonstration, resting lightly on a plywood offcut.

Rocking movement (a) and (b): the chisel is rocked along its curved edge. This movement is used to complete slicing cuts and to remove waste wood from the v-cut.

Tilting movement (c) and (d): this changes the angle at which the wood is cut relative to the surface of the workpiece: this is usually 50°.

Rotating movement (e) and (f): turning the tool handle changes the direction in which the blade will cut.

SCORING AND STABBING CUTS

The stabbing cut is the vertical cut made at the mid-line of the letter to whatever depth the letter is at that point. The purpose of stabbing cuts is to enable wood to be removed cleanly and precisely and a variety of cuts is used to achieve this (see below). Before stabbing a straight stem or a curve, however, beginners especially may find it helpful to draw the mid-line and make a scoring cut along it, because this makes it easier to place the chisel-edge correctly and keep it in position.

Scoring cuts

Score the mid-line of a straight stem with the chisel you will use for the stabbing cut (usually a 12mm No.1). Hold the chisel vertically with the centre part of its edge along the mid-line. Pressing down lightly on the handle, hold the blade just above the bevel with your ’free’ hand and pull the edge along the mid-line. This will make a shallow cut into which the chisel edge can be placed and held before the stabbing cut is made. Note that the stabbing cut and therefore the scoring cut does not run the full length of the stem.

Fig. 2.8
Making a scoring cut. The chisel edge is lined up exactly along the mid-line with one hand, and the handle is pushed down lightly with the other. The blade is then pulled towards the user to score the mid-line.

If you need to score round a curve, this is usually possible with one or more gouges, choosing tools which match the curvature of the letter. Instead of drawing the edge along the mid-line, press the gouge gently to make a mark, then make the next mark edge-to-edge with it and continue round the curve. If the curvature changes, more than one gouge may be needed.

Stabbing cuts

With two exceptions, stabbing cuts are made to the full depth of the letter in all its parts, whether straight, curved or tapering. The exceptions are acute-angled junctions and point-ends, which are discussed in Chapters 5 and 6. Whatever tools are being used, stabbing cuts should be made edge-to-edge, with no overlaps. In straight parts, stabbing is usually done with a 6mm or 12mm No.1 chisel.

Stabbing a wide stem against the grain

Use a 12mm No.1 chisel with the mallet. Do not use a wider chisel, even on big letters, as it will not penetrate as readily. Using simple power-grip, hold the chisel vertical with its edge exactly along the mid-line of the letter (in the scored line if you have cut one). Strike the end of the handle straight down with the mallet, first with a light blow, then with full force, repeating the blows until you estimate that the chisel has cut deeply enough. Although you need to use power-grip for this cut, it is not necessary to hold either chisel or mallet tightly and you should not tighten your grip as the mallet strikes.

Fig. 2.9
Stabbing a straight wide stem against the grain. The chisel is held firmly but not tightly, vertical and with its edge in the scored line. It is struck vertically with the mallet, once lightly to bed the edge in, then firmly to drive it into the wood. The chisel must be kept aligned (no rotation) and vertical (no tilting) throughout.

There are two difficulties encountered in making deep stabbing cuts: knowing how deeply to cut, and controlling the chisel as you strike it. The chisel has to be driven into the wood to the full depth of the stem. If the stabbing is not deep enough it will be impossible to remove waste wood cleanly from either side. If it is too deep, either the letter will end up too deeply cut, or it will have an ugly gash at the mid-line. The only way to gauge how deeply to stab-cut is experience, but however experienced the carver, the judgement has to be made anew with every job on an unknown piece of wood.

When making a stabbing cut for a straight stem it is important to keep the chisel vertical and to control its direction exactly throughout. A slight rocking along the curved edge of the chisel is not critical, but any tilt away from the vertical will result in an off-centre cut and may even snap the razor-sharp edge off the blade. It is also important to avoid any rotating or twisting of the handle, which will allow the edge to veer off course. Both tilting and rotating movements are most often caused by tightening of the hand holding the chisel as it is struck by the mallet. This is a very bad habit and one consciously to be avoided, which is often made worse by gripping the mallet as you strike.

Stabbing a narrow stem with the grain

This requires much less force than stabbing a wide stem against the grain, first because a narrow stem has to be stabbed less deeply; secondly because the blade is separating wood fibres more than cutting through them and so will penetrate more easily. This ease of penetration makes a scoring cut unnecessary in most cases. When stabbing many narrow stems the chisel can be driven by hand using modified power-grip, and if a mallet is needed it should be used gently, at least until you know how easily the wood can be cut, to avoid stabbing too deeply.

Fig. 2.10
Stabbing a straight narrow stem with the grain. Because much less force is required for this shallow cut with the grain, it can often be done without a mallet. One hand is driving the chisel down while the other is placing the edge and controlling the blade.

Stabbing a curve

If a curve has a sufficiently large radius, it is possible to stab its mid-line with edge-to-edge cuts using a narrow (e.g. 6mm) chisel, but with curves of smaller radius it is necessary to use a gouge. With either tool, it is necessary to vary the depth of cut to match the width of the letter as you go around the curve. At least until you are very experienced, it is helpful to draw the mid-line and score it lightly with a gouge. This will also show you the correct curvature of gouge to cut the curve.

Whether stabbing with a chisel or gouge, start at the narrowest part where the cut will be shallowest. Work your way round with edge-to-edge stabbing cuts to the widest part of the curve, adjusting the force and depth of the cuts as the letter widens. Changing grip and using the mallet may both be necessary. Then start again at the other narrow part of the curve and work round until the two curved stab-cuts join up.

Fig. 2.11
Stabbing a curve. To make a vertical cut, the blade has to be tilted in towards the centre of the curve by about 10°. Working round the curve, the depth of cut also has to be changed continuously as the width of the letter changes.

When stabbing with a gouge it is necessary to compensate for the way in which it is ground with a single bevel, in contrast to the double bevel of chisels. To obtain a vertical stab-cut it is necessary to tilt the blade towards the inside of the curve, i.e. away from its own bevel, by about 10°. If a gouge is held vertical and driven downwards, its own bevel will force it out of the vertical and result in a stabbing cut which is asymmetric and off-line.

Having made stabbing cuts, a variety of other cuts (chopping, shaving, slicing, rocking and chasing) is used to remove waste wood and so form the letter cleanly and precisely.

CHOPPING CUTS

Chopping cuts are made by driving the chisel or gouge obliquely downwards with the full width of the blade, from the edge of the letter to the mid-line, and usually at right angles to it. At the ends and corners of stems, special oblique chopping cuts are needed (see under ‘Stabbing and cutting a stop-end’ in Chapter 3). Chopping cuts are made mostly against the grain, but may be made obliquely or even with the grain if a lot of wood has to be removed. Use a mallet only when necessary: working with hand and arm strength alone allows you to have a ‘free’ hand and therefore more fine control over the cutting edge. In order to produce a smooth face, it is usually helpful to overlap chopping cuts made with chisels, so that ‘steps’ between them are avoided. This is especially important when cutting the subtle curves of upright stems.

Cutting angle and tool angle

Like all other cuts made to remove wood, chopping is normally aimed at making cuts at an angle of about 50° to the wood surface. To achieve this, however, cutting tools have to be held at a significantly steeper angle. This is because the face of the v-cut letter, formed as the chisel or gouge is driven down at an oblique angle, is cut at the angle of the bevel in contact with it. This means that, in order to cut at 50°, a chisel has to be held at that angle plus half the bevel angle, i.e. at a little more than 60° to the horizontal. Gouges, having a single bevel, have to be held at an even steeper angle of about 72°. Until the required tool angles become habitual, it may be useful to have a guide made of stiff card or plastic with 60° and 72° angles to check on tool elevation from time to time.

Fig. 2.12a
Chopping wood from a wide stem against the grain. The mallet is usually needed for this. In order to cut at 50°, it is important to ensure that the chisel is tilted up a little further (to about 60°) and that this angle is maintained as the cut is made.

Fig. 2.12b
Chopping wood from a narrow stem with the grain. The mallet is not usually needed for this, so the ‘free’ hand can place and guide the blade as the cut is made.

Fig. 2.13
Tool angle and cutting angle. Both tools are cutting into the wood at 50° (broken line), but both need to be held at a steeper angle. The chisel (left), with its double bevel, is held at about 60°; the gouge (right) with its single bevel, at about 72°.

Chopping with a chisel and mallet

When chopping with a mallet, use simple power-grip and place the blade edge precisely with the fingers of your mallet hand. Holding the chisel at about 60°, strike straight down the line of the blade. The tilt of the blade and its direction should not change during the cut, which may require several blows. To help achieve this, watch the blade, not the mallet or handle, and avoid tightening either hand as you strike. When cutting a stem, make each chopping cut overlap the previous one a little to produce a smooth cut face.

Chopping cuts with a gouge and mallet

Chopping cuts with gouges are made to carve concave faces, so in v-cut lettering are used on the outside of curves, never on the inside, with the blade tilted to about 72° to allow for the single bevel. Again, use power-grip and strike straight down the line of the blade, but be aware of and counteract the tendency of the blade to tilt back to a shallower angle as the cut proceeds. There is more detailed information on how to cut curves in Chapter 4.

What to do if waste wood will not come away

When removing wood with chopping and other cuts such as slicing and shaving (see below), a very common problem is that the waste wood will not come away cleanly. There are various ways of overcoming this, but the way NOT to do it is to attempt to lever the wood out with the edge of the cutting tool, as if you were opening a paint-can. The problem is usually either that the stab-cut is not deep enough, or that your angle of chopping cut is too steep. Either way, it is usually better to cut from both sides of the letter and remove the wood with rocking cuts (see below).

Chopping and shaving without a mallet

When chopping and making delicate shaving cuts without a mallet, it is necessary to learn to make cuts ambidextrously, i.e. driving the tool with either right or left hand, as the angle of cut requires. Modified and semi-power grips can both be used, depending on the position of the cut and the force required. Place the edge of the blade with the thumb and forefinger of the ‘free’ hand and drive straight down the blade. Fatigue can be reduced by using the muscles of the shoulder and back as well as the arm.

Fig. 2.14
Chopping or shaving without a mallet. The chisel is driven by one hand, while the other is controlling the blade by pulling it firmly on to the face being cut. This helps to keep the edge cutting and prevents it skidding off the wood.

Shaving cuts

Shaving cuts are like very delicate chopping and slicing cuts, used to make small adjustments. A very useful technique when taking off a very thin shaving, for example from the cut face of the letter, is to pull the edge of the blade more or less flat on to the wood with the ‘free’ hand, then tilt the tool until the edge just bites and keep pulling the edge on to the wood as the cut is made. This helps to prevent the chisel or gouge skidding off the wood and failing to cut.

SLICING, ROCKING AND CHASING CUTS

Slicing cuts

Slicing cuts can be used at almost any angle to the grain, but are most often used when cutting at an oblique angle to the grain (see Chapter 5), when care has to be taken to make sure the cut is being made in the right direction. What makes a slicing cut different from chopping is that the tool is driven downwards and obliquely sideways at the same time, usually without a mallet, at the same time using the ‘free’ hand to hold the edge on to the wood, as when making shaving cuts. It is often very useful to combine a slicing cut with a rocking cut, by starting with an oblique slicing action and, when the lower corner of the tool reaches the bottom of the v-cut, rocking the edge forward along the mid-line to complete the cut. Both on straight stems and curves, it is usually helpful to make each cut overlap with the previous one. Making the hands work together in this way requires practice, but slicing cuts are very versatile and can be used over a wide range of angles to the grain.

Fig. 2.15
Slicing against the grain. A mallet is not being used, so the ‘free’ hand can control the chisel edge. At the start of the cut (a), the chisel slices obliquely down until its lower corner reaches the bottom of the v-cut. The cut is continued by rocking the chisel forwards on its curved edge (b), along the bottom of the v-cut, slicing the letter face smoothly as it goes.

This kind of cut is one of the most widely useful, because it can be used at almost any angle to the grain, on both straight stems and curves.

When cutting stems, slicing cuts are most likely to be useful when a fairly small amount of wood has to be removed, working obliquely at a shallow angle to the grain, or along it. In this situation, a slicing cut is less likely than chopping to split the wood uncontrollably, and offers more control than chasing.

Slicing cuts are almost always needed when working on both the inner and outer faces of curves. Using a chisel on the inner (convex) face, it is usually necessary to change from slicing with a chisel to chopping, and when working with a gouge on the outer (concave) face, from chopping to slicing (see Chapter 4).

Rocking cuts

Rocking cuts use the rounded edge of the tool to give a highly controlled cutting action. They can be usefully combined to finish slicing cuts and are particularly effective at removing waste wood away from the bottom of the v-cut (see above). Slide the edge of the tool down the cut face as near to the mid-line as it will go, lift the handle a little, then rock the blade along its curved edge from corner to corner with a moderate downforce. Repeated from the opposite side, this will usually remove waste wood cleanly. In straight stems a chisel is used on both sides, but in curves a gouge has to be used on the outer concave face, choosing its curvature carefully, and a chisel on the inner convex face.

Chasing cuts

Chasing cuts are almost always made on straight stems with chisels, either to make fine adjustments or to cut into the corners of stop-ends (Chapter 3). The tool is driven along the cut face parallel with the mid-line with either hand and with the ‘free’ hand guiding the blade. These cuts can be made at any angle to the grain, but when working along or at a very shallow angle to the grain, control may be difficult and chasing should be used only when slicing cuts cannot achieve the required result. When chasing along a stem, it is important not to lift the handle of the chisel more than absolutely necessary, as this is likely to cause the blade to jam in the bottom of the v-cut.

Fig. 2.16
Chasing cut against the grain. The mallet is not used and the ‘free’ hand guides the blade. Chasing cuts are particularly useful for finishing cuts into corners. Here the cut is being made against the grain, but when working with the grain, special care needs to be taken in deciding the direction of cutting to avoid uncontrolled splitting.

Chapter 3

CARVING STRAIGHT STEMS

While learning the basic techniques of letter carving, two mental habits will help you to avoid unnecessary work and frustration. Both involve thinking about each letter before you begin to carve it. First, try to visualize the form of the letter. This involves thinking about far more than the flat shape you have drawn or traced onto the wood. Are the faces going to be flat or curved? How do the curves change, how do faces meet and what forms are created at junctions where different parts of the letter meet? Secondly, run over and rehearse in your mind the stages and operations by which you are going to create the three-dimensional form of the letter by cutting wood away from the workpiece.

Except the Lord (detail) 2015. Oak with acrylic paint. Trial tenon joints for a house frame, unused by the maker. Notice how frequently straight stems occur in the inscription, and hence their importance.

A BASIC ALPHABET

This and the following Chapters (4–6) give instructions for carving a simple upper-case (‘capital letter’) alphabet. Upper-case letters have been chosen to begin with because they are rather easier to carve than lower-case and more generally useful. It is assumed throughout these chapters that you will be learning to carve with the grain ‘horizontal’, i.e. with the lines of letters more or less parallel with the grain of the wood. Working with the grain ‘vertical’ is discussed in Chapter 12. A letter height of 60mm is a good size to start with, and the letters are given at full size in Appendix 1. These can be traced directly or used as examples for freehand drawing, which is strongly recommended as a learning activity in parallel with carving. The alphabet is in ‘petit-serif’ style, with very small, short points (serifs) at the corners. It has been developed over many years to be as simple as possible to draw and carve, while being highly legible and useful for a wide range of simple lettering, especially sign work. It is not, however, devoid of subtlety, and each section will draw attention to important points of letterform and design.

Fig. 3.1
The basic upper-case alphabet is shown here at two-thirds size. The full-size alphabet is given in Appendix 1.

An important principle to remember is that you can never, except by chance, draw or carve a letter better than the one you visualize. The more accurate your mental image of the letter, the better its design and execution are likely to be.

DRAWING AND TRANSFERRING LETTERS TO WOOD

The best paper to use is layout paper, which is thin, usually translucent enough to trace through and will withstand multiple erasures with a plastic eraser. Tracing paper is more translucent but also more difficult to draw on. Always draw the top and bottom lines and, importantly, a half-height line between them, before starting to draw or trace letters. Having drawn or traced your letter(s) with a sharp pencil, they have to be transferred to the wood. To do this, draw the top, bottom and half-height lines on the wood with a fairly soft pencil. Align your drawing or tracing with these lines and fasten its top edge down with removable (drafting) tape. Put black carbon paper under the drawing (making sure it is the right way down) and carefully trace round the letter outline(s) with a sharp point, keeping the drawing completely flat. A sharp 2H pencil with its point slightly rounded is good for this. After carving, lines ruled in pencil can be rubbed out with an eraser, and any marks left on the wood from the carbon paper can be removed with fine abrasive paper.

WIDE UPRIGHT STEMS (LETTER I)

The wide upright stem is the most frequently used element in upper-case lettering. Though simple, it is one of the most subtle parts of any alphabet, whose subtleties have to be respected, both in drawing and carving, if lettering of liveliness and character is to be produced.

Fig. 3.2
The shape of the upright wide stem.

(a) Letter I: a wide upright stem. Notice the tapering (entasis) from top and bottom of the stem to the middle, and the acute-angled corners (petit-serif style). These are a feature of all upright wide stems in this alphabet.

(b) Parallel-sided stem. Notice how this stem seems to bulge slightly in the middle, giving it a very static, clumsy appearance. It is this optical illusion which is counteracted by the entasis in the letter proper.

(c) Stem with very marked entasis. Letters based on this form of stem can be useful for display purposes, but are not a sound starting-point for learning letter design.

Shape

The letter I is an upright wide stroke, which determines not only the height of the letters, but also their ‘weight’, i.e. the width of the strokes which make them up in relation to their height. In general, letters in wood tend to be ‘heavier’ than those in stone. In stone, the ratio between wide stroke and height would be about 1:10 for a medium-weight letter, whereas in wood it would be about 1:8.

Notice that the sides of letter I are neither straight nor parallel: each is curved inwards slightly, a form of tapering known as entasis. The entasis gives the letter a liveliness and spring which a parallel-sided stem entirely lacks, because an optical illusion makes it appear to bulge slightly in the middle. It is important to keep the entasis subtle in any letter and not exaggerate it, unless of course this is a deliberate feature of the design.

The width of a correctly drawn stem at either end is one wide stroke; the entasis makes the middle slightly narrower. The wide stroke is the basic unit for working out both the weight of the parts of letters, and much of their spacing (Chapters 7 and 9).

Form

When the letter I is carved, the sides slope inwards at 50° to the wood surface. This means that the end faces of the letter, usually called stop-ends, are flat sloping triangular faces, while the side faces are convex, bulging inwards very slightly. Because the ends of the letter are slightly wider than the middle, the letter is a little deeper where the side and end-faces meet.

Fig. 3.3a
The upper-case letter I is a simple upright wide stem, here shown carved completely. Again, notice the entasis and the corners.

Fig. 3.3b
The stop-end of the stem showing its three-dimensional form. Notice that the triangular end-face is sloping at the same 50° angle as the sides.

Scoring and stabbing the main part of the wide stroke

Draw parallel lines 60mm apart along the grain of the wood; draw or trace letter I between them. Draw a mid-line down the letter, ending half a wide stroke from either end, and score-cut down it. With a 12mm No.1 chisel and mallet, make a series of stabbing cuts end-to-end down the mid-line, as deep as you think the letter will be, and stopping half a wide stroke from either end.

Fig. 3.4a
The letter and its mid-line are drawn and scored. Stabbing has been started with a No.1 chisel. Notice that the stab-cut does not run the full length of the stem.

Fig. 3.4b
Stabbing of the main part of the stem is complete. The No.2 skew chisel is in position to begin the first sloping stab-cut of the stop-end.

Stabbing and cutting a stop-end

Using a No.2 skew chisel vertically, stab the stop-end by driving the point down from the centre, with the edge cutting towards the corner. When each cut is completed, the point should have penetrated to the full depth of the letter at the mid-line, while the edge has cut obliquely upwards to the wood surface at the corner. When both stab-cuts are completed, they form a Y-shape with the mid-line stabbing cut.

Fig. 3.5
The stop-end has been stabbed on both sides with upward-sloping cuts, making a Y-shape. The No.2 skew chisel is in place to begin cutting wood from the stop-end. Notice that it is aiming to cut only about half the triangle with this first cut. Because the end face has to be sloping, the chisel is tilted further as the final cuts are made.

It is usually best to cut both stop-ends before removing any wood from the sides of the stem. Using a No.2 skew chisel, remove the triangles of wood at either end of the stem, to make sloping triangular faces. Look carefully at the grain of the wood to see which way to make the cut. Rest the point of the chisel lightly on the corner of the letter, tilting and rotating the handle to reach the correct cutting angle and direction. Cut down and inwards with a slicing cut, gently at first, but then with increasing force. Do not try to remove the whole triangle of wood with the first cut. Aim to remove about half of it, then cut the remainder away with a succession of more delicate slicing cuts to form the sloping triangular face.

Don’t try to move the point of the chisel down too steeply. If it jams, the point is probably digging into the bottom of the stab cut. Rock the handle back to raise the point, keep the same tilt on the chisel face and try again.

Chopping the sides of the stem

Before attempting to form the sides of the letter with chopping cuts, it is usually best to remove at least some of the wood from all four corners of the letter, where the sides and the stop-ends meet. This is done with a No.1 chisel and slicing cuts, starting gently at each corner without a mallet and taking a series of thin cuts. Any wood left after chopping can be removed later.

Fig. 3.6
The sloping face of the stop-end has been cut, and the wood between it and the central stab-cut has been cut away, using slicing cuts and a No.1 chisel.

Fig. 3.7a
Both stop-ends and their corners have been cut. Some wood has been cut from the right-hand stem, using overlapping chopping cuts with a wide No.1 chisel. Notice how the piece of waste wood still in the v-cut overlaps with the previous cut above it.

Fig. 3.7b
Letter I completed: shaving cuts have been used to remove irregularities and tool-marks.

The middle part of the stem is then formed using chopping cuts with an 18mm No.1 chisel and mallet at an angle of about 50°. The entasis in the design of the stem means that the sides should be slightly convex, i.e. bulging inwards a little. This is achieved by overlapping the chopping cuts by about a third of the width of the chisel and rotating the blade very slightly between cuts, so that each cut runs on smoothly from the previous one. Minor irregularities can be cut away with shaving or slicing cuts, and waste wood in the bottom of the v-cut can be removed with rocking cuts. Finally, use slicing cuts to make the corners run smoothly into the sides of the stem.

An alternative way of cutting corners

The method of cutting away wood between the stop-ends and the sides of the letter shown below is probably easiest and certainly best for harder woods. When working in softer woods, however, there is an alternative method which can be very useful. Cut the stop-ends as usual, then chop out the sides of the stem to within about half the stem width of each corner. This will leave small triangles of waste wood between the side faces and the corners. These can be cut away with a chasing-rocking cut slightly against the grain. Place a corner of the chisel in the bottom of the v-cut with the edge on the side of the stem. In one movement, lift the handle and push the edge into the waste wood with a rocking action and at the same time rotate the handle to cut the curve into the corner. The lower corner of the chisel should move hardly at all. This push, lift and rotate technique requires more skill and confidence, but is worth learning as it may be useful for cutting into corners when working with the grain (see page 141).

NARROW HORIZONTAL STEMS
(LETTERS E, F, H, L, T)

Cutting narrow horizontal stems poses more problems of control than cutting wide ones because most of the work is along the grain. This means that the chisel edge is dividing and splitting wood fibres more than cutting through them, so unwanted and uncontrolled splitting is much more likely to occur. As a result, judging grain angle and the direction in which cuts should be made is likely to be critical.

Fig. 3.8a
Letters E, F, H, L, T. Notice first the similarity between the wide upright stems, and secondly the differences in both shape and placement between the narrow horizontal ones. F and L are very similar in form to E, but notice the slight variations in shape and placement of the narrow stems.

Shapes

The shapes of the five letters should be studied carefully and the following points noticed:

• Horizontal stems are all half a wide stroke in width at their narrowest, but are not all of the same shape. Special notice should be taken of where there is entasis and where there is not.

• Placement is important: use the mid-height line to place the crossbars of E, F and H correctly.

• The three crossbars of E are not of the same length: use a perpendicular dropped from the end of the top one as a guide.

• The bar of L is slightly longer than the bottom bar of E.

Form

The form of the narrow horizontal stem is much like that of the wide stem, except that being narrower it is also shallower. The various stop-ends are not at right angles to the stems and so their triangular faces are not symmetrical.

Fig. 3.8b
Letters E, H and T carved, showing their forms. Notice the junctions between the wide and narrow stems. These should be right-angled or slightly obtuse, with clean, sharp edges. (Letters F and L have not been included, as their forms are derived directly from E).

Cutting the narrow horizontal stems

Always stab and cut the wide stem(s) and all the stop-ends completely before you begin work on the narrow horizontal ones.

Stab the horizontal stem with a 12mm No.1 chisel: a mallet may not be required. Where the stroke has one or two stop-ends, stop the stab-cut half the stem width from that end. Stab the Y-shaped cuts at the stop-ends, noting that the cuts have to be asymmetrical and the various letters call for subtle variations. Cut the end triangles from the stop-ends, checking the grain carefully to determine the direction of cut. It is important not to over-cut: you can go back to make a final shaving cut when the side-faces of the stem have been completed.

Fig. 3.9a
The wide stem of the letter E has been carved completely before the narrow stems and their stop-ends were stabbed. Notice the use of the half-height line in placing the middle narrow stem.

Fig. 3.9b
Wood has been cut from the stop-ends. Notice that the triangular endfaces have different shapes.

Fig. 3.9c
Wood has been sliced away from the outside faces of the top and bottom narrow stems. Chasing cuts were used for the final cuts into the end corners.

Fig. 3.9d
Letter E completed; notice the form and sharpness of the junctions.

When cutting away wood with the grain, three rules are very useful. First, the starting-point and direction of any cut depend entirely on the direction of the grain. Secondly, always proceed cautiously and gently unless you are confident that the wood is highly resistant to splitting. It is prudent to try slicing and rocking cuts until you are confident that a chopping cut will not split the wood uncontrollably. Until you know how your wood will respond to cutting along the grain, it may be helpful to make a first cut inside the drawn line before slicing and shaving the final edge of the stem. Thirdly, always cut and finish the face on the outside of the letter (i.e. the face which runs on to the stop-end of the wide stem) before you begin work on the inside face. When carving letter T, work right across the outside of the crossbar before starting on the inside. Having taken out most of the wood, finish the faces and join them smoothly to the stop-end with slicing cuts.

Working on the inside face of the narrow stem, slice or chop most of the wood away. Where this face is curved (all letters in this group except H), and the grain is dead straight along the mid-line, it may be necessary to make a cut in the middle and work towards either end. The face can then be finished with slicing and shaving cuts, which should give a sharp, almost right-angled junction with the wide stem. Finally, the side-faces should be finished with delicate chasing cuts into the corners and shaving of the triangular end-face, if necessary.

CHAPTER 4

CARVING CURVES

When drawing and carving any letter with a curve, the aim should be to make strong, elegant shapes. This means carving curves which change radius smoothly, without interruption or irregularity. None of the curves in this alphabet is simple: all change radius continuously. Where curves form enclosed spaces, particular care should be taken with the inner shape or counter, as this gives the letter much of its ‘life’ and character. A well-shaped counter with a less elegant outline can still look quite well, but a good outline with a clumsy counter never can. If you have to make a choice between getting proportions such as weight exactly right and carving a good shape with a smooth curve, go for shape every time. If, for example, the thinnest part of an O is a little too thick, this will not spoil the letter much, but if the curve of the counter is interrupted or wavering, this will be very conspicuous.

O (detail) 1993: oak. Detail from title carved for a book-cover. Condensed formal modern Roman; notice the continuously changing curvature, width and depth of the letter.

The method of carving described here for beginners uses repeated cuts with fairly narrow chisels and gouges (6 or 8mm), followed by shaving cuts to minimize tool marks. This is significantly different from the technique which you are likely to develop with increasing skill and wider gouges, but has three advantages for the beginner. The first is that fewer tools are needed, so initial expense is reduced. The second advantage is that narrow gouges are easier to control, and errors are likely to be easier to correct than if wider gouges were being used. The third is that the need to make precise repeated chopping, slicing and shaving cuts gives very good practice in two-handed tool control, which is likely to make later and more complex operations easier to learn. For experienced carvers, a more advanced technique using a wider range of tools is described below.

THE RIGHT TOOLS AND BASIC ORDER OF WORKING

When stabbing curves, a narrow No.1 chisel and gouges may be used, depending on the radius of curvature: the chisel for flatter (large radius) curves, and gouges for tighter (small radius) ones. When stabbing with gouges, particular care is needed to keep the cut vertical and on the mid-line for the whole of its depth, by tilting the gouge towards the inside of the curve and away from its bevel.

When carving a curve, the inside of the curve should normally be cut first. This is always done with a No.1 chisel, never with gouges, using overlapping cuts to form a slightly faceted convex surface. Gouges are used only to cut the outer, concave surfaces of curved letters, and good practice is to use as flat a gouge as you can, while still being able to cut the curve you need. Whatever method you use to carve curved letters, it is very important to make the gouge(s) cut the curve you have designed, rather than allowing the curvature of the gouge to determine the form you cut.

FULL-HEIGHT CURVES
(LETTERS O, C, D, G AND Q)

Shapes and forms

The letters in this group have closely related shapes, and this ‘family resemblance’ is important in any alphabet to achieve harmony of form. The following points should be noted:

• The letters with curved tops break through the top line a little, to avoid them looking smaller than flat-topped letters, but D does not. All the letters sit firmly on the bottom line.

• The thickest part of each letter is a full wide stroke; the thinnest part is one-third of a wide stroke (i.e. thinner than a narrow horizontal stem).

• The upright stem of G is a full wide stroke, reaching up to the half-height line. It should be placed with reference to a perpendicular dropped from the top end of the letter.

• Care should be taken not to exaggerate the slight incurve at the top and bottom of C and G: to do so will weaken the form of the letters.

• The crossbar of Q is like a short, oblique stem of T; its width is about half a wide stroke.

The curves must change width and depth continuously. While some tool-marks are inevitable and can be seen as an integral part of the beauty of a well-cut letter, they should be neat and inconspicuous, minimized by delicate shaving-cuts.

Fig. 4.1
Letters O, C, D, G and Q.

Fig. 4.2a, b
Letters O (Q), C, D and G carved to show their forms. The close ‘family resemblance’ between these letters and O is an important factor in ensuring harmony in any alphabet.

The junctions between stems and curves in D and G are much like those in E, except that the thin member is narrower.

Carving O

Stabbing

Stab the whole letter in four quarters, starting each time at the narrowest part and proceeding to the widest. At the top and bottom of the letter, a gouge will be needed to stab the letter, but as the curve becomes ‘flatter’ and the stab-cut deeper, it may be easier to change to a 6mm No.1 chisel. When stabbing with a gouge, remember to match its curvature to that of the letter and to tilt it inwards.

Carving the counter

Cut the inner curve (counter) with No.1 chisels, beginning with a 6mm, in four quarters as with stabbing. Starting at the narrowest part each time, begin with slicing cuts with the grain, overlapping the cuts a little to give a smoother face. As you work round, lift the chisel handle (while still cutting at 50°) so that towards the wider part of the curve you are chopping directly downwards, against the grain. At some point you are likely to need to change from two-handed cutting to using the mallet, and in the flatter, central part of the curve you may find a 12mm chisel effective for cutting a smooth face. Any facets or tool-marks can be removed later.

Fig. 4.3a–f
Stages in carving letter O.

(a) Letter drawn with mid-line; upper right quarter stabbed with No.3 gouge and 6mm No.1 chisel, from the top (shallow, with grain) to the middle (full depth, across grain).

(b) Letter fully stabbed; inner face of upper right quarter cut with 6 and 12mm No.1 chisels, with some overlapping.

(c) Whole of the inner face cut. Notice the ‘safety cuts’ at the top and bottom of the outer face. These are made with a chopping cut using a No.6 gouge, and are also used in letters C, G, Q and S to help prevent splitting along the grain. The middle part of the outer face on the right of the letter is cut with a No.3 gouge. The cuts are edge-to-edge with very little overlap.

(d) Whole of the letter cut, but with no shaving cuts to remove tool-marks. Notice the difference in the upper right quarter between straight edge-to-edge chopping cuts and oblique, overlapping slicing cuts.

(e) Shaving cuts made to remove tool-marks on the right-hand side.

(f) Letter O complete.

Carving the outer curve

Once the counter has been completed, the outside curve must be cut using gouges. At this stage it is prudent to make a ‘safety cut’ at the top and bottom of the letter, where the line of the grain makes a tangent with the curve. This is done with a chopping cut using a No.6 gouge. This cut will act as an aiming-point for cutting the curve and also help to prevent uncontrolled splitting as you cut round to the line of the grain.

Cutting wood away from the outside of the letter is done in the same four quarters as stabbing and cutting the counter, but in the opposite directions, i.e. from the widest to the narrowest part of the letter each time. The first part of each quarter is cut using chopping cuts, edge-to-edge with a No.3 gouge and mallet. This produces a fluted face which will be finished later. With the same gouge (or a No.4 if the curve requires it), but without the mallet if possible, complete cutting the curve up to the ‘safety cut’ using overlapping slicing cuts, making them increasingly oblique as you get nearer the line of the grain. If you need to use a No.4 gouge for part of the curve, change back to a No.3 at the top of the letter, which is flatter. Cutting with the grain is much more difficult using a deeply curved edge.

Finishing the letter

To finish the letter, use a chisel on the convex face of the counter to shave away facets, and a gouge on the concave outer face to cut away the ridges left by chopping. This is a delicate two-handed process which will give you a lot of practice in tool control, and which should leave both faces continuously curving and almost smooth. As usual, waste wood can be cleanly cut away from the bottom of the v-cut with rocking cuts, for which both narrow chisel and gouge can be used.

A more advanced technique

Edge-to-edge chopping with narrow gouges on the outer face of the curve is recommended as a starting-point because it helps in the learning of gouge control, and if a cut goes a little awry the situation is usually retrievable. If you have them, using wide gouges (12 or 18mm) at this stage is likely to be a higher-risk strategy, but with increasing experience and skill these can be used to cut the outer faces of curves more quickly and efficiently. When using wide gouges, however, it is more necessary than ever to ensure that the tools cut the curve designed, rather than dictating it. The poor design of much lettering in wood comes at least in part from the cutting of unvarying, circular curves by following the edge of the gouge, rather than manipulating the gouge to cut the letterform required and changing tools to create subtle curves of changing radius. The grinding of gouges with a slight extra curvature to their edges makes this approach much easier to pursue.

CARVING THE REMAINING LETTERS IN THIS GROUP

Letter Q

Letter Q is carved exactly as O is, stabbing and cutting the crossbar only when the O-form is complete. The bar is half a wide stroke in width or a little narrower, and resembles a short, oblique bar of letter T, except that all cuts are oblique, so care must be taken to make them in the right directions.

Letter C

Letter C is similar to the left half of O, with slightly incurved stems coming from the narrow top and bottom of the main curve. In form these are rather like narrow crossbars of E, but cutting them requires care. Having stabbed the whole letter, including the Y-shaped cuts for the stop-ends, carve the main part of the letter. Then remove the wood from the stop-ends, and if the grain is straight, finish the inside faces with delicate slicing and chasing cuts into the corner of the small serifs. Then work very gently from top and bottom corners to join up with the outer face of the main curve, slicing with a No.3 gouge. If the grain is not straight, care must be taken to cut in the direction it dictates.

Fig. 4.4a–d
Stages in carving letter C.

(a) Letter drawn; whole letter stabbed including stop-ends and ‘safety cuts’.

(b) Main part of the letter carved up to the ‘safety cuts’.

(c) Wood removed from both stop-ends with a No.2 skew chisel. Inner faces of both ends carved into the corners with slicing and chasing cuts using a 6mm No.1 chisel.

(d) Letter completed by cutting very delicately from the outer corners to the ‘safety cuts’ with a No.3 gouge.

Letters D and G

These letters present no new carving problems, but the upright stems of both should be cut and finished completely before the curve is stabbed or cut. Two points should be noticed: first, that D does not project above the top line as other letters in this group do; secondly, that the top and bottom of G are incurved slightly, as are those of C, so the base of the upright stem is slightly oblique and above the base-line. In this alphabet curves straighten out when they meet straight stems, so when stabbing the junction, always make at least the first cut of the curved part with a narrow chisel rather than a gouge. In G this junction is slightly obtuse, but in D and the letters of the next section (P and B) both junctions should be at right angles.

Fig. 4.5a–c
Stages in carving letter G.

(a) Letter drawn and stabbed completely, including stop-ends and ‘safety cuts’; stem carved completely. Notice that the stem reaches exactly to the halfheight line and is oblique at the base.

(b) Main part of the bowl carved on both sides (inside first) to the top of the bowl; junction between bowl and stem carved.

(c) The letter is completed by carving its upper end in exactly the same way as that of letter C.

HALF-HEIGHT CURVES (LETTERS P AND B)

Shapes and forms

The letters discussed in this section, P and B, both have curved parts, usually called bowls, which are approximately half their height, but which differ in depth and shape. From a design point of view, R is logically a member of this group and is included in the drawing of them for comparison, but its carving involves cutting an oblique stem and so is discussed below, in Chapter 5. The following points should be noted:

• The stems of B and P are like those of E and F, respectively.
The widest part of each bowl is a full wide stroke, and the narrowest part is one third of a wide stroke. All the junctions are right-angled.

• Special attention should be paid, as in all curved letters, to the shapes of the enclosed spaces (counters). The two bowls of letter B are markedly different in size and shape; the bowl of P is deeper than the upper bowl of B (use the half-height line for guidance).

• The upper bowl of B is intercepted by the outward spring of the lower one. This creates an angle in the counter where the two meet.

Fig. 4.6
Letters P, B and R. These letters have bowls whose depth is approximately half their height, but the half-height line shows that the depths of all three are different. (R is included here for comparison only, and is discussed in Chapter 5.)

Fig. 4.7
Letters P and B carved to show their forms. The bowls of both the letters are a full wide stroke at their widest and one-third of a wide stroke at their narrowest points.

Carving P

This presents no new problems and is carved very much as D is, except that the curves have much smaller radii and a No.4 gouge will probably be needed for cutting some of the outside face of the bowl. It may be helpful to change to a No.3 for the slicing cuts needed as the junctions are approached. Always carve the stem before beginning work on the bowl.

Fig. 4.8a–d
Stages in carving letter P.

(a) Stem completed; bowl stabbed using No.3 and 4 gouges.

(b) Half the inner face of the bowl carved, top to middle, with a 6mm No.1 chisel with overlapping cuts. The right angle where the counter meets the stem has also been cut.

(c) Inner face of bowl carved completely; outer face half cut with No.3 and 4 gouges. Notice the difference between chopping and slicing cuts.

(d) Letter P completed.

Carving B

B is a little more complex. Having completed the stem, stab and carve the lower bowl completely before beginning the upper one. Stab in very carefully at the point where the two bowls meet: it is very easy to cut too deeply here. Both sides of this junction need to be cut carefully, to create the angle in the upper counter where the bowls meet.

Fig. 4.9a–c
Stages in carving letter B.

(a) Stem completed; lower bowl stabbed with inner face half carved.

(b) Lower bowl completed; upper bowl stabbed and with inner face carved. Notice the angle in the counter where the two bowls join.

(c) Letter B completed.

STEMS INTO CURVES (LETTERS U AND J)

Shapes and forms

In both of these letters, straight stems run down into curves, and the transition must be managed with care.

• The right-hand stem of U is two-thirds of a wide stroke; the thinnest part of the curve in both letters is one-third of a wide stroke. In both letters, the straight stems are parallel-sided, with no entasis.

• In both letters, the stem begins to run into the curve at about one quarter the letter height above the base-line. Common faults to avoid are to begin the curve of U too high and that of J too low.

• The curves of U forming the inner and outer faces of the letter are both symmetrical, but the difference in the stem widths means that the letter as a whole is asymmetric.

• J should break the base-line boldly: an alternative shape of the tail is to make it like the lower end of S (see below)

Fig. 4.10
Letters U and J. Notice that in both letters the curved part occupies only the lowest quarter of their height. If the curve is begun higher up, the shape of U especially is weakened. The lower end of J is oblique, but otherwise similar to that of S.

Fig. 4.11
Letters U and J carved to show their forms. Notice that the stems run into the curves smoothly: this is an important feature of these letters and others in lowercase alphabets.

Carving U and J

These letters present no new problems, but it is advisable to stab both completely before starting to cut wood away. In both letters it is easier to carve the straight stems before starting on the curves.

When carving U, having completed the stems down to the start of the curve, carve both curved faces as when carving the lower half of O (inside face first, then the outside, both in two halves, with a ‘safety cut’). The changes in curvature mean that Nos 3, 4 and 6 gouges may all be needed on the outer face. Finally, finish the curves so that they run smoothly into the stems.

Fig. 4.12a–c
Stages in carving letter U.

(a) Whole letter stabbed including stop-ends and a ‘safety cut’; wide stem carved down to the start of the curve.

(b) Narrow stem and inner face of the curve carved; the stems have been joined smoothly to the curve.

(c) Letter U completed.

When carving J, having completed the stem down to the curve, cut the face of the lower stop-end, then the inside curve from it to the straight stem. Then cut the outside curve down from the stem to near the lower stop-end with gouges, finishing with a delicate slicing-chasing cut into the corner.

A SPECIAL CASE (LETTER S)

Drawing and carving the letter S does not require any techniques which have not already been discussed, but most beginners and many more experienced letterers find elegance and consistency difficult to attain, so it is given more detailed treatment here.

Shape

The shape of S is based on two slightly flattened circles of slightly unequal size. S is a very difficult letter to draw consistently using a completely freehand technique, and it is very helpful to use a simple constructional drawing every time. Its geometry is discussed in more detail in Chapter 8, but the drawing with ‘landmarks’ given here will help you to draw it for yourself if you wish to do so. The mid-line leans forward a few degrees and the two ‘circles’ are in fact compressed slightly, and of different diameters. The lines from top and bottom to the bowls are perpendiculars. As with other letters with curved tops, the upper curve of S just breaches the top line, the widest part is a full wide stroke and the narrowest parts are one-third of a wide stroke.

Fig. 4.13
Letter S and a simple method of construction.

Fig. 4.14
Letter S carved to show its form.

Carving S

This calls for exercise of nearly all the skills discussed so far. Most of the cuts are not simple, calling for changes in cutting direction, tools, or both. It is helpful to maintain consistency by adopting a systematic way of carving, starting each stage in the upper part of the letter, then repeating the same process in the lower part. The whole letter should be stabbed before starting to cut wood away.

Fig. 4.15a–d
Stages in carving letter S. Start with the whole letter stabbed, including stop-ends and ‘safety cuts’. At each stage, carry out the operation in the upper half of the letter, then repeat it in the corresponding part of the lower half.

(a) Cut the ends of the letter first. Begin by cutting wood from the triangular faces of the stop-ends. Cut the inner (convex) face of the end from the crown of the bend into the corner, then the outer (concave) face from the corner to the ‘safety cut’.

(b) Cut the inner (convex) face from the crown of each bend (with the grain) to the start of the middle part of the letter (across the grain).

(c) Cut the outer (concave) face from the start of the middle part of the letter (across the grain) to the ‘safety cut’ at the crown of each bend (with the grain).

(d) Complete the letter by carving the middle part, downwards on the left and upwards on the right. Notice that on each side the middle part of the letter begins with a concave curve, ends with a convex one, and is straight for a short distance in between. This means that the tools used must be changed as you progress. The curves must be carved to run smoothly from top to bottom of the letter on both sides.

CHAPTER 5

CARVING OBLIQUE STEMS AND ACUTE-ANGLED JUNCTIONS

All the letters of the alphabet not discussed so far have an important element in common: oblique stems of various widths, which are connected to other parts of their letters with a variety of junctions. In the first group (R, K, Z) the oblique stems and junctions are simple and because, as in letter B, the horizontal grain runs into the acute angle and not across it, carving these is not usually problematic. In the second group (A, X, Y), the grain runs across the acute angle and there is always a danger of the wood crumbling or fracturing where the two stems meet, so special care and techniques are required. In the third group (V, M, N, W), discussed in Chapter 6, acute-angled junctions are combined with point-ends, creating a more complex form, as for example at the bottom of letter V. This is one of the more technically demanding parts of letter-carving in wood.

A (detail) 1993. Oak. Detail from title carved for a book-cover. Condensed formal modern Roman; notice the sharp junctions and subtle entasis of the oblique stems.

OBLIQUE STEMS AND SIMPLE JUNCTIONS (LETTERS R, K, Z)

Shapes

All three letters have an oblique wide stem which is shaped differently from an upright wide stem. Apart from the ‘free’ end of the tail in letters R and K, these stems are parallel-sided (i.e. of uniform width), but slightly curved. The following points should be noted:

• In this alphabet, letter R is rather like P with a tail, but its bowl is not as deep. The tail is a full wide stroke, and its angle can be varied a little to help with spacing. Placing its end can be judged by dropping a perpendicular from the bowl of the letter.

• In both R and K, the junction between the upper and lower parts of the letter should touch the upright stem but not cut into it. In both, the foot of the tail is slightly flared and oblique, breaks the bottom line and gives the letters a slight forward impetus.

• The upper oblique stem of letter K is two-thirds of a wide stroke: it is straight and has a tapering entasis, as an upright stem does.

• The horizontal stems of letter Z are half a wide stroke and again their length can be judged by dropping perpendiculars.

Fig. 5.1
Letters R, K, and Z.

Forms

Two new forms are introduced: first, the subtle curve in all oblique wide stems and secondly, a variety of junctions, which differ slightly but significantly from those discussed so far.

Fig. 5.2
Letters R, K, and Z carved to show their forms. Notice the variety and angles of the various junctions in these letters. As in all letters, sharp, clean edges to these junctions and corners make an important contribution to the quality of the lettering as a whole.

Carving R

Letter R should be carved in three stages: first, the upright stem; secondly, the oblique tail; and thirdly, the bowl. Stab and carve each part of the letter completely before starting on the next. Start by carving the upright stem exactly as for letter P.

Fig. 5.3a–f
Stages in carving letter R.

(a) Whole letter stabbed and upright stem carved completely. Notice the asymmetric stab-cuts in the oblique tail.

(b) Stop-ends in the oblique tail carved. Notice their asymmetry, their alignment and the difference between the upper curved face and the lower plane one. The lower stop-end breaks the bottom line.

(c) Tail partly carved. When starting to cut both side-faces at the acute corner it is important to begin with small slicing cuts to ensure accuracy and a sharp corner. The main part of the side-face is cut with a wide chisel using chopping cuts with a little overlap. The slightly concave surface is formed by the slightly curved edge of the chisel acting like a very shallow gouge.

(d) Tail almost complete. The slightly convex surface of the right-hand side is again cut with a wide chisel, but using overlapping slicing-rocking cuts.

(e) Tail complete; inner face of the bowl carved. Notice how the curved face of the tail’s upper stopend forms the lowest part of the counter.

(f) Letter R completed. The junctions between the bowl, the tail and the stem are sharp-edged and definite.

Having completed the upright stem, draw the centre-line of the oblique tail, together with the Y-shaped cuts for the stop-ends. Notice that these have to be asymmetrical, and when cutting the wood away from these end-faces, remember that the upper face is convex, as it forms part of the counter, but the lower one is plane.

Begin carving the sides of the tail in the upper left-hand corner with a slicing cut. Continue downwards using slightly overlapping slicing or chopping cuts with a 12 or 18mm No.1 chisel. This is likely to require use of the mallet. Because the chisel has a slightly rounded edge, it can act as a very shallow gouge and cut the slightly concave side of the stem. At the end, finish with a chasing-cut into the corner. The right-hand side is carved from the bottom corner upwards, using overlapping slicing and rocking cuts to achieve a smooth face which is slightly convex.

Stab the bowl and carve it very much as the upper bowl of letter P, taking special care at the junction of the bowl and the tail. Make sure that the upper end-face of the tail joins the rest of the counter in a smooth curve, i.e. without an angle as there is in letter B.

Carving K

Carving letter K presents no new problems, the tail being carved very similarly to that of R, except that the upper face of the stop-end is plane, not convex. Make sure that the upper oblique stem is two-thirds of a wide stroke, i.e. narrower (and therefore shallower) than the tail. In spite of the fairly small difference in width and depth of the two oblique strokes, the junction between them should be sharp and definite.

Carving Z

Letter Z presents no new problems, but it is not an easy letter to carve well. Stab the whole letter, then carefully cut the stop-ends of the wide stem. The oblique angle makes these asymmetrical and very wide, so particular attention should be given to getting them aligned exactly with the top and bottom horizontals.

Fig. 5.4a–d
Stages in carving letter Z.

(a) Whole letter stabbed; wood cut from the upper stop-end of the oblique stem. Notice that the triangular face is wide, markedly asymmetric and carefully aligned with the upper horizontal stem.

(b) Both stop-ends of the wide stem cut and its left-hand (slightly convex) face partly carved using overlapping slicing-rocking cuts with a wide chisel.

(c) Wide oblique stem completed. As in the tail of letter R, the concave face of the stem is cut with slightly overlapping chopping cuts, allowing the edge of the chisel to produce the curvature. The upper horizontal stem has been carved, rather like that of letter E in reverse.

(d) Letter Z completed. Notice the curvature of the inner faces of the long horizontals. These, together with the curvature of the main stem, prevent the letter from being too stiff and static.

Both sides of the oblique wide stem have to be cut much as the tails of R and K are, starting from an acute-angled point, so that the first slicing cut on each side needs care. The horizontal stems are carved similarly to those of E and their outer faces made to join the stop-end faces smoothly with slicing or chasing cuts. The junctions at the inner faces should be sharp and definite.

STARTING ACUTE-ANGLED JUNCTIONS ACROSS THE GRAIN (LETTERS A, X, Y)

Shapes and forms

The letters in this group all have oblique stems, but these are of different kinds. Points to note are:

• The oblique stems of A and X are not curved as those of R, K and Z are, but are straight, with an entasis. Y is more complex. Both oblique stems are slightly curved and parallel-sided, but the upright is straight, with a slight entasis.

• The narrower oblique stems of all three letters are two-thirds of a wide stroke; the crossbar of A is half a wide stroke.

• The four corners of X are symmetrically placed, the upper ones with reference to perpendiculars drawn from the base. The asymmetry of the letter arises only because the strokes are of differing widths.

• The two oblique stems in Y arise at the same level below the half-height line, and at the same angle.

Fig. 5.5
Letters A, X and Y.

Fig. 5.6
Letters A, X and Y carved to show their forms. Notice that all three letters have acute-angled junctions which run across the grain and that in letter X, these occur on both sides of the crossover. Care and a special two-stage technique are advisable in order to carve these junctions consistently.

Acute-angled junctions

These letters all have oblique stems with asymmetrical stop-ends. These oblique stems meet at acute-angled junctions which, with the grain horizontal, run across the grain and always need to be cut with care. They are also the main reason why tough woods, resistant to splitting, are to be preferred for letter carving. A wood which is at all inclined to split easily will usually fail or crumble completely if carved in this way, unless special precautions are taken. The best way to avoid problems is to select wood carefully, but even if this is possible it is useful to have a technique which minimizes the stress on the wood at the junction.

Carving acute-angled junctions across the grain

Failure of the wood at acute-angled junctions nearly always occurs at the stabbing stage, because the chisel, however sharp, is a wedge which is forcing the wood sideways as it cuts. To minimize this stress it is worth adopting, as standard practice, a two-stage process of stabbing and cutting wood away. This may appear laborious, but with practice involves very little extra work.

Fig. 5.7a–c
Two-stage carving of an acute-angled junction.

(a) Junction fully stabbed, the wide stem to full depth. Notice, however, that while most of the narrow stem has been stabbed to full depth, the part near the junction has been stabbed much less deeply: only to about half the depth of the remainder.

(b) Wide stem fully carved. The narrow stem is carved to its full width up to the half-depth stab-cut near the junction. The junction has been v-cut to about half its width.

(c) The half-cut part of the narrow stem has been restabbed gently to its full depth and the sides re-cut to full width, completing the junction. Notice the sharp ‘knife-edge’ running across the grain. It is this feature which makes this special method of carving necessary.

Start by stabbing the wide stem completely, with its stop-ends. Then stab most of the narrow stem to full depth, leaving about 2–3cm nearest the junction. Then stab gently up to the junction but only to half the depth which will be required. Carve the wide stem and its stop-ends completely, and the part of the narrow stem which has been fully stabbed.

Chop wood away from the inner face of the junction to the half-depth stabbing cut, but only to half the width which will be required. Repeat this on the outer face. Then gently deepen the first stabbing cut; the half-depth v-cut will relieve stress on the wood at the inside of the junction as this cut is made. Finally, chop wood away to complete the junction, aiming to make a clean and sharp ‘knife-edge’ at the acute angle. Although this final cut is being made at an oblique angle to the grain, it is usually better to chop straight down to the mid-line, rather than to slice obliquely.

Notice that because the narrow stem is shallower than the wide one, its v-cut should not run into the middle of the wide stem, but end ‘hanging’ above and short of it. This is a feature of all acute-angled junctions where the stems are of different widths.

Carving A

Apart from the acute-angled junction, letter A presents no new problems. Using the two-stage process described above, the usual order of working is to stab both oblique stems, with half-depth stabbing of the narrow stem near the junction. The wide stem is then carved completely using a combination of overlapping slicing-chopping cuts, remembering that both it and the narrow stem are straight, with entasis. Carve the lower part of the narrow stem on both sides up to the half-stabbed part, then carve at half width and depth up to the junction on both sides, inside face first. Gently deepen the stabbing cut up to the junction, then complete it by carving to the full width of the narrow stem. Finally, stab and carve the half-wide stroke crossbar.

Fig. 5.8a–d
Stages in carving letter A.

(a) Whole letter stabbed, except the crossbar: narrow stem near the acute junction stabbed to half depth.

(b) Wide stem carved completely.

(c) Narrow stem carved up to the half-stabbed part (with a chip of waste wood in the wide stem!): junction carved to half its width.

(d) Acute-angle junction re-stabbed and completed; crossbar carved; letter A completed.

Carving X

The two stems of letter X are straight, with entasis. Because they cross over each other, there are two acute-angled junctions, but both are carved in much the same way as that in letter A. Stab the wide stem completely, including stop-ends. Stab most of the narrow stem to full depth and the parts near the cross-over junctions to half depth. Carve the wide stem completely and the narrow stem up to the half-depth stab-cuts, all with overlapping slicing-chopping cuts. Carve the parts of the narrow stem near the junctions to half its width, then gently deepen the stab-cuts. To finish carving the junctions, the narrow stem has to be carved to its full width so that it appears as one continuous stroke. To do this, make final delicate chopping cuts on either side of the narrow stem right across the wide stem, with a wide No.1 chisel.

Fig. 5.9a–d
Stages in carving letter X.

(a) Whole letter stabbed. Notice that the narrow stem has been stabbed to half depth on both sides of the crossover.

(b) Stop-ends and wide stem carved completely; narrow stem cut from its lower end to the halfdepth stab-cut.

(c) Narrow stem cut down to the upper half-depth stab-cut; junctions carved to half width on their left sides.

(d) Junctions cut to full width on both sides; letter X completed. Notice how the twin junctions are aligned with each other. This is achieved by final shaving cuts across the wide stem with a wide chisel.

Carving Y

Carving Y presents no new problems, but needs to be done with care. Stab the whole letter, with half-depth stabbing in the narrow stem at its acute-angled junction. Cut the faces of all three stop-ends.

With a 12mm No.1 chisel, carve down the left-hand side of the wide stem, making a slight concave surface (as in the tail of letters R and K) in the oblique part, and a slight entasis in the upright part. Carve up the right-hand side of the wide stem, making an entasis in the upright part and a slightly convex surface with overlapping slicing cuts in the oblique part. Take special care with the obtuse angle at the ‘dog-leg’ where the two parts of the wide stem meet.

Fig. 5.10a–c
Stages in carving letter Y.

(a) Whole letter stabbed; narrow stem stabbed to half depth near the junction.

(b) Wide stem carved completely: notice the obtuse angle at the ‘dog-leg’ where the oblique and upright parts meet.

(c) Narrow stem carved, and junction carved in two stages: letter Y completed.

Carve both sides of the narrow stem down to the half-stabbed part, half-cut the acute-angled junction, then deepen the stabcut and finish the junction.

CHAPTER 6

CARVING POINT-ENDS AND NUMERALS

The remaining four letters of the alphabet (M, N, V and W) all have point-ends and, except V, acute-angled junctions as well. A point-end is a modified form of acute-angled junction, formed when a wide and a narrow oblique stem meet at an acute angle and run out to a point. The resulting three-dimensional form is not simple and, with the wood-grain horizontal, these junctions run across the grain and so are vulnerable to splitting or crumbling when they are being carved. As a result, they require care and a methodical approach to carve them consistently.

W (detail) 1993. Oak. Detail from title carved for a book-cover. Condensed formal modern Roman; notice the difference between the acute-angled junction and the point-ends.

LETTERS WITH POINT-ENDS (V, W, M AND N)

Shapes and forms

All these letters have point-ends; W, M and N also have acute-angled junctions. The following points should be noted:

• The outer stems of M and N are straight, with entasis. Those of M are slightly oblique; those of N are upright. All the other stems are oblique, parallel-sided and slightly curved.

• All the wide stems are a full wide stroke; all the narrow stems are two-thirds of a wide stroke.

• The central part of M is slightly wider than V. The two halves of W are distinctly narrower than V and, allowing for the overlap, identical in shape and form.

• The two triangular counters in the lower part of M are asymmetrical and mirror-images of each other. The two triangular counters in the upper part of W are symmetrical and, allowing for the overlap, identical in shape.

Fig. 6.1
Letters V, W, M and N.

Fig. 6.2a–d
Letters N, V, W and M carved to show their forms. Notice the distinctive three-dimensional form of the point-ends, with a triple angle between the two stems at the junction. It is helpful to have a clear mental image of this before trying to carve it.

Carving a point-end

A point-end is a modified form of an acute-angled junction, in which the end of the wide stem runs out to a point on the bottom line, rather than a horizontal face as at the top of letter A. The main difficulty in carving a point-end is accuracy: making the faces intersect with clean, sharp angles, and the outer side face of the narrow stem run smoothly into the end-face of the wide stem and into the point.

Fig. 6.3a–f
Stages in carving a point-end.

(a) Point-end drawn, with mid-lines to show where the stabbing cuts will be made.

(b) Point-end stabbed. The part of the narrow stem near the junction has been stabbed to halfdepth only.

(c) End-face of the wide stem cut. Care has been taken not to extend the face either beyond the point, or the outline of the side-face.

(d) Outer side face of the wide stem cut; point-end formed.

(e) Inner side face of the wide stem cut; special care taken at the obtuse angle between side and end-face. Narrow stem cut down to the half-depth stabbed part.

(f) Junction between wide and narrow stems cut in two stages, as for an acute-angled junction, leaving a triple angle between the two stems. Outer face of the narrow stem shaved to run smoothly into the end-face of the wide stem; point-end completed.

Carving V

V is the simplest letter of this group and so the easiest to start with. Both the stems are parallel-sided and slightly curved, as is the wide stem of letter Z. The whole letter is carved as for a point-end junction, with the addition of the stop-ends at the top of each stem.

Fig. 6.4a–c
Stages in carving letter V.

(a) Whole letter stabbed, with half-depth stabbing in the narrow stem near the junction.

(b) Wide stem cut completely; narrow stem cut down to the half-depth stabbed part.

(c) Junction carved in two stages to complete the point-end; letter V completed.

Carving W

W is formed of two slightly narrower V shapes which overlap, forming an acute-angled junction at the top of the letter, very like that of letter A. Because both halves are narrower than letter V, the angles of all the junctions are rather more acute and so extra care may be required in carving them. It is usually helpful to carve both halves together, stage by stage. Start by stabbing the whole letter. Notice that the narrow stem in the left-hand half of the letter needs to be stabbed at both ends to half depth only, because the junctions at both ends need to be cut in two stages. First, carve both wide stems completely, then the full-depth parts of the narrow stems. Secondly, carve the middle acute-angled junction in two stages as usual. Finally, carve the two point-ends to complete the letter.

Fig. 6.5a–d
Stages in carving letter W.

(a) Whole letter stabbed, with half-depth stabbing of the narrow stems near the point-ends and acute-angled junction.

(b) Both wide stems and all three stop-ends carved.

(c) Narrow stems carved as far as the half-depth stabbed parts.

(d) Both point-ends and the acute-angled junction carved, each in two stages; letter W completed.

Carving M

Letter M has a middle section which is wider than letter V. The two outer stems are slightly oblique and make acute-angled junctions with the oblique stems of the middle section. Notice that, while the stems of the middle section are parallel-sided and slightly curved, the outer stems are straight, with entasis.

Fig. 6.6a–d
Stages in carving letter M.

(a) Whole letter stabbed, with half-depth stabbing of the narrow stems near the point-end and acute-angled junctions.

(b) Both wide stems and all stop-ends carved. Left narrow stem carved up the inner side-face to the half-depth stabbed part; carving begun with slicing cuts at the foot of the outer face.

(c) Narrow stems carved to the half-depth stabbed parts.

(d) Point-end and both acute-angled junctions carved, each in two stages; letter M complete.

The usual way to carve M is to stab the whole letter, with half-depth stabbing of the narrow stems near the acute-angled junctions and point-end. Notice that the narrow stem of the middle section has to be stabbed to half depth at both ends. Carve the wide stems completely, including their end-faces, then the parts of the narrow stems stabbed to full depth. Continue by carving the two acute-angled junctions at the top of the letter, in two stages as usual, then complete the letter by carving the point-end.

Carving N

Letter N requires no new techniques, but the angles of its upper junction and point-end are more acute than those of other letters, so accuracy is essential to carve them successfully. The wide stem of letter N is parallel-sided and curved; the narrow stems are upright, straight and with entasis.

Fig. 6.7a–d
Stages in carving letter N.

(a) Whole letter stabbed, with halfdepth stabbing near the point-end and acute-angled junction. Notice the long sloping stab-cut into the point. If the No.2 skew chisel will not reach the point, use a 12mm No.1 chisel to complete the cut.

(b) Wide stem and stop-ends fully carved.

(c) Narrow stems carved to the halfdepth stabbed parts.

(d) Point-end and acute-angled junction carved, each in two stages; letter N completed.

Stab the whole letter, including half-depth stabbing of the narrow stems near the junctions. The sloping stab-cut from the lower end of the wide stem into the point is very long. If it is longer than the width of your No.2 skew chisel, cut the deepest part with the skew chisel and extend the cut to the point with a 12mm No.1 chisel.

Carve the wide stem completely, then the left-hand narrow stem with its acute-angled junction. Finally, carve the right-hand narrow stem, finishing with the point-end.

NUMERALS

Numerals suitable for use with the basic alphabet are fairly simple and do not involve any new techniques.

Fig. 6.8a–e
Numerals carved to show their forms.

(a) Numerals 1 and 2. Numeral 1 is a simple upright wide stem with an oblique top. In numeral 2, notice the junction between the bottom of the curve and the horizontal foot-bar. The top of numeral 2 is like that of letters C, G and S, reversed.

(b) Numerals 3 and 4. In numeral 3, the lower stopend of the oblique wide stem is concave, forming part of the counter of the bowl (as in letter R). Notice the difference between the two junctions. In numeral 4, the point-end is very acute, as in letter N. Notice that all three stems are different widths, and the effect this has on the junctions between them. The diagonal stem is curved and parallel-sided.

(c) Numerals 5 and 6. Numeral 5 has many features in common with numeral 3, and these should be closely observed. In numeral 6, the half-height curve does not run smoothly into the full-height one, giving the counter a distinct angle at the junction.

(d) Numeral 7 is simple, but the curve in the oblique wide stem has to be managed carefully, as in letter Z. Numeral 8 is complex, and is best carved systematically (see below).

(e) Numeral 9 is not an inverted 6, though closely related to it in form. Numeral 0 is narrower than letter O and also slightly ‘squarer’ in shape.

Fig. 6.9
Latitude and Longitude, 2010. Oak door lintel, carved condensed Roman upper-case.

Fig. 6.10
Numerals: stroke widths are similar to those in the letters of the basic alphabet. Notice the use of perpendiculars to position different parts of the numerals.

Shapes and forms

The widest part of each numeral is a full wide stroke. All horizontals (2, 3, 4, 5 and 7) are half a wide stroke, and the narrowest parts of curves are one-third of a wide stroke. Curves break through the top line (2, 6, 8, 9 and 0) and rest on the bottom line (3, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 0) as full-height curved letters do. Notice the following points:

• The upright stem of numeral 4 is straight, with entasis. The diagonal stroke is two-thirds of a wide stroke, curved and parallel-sided. The point-end extends beyond the top line and is very acute-angled, like that of letter N rotated.

• In the counters of numerals 6 and 9, the inner face of the bowl does not run smoothly into the full-height curve but makes an angle with it.

• In numeral 8, the narrowest part at the crossover is half a wide stroke.

Most of the forms of the numerals are similar to those of letters. Some of the junctions are a little different, but nearly all can be easily managed by stabbing the whole of the numeral before starting to carve wood away, and carving the wide parts before the narrower ones, for example in 3, 5 and 7.

Carving numeral 4

Start by stabbing the whole numeral, including half-depth stabbing of the oblique stem near the upper point-end. Carve the whole of the wide stem, then the oblique stem, starting with the acute lower junction up to the half-depth stabbing. The point end is carved as in letter N, in two stages. Then carve the horizontal stem, joining it to the oblique stem at its left-hand end and carving straight across the wide stem so that the two parts are aligned exactly.

Fig. 6.11a–d
Stages in carving numeral 4.

(a) Whole numeral stabbed, with halfdepth stabbing of the oblique stem near the point-end.

(b) Wide stem carved completely.

(c) Oblique stem carved up to the half-depth stabbed part.

(d) Point-end carved in two stages; horizontal bar carved with its junctions; numeral 4 completed. Notice the distinct form of the junction between the oblique and horizontal stems, and the matching of the two sides of the right-angled junction at the crossover.

Carving numeral 8

Numeral 8 appears complex, but can be carved relatively easily by treating it systematically, as if it were a letter S overlapped by another, more slender letter S in reverse. Having stabbed the whole numeral, carve the half with the wider central part before beginning work on the other half. The aim is to join both halves into a single smoothly flowing form. When carving the narrow part of the crossover, take special care to ensure that the narrow stroke flows smoothly and the two sides are aligned exactly.

Fig. 6.12a–f
Stages in carving numeral 8.

(a) Whole numeral stabbed.

(b) ’Safety cuts’ added to the outer curves at top and bottom; the half with the widest part of the numeral partly carved.

(c) The S-shaped half with the widest part completely carved.

(d) and (e) Stages in carving the second half, like a reverse letter S.

(f) Second half and crossover carved; numeral 8 completed.

Chapter 7

USING YOUR SKILLS

In drawing or tracing and carving letters of the basic alphabet you will have begun to learn not only some of the fundamental skills of letter carving in wood, but also something of the design and proportions of the Roman alphabet. This and other alphabet designs are discussed in more detail in Chapters 8–11 and 13, but a good starting-point for this exploration is to begin applying and using the skills you already have, which will also help you to develop them further. In doing this, a simple principle is helpful. Unless you are compelled to do so, never carry out lettering work ‘just for practice’. Rather, use your skills to make things which you enjoy, or which will meet the needs of real people. The demands of making visible language out of letters with a definite aim in view will enable you to learn more than mere practice ever can.

Give us this day, mid-1980s. Bandsawn oak with its bark left on; an offcut from a friend’s workshop. An early version of the basic alphabet is used here.

In choosing which words to work on you have, of course, complete freedom; but something short and fairly simple, which calls for a range of skills, is likely to be the most useful for learning. This could be the name of a person or place, a sign, or a word which incorporates a wide range of letter elements such as stems, curves and junctions. If you choose to make a sign which will be placed outdoors, careful choice of wood is required, and this is discussed below.

This is a good point at which to consider the range of tools you have available. The most useful tools for the next few stages are two wider gouges: a 12mm No.3 and a 12mm No.5. These are used exactly as 6mm or 8mm gouges are, and though they require a higher degree of control, will enable you to carve curves with fewer cuts, and produce smoother concave faces with fewer or even no visible tool-marks.

LETTERS INTO WORDS: THE ELEMENTS OF SPACING

The most direct and effective way to develop your skills of drawing and carving is simply to combine letters into words in a pleasing way. There are three basic skills in lettering. The first is designing the letters themselves; the second is making them in whatever medium you choose; and the third is the skill which is usually known simply as ‘spacing’. This is the ability to place letters so that they look well and combine to make words in a visually satisfying way.

Spacing in lettering is a very complex issue, about which there have been endless debates, and which is explored in more detail in Chapters 9 and 10. In the end, though, it all comes down to the answer to one simple question: Does it look ‘right’? In other words, do the letters relate to one another harmoniously? If letters are spaced the same distance apart, their different shapes mean that the spaces between them are very uneven, with some letters far apart and others crowded together. This gives the word a jerky, uneven appearance which is not only unattractive but also makes the lettering much less legible. The skill of spacing letters well is to make them appear as if they were evenly spaced, so that they combine harmoniously into words which can be read much more easily.

Fig. 7.1
Basic spacing of letters.

(a) The letters have been placed the same distance apart. There is far too much space around letter A and the overall effect is very uneven.

(b) Letters S and P have been placed as in the first example, and the other letters have been placed after them so that they look evenly spaced. The result is much more visually harmonious and ‘together’ as a word.

Fig. 7.2a–d
Experimenting with spacing.

(a) The letters for the inscription (the word SYCAMORE) have been traced onto card and cut out with a scalpel on the cutting mat.

(b) The cut-out letters are fixed temporarily with ‘Blu-Tack’ removable adhesive. Notice that Y and C are too close together, and there is too much space between C and A. Also, the letters MORE are more widely spaced than SYC.

(c) The combination CA is often problematic because there is so much space between the two letters, even if they are drawn close together. One solution is to keep them apart and space the other letters a little more widely, as in this example.

(d) This example shows the alternative solution to the CA problem: join the two letters and close up the spacing between the other letters accordingly. Joining letters in this way is quite acceptable, as long as the combination is still easily legible.

An example of a word which uses almost all the elements of the basic alphabet worked on in Chapters 3–6 is SYCAMORE. This is not only the name of a wood which is pleasant to carve, but also as a word includes a wide range of elements and a common spacing problem.

Working on spacing

A useful way to begin learning about spacing is to draw or trace the letters you need on to layout or tracing paper. Then transfer them, with their top, bottom and half-height lines, on to thin grey or brown card, such as cereal box card, using black carbon paper. Keep your letter tracing. Cut out the letters very accurately with a scalpel or craft knife, on a cutting mat. Rule top, bottom and half-height lines on a large piece of white paper and stick the cut-out letters on to it with ‘Blu-Tack’ or similar removable adhesive, using the lines to align the letters accurately.

This may sound laborious but is a very effective way to look critically at spacing. One obvious advantage is that the cut-out letters can be easily re-positioned, repeatedly if necessary, in a way which drawn letters cannot. The other advantage is that, until you have had a lot of practice, cut-out shapes and their relationships can be seen much more clearly than outlines.

When you think you have arranged the letters well, fasten the paper with its letters vertically on a well-lit board with drafting tape and try these tests:

1. First, walk away from the letters at least 3 metres, preferably more. Does the spacing still look even, with no gaps or crowding together? If not, move the letters until it does.

2. Secondly, turn the lettering upside down. This often shows up uneven spacing which the eye and brain accept when the word is scanned and read quickly. (Try this with newspaper headlines. The spacing is often very uneven.)

3. Thirdly, look at the letters in groups of three, using strips of paper or card to mask those on either side. For example, in the word SYCAMORE, look at SYC, YCA, CAM and so on. This helps to focus attention on small differences which can be missed when the word is looked at as a whole.

Transferring the lettering

When you have arranged the letters to your satisfaction, make a tracing or drawing of the word(s), with correct spacing, using the letters you traced for cutting out. Use top, bottom and mid-height lines to align the letters correctly and check spacing by measuring between the letters on the mid-height line. Then rule up your wood in pencil, fasten the drawing in place with drafting tape and trace the letters on to the wood with black carbon paper and a fairly sharp point. You are now ready to begin carving!

Fig. 7.3a–b
Transferring and carving the inscription.

(a) The correctly spaced inscription (with closer spacing) has been transferred to the wood using carbon paper.

(b) The inscription has been carved completely. Stray marks from the carbon paper have been removed with fine abrasive.

Sign making

An obvious application for the skills you have learned is to make a sign for outdoor use. This requires both careful selection of wood and some finishing. The only European wood which is sufficiently durable is oak, and it is important to choose a good board with no sap-wood (see Chapter 1). American white oak is good for lettering work, but red oak is not, and the use of tropical woods at this stage is not recommended. Having carved the sign, it will usually be necessary to paint-in the letters to ensure legibility and to apply a surface finish. Information on both is given in Chapter 15.

CHAPTER 8

A MODERN ROMAN ALPHABET

The basic alphabet worked on in Chapters 3–7 introduced some basic proportions of uppercase (‘capital’) letters, the stroke widths used in designing them, and their components: vertical and horizontal stems, full and half-height curves, diagonals, junctions, stop-ends and point-ends. All these, and their three-dimensional carved forms, are derived directly from Roman monumental lettering of the first and second centuries CE, sometimes known as Roman square capitals. The best of these are widely acknowledged as the finest classical Western lettering in terms of legibility, harmony and elegance.

Palindrome 2006. Rowan wood, book-matched, with acrylic paint. Formal modernized Roman upper-case; notice the width of letter O and the tilted counters. Roman inscriptions were painted in a colour very similar to this. Translation: We go in a circle by night / and we are consumed by fire.
(Photo: Jay Goldmark, courtesy Goldmark Gallery)

LEGIBILITY AND HARMONY

Legibility is a measure of how easily lettering can be read. It depends on the certainty with which a competent reader can distinguish each letter of the alphabet used, and words from one another. To be fully legible, letters need to be designed so that they are as distinct as possible from one another. Harmony in lettering is a more subjective and elusive property than legibility. It is the quality which makes letters in an alphabet and in use seem to belong together and relate to each other visually. The finest Roman inscriptions have these two qualities to an outstanding degree and as a consequence their designs have been admired and used for two millennia.

CLASSICAL ROMAN INSCRIPTIONS

Square capitals were used in Rome itself and throughout the Roman Empire for major inscriptions and memorials. Research has established that they were first painted on the stone with a wide brush by highly skilled signwriters and subsequently carved to make the inscription permanent. There is also evidence that the inscriptions were subsequently painted-in with minium, a red-brown pigment.

Two inscriptions have been widely used for lettering and typography since the Renaissance. The most widely known is the inscription at the base of Trajan’s Column in Rome, which can be viewed online and as a typeface (Trajan). Less well-known is the so-called Appian inscription. This is a memorial at Milestone IV on the Old Appian Way outside Rome, and can be viewed online at: www.followinghadrian.com. The Appian letters are ‘heavier’ than the Trajan (i.e. their strokes are wider in relation to the letter height), and have stop-ends rather than point-ends at the tops of letters A, M and N. Although both the Trajan and Appian forms of the Roman letter were designed to be cut in marble, the heavier Appian forms are more useful as a starting point for designing a modern version of Roman capitals to carve in wood.

MODIFYING AND EXTENDING THE CLASSICAL ROMAN ALPHABET

In order to use the classical models for modern work in wood, some additions and minor modifications are needed. The more obvious of these are that some letterforms, notably R, have been modified, partly under the influence of type design, and letters not or very seldom used in Latin inscriptions (J, K, U, W, Y and Z), together with modern numerals, have been designed to harmonize with the remainder of the alphabet.

Fig. 8.1
Fruit bowl (a wedding gift), 2006. Cherry wood, turned by Tony Walker of Whitwick. Formal modern Roman, slightly adapted for carving in a circle. Because there was plenty of room, the spacing could be wide and the letters needed little adaptation to the circular format (see Chapter 9).

DRAWING ROMAN SQUARE CAPITALS

Classical Roman lettering is far more subtle than it might at first sight appear to be. Drawing good Roman letters freehand is never easy, and since the Renaissance numerous attempts have been made to analyse their subtle curves and angles geometrically. Few of these have been even moderately successful. In more recent years, following the invention of photography and the discovery that the original letters were brush-written, much more accurate versions have become available and attention has turned more to the proportions of the various letters. Quite complex schemes based on mathematical ratios have been devised to explain their harmonious relationships and to help in achieving consistency, for example those set out by Tom Perkins in his book The Art of Letter Carving in Stone (Perkins, 2007).

Fig. 8.2
Roman Kitchen (detail), 2015. Sycamore (an old school pastry-board) with acrylic paint. A fairly heavy formal modern Roman upper-case. Notice how the letter C is extended under the crossbar of T to aid even spacing.

Visual guides: grids

Geometrical analysis can undoubtedly be useful in coming to an understanding of the forms and proportions of Roman lettering, but it is of limited use in the practical business of laying out an inscription. Without much experience and practice, it is very difficult to draw formal Roman capitals entirely freehand. One practical approach is to work largely freehand, but to use simple grids as visual landmarks. Even when using these, however, some simple methods of construction can be very helpful in ensuring consistency. All the letters of the Roman alphabet, apart from I and J, can be drawn consistently with reference to three grids of the same height as the letters: a square, three-quarters of a square and half a square. It must be emphasized, however, that as they are used here, the letters do not fit into the grids. The grids are not used as a geometrical device to construct the letters, but rather as a visual gauge to which letters drawn freehand can be referred, and by means of which their forms and proportions may more easily be compared.

Stroke widths

In the modernized Roman alphabet, these are exactly as they are in the basic alphabet set out in Chapters 3–7: whole wide stroke, two-thirds, half and one third of a wide stroke.

CARVING MODERN ROMAN

Exactly the same techniques are used in carving the modern Roman alphabet as are used to carve the basic alphabet (Chapters 2–6). The Roman alphabet, however, has one feature which is not present in the basic alphabet, and which needs to be carved with care: the serif.

Serifs

One of the conspicuous differences between the Roman alphabet (classical or modernized) and the basic alphabet is the presence of fully developed serifs. These are the points at the ends of upright, oblique and horizontal stems, and the ends of letters C, G and S. A prominent characteristic of the Roman letter is the way in which stems widen subtly at their ends and run smoothly out into the serifs. This means that the ends of stems are somewhat wider than they are in the basic alphabet, even when the stroke width is the same, and the tapering extends significantly further along the stem than it does in the basic alphabet.

Fig. 8.3
The forms of serifs and stem-ends in the modern Roman alphabet. In all cases, the triangular face of the stop-end is carved first. The serifs of the upright and oblique wide stems are carved by starting at the point and cutting away from it. Notice that in both, the v-cut is curved, not straight. The serifs of the horizontal stems are cut in the opposite direction, towards the stem-end. Where there is only one serif, the plain corner should be cut before the serif.

Carving serifs

Serifs are in effect a sideways extension of one or both corners of a stop-end. To carve them successfully, the Y-shaped stab-cuts for the end face of the stop-end have to be made wider than usual and, depending on the width of your No.2 skew chisel, may have to be extended into the point of the serif with a No.1 chisel. Always cut out the triangular end face of the stem first. On an upright or oblique stem, start cutting the side faces in the direction dictated by the grain angle, from the point of the serif in towards the main stem, using a No.1 chisel very delicately. Once the extreme point has been cut, do not go back to it, but continue cutting with a series of slicing cuts to form the tapering curve of the stem end, starting a little further in each time. When the serifs on both sides have been carved, the main stem can be carved as usual, finally making sure that the curved tapering face runs smoothly into it. Notice that when the stem is finished, the bottoms of the v-cut between the sides and the triangular end face are curved, not straight.

Fig. 8.4
Dedication board, 2008. Brown oak with acrylic paint. Formal modern Roman for a church extension.

Serifs in horizontal stems are carved in the opposite way, i.e. towards the point of the serif, not away from it. Having cut out the triangular end-face and the main bulk of the wood from the stem, each serif is cut with a series of slicing-chasing cuts towards the end face, gradually cutting wood away to form the curved taper and ending with the extreme point of the serif. The serifs at the ends of C, G and S are cut in much the same way, always carving the outer face and corner before the inner face and the serif.

EVERYTHING BEGINS WITH O

When learning to recite the alphabet, everything begins with A. When learning to carve letters, everything begins with I, but when learning to design them, everything begins with O. The letter O determines more of the characteristics of an upper-case alphabet than any other single letter. O tells us:

• how tall the letters are;

• whether the letters are upright or tilted;

• how wide the wide stroke will be, and so how ‘heavy’ the design is (i.e. the height to stroke width ratio);

•how wide or narrow the letters are in relation to their height (the wider Roman letters are wider in general than those of the basic alphabet used so far, though the narrower letters have almost or exactly the same proportions);

• how the shape enclosed by a bowl (the counter) relates to the letter outline.

Fig. 8.5
Letter O in the basic and Roman alphabets compared. Notice that the Roman O is narrower than a circle (broken line). The letter O in the basic alphabet is completely symmetrical, but only the outline is symmetrical in the Roman O, while the counter is tilted anti-clockwise.

Drawing a Roman O: making a template

Without much experience, drawing the Roman letter O freehand with elegance and consistency is very difficult, and a little help is likely to be needed. An effective aid is a simple template of the letter outline cut from thin, stiff card.

Fig. 8.6
Making a template to draw the outline of Roman letter O.

Fig. 8.7
Child of the Universe 1999. White ash composite curves, with acrylic paint. Condensed formal modernized Roman, a wall sculpture for a hospital, assembled as shown here.

Using a template to draw letter O

The subtlety of the Roman O lies in the way the outline and counter are related. Both are symmetrical, but the counter is tilted anti-clockwise within the outline. Historically, this probably came about because the letters were brush-written and the tilt was a natural consequence of the way the brush was held and moved in the right hand when making a stroke. The amount of tilt can be varied according to personal preference, from no tilt at all (i.e. a perfectly symmetrical letter) to 8° or even more, but the tilt of the counter does have to be reflected in other letters with curves.

Fig. 8.8
The template is used to draw the outline of letter O in two stages.

Moving to making a freehand drawing of letter O

Even if a template is used to draw the outline, drawing the counter of letter O freehand is not easy, and practice may be required. Draw a row of outlines using the template, then draw in their counters, looking critically for symmetry and consistency. Practising in this way improves not only your drawing skill but also your ability to assess and compare letterforms and spaces with confidence. Once you can draw letter O consistently in this way, start to draw the outline freehand, marking the width of the letter on the mid-height line but nothing more. Check the curve and symmetry of the outline by turning the drawing upside-down, then add the counter within it. Mark the widest and narrowest points by eye, remembering the tilt, then draw the counter in four parts as before.

Fig. 8.9
Wordsword – Eartheart, 1996. Oak. Formal modern Roman, experimenting with shifting letters and the curious properties of these pairs of words. Photograph by Jay Goldmark, courtesy Goldmark Gallery.

DRAWING OTHER LETTERS WITH FULL-HEIGHT CURVES (C, D, G AND Q)

The template used to draw letter O can also be used to draw C, D, G and Q. In drawing C, D, and G, using a grid as a landmark can also be very useful.

The use of grids

It should be emphasized that grids, as used here, only provide visual landmarks for drawing letters: they are not a system for constructing them. The easiest way to mark grids for drawing letters is to use card templates the same height as the letters being designed. Three will be needed: a square, three quarters of a square and half a square. It is useful to mark the half-way point on each side of the grid. To mark out a grid, decide where you think the left-hand extremity of the letter should be, and mark this point on whichever line it intersects (e.g. V on the top line, C in the middle and A on the bottom line). Place the grid, aligned with the ruled lines on the design, with its left edge on the marked point and lightly draw two verticals to mark out the square or rectangle. This will be the landmark for drawing the letter. It may be necessary to re-draw or trace the letters to get spacing right (see Chapter 9), but using the grids will help you to draw good letters to start designing.

Fig. 8.10
Roman letters C, G, Q and D. The square grid is used as a visual marker to judge the width of each letter. Notice that the counters are all tilted to the same degree as letter O.

Drawing letters C and G

Fig. 8.11
Stages in drawing Roman letter G.

Drawing letter D

Letter D is also drawn with reference to a square grid, with its upright stem placed at the left of the square. Notice that the stem is slightly asymmetrical: it has the usual entasis on both sides, but serifs and their tapering curves only on the left.

Fig. 8.12
Stages in drawing Roman letter D.

Drawing letter Q

Q is simply a letter O with a tail added. This can be varied both in length and the point of its attachment, but at its widest is always a full wide stroke, and at an angle of about 25° to the horizontal.

Fig. 8.13
Dedication board, 2010. Beech, with acrylic and gold leaf, formal modern Roman for the library of a monastery.

Fig. 8.14
In my End, 2014. Sycamore, turned by Dewi Jones of Llanrug, Caernarfon. Formal modern Roman, adapted for carving in a circle.

OTHER LETTERS FOR WHICH THE SQUARE GRID IS USEFUL (H, T, U, N, V, A AND M)

These letters are very similar to those in the basic alphabet, including stroke widths, entasis on vertical wide stems and slight curves on parallel-sided oblique stems. The two differences are first, that all of them are wider, reflecting the wider letter O in the Roman alphabet; and secondly, they have serifs and consequently wider and more tapering ends to their stems. The square grid enables the width of each letter to be judged accurately and, if necessary, a set-square can be used to draw verticals. Apart from this, it should be possible for you to draw letters H, T, U and N freehand.

Fig. 8.15
Other letters drawn with reference to a square grid (H, N, T, V, U, A and M). In harmony with the wide Roman letter O, these letters are wider than they are in the basic alphabet, but otherwise their proportions are similar. Notice how the increased width and addition of serifs makes a significant difference to their visual impact.

Drawing letter V

Letter V is symmetrical in outline. If drawing the outer sides of the stems at the same angle is a problem, find the middle of the letter at the top and draw a perpendicular down to the bottom line to place the point accurately.

Drawing letter A

Drawing letter A can be a little problematic because of the way the two oblique stems intersect. Its outline is symmetrical, however, and can easily be drawn.

Fig. 8.16
Stages in drawing Roman letter A.

Drawing letter M

Letter M can be difficult to draw consistently, but the key to its geometry is that the left and right triangles which the letter encloses should be mirror-images of each other and exactly symmetrical. The overall outline is also symmetrical, but the three triangles are placed asymmetrically within it.

Fig. 8.17
Stages in drawing Roman letter M.

Fig. 8.18a–b
Welcome, late 1980s. Antique oak (sixteenth century or earlier), salvaged from an architectural restoration. This is the natural colour of very old oak, the result of ageing. An early, lightweight version of modern Roman.

Letter W: a special case

Letter W is not part of the classical Roman alphabet and as there are no ancient examples to work from, a variety of forms and proportions has been proposed. W is the widest letter in the alphabet and is too wide for the square grid to be useful in drawing it.

Fig. 8.19a–c
Stages in drawing modern Roman letter W.

Letter W is, in French, ‘double-v’, but a better proportioned letter can be drawn by overlapping two V-shapes narrower than letter V itself. To do this, the three-quarter square grid is useful, with the middle of its bottom edge marked.

LETTERS FOR WHICH THE THREE-QUARTER SQUARE GRID IS USEFUL (X, Z AND Y)

The proportions of these letters are less influenced by the near-circular letter O than the wider ones already discussed, and they are almost exactly as in the basic alphabet (Chapter 5). The two noticeable differences are that the junction of letter Y is placed a little higher, on the half-height line, and all the letters have serifs.

Fig. 8.20
Letters drawn with reference to a three-quarter square grid (X, Z and Y). The width and proportions of these letters are almost exactly as they are in the basic alphabet, with the addition of serifs. Notice, however, that the junction of letter Y is on the half-height line, not below it.

Fig. 8.21
Recycled, 2013. Driftwood (plywood) mounted on weathered, recycled fence boards, with acrylic paint. The white letters are conventionally v-cut; the black ones were carved by removing a layer from the plywood and so are flat bottomed. (Photo: Jay Goldmark, courtesy of Goldmark Gallery)

LETTERS FOR WHICH THE HALF-SQUARE GRID IS USEFUL (E, F, L, B, R, P, K AND S)

These letters have exactly the same proportions as their counterparts in the basic alphabet, (Chapters 3–6). The main differences are first, the addition of serifs and so the slightly wider, tapering ends to stems; secondly, the balance of the bowls and counters in letters B, R and P; thirdly and most conspicuously, the design of letter R.

The bowls of letters B, R and P reflect the way in which the counter of letter O is tilted. The widest point in the curve is above the horizontal, as it is in letter D. Notice also how the differences in depth of the bowls of all three letters are reflected in the differences in their widths, as shown by the grid. The upper bowl of letter B is the shallowest and therefore the narrowest, whereas its lower bowl, and that of letter P, are the deepest and therefore the widest.

Fig. 8.22
Letters drawn with reference to a half-square grid (E, F, L, B, R, P and K). The widths of these letters are judged using the grid as a visual guide, and their proportions are exactly as they are in the basic alphabet. Notice that the bowls of B, P and R all have tilted counters and their widths are proportionate to their depths. It is a matter of personal preference which of the two forms of letter R is used.

Fig. 8.23
Garden (detail), 2020. Spruce driftwood on a garden gate, left to weather: it is beginning to bleach. Simple modern Roman upper-case. Spruce (a softwood) is often unsuitable for carving, but this was quite good.

The design of letter R is the most radical departure from classical models in the whole modern Roman alphabet. The tail springing out from the stem is more practical for carving than the classical model, especially in wood, and equally legible. If a straight tail is preferred, the letter R of the basic alphabet can be adapted slightly by giving its bowl the characteristic tilt and adding serifs. In either case, the angle of the tail can be changed a little to ease problems of spacing (Chapter 9).

A special case (again): letter S

The letter S is exceptional in that, even using the half-square grid and with much practice, it is a difficult letter to draw freehand in a simple, straightforward way. Some kind of construction, even if very simple and itself drawn freehand, is likely to be needed. The method given here is one of many possibilities. It may seem very complex, but once you have learned the sequence, the letter can be drawn consistently and quickly. It has the additional advantage that it can easily be adapted for drawing different forms of letters, for example sloped Roman (Chapter 11) and italic (Chapter 13).

Fig. 8.24
Stages in drawing letter S.

NARROW LETTERS (I AND J)

Of the remaining letters, I is simply an upright wide stem, with entasis and serifs. Because it stands alone, it is particularly important to manage the serifs and their tapering into the stem elegantly.

Fig. 8.25
Letters I and J. Letter I is a full wide stroke. The serifs and the tapering of the ends into the stem need careful management, as they are very conspicuous. The tail of letter J can have either of two forms. The first, breaking the bottom line, is the more usual; the second is used, if at all, only where letter J begins the word.

Letter J is more problematic. It is not part of the classical Roman alphabet, so should it break the bottom line, as in the basic alphabet (Chapter 4) or conform to the limits of the other letters in the Roman alphabet? The most practical answer seems to depend on its position within the word. If the word begins with letter J, its tail can rest on the bottom line and extend into the space following the previous word, which may have to be adjusted to accommodate it. If the letter J is in the middle of a word, this would almost always create insoluble spacing problems, so the tail has to be extended below the bottom line and under the previous letter. In either case, the exact length and angle of the tail can be varied to suit the visual context in which it is drawn.

NUMERALS

Because modern numerals are of Arabic origin, there are no classical models to follow. The numerals designed for the basic alphabet (Chapter 6) can easily be adapted for use with the modern Roman alphabet, by adding serifs to their stems and ends. There is no need to tilt the counters of those with curves, or to make the numerals wider. In particular, the numeral 0 (zero) should be kept distinctly oval, both to harmonize with numerals 6 and 9, and to differentiate it from letter O.

USING FORMAL MODERN ROMAN LETTERING

By way of the Trajan typeface, Roman upper-case lettering is much exploited in contemporary advertising and signage, often rather incongruously. Used in carved inscriptions, however, it can give an air of quiet dignity and timelessness. It never goes out of fashion and is therefore appropriate for public lettering such as memorial and commemorative inscriptions, especially in historic buildings. House-names also look well in formal Roman, though careful choice of wood is necessary for work which is to stand outdoors.

Fig. 8.26a–b
Safe Journey, 2020. Ash with acrylic. Formal modern Roman used in a rather playful way, though there is a serious point to it. The ash wood is slab-sawn, and though this can sometimes fracture when carved, a test carving showed this board to be sound.

Modern Roman lettering can, however, be very appropriate and useful in smaller-scale and more intimate settings. In particular, it always looks well when carved on the wide rims of bowls or platters turned especially for the purpose. These are frequently called for to commemorate births and weddings. To be used in such a circular design the lettering usually has to be adapted, and this is discussed in Chapter 9. Quotations from classical authors, or civic and family mottoes, especially in Latin, always look well in modern Roman, and one may occasionally allow oneself something a little more amusing, where the antique dignity of the lettering is in slightly ironic contrast to the content of the message!

CHAPTER 9

SPACING AND ADAPTING UPPER-CASE LETTERS

In Chapter 7, spacing was briefly discussed in relation to designing a short inscription to practise basic letter-carving skills. In order to progress and use a wider range of alphabets, it is necessary to look at spacing in more detail.

Wedding platter, 2012. Cherry wood, turned by Tony Walker of Whitwick. Condensed formal Roman upper-case, adapted for carving in a circle. Notice how the letterforms have been adapted to the circular design.

WHY IS SPACING IMPORTANT?

Successful lettering depends as much on consistent spacing as on good, harmonious design and skill in execution. This is often overlooked, because good spacing is, in a sense, invisible. If lettering is well-spaced this is likely to go unnoticed by almost all of those who read it, unless they are letter designers themselves, yet the skill of spacing letters is as skilled a craft as designing and carving them.

Only if it is well-spaced can lettering have maximum legibility. If the inscription is designed to communicate information, the reader should be able to read without interruption, the eye travelling along and between the lines, scanning without any sense of discontinuity or interruption. The basis of achieving this is to realize that the spaces between letters and words are an integral part of the text and layout, which are scanned and read as much as the letters themselves. As pointed out briefly in Chapter 7, to achieve apparently even spacing, the distance between letters has to be varied, sometimes very subtly, so that the area between them appears more or less constant.

SOME WAYS OF JUDGING SPACING

Before looking at some ideas to help in spacing letters consistently, it may be useful to look more critically at lettering in your environment and assess your own efforts. Although there is no substitute for learning and experience, there are many different ways of making the judgement of space more consistent. Most of them depend on the observation that we perceive unevenness in spacing much more clearly when we are not scanning words for meaning. The following methods are simple and effective:

• Turn the lettering upside-down and scan it for evenness.

• Hold the lettering up in front of a mirror. Try turning it upside-down as well.

• Turn the lettering over and put it on a light box or hold it up to a window. (This has the advantage that you can make notes on the back of the sheet as you look at the design.)

• Using pieces of white paper to cover most of the lettering, look at the letters in groups of three, to see if spacing is even within each group and noting any discrepancies. This method is particularly useful for long words. As an exercise, try drawing the word NEWCASTLE in basic or Roman caps and use this method to assess your spacing.

Fig. 9.1
Woodcarving, 1993. Oak panel, carved as the cover image for a book on wood carving. Condensed formal modern Roman. Notice how the distance between the letters is varied to keep them as evenly spaced as possible.

Fig. 9.2
Woodcarving (detail) 1993. Condensed formal modern Roman, showing the difference between spacing stems and a curve.

DEVELOPING A SIMPLE METHOD OF SPACING

There are no foolproof methods or universal formulae to ensure even, consistent spacing for any lettering. Even the most sophisticated computerized methods have so far failed to space type as well as a skilled designer. The most practical way to learn letter spacing is to begin by drawing letters as evenly spaced as possible simply by eye (as, for example, when using the grids discussed in Chapter 8), fixing this drawing to a board and then tracing the letters onto layout paper, moving the upper drawing to adjust the spacing. Some simple rules-of-thumb can be used to achieve an approximation to good spacing which can then be refined with small adjustments. This approach has two important advantages. First, following the rules-of-thumb makes glaring errors much less likely; secondly, you will be learning to perceive similarities and differences in a more clear and subtle way as you work on your designs.

Spacing units and their uses

A good starting-point is to decide on what could be called the spacing unit. The most usual spacing unit for any kind of medium-weight lettering (lower as well as upper-case) is the wide stroke used in drawing the letters themselves. If you have room to spare, for example in a short inscription such as a house-name, a spacing unit a little wider may give a pleasing effect and avoid some problems. If you try to use a spacing unit narrower than a wide stroke, your lettering will be very closely spaced and you are likely to encounter more problems. This is true even if you are using a bold, ‘heavy’ alphabet. Very close spacing and even overlapping letters can be very effective visually, but do reduce legibility. This is discussed in Chapter 16. A lighter alphabet, such as classical Trajan Roman, however, requires spacing units significantly wider than the wide stroke on which the design is based.

Fig. 9.3
Spacing upright stems and full-height curves. The spacing unit used throughout this chapter is one wide stroke, so the spacing is fairly close and in practice could be wider. This figure illustrates the basic rule-of-thumb: between curves, one unit; between a curve and a stem, one and a half units; between two stems, two units.

Fig. 9.4
On ne voit bien 1 (detail), 1989. Cherry wood. Condensed, lightweight semi-formal Roman, with a slight forward slope. Notice the different spacing of the various letter combinations.

Once you have decided on a spacing unit, it is very useful to make a simple gauge by marking, on the edge of a piece of thin, stiff card, one spacing unit, one and a half units and two units. Then a simple rule-of-thumb enables you to decide roughly how much space there should be between upright stems and full-height curves:

• between two upright stems, two units;

• between an upright and a full-height curve, one and a half units;

• between two full-height curves, one unit.

Gauging the space between many pairs of letters is best done at the half-height line, so it should always be drawn in. Spacing units can then be drawn on this line as part of the design process.

This rule-of-thumb is more useful than it might at first sight appear, because it also works for oblique stems as well as upright ones. For example, when evenly spaced, the oblique and upright stems of letters H, I, W and A all have exactly the same distance between them at the half-height line. This is because spacing depends on the area between letters, and the space ‘lost’ to an oblique line above the half-height line is ‘gained’ below it and vice versa. The result is that the area between the letters remains constant as long as the distance between them at the half-height line remains the same.

Fig. 9.5
Spacing upright and oblique stems. Because good spacing is based on area between letters rather than distance, oblique stems are spaced at the half-height line exactly as uprights are, i.e. two units apart.

The same rule-of-thumb should enable you to space letters A, D, H, I, M, N, O, Q, U, V and W in any likely combination. It also makes it possible to establish, for any piece of work, a ‘standard’ spacing against which the spacing of other, more problematic, letter combinations can be evaluated. There are no rules for spacing any of these, except to achieve what looks right. It is, however, possible to give some indication of how to space them approximately, to produce a layout which can then be fine-tuned.

Spacing the remaining letters

Letters E, G, and B are easily spaced. Treat the ends of the horizontals of E and the upright stem of G as if they were full-height upright stems and measure from them to the letter following. Similarly, treat the lower bowl of B as if it were a full-height curve and measure from it to the letter following.

Fig. 9.6
Spacing letters E, G, B and R. The ends of horizontals in letter E and the partial upright of letter G are spaced exactly as full upright stems are. Letter B is spaced from its lower bowl as if it were a full-height curve, but the bowl of letter R requires a little more space because of the tail.

Fig. 9.7
Spacing letters F, P and R. The basic rule-of-thumb almost works for these, but small adjustments are needed: a little less space following letters F and P; a little more following letter R.

When spacing letters F, P, R and J the rule about stems and bowls almost works, but small adjustments are needed.

• A letter following F needs to be a little closer than it would be following E.

• Letters following P and R should be spaced from their bowls: following P, a little closer than if the bowl were a full height curve; following R, a little further away than if the bowl were full height.

• Letter J needs to be a little further away from the letter before it than a straight stem would be, but the same distance from the letter after it as a straight stem.

Letters on either side of X and Z, and letters following K, can all be spaced in more or less the same way, by placing:

• a vertical stem: one wide stroke from the foot of oblique strokes in K and X and the lower horizontal of Z;

• a curve: half a wide stroke away;

• another oblique: (usually A) very close.

When spacing S, always space letters on either side of letter S in relation to its curves, not its ends.

• Working from a preceding letter, place the upper curve of S a little further away than if it were the bowl of letter O.

• Working to a following letter, leave exactly the same distance as if the lower curve of S were the bowl of letter D.

Most letters following letter C can be well spaced by drawing a vertical line between its two ends, then placing:

• a vertical or oblique stem one and a half wide strokes away at the half-height line;

• a curve one wide stroke away.

Letter C when followed by A can pose a particular and sometimes difficult spacing problem, which was mentioned in Chapter 7 and is discussed in more detail below.

L, T and Y can all present problems in spacing because it is sometimes difficult to place letters near enough to them. Not all these problems can be listed, but some ideas on spacing the more common combinations may be useful.

• Place an A on either side of a T, or an R before it, so that the bottom of the oblique is vertically under the end of the letter T’s crossbar. Letter L followed by A is discussed below.

• Place an upright stem or letter E one wide stroke away from the crossbar of T or the oblique of Y.

• A letter O on either side of T needs to be about half a wide stroke away from a vertical dropped from the end of the crossbar. The left edge of an O following an L should be vertically over the end of the horizontal.

Fig. 9.8
Spacing letters R and J. Letter R is spaced as before. Letter J is spaced the same distance from the letter following it as an upright stem would be, but a little further from the letter before it.

Fig. 9.9
Spacing letters K, X and Z. In all three letters the spacing is judged from the feet of the oblique strokes, as shown.

Fig. 9.10
Spacing letters S and C. In spacing letter S, the distance from the preceding letter is judged to the upper curve and that to the following letter from the lower curve, as shown. In spacing letter C, spacing is judged from an imaginary vertical line between the ends: one and a half units to an upright stem, as shown (and one unit to a full-height curve).

Fig. 9.11
Spacing letters L, T and Y. Notice how the horizontals of L and T, and the oblique of Y, require the distance from adjacent letters to be reduced, to avoid excessive space between them.

Fig. 9.12
Spacing letters L and T with full-height curves. Here again the letters are closely spaced to avoid excessive space between them.

Apart from the notoriously difficult letter combinations discussed below, TW, WY and VY may be difficult to space well. A starting point is to place the letters as close together as possible. If they are still not close enough, try making them a little narrower, while keeping their other proportions unchanged, or ease the spacing on either side of the problem. In the example given, F is placed a little further from Y to balance the space between Y and W.

Fig. 9.13
Spacing letters T and Y with W. Letters T, Y and W are placed as closely together as possible. Letter Y is a little further from F than it would usually be, to balance the space between it and letter W; F and O are spaced as normal.

Some particular problems in spacing

In any language, particular combinations of letters occur which are likely to create problems in letter spacing. In English, the most commonly met with are: RA, LA, CA, TT and TY.

Fig. 9.14
Spacing letters R and A. Spacing R and A in the basic alphabet is not usually problematic, unless the spacing is very narrow. If it is, the angle of the tail of R can be made a little steeper. Notice the inter-word spacing oval, fitted into the lettering on either side.

RA is a problem only with certain letter designs, such as classical Trajan Roman, in which the tail of R projects a long way and cannot easily be modified. Designing in the basic or modern Roman alphabet there should be no problem because the angle of the tail in letter R can be modified. ART, for example, can be easily spaced, and the spacing of RAT can be kept similar by drawing the tail of the R at a slightly steeper angle, if necessary, and placing the A as close to it as possible.

LA is likely to be more of a problem than RA, but there are two ways of resolving the difficulty. Do not be tempted to join the two letters: the combination is not easily legible. The first solution is to place the A as close to the L as possible and draw all the letters as normal but using a wider spacing in the whole inscription. This is the preferable alternative if there is enough room to accommodate the wider spacing. If there is not, the letterforms have to be modified. The least conspicuous way is usually to condense both letters slightly, shortening the horizontal of the L and drawing the A somewhat narrower than usual.

Fig. 9.15
Two ways of spacing letters LA. The first example shows that, without modified letterforms, wider spacing will be required throughout the inscription. If narrower letterforms can be used, as in the second example, standard spacing units can be maintained. Notice how the spacing oval has been fitted between the words.

CA can be a difficult problem which, if it is not resolved, can leave a large ‘hole’ in the texture of the inscription. The easiest solution, which may well be acceptable in a semi-formal setting such as a housename, is simply to join the two letters, and this solution was used in Chapter 7. As with LA, if the letters have to be kept separate the two solutions are either to use the usual letterforms and widen the spacing, or to draw both letters slightly narrower and keep the rest of the spacing as normal.

Fig. 9.16
Two ways of spacing letters CA. These examples show how wider spacing (a), or narrow letterforms (b), can be used to space letters CA. Another alternative, joining the two letters, is discussed in Chapter 7.

Fig 9.17
Spacing TT and TY. Both letter pairs require letterforms to be made narrower, unless very wide spacing is adopted. Notice that in letters TT, the stems are placed slightly asymmetrically below the shortened crossbars.

TT and TY are both combinations which usually require some modification of the letterforms and sometimes adjustment in the spacing of other letters as well. As a simple solution it is sometimes acceptable to join T and Y, but do not join T and T: the result looks too much like the Greek letter pi (π) to be easily legible.

When drawing TT:

• make the horizontals of both letters a little shorter than usual;

• place the horizontals as close as possible without joining them;

• move uprights a little closer to each other, so that each letter is slightly asymmetric, but they form a symmetrical pair.

It is then usually possible to space the letters on either side normally.

If it is not acceptable to join T and Y, draw both a little narrower than normal and place them as close together as possible.

INTER-WORD AND INTER-LINE SPACING

Inter-word spacing

The spaces between words are, for most readers, as important as those between letters in ensuring legibility. In longer inscriptions a balance has to be reached between inter-word spaces which are too narrow (and so more difficult to read), or too wide (which breaks up the texture of the lettering). A good compromise can usually be reached by drawing an oval between words, the same height as O but only three-quarters as wide. The spacing oval should be drawn so that it touches verticals on either side, encroaches slightly on full-height curves and ‘fits’ into letters such as T, L and K. If lettering is designed to create texture, for example a decorative band of letters around a platter (see below), it may be helpful to use a narrower spacing oval and put points (triangles or diamonds) in the inter-word spaces. These will help to keep continuity of texture while maintaining a high level of legibility.

Fig. 9.18
In memoriam G.M.H. (detail), 1997. Weathered oak and acrylic. Small (30mm) lightweight, formal modern Roman. Notice the effect of fairly wide spacing between letters and lines of letters.

Inter-line spacing

Inter-line spacing is also a significant part of design, especially in longer inscriptions with many lines. At its most basic, the choice in such a design is between ‘massed’ lettering (emphasis on overall texture) and ‘spaced’ lettering (emphasis on legibility of individual lines).

As a rule-of-thumb, when designing with upper-case letters, inter-line spaces two-thirds of letter height look wide, so the inscription appears as lines of lettering, whereas those one-third of letter height look fairly narrow, so the inscription appears more as a mass or overall texture. It is interesting in this context to compare the Trajan and Appian inscriptions discussed in Chapter 8. Inter-line spacing for lower-case letters, with their ascenders and descenders, is usually much wider than that for upper-case and is discussed in Chapter 10.

Fig. 9.19
On ne voit bien 1, 1989. Cherry wood. Condensed semi-formal Roman. ‘Massed’ lettering with close spacing between letters, very little inter-line spacing and vertical spacing designed to avoid gaps in the visual texture of the whole. (Translation: One sees rightly only with the heart.)

Vertical spacing

An aspect of inter-line spacing which is easy to overlook is the occurrence of unintentional patterns or spaces arising from accidental alignments between lines of lettering. The wider the inter-line spacing, the weaker these effects will be, where they occur, but if lines are very close together, they may have to be considered seriously. Good vertical spacing of letters and words aims to overcome these problems.

The most obvious problems arise when large spaces are left in an otherwise well-designed inscription. This can happen when one inter-word space falls directly under another, or when certain letters are vertically aligned, such as a letter A directly over a Y or an N. Slightly less obvious are the unintended patterns which arise from a vertical row of the same or similar letters, which can be equally annoying though they can occasionally be used as a positive design element.

Problems with vertical spacing can usually be resolved by cutting a copy of the layout into lines, moving these sideways a little and sticking them down when a satisfactory arrangement has been reached. This is usually possible even if the inscription is symmetrical, with centred lines. If it is not, the only solution is to re-design the inscription, making letters and spaces a little more extended or condensed so that the problem alignments are broken up.

ADAPTING A BASIC ALPHABET

A very useful skill in lettering is the ability to adapt an alphabet to meet design needs and constraints. There are four basic ways in which this can be done:

• change of size;

• change of weight;

• making letters narrower (condensing);

• making letters wider (extending).

Fig. 9.20
Chalet Brunel, 2020. House sign in antique French oak and acrylic. Heavyweight, extended Roman, carved with a shallow v-section because the wood was too brittle to use ridge-cut technique (see Chapter 14).

Change of size

Moderate amounts of enlargement or reduction, in the range 75–125%, can usually be done directly using a photocopier. Even within this range, however, the lettering will need to be checked to make sure the alteration has not created problems of proportions or spacing. Greater changes in size are likely to require re-drawing of letters with changes of proportion, particularly in the width of strokes (‘weight’) and their relationship. What is needed is to re-draw the letters so that they appear to have the same proportions as the original.

If the letters are being greatly reduced, two kinds of change may be necessary. The first is to make the wide strokes wider in relation to letter height; the second is to increase the width of the narrowest parts of the letters in relation to the wide ones, so that the contrast between them is reduced.

If a well-proportioned small alphabet is greatly enlarged, exactly the reverse is likely to happen: the letters look heavy and the thinnest strokes clumsy. To re-establish balance it is necessary to increase the contrast between wide and narrow strokes by reducing the width of wide strokes in relation to letter height and making the thinner strokes lighter in relation to the wide ones.

Change of weight

Change of weight without change of size requires the letters to be re-drawn, but otherwise is usually fairly straightforward, unless extreme changes are required. One useful idea is to keep the shapes enclosed by the letters (the counters) the same shape as far as possible, altering only the width of the strokes. The exact relationship between the stroke widths may have to be changed, however. When making letters heavier and bolder, narrow strokes may have to be widened proportionately less than wide ones to avoid their looking clumsy. The reverse is true when making letters look lighter: the narrow strokes may need strengthening to avoid their looking weak and flimsy.

Condensed and extended lettering

These are letters whose proportions have been changed by basing them on a letter O which is either narrower than a circle (condensed letters) or wider (extended letters).

Condensed lettering is based on a letter O which is narrower than a circle. All the curves of the alphabet should, as far as possible, imitate the curve of the letter O which is used as its basis, but in reducing letter width overall, do not try to keep to strict proportions. A good general guide is to avoid exaggeration. In practice this means that narrow letters such as E and S should be reduced in width a little less in proportion than the O, whereas wide letters such as M and W are reduced a little more, so that the contrast in widths is not excessive. The important thing is to design an inscription which is harmonious and looks well, regardless of the mathematics.

Fig. 9.21
Vicars of Bosham (detail), 2014. Quarter-sawn oak; raw wood before finishing by the maker. Condensed formal Roman with symmetrical counters, with formal Roman lower-case.

Fig. 9.22
Tenth Beatitude (detail) 2013. Chainsawn poplar wood. Informal condensed Roman upper-case with close spacing, inset and joined letters.

Fig. 9.23
Increasing stroke width. The simplest way to make letters bolder is to increase stroke widths while leaving counters unaltered.

Fig. 9.24
Condensed letters. Full-height curves (letter D) follow the shape of letter O. All letters are reduced in width, but the narrow ones (S andE) are reduced less than the wide ones (D and W).

Fig. 9.25
Extended letters. Full-height curves (letter D) follow the shape of letter O. All letters are widened, but the narrow ones (S and E) are widened more than the wide ones (D and W).

Fig. 9.26
Autobiography (detail) 2012. Chainsawn oak (a workshop offcut) with background painted and letters the natural colour of the wood. Informal extended Roman upper-case.

Fig. 9.27
Taliesin, 2001. Holly stem (driftwood), sawn down the middle. Lightweight extended semi-formal Roman upper-case. (Translation: And my native country / is the land of summer stars.)

Extended lettering is based on a letter O which is wider than a circle. In adapting other letterforms to harmonize with this, the same principle of avoiding exaggeration holds good, but in this case the changes have to be done the other way. Narrow letters are increased proportionately in width a little more than the letter O, whereas wide letters are increased a little less. As when designing compressed letters, the result is that excessive contrasts in width are avoided: the narrow letters end up a little wider than might have been expected, and the wide ones, a little narrower.

DESIGNING LETTERING IN A CIRCLE

A special case of adaptation in spacing and design which is frequently called for is an inscription round a platter or bowl which has been specially turned with a wide, thick rim. This is not especially difficult to do, but is best approached systematically.

• The first stage is to mark out on the rim of the bowl or platter the upper, lower and half-height lines of the lettering, not placing them closer than 5mm to the inner and outer edges. This is best done with a marking gauge and pencil rather than with compasses, as the workpiece may not be perfectly circular.

• Measure the diameter of the half-height line and multiply this by π (3.142) to give the circumference. This is the mean length of the inscription, which will be exactly the same length as the inscription drawn in a straight line.

• Design the inscription in a straight line to fit into the mean length. Marking the quarter, half and three-quarter points is helpful. Draw and space the letters exactly as you would for a straight-line inscription, but reduce the inter-word spacing a little and put diamond or triangular points between words to give a more even visual texture.

• Using compasses, find the centre of the bowl or platter and mark it. Use this mark to draw about 16 radii round the rim. These cross the lettering lines at right angles and will act as guide-lines for re-drawing the letters. They do not have to be exactly equidistant.

• Re-draw the lettering in a circle. It is usual to do this with the tops of the letters nearest the outer rim: designing letters the other way is significantly more difficult. Re-drawing can either be done directly onto the wood or, if you are sure that the workpiece is perfectly circular, onto paper and then traced down.

Fig. 9.28
Wedding platter (detail), 2012. Cherry wood, turned by Tony Walker of Whitwick. Notice the adaptations of the slightly condensed letters for carving in a circle.

Fig. 9.29
Designing lettering in a circle. The straight-line inscription is adapted to the circular format. Letter widths and spacing distances at the halfheight line are exactly the same in both. Notice that:

i) All the uprights in the straightline inscription become radii of the circle.

ii) As a result, most letters become wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, so that the crossbar of letter T is widened, letter H is tapered inwards (‘keystoned’), and letters S and D change shape.

iii) A slightly asymmetric crossbar is added to letter A to fill the space around it.

iv) Letter Y alters little (as would V and W) because if their tops are made wider, they look exaggerated.

The basic principles to adapt the lettering are:

• All verticals in the straight-line design become radii of the circle, and the radii you have drawn will help in judging their direction. This means that most letters change shape, becoming wider at the top and narrower at the bottom. For example, letter E has its top horizontal lengthened and its bottom one shortened and letter H becomes wedge-shaped.

• At the half-height line, the widths of letters and the spaces between them stay exactly as they are in the straight-line inscription.

Fig. 9.30
Fruit bowl, 2006. Cherry wood, turned by Tony Walker of Whitwick. Because there was plenty of room, spacing could be quite wide and little adaptation was required for carving in a circle.

Modifications in letter design likely to be needed to avoid excessive space in the outer part of the inscription are:

• the addition of a crossbar to the top of letter A;

• the outer ‘legs’ of letter M sloping inwards more than usual;

• the upper parts of letters V, W and Y widened less than other letters.

Fig. 9.31
Salad bowl, 2009. Spalted beech, turned by David Gray of St Madoes, Perthshire. Condensed and closely spaced semi-formal Roman upper-case, adapted for carving in a circle. Photograph by Jay Goldmark, courtesy Goldmark Gallery.

CHAPTER 10

DESIGNING AND CARVING A ROMAN LOWER-CASE ALPHABET

A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY

Today we are familiar with Roman ‘small’ letters (lower-case, minuscules) in almost all the text we read, but they would probably have been illegible to the Romans who designed and carved the classical upper-case letters we have worked on in Chapter 8. The relationship between our lower-case alphabet and classical Roman lettering is remote. The basic design of the letters you are reading was developed in the first half of the ninth century CE for rapid, elegant and legible writing with a broad pen in the production of manuscript bibles. It was later revived by fifteenth century Renaissance scribes, whose Humanist Minuscule alphabets gained widespread currency through being imitated and adapted by early typefounders and printers, especially in Italy.

Embraced, 2013. Beech, rescued from a firewood pile, with acrylic. Very closespaced semi-formal Roman lower-case, with some upper-case letterforms. Photograph by Jay Goldmark, courtesy of Goldmark Gallery.

Fig. 10.1
On ne voit bien 2, 2015. Beech, with natural earth pigments in acrylic medium. Formal lower-case Roman. (Translation: One sees rightly only with the heart.)

In today’s lettering vocabulary, ‘Roman’ merely means an upright letter with serifs. As letter-carvers wishing to use lower-case letters, we need to design an alphabet which will harmonize with whichever upper-case letters we use. Partly because there has been very strong influence from type design, there is no ‘classical’ lower-case Roman alphabet, only an apparently infinite number of variations on a common theme. The alphabet developed here is simply one possible version of Roman lower-case which is practical and looks well in a wide variety of situations when carved in wood.

STARTING POINTS

All the basic principles of design apply to lower-case letters exactly as they do to upper-case ones. These include all the issues of legibility, harmony, stroke width and proportion discussed in Chapter 8. Because upper- and lower-case letters are usually used together, it is essential that both alphabets are related visually and have a close ‘family resemblance’. If, as here, the upper-case letters have been designed first, the main issues of size and proportion, along with many details of the design, have in effect been decided on before the work of designing lower-case letters begins.

Fig. 10.2
Remember before God, 2008. Oak and acrylic. Formal Roman upper and lowercase; board for a church extension. The counters of the upper-case letters are symmetrical to harmonize with the lower-case.

The proportions of the lower-case alphabet designed here are related to those of the basic alphabet developed in chapters 3–6, rather than the modernized Roman alphabet discussed in Chapter 8. It will, however, be necessary to add serifs to the basic upper-case alphabet to make it harmonize with these lower-case letters. Basing a lower-case alphabet on the almost circular letter O of the classical alphabet results in very wide letters which also call for wide spacing and are generally less useful than the narrower ones based on the elliptical letter O of the basic alphabet. Drawing a lower-case alphabet suitable for use with more classical upper-case should not be a problem, however, since the same design principles apply.

SIZE, PROPORTION AND STROKE WIDTH

X-height

In a lower-case alphabet the basic letter height is that of the letter x and is known as the x-height. Letters with rounded tops, both bowls and arches, are drawn a little taller than this, breaking the upper line. The x-height should usually be between two-thirds and three-quarters of the height of the related upper-case letters.

Ascenders and descenders

The parts of lower-case letters which project above and below the x-height are known as ascenders and descenders. In a lower-case alphabet the length of ascenders and descenders can be varied quite widely, but it is important that both should reach far enough beyond the x-height to ensure legibility and to avoid a cramped appearance. This, of course, has a considerable impact on interlinear spacing (see below). In any inscription, all ascenders should be of the same height, and it is usual for them to be a little taller than the upper-case letters used with them. They can, if necessary, be reduced in height but should not be shorter than the upper-case letters as this will not only look odd but also impair legibility.

Similarly, descenders should all be of the same depth. Because there are usually fewer of them than ascenders, it may be possible to reduce their depth without affecting the appearance of the inscription unduly. This has the advantage of bringing lines of lettering closer together, but letter g in particular will need to be re-designed if its tail is made shallower.

Weight

It is important that lower-case letters should appear to be of the same boldness or ‘weight’ as the upper-case with which they are used. There are no fixed rules for achieving this, but in general lower-case letters need to have slightly wider strokes in relation to their height. For example, in the figures for this chapter the lower-case has a stroke-width-to-height ratio of 1:8, whereas in the related upper-case the ratio is 1:8.5.

Proportions and stroke width

A good way to decide on stroke width and overall proportions of a lower-case alphabet is to draw a lower-case letter o with the x-height required and what appear to be similar proportions to those of the related upper-case O. It is particularly important to make sure that the counters of both letters are as similar in shape as possible.

Fig. 10.3
Upper and lower-case letter O compared. The lower-case letter o is two-thirds of the height of the upper-case O, and its stroke width is slightly wider in relation to its height. Otherwise, the two letters have been drawn to be as similar as possible.

Having decided on the width of a full wide stroke for the lower-case letters by drawing letter o, other strokes are related to it exactly as they are in the upper-case alphabet. The same proportions and stroke widths are found in corresponding positions:

• upright stems, wider oblique strokes and the widest parts of curves, a full wide stroke;

• narrower oblique strokes, two-thirds of a wide stroke;

• horizontals, half a wide stroke;

• the thinnest parts of curves, including arches, one third of a wide stroke.

DESIGNING LOWER-CASE LETTERS

The basic principles of designing upper-case letters apply equally to lower-case and many of the letters are drawn in much the same way. Lower-case letters are on the whole less varied with more repetition of forms, but here again the letter o is the key to much of the design. The bowls of letters c and e are directly related to o. Letter q is an o with a tail added; the example given is one of many possibilities. Another is an oblique stem cutting through the letter o as in the basic upper-case alphabet.

X-height bowls and curves

In letters which have an x-height bowl joined to a stem, the bowl is directly related to letter o but the stem cuts into it. It is important to make sure that the degree to which the stem of each letter narrows the bowl is carefully proportioned, as this also affects the width of letters with arches. A subtle sense of movement can be created by tilting the stem serifs and making the junctions between stem and bowl slightly different. If one junction makes an angle and the other runs smoothly into the stem, the counter is made asymmetric, reflecting the origin of these letters in calligraphy. Notice that the junctions and asymmetry are the same in letters b and p, with the stem on the left, but rotated in letter d.

Fig. 10.4
Letter o in relation to other x-height curves. Superimposing letters c and e on to letter o (dotted line) shows their relationship; they are one wide stroke narrower than letter o. The tail of letter q is one of many possibilities.

Fig. 10.5
Letter o related to lower-case b, d and p. The shape of the curved part of the bowl in each letter is the same as that of letter o (dotted lines). The placing of the stem in relation to this is critical as it also governs the proportions of letters with arches. Notice the different junctions between bowl and stem in all three letters, and the tilted serifs.

In all the letters of this alphabet as designed here, if the bottoms of the stems stand free they are oblique, with a single serif on the right. If there is more than one stem, the right-hand one has a full serif and the others have very small serifs.

Arches and troughs

The width of the arches in letters n, h, a and m and the trough (rotated arch) of u are judged by the degree to which their stems cut into the outline of letter o. This has a significant influence on the overall character of the alphabet because these letters occur so frequently in nearly all inscriptions. When drawing the curve of the arch a common weakness is to follow the shape of letter o too closely. The arch should instead have a flatter top, turning more sharply into the stem as the curve of letter U does in the upper-case alphabet. This makes for a much stronger arch shape. Notice that the arches of letters m and n thicken as they join the stem at an angle, making a strong junction. The trough of letter u, on the other hand, runs up smoothly into the stem, as does the bowl of letter d.

Fig. 10.6
On ne voit bien 2 (detail), 2015. Beech with natural earth pigments, showing the form of formal Roman lower-case. Notice especially the junctions and serifs.

Fig. 10.7
Letter o related to lower-case letters with arches. The position of the stems on either side of letter o (dotted line) is the same as that in letters b, d and p, so that all these letters combine harmoniously. Notice the two different kinds of junction between stem and arch, trough, or bowl, and the two kinds of serif used in letters n, u and m.

The arch of letter a is identical in shape to that of letter n, and as in letter d the counter of its bowl is asymmetric. Letter m is drawn with arches similar to those of letter n but a little narrower.

More letters with straight stems

Letters i and l are straightforward, but notice that the dot on letter i is not circular: a diamond or triangle is much easier to carve, with a No.2 skew chisel. Letter h is exactly like letter n, but with an ascending stem. Letter k is carved much as its counterpart in the upper-case alphabet, with a strongly oblique foot to its tail. Its proportions can be judged using the half-height line and the angle of the tail can be varied a little if necessary to ease problems of spacing.

Fig. 10.8
More lower-case letters with straight stems. Letters i and l are simple straight stems. The dot on letter i can easily be carved as a diamond or triangle with a No.2 skew chisel; a round dot is more difficult. Letter h is exactly like n with an ascending stem; letter k is carved in the same way as an upper-case K.

Diagonals

Letters v, w, x and z are drawn in much the same way as their counterparts in the basic alphabet, but notice the tilted, asymmetric serifs. The descender of letter y is variable. Usually a straight oblique form is preferable, but if letter j occurs in the inscription, it may be better to use an alternative curved form with a foot so that the two descenders are more alike.

Fig. 10.9
Lower-case letters with diagonals. Apart from the slanted serifs in letters v, w, x and y, these letters are carved in a similar way to their upper-case counterparts. An alternative shape of tail is given for letter y, which may be useful if j occurs in the inscription.

Fig. 10.10
On ne voit bien 2 (detail), 2015. Beech with natural earth pigments. A close-up view of more lower-case letterforms.

Stems into curves

In each of letters f, j, r and t, the curve runs smoothly into the stem and its thinnest part is one-third of a wide stroke. Notice that the oblique ends of the curves in letters r, t and f are alike (and similar to those in letters c, e and the top of s), whereas that of j is reversed (like that at the bottom of s). The horizontals of letters t and f are alike, and similar to those of z.

Fig. 10.11
Stems with curves in lower-case letters. Letter j is related to i; its curved tail is similar to that of s. Letter r has a smooth ‘run-in’ junction and its upper right serif is like that of letter c, as is that of f. Letters f and t have rather similar horizontals and the lower serif of t is similar to that of c and e.

Lower-case s and g

Letter s is drawn exactly as it is for the upper-case alphabet, but based on two wide ellipses (slightly flattened circles). Letter g can be consistently drawn by basing it on two ellipses, one a little deeper than the half-height line and the other between the bottom of the descender and the bottom of the x-height. The shape and depth of the tail are both variable. In the example given, the lower ellipse is a wide stroke wider than the upper one on both sides and is slightly tilted.

Fig. 10.12
Letters s and g. Letter s is based on two ‘fat ellipses’ (slightly squashed circles) but otherwise is drawn in a similar way to an upper-case S. Letter g is based on two ellipses, drawn using the lettering lines as landmarks. Notice that the lower ellipse is slightly tilted and on both sides is wider than the upper one by a wide stroke; it ends in a hair-line, not a junction.

SPACING LOWER-CASE LETTERS

Spacing units and simple spacing

The basic principles and rules of thumb discussed in Chapter 9 can be used equally well when spacing lower-case letters, but it is usually advisable to adopt a spacing unit a little wider than the wide stroke used in spacing upper-case letters. For example, if designing letters with x-height 40 mm and an x-height-to-stroke-width ratio of 8:1, the wide stroke would be 5mm, but this is likely to lead to a row of stems looking crowded. This can be avoided by using a spacing unit of 6mm, which will also make the lettering much easier to space evenly, as it gives a little more room for fine adjustment.

Most lower-case letters can be spaced either as upright stems (this includes arches and troughs), diagonals or bowls. As when spacing upper-case letters, always measure or judge spacing distance at the half-height line.

Problems with particular letters

Exceptions, which require special consideration, are letters a, c, e, f, g, r, s and t. These occur in so many different combinations that an exhaustive guide to spacing them would be voluminous. However, the following rules-of-thumb should make it possible to achieve approximately even spacing, which can then be adjusted if necessary.

• Where necessary (letters a, e, g and s), draw a vertical line from the bowl to the half-height line and measure from there.

• Preceding letter a: measure to the bowl: from a bowl, 1 unit; from a stem, 1½ units.

• Following letter c: draw a vertical between the ends of the letter, then measure from this as if it were a bowl.

• Following letter e: draw a vertical down from the corner of the horizontal, then measure from this, to a bowl, 1 unit; to a stem, 1½ units.

• Preceding and following letter f: measure from the stem, from or to a bowl, 2 units; from or to a stem, 2½ units.

• Preceding letter g: measure to the upper bowl, from a bowl, 1 unit; from a stem, 1½ units.

• Following letter g: measure from the upper bowl, to a bowl 1½ units; to a stem, 2 units.

• Following letter r: measure from the stem, to a bowl 2½ units; to a stem, 3 units.

• Letter s: treat the bowls as if they were full x-height. Measure from the preceding letter to the upper bowl and to the following letter from the lower one.

• Preceding letter t: measure as if the letter were a simple upright stem.

• Following letter t: measure from the stem, to a bowl 3 units; to a stem (including a second letter t), 3½ units.

Fig. 10.13
Spacing lower-case letters c, a and r. The spacing units used in this and the following figures are a little more than a wide stroke. Measurements are made from the mid-height line. Verticals from bowls to the mid-height line (dotted lines) give the points from which to measure.

Fig. 10.14
Spacing lower-case letters c, e and s.

Fig. 10.15
Spacing lower-case letters a, t and f.

Fig. 10.16
Spacing lower-case letters w, r, t and s.

Fig. 10.17
Spacing lower-case letters tt, a and g.

Fig. 10.18
Spacing lower-case letters f, g and y.

Fig. 10.19
Tranquillity, 2017. Teak and acrylic. A simple house name-board in formal Roman lower-case.

Fig. 10.20
Proverb 9, 2017. Oak and acrylic. One of a set of twelve proverbs; board cut from an old, weathered baulk of timber. Semi-formal lower-case with some upper-case letterforms. Notice that the letters are not confined to parallel lines and there is very close inter-line spacing.

Fig. 10.21
Thorn Rune poem, 2016. Hawthorn and acrylic. Old English in a partly modernized tenth-century alphabet. Notice how the letters have been very closely spaced and modified to give a visual texture to the inscription. (Translation: (Thorn) is extremely sharp. Grabbing hold of it is painful to any warrior / uncommonly severe to anyone who lies among them.)

INTER-WORD AND INTERLINE SPACING

Inter-word spacing in lower-case works much as in upper-case, using an oval narrower than a letter o, fitted into the letters on either side.

Inter-line spacing in lower-case is dependent on ascenders and descenders, so it can be a difficult issue and in any case is much wider than in most upper-case inscriptions. In a long inscription it is usual to allow minimal clearance between descenders and the ascenders of the line below, with no vertical overlap. This, however, may leave the main lines of letters too far apart and if so, two solutions are possible, which may be combined.

The most obvious way of bringing lines of lower-case letters together is to shorten ascenders and, especially, descenders. The extent to which this can be done depends on the design and wording of the inscription, but is always limited by the need to keep the lettering from looking crowded, unless a dense visual texture is desired. Ascenders can usually be shortened to the height of the upper-case being used, but no more than that. Shortening descenders may not cause as many problems because in most texts there are fewer of them, but if letter g is included, it must be completely re-designed to fit the vertical space available. This is best done by drawing the upper bowl smaller than usual and proceeding from there.

A second solution is to allow ascender and descender spaces to overlap vertically and see how many letters coincide. Any such clashes between letters must be resolved, either by moving lines of lettering to left or right, or by re-designing the ascender and descender so that they interact in an attractive way, which is not usually an easy task.

CARVING ROMAN LOWER-CASE

Tool requirements

The lower-case Roman alphabet as designed here is based on round and open letterforms, whose carving should present few problems to the letter-carver who has mastered the related upper-case. Assuming a medium-sized letter with an x-height of about 40mm, the half-height curves of letters a and s will require a gouge of smaller radius than the upper-case, but a No.4 or 5 should be adequate. A 6mm No.1 chisel should be narrow enough to carve the inside of most of these curves but if it is too wide, a 3mm No.1 will be required, and will in any case be needed for the sharp curves in letter g.

Particularly in letter g, it may not be possible to cut the narrow radius outer curves with a 6mm No.6 gouge, so a 6mm No.7 or 8 gouge will be needed. Some makers make these gouges with a sweep of about half a circle, which is not suitable for lettering. A gouge with such a deep sweep can neither stab nor cut the concave face of a letter cleanly, because it will cut into the side of the letter opposite the one being worked on. It is necessary to reduce the sweep by grinding the ‘shoulders’ of the curved edge down so that the edge cuts only about one-third of a circle. This can easily be done on a slow-running water-cooled wheel before the cutting edge is ground and shaped for letter carving (see Chapter 1).

Fig. 10.22a–b
Reducing the sweep of a gouge. This is a No.8 gouge whose sweep has been reduced to about one-third of a circle by grinding away its ‘shoulders’ before grinding the edge.

(a) shows the reduced sweep;

(b) shows the angle of grinding to reduce the sweep.

Fig. 10.23a–d
Stages in carving lower-case letter h.

a) Whole letter stabbed; triangles at the stop-ends cut away.

(b) Inside face of the arch carved right into the middle of the stem. Notice the angle between arch and stem at the junction.

(c) Outside face of the arch carved, followed by the right-hand face of the stem, making the angled junction.

(d) Left-hand face of the stem and the serifs carved, completing the letter. Notice the difference in the serifs at the feet of the stem and arch.

Carving Roman lower-case requires no new techniques, and half the letters (c, i, j, k, l, o, q, s, v, w, x, y and z) are carved in very much the same way as their upper-case counterparts. The new features of lower-case letters which occur most frequently are the two kinds of junctions between curves and straight stems: those in which the curve makes an angle with the stem, and those in which it runs in smoothly. Letters h, m and n have angled junctions, r and u have ‘run-in’ junctions, and a, b, d, and p have both. In addition, three other letters (e, t and g) have unique features which it is helpful to carve in particular sequences.

Junctions between curves and straight stems

Fig. 10.24a–e
Stages in carving lower-case letter a. The junctions are of two kinds, but both should be carved in the same sequence.

(a) Whole letter stabbed; triangles at the stop-ends cut away.

(b) Inside face of the bowl carved, its ends carved to the middle of the stem. Notice the difference in the way the two ends meet the stem: these will make two different kinds of junction.

(c) Bowl carved completely. Again, notice the difference between the two ends.

(d) Left-hand face of the stem and inside of the arch carved, forming the two junctions and the upper serif.

(e) Lower serif, right-hand face of the stem and outside of the arch carved, completing the letter.

Carving letter e

Fig. 10.25a–d
Stages in carving lower-case letter e. The only difficulty with letter e is likely to be carving a clean corner between the horizontal and the end of the bowl, because you have to cut away from it, not towards it.

(a) The whole of the bowl stabbed but not the horizontal stem; triangles removed from both stop-ends.

(b) Inside face of the bowl carved completely.

(c) Outside face of the bowl carved, taking special care at the corner of the bowl and the horizontal.

(d) Horizontal carved and aligned with the stop-end to complete the letter.

Carving letter g

Fig. 10.26a–d
Stages in carving lower-case letter g.

(a) Upper bowl stabbed and carved; connecting curve and lower bowl then stabbed. Notice that the lower bowl ends in a hair-line and not a junction.

(b) The concave faces of the sharp bends in the connecting curve and the lower bowl are defined by single gouge-cuts (with No.7 gouge). Lefthand side of the connecting curve carved up and down from the gougecut in the middle.

(c) Right-hand side of the connecting curve carved, up to and down to the sharp convex bend. A narrow (3mm No.1) chisel was used to carve this bend. Inside face of the lower bowl carved.

(d) Outside face of the lower bowl and the small horizontal at the top carved to complete the letter.

Carving letter t

Fig. 10.27a–e
Stages in carving lower-case letter t.

(a) Stem and curved foot stabbed. Notice the very long oblique stab-cut at the upper stop-end.

(b) Stop-ends, stem and curved foot carved completely. Notice that the face of the upper stop-end is concave.

(c) The small projecting triangle at the top left is stabbed.

(d) The small projecting triangle carved, making a smooth face with the stop-end; horizontal and its stop-end stabbed.

(e) Horizontal, with its serif, carved and aligned with the small projecting triangle.

NUMERALS FOR USE WITH LOWER-CASE LETTERS

When numerals are used with upper-case letters, they are usually the same height as the letters. These are known as ranged numerals. With lower-case letters it is usual to use so-called non-ranging numerals, which are of three differing heights: some of x-height, others going up to the height of upper-case letters, and others being treated as descenders. Apart from these differences, non-ranged numerals are similar in design and carved in exactly the same way as ranged ones (see Chapter 6). There are various conventions as to which numerals should be modified. Many type designs do not have non-ranged numerals at all, and there is considerable variation among those that do, as there is among designers of hand-lettering. My own preference is simple: 1 and 0 are at x-height, numerals 2, 4, 6 and 8 are ascenders, while 3, 5, 7 and 9 are descenders, but there is no fixed order and the numerals can be redesigned to suit your own preference.

Fig. 10.28
The Anvil House, 2006. Weathered oak and acrylic. Simple house-name showing non-ranged numerals and semi-formal lower-case letters.

Fig. 10.29
Non-ranged numerals for use with lower-case letters. This sequence of ascenders and descenders is only one of many possibilities, and can be varied to meet the needs of particular projects. If x-height numerals are needed, draw them as for ranged numerals (see Chapter 6).

Fig. 10.30
Trinity Platter, 2009. Ash, turned by Tony Walker of Whitwick. Semi-formal lower-case adapted to being carved in a circle.

Fig. 10.31
Laborare (detail), 2014. Black walnut with acrylic. Semi-formal Roman adapted to very close spacing with some letters joined, making a visual texture.

USING AND ADAPTING ROMAN LOWER-CASE LETTERING

Lower-case lettering is in general less formal in mood than upper-case. An upper-case inscription tends either to ORDER or ANNOUNCE, while lower-case is visually quieter and more conversational. (This is discussed further in Chapter 16.) Lowercase is therefore more suited to less formal settings, which might be quieter and more intimate than, for example, a public memorial. The other great advantage of lower-case lettering is its flexibility. The designs for Roman lower-case given here are rather impersonal, but they are only a basic starting point. There is an almost infinite variety of variations which can be developed into a personal style, to meet particular situations and to communicate in a variety of ways.

Fig. 10.32a–b
Falling Leaves, 2010. Oak. Lower-case Roman adapted and arranged to reflect the meaning of the words: an example of the flexibility of the lower-case alphabet. Notice how the letters interact with each other, making space an active part of the design.

Fig. 10.33a–b
Magnificat (second side, 2008). Pine driftwood with acrylic. Large, bold lower-case Roman, arranged very informally. (The other side is illustrated in Chapter 15.)

Without changing x-height, lower-case letters can be moved up and down and their orientation changed to give a sense of movement. Their spacing can be tightened and their forms modified so that they fit together in a closer visual texture than is usual, or expanded so that they are freer and more spacious, perhaps to communicate particular ideas or moods. Lowercase letters are also highly adaptable. They can, for example, be exchanged for or combined with upper-case letters drawn at x-height to make an intermediate style of lettering with a visual texture which can be varied. This flexibility also has great potential for creating letterforms when working in languages which use letters other than the familiar twenty-six: modern Welsh and Old English (‘Anglo-Saxon’) for example. Once you are confident in designing and carving Roman lower-case, the range of possibilities open to you can be extended even further by working on other designs of alphabets (Chapters 11 and 13).

CHAPTER 11

DESIGNING AND CARVING SLOPED ROMAN LETTERS

Sloped Roman is a style of letter design which is intermediate between Roman and italic. The sloped Roman discussed here is not Roman, because it is not upright, but on the other hand it lacks the flowing quality of italic alphabets, which were developed directly from cursive handwriting of the sixteenth century. Sloped Roman letters convey a sense of forward movement and although they are narrower and less static than Roman letters, they are still much stiffer than italic. As a result, they are also much easier to carve in wood. I first developed these sloped Roman alphabets in the early 1980s, and they exemplify very clearly the principle that, in letter design, ‘everything begins with O’. The letter O, which is the foundation for both the upper and lower-case alphabets, has a distinctive outline which influences, in one way or another, most of the other letters.

Blessed Solitude, 2000. Driftwood, probably keruing, with acrylic. Simple, extended sloped Roman upper-case, for a garden.

Fig. 11.1
Wood sample (mid-1980s). Holly, carved with an early version of my sloped Roman lower-case. Notice the sharpness achievable in this excellent hard and tough wood.

UNDERSTANDING THE SHAPE OF SLOPED ROMAN O

The upright Roman letter is related to the rectangle within which it can be drawn. The sloped Roman letter o used here is based not on a rectangle, but on a sloping parallelogram whose width is three-quarters of its height. This means that as a whole the alphabet is more condensed than upright Roman, though as when designing condensed Roman letters (Chapter 9), the widest letters are condensed more in proportion than the narrow ones. The slope of the parallelogram is 3° only, and though this can of course be varied, care should be taken not to exaggerate its slope, or indeed that of any alphabet.

Fig. 11.2
Comparing letter o in upright and sloped Roman lower-case. In upright Roman, the letter o is drawn within a rectangle, whereas in sloped Roman it is based on a parallelogram sloped to the right by 3°. In the upright Roman letter o all four curves are the same shape so the letter is perfectly symmetrical; in sloped Roman o there are two different curvatures, so the letter has no mirror-image symmetry.

Fig. 11.3
Wood samples (mid-1980s). More early sloped Roman, with single bowl letter a. The patina is from hundreds, if not thousands of children’s hands: wood is very tactile. All these woods are excellent for lettering.

When the rounded outline of a sloped Roman letter o is drawn inside the parallelogram, it is not only more condensed than the outline of the upright o, but also has a different character visually. If an upright letter o is reversed by viewing it in a mirror, its appearance does not change. The sloped Roman o is different: because it leans in a definite direction, it looks the same when inverted, but not in a mirror because the slope appears reversed. This property, and the tilt which it gives to the rest of the alphabet, gives sloped Roman a sense of movement from left to right, which seems to move the eye of the reader on. It also means that sloped Roman letters are more markedly asymmetric than upright ones, which adds to their dynamic character.

Proportions and stroke widths

Both lower and upper-case sloped Roman alphabets are drawn in much the same way as upright Roman, except that both begin with the distinctively shaped letter O. As in upright Roman, this determines not only the curved letter shapes but also the slope of upright stems (3°), the heights and stroke widths of the letters and many of their proportions. The distribution of stroke widths is exactly as it is in the upright alphabets, and the ways in which different groups of letters are related visually are also very similar.

DESIGNING SLOPED ROMAN LOWER-CASE LETTERS

Sloped Roman lower-case letters have many features in common with upright Roman and, with a few exceptions, the differences between them are directly related to the shape of letter o. You may find it very useful to make a stencil (i.e. a hole in card, as opposed to a card shape, which is a template) to mark out the tilted parallelogram on which many of the letters are based, as a guide similar to the grids used in Chapter 8.

Fig. 11.4
Sloped Roman lower-case alphabet. All the letters are sloped to the right and most show, directly or indirectly, the influence of letter o. Letters not shown are l and n. Letter l is a simple ascending straight stem; letter n is exactly like h without its ascender.

Letter o

The outline of letter o is drawn by rounding-off inside the tilted parallelogram, with narrow radius curves in the acute-angled corners and shallower curves in the obtuse corners. These different curves also influence the shape of the counter, which is drawn so that there are much more marked changes in curvature in moving round the letter than there are in the upright Roman letter o.

Fig. 11.5
Letters o, c, e and s. Letters c and e take their left side curve from o but are narrower by a wide stroke. Both show continuous change of curvature. Letter s is narrower than c and e, based on two tilted ellipses. Its serifs are like the upper serif of letter c.

Fig. 11.6
Breathless, 1999. Black walnut. Notice how sloped Roman lower-case lends itself to lines of lettering without excessively close spacing. The lines of lettering respond to the rhythm and meaning of the words, the climax being on ‘kissed’.

Other letters with curves only: c, e and s

The left-hand side of letter c is the same as that of letter o. The letter is a wide stroke narrower than letter o, and using a stencil of the parallelogram will help in drawing it consistently. Its upper serif is like that of letters s and f and its lower serif like that of e and t.

Letter e is very different from that in upright Roman and more like an italic e, as it is a continuous curve with no horizontal bar. Its left-hand curve and overall width are exactly like those of letter c. Notice that in the right-hand part of the letter the curvature changes throughout both the outer and inner faces, and here again a stencil of the parallelogram is useful for accurate and consistent drawing.

Letter s is somewhat narrower than c and e and is drawn in the same way as an upright Roman s, based on two unequal ellipses. These are drawn using the tilted parallelogram as a grid and are themselves tilted. Both its serifs are like the upper serif of c (the lower one is of course rotated).

Letters with bowls and stems: a, d, q, g, b and p

Between the lettering lines, all of these letters have exactly the same shape: a bowl and a straight stem which intersects with it. The shape of the bowl is based on letter o, with the wide radius curve flattened a little and the other curve made a little tighter. The stem is placed so that the whole letter is a little narrower than letter o and, as in upright Roman lower-case, there are two different kinds of junction between bowl and stem. The narrow radius curve runs smoothly into the stem, whereas the wide radius curve straightens out a little and makes an angular corner in the counter.

With the stem on the right, this shape with neither ascender nor descender makes an alternative letter a, which may be preferred to the arch-and-bowl letter a discussed below. With ascenders and descenders, five more letters are formed, three with the basic shape upright and two with it rotated.

• Basic shape upright, stem on the right: ascender makes d, straight descender makes q, and a curved descender makes a single-bowl g.

• Basic shape rotated, stem on the left: ascender makes b and descender makes p: these can be seen by rotating the drawing on page 133.

Letters with arch or trough: n, h, u, a and m

The letters with simple arch or trough are n, h and u. Their width is the same as letter b, but in letter n the arch springs out from the stem, making an angular junction. The curve of the arch is distinctly sharper than the narrow radius curve of letter b. Letter h is exactly like n, with a straight ascender added.

Fig. 11.7
Bowls, stems and simple arches. The basic form of the bowl, shown by the simple letter a, is repeated with ascenders and descenders in five other letters which are shown superimposed. The bowl is upright in g, d and q; rotated in b and p, Notice the two different forms of junction between bowl and stem. The basic form of arch is shown by letter n. Notice the angular junction and the sharp curve of the arch. Letter u is like a rotated n but has a smooth ‘run-in’ junction.

Fig. 11.8
Letters a, m and t. The arch of letter a is like that of n: its bowl is like a shallower version of d and projects beyond the upper serif. Letter m is like a double n but with narrower arches. The crossbar of letter t is tilted (as is that of f) and its tail is like the curve of the arch of m, inverted.

Letter u is very like a rotated n, but the curve of its trough runs smoothly into the stem, as does the lower junction in the bowl of d, rather than making an angle with it.

Letter a has an arch like that of n, with a bowl added, but is a little narrower, the same width as c and e. Notice that the bowl projects a little further than the end of the arch, and makes both angled and ‘run-in’ junctions with its stem, like those of letter d. Its depth can be judged using the half-height line. As in letter e, care is needed both in drawing and carving the bowl, as the curvature in both faces varies continuously.

Letter m, like its upright Roman counterpart, has narrower arches than n, but with the same shape and curvature. The overall width of letter m is 1½ times the width of letter o.

Straight stems, and stems into curves: i, l, j, f, r, t

Apart from letter t, all these letters are very like their counterparts in upright Roman lower-case, with a 3° tilt to the right. Letter l determines the height of ascenders and j the depth of descenders. The tail of j is like that of g and y. Letters f and r have curved tops which are similar in shape, with serifs like that of letter c. The crossbar of letter f is tilted up to the right by 3°. The crossbar of letter t is similar, and the curve at its base is like the inverted arch of m. The tail of t projects beyond the crossbar and its serif is like that of c and e.

Letters with diagonals: k, v, y, w, x and z

Again, all these letters are drawn in a similar way to their counterparts in upright Roman lower-case, but they are based on the parallelogram used to draw letter o and so are narrower, tilted and slightly asymmetric. Letters k, v, y and x all fit into the parallelogram (i.e. they have the same width as letter o); z is a little narrower and w is, as usual, composed of two narrower v-shapes superimposed.

Fig. 11.9
Letters k, v, y, x and z. All these letters are like tilted versions of their upright counterparts and this makes them more asymmetric. Notice that z is the same width as c, whereas the others fill the basic parallelogram.

Fig. 11.10
War Memorial (detail), 2008. Sloped Roman upper-case designed semi-formally and close-spaced to create an overall texture. Notice how each letter is adapted a little to those around it so that they ‘grow’ together.

SLOPED ROMAN UPPER-CASE

Although this alphabet looks very different from a full width upright Roman (Chapter 8), it is designed in almost the same way. Nearly all the differences are derived directly from the shape of letter O and the parallelogram on which it is based. This means that the whole alphabet, like the lower-case, is condensed and sloped forwards by 3°, with marked changes of curvature in all its bowls and arches. As usual in condensed alphabets (Chapter 9), the widest letters are reduced the most in width, so that for example letters E and S are wider in relation to M and W than they are in modernized Roman.

The other main points affecting particular letters are:

• Full-height curves (C, D, G) are very like those of O.

• In half-height bowls (B, P, R) the curves are exaggerated, the sharper curve being made much sharper and the flatter one even flatter than in O, so that these bowls harmonize with the arches in the lower-case letters.

• The tops of both full and half-height bowls slant up to the right, as do the ‘horizontals’ in E, F, H, L and T, following the tilt of the parallelogram.

• The heads and feet are slanted up to the right, with asymmetric serifs.

• The outline shapes of M, N, V, X, Y, W and Z are tilted forwards so that they become slightly asymmetric. Their upper stop-ends, however, remain on the top lettering line.

• The shape of U is unusual, but harmonizes with O and lower-case u.

Fig. 11.11
Sloped Roman upper-case alphabet. The letterforms are all tilted to the right and are influenced, directly or indirectly, by the shape of letter O. Notice particularly the characteristic shape of the half-height curves in letters B, P and R, with their continuous changes of curvature.

SLOPED ROMAN NUMERALS

These, like the upper-case letters, have been re-drawn and adapted to the shape of letter O within the tilted parallelogram. Zero is a narrowed version of upper-case letter O and the proportions of the other numerals follow this outline, so that they all trend slightly upwards and to the right. If non-ranging numerals are required for use with the lower-case alphabet, these can be adapted in the same way as the Roman lower-case numerals (see Chapter 10).

Fig. 11.12
Sloped Roman numerals are all based on a narrower form of letter O which forms zero and is shown superimposed on numeral 6. These ranged numerals can easily be modified as non-ranging for use with lower-case letters.

Illus. 11.13
Trees, 1996. Ash, with decayed and fungus-stained knot hole and ripple grain. Sloped Roman upper and lower-case, designed around what the wood allowed.

SPACING AND CARVING SLOPED ROMAN

Spacing

Spacing between letters, words and lines in both upper- and lower-case sloped Roman is very similar to that used in upright Roman, and the rules-of-thumb set out in Chapters 9 and 10 apply equally well, with one overall difference. If the wide stroke is used as a spacing unit, as is usual for upright Roman, the compressed letterforms of sloped Roman may make the design look cramped and crowded. To avoid this, it is usually advisable to adopt a spacing unit which is somewhat wider.

Carving

Carving sloped Roman should not present any major difficulty to the carver who has mastered the upright alphabets, but it is advisable to take special care with the following:

• The changing curvature in both bowls and arches. The narrow radius curves are likely to require a narrow (3mm) No.1 chisel to carve their inner, convex faces.

• Acute-angled junctions, some of which are even narrower than usual as a result of the condensed letterforms, especially in N, W and X.

• Very shallow curves which are almost along the grain, especially in the arches of lower-case letters.

• Junctions in lower-case letters where a bowl runs smoothly into a stem. As in upright Roman, and especially in letter a with arch and bowl, it may be advisable to cut the bowl before the stem (see Chapter 10).

USING SLOPED ROMAN

Sloped Roman provides a useful intermediary between the static formality of upright Roman and the much more fluid, dynamic character of italic (Chapter 13). Sloped Roman is particularly useful where a high degree of legibility is required in an inscription which is somewhat less formal and more conversational than classical Roman would be.

The narrower design of sloped Roman letters, especially in the lower-case, means that full width strokes, both straight and curved, lie closer together than in the more rounded upright Roman. As a result, even with somewhat wider spacing, sloped Roman letters can combine to form bands or masses of lettering with a denser texture, which can be used decoratively. The massed effect can be reinforced by designing lower-case inscriptions with shorter ascenders and descenders, but this should be balanced with the need to avoid the inscription looking cramped.

Fig. 11.14
War Memorial (detail), 2008. Oak. Formal lower-case sloped Roman with nonranged numerals. This alphabet is very suitable for work with the grain vertical (see Chapter 12).

Fig. 11.15
Raise the Stone, 1997. Brown oak, deeply split and so discarded by a furniture maker. Notice how the narrower forms of sloped Roman form quite dense lines of lettering which could readily be designed to run parallel to the splits.

Sloped Roman can also usefully be developed by extending the letters, beginning with a wider parallelogram and letter O in both upper and lower-case and re-drawing the other letters to harmonize with it. To do this, while retaining the characteristic forms of the letters, is a useful design exercise in itself. Legibility can be enhanced by increasing stroke width (‘weight’) and the use of wider spacing. This kind of lettering is especially useful in outdoor sign-work.

CHAPTER 12

WORKING WITH THE GRAIN VERTICAL

When learning to cut letters in wood, the obvious way to begin is with the grain horizontal, i.e. more or less parallel with the lines of lettering, but eventually one needs to be able to design and carve lettering at any angle to the grain. A first stage towards this is to begin to design and carve letters with the grain ‘vertical’, i.e. more or less at right angles to the lines of lettering, but this is a useful skill in itself, for at least two reasons. First, it opens up a greater variety of ways in which the natural forms of wood can be exploited in design, for example by using condensed letterforms (Chapter 9) with very acute-angled junctions and point-ends. Secondly, it may not always be desirable, even in formal projects, to work with the grain horizontal. Large wall-panels, for example, are usually taller than wide; the so-called ‘portrait’ format. Designing these with the grain vertical not only reduces the amount of joinery work required, but also results in a more stable panel which looks more attractive.

In memoriam G.M.H. (1997). Weathered oak and acrylic. Both the italic lower-case and the condensed upper-case with its very acute-angled junctions were made much easier to carve because the grain is vertical.

Fig. 12.1
Vicars of Bosham, 2014. Composite panel of quarter-sawn oak (raw wood before finishing by the makers). This shows the advantage of having the grain vertical in large, tall panels.

AN OVERVIEW

Designing and carving letters in wood with the grain vertical requires no new skills and operations, but it does call for shifts of emphasis, changes in the ways elements of letters are cut and special care in certain kinds of wood. The main issues which need to be considered and practised before working in this way are:

• carving upright wide stems;

• carving narrow horizontal stems;

• carving curves;

• carving diagonals, acute-angled junctions and point-ends;

• design;

• selection of wood.

CARVING UPRIGHT WIDE STEMS

When working with the grain vertical, far more of the overall work of carving has to be done either along the grain or at very shallow angles to it. In addition, the upright stems are likely to be much wider and deeper than any you have previously carved along the grain. The main consequences of this are:

• Y-shaped cuts at the ends of stems are essential;

• grain direction has to be judged with great care;

• initial removal of the bulk of the waste wood within the letter needs to be done cautiously unless you are confident that the wood will not split uncontrollably;

• oblique slicing cuts and along-the-grain push or chasing cuts will play a much greater role than when carving across the grain.

Stabbing in

The stab-cut has to be full depth, but it is likely that much less force will be required than when cutting at right angles to the grain. It is very easy to stab too deeply until you are used to the process and the particular piece of wood you are working on, so it is advisable to carve the wide stems of any letter completely before stabbing any of the narrower stems or junctions. If you can, always practise on an off-cut or the reverse side of a board to get the feel of the wood. Stabbing in can also be used as an opportunity to judge how easily the wood is liable to split. When the chisel has been driven in to the depth required and before the blade has been removed, look at the wood next to both sides of the blade to see if it is resisting the tendency of the chisel to split it. If it is not, proceed with caution (see below). When using coarse-grained and ring-porous woods such as ash and oak, remember that different parts of the wood may have very different degrees of toughness.

Fig. 12.2
Oak grain (detail), 1997. The grain has been weathered by twenty years’ exposure on a sunny wall. Notice the slight angle between the grain and the vertical letter stem. This made the letter much easier to carve.

Always make Y-shaped stab-cuts at the ends of upright stems and cut out the triangle from the stop-ends before trying to remove any wood from the sides.

Removing the bulk of the waste wood

If you are confident that the wood will not split uncontrollably, it is possible to chop out the full width of the stem at once, but often this is not advisable, for two reasons. First, the wood may fracture internally even if it does not split on the surface, especially in fast-grown ring-porous woods such as oak and ash. Secondly, it may be difficult to judge where to start and in which direction to proceed. If, for example, the grain runs exactly along the central axis of the stem, the safest way to remove most of the waste wood is to chop in the middle of the stem with a wide chisel, a little inside the letter outline, then work towards either end in turn. The entasis of the stem gives a slight but significant angle to the grain which often makes it possible to cut the sides with oblique slicing and rocking cuts, rather than by chopping. It may be useful to design letters with slightly exaggerated entasis to give an angle which is easier to carve.

Fig. 12.3
Directions of cutting when carving an upright wide stem with vertical and slightly oblique grain.

(a) Grain parallel to the stem. Carving is begun in the middle of each side and proceeds to either end, forming the serifs if required.

(b) Grain at a shallow angle to the stem. Carving is begun near one corner and proceeds to the end on that side, forming a serif if required. The corner and serif near the startingpoint are carved in the opposite direction.

If the grain is at a shallow angle to the stem, it is usually necessary to begin near the corners, slicing wood away along the stem, changing to chopping if the wood is tough enough. Each side of the stem is then completed by cutting back into the corner where you started, forming the serif, if there is one, with a push-and-rotate cut (see below under ‘Finishing’). If the angle between grain and stem is very small, it may be advisable to work a little within the letter outline when removing the bulk of the waste wood and finish with more delicate slicing, rocking or chasing cuts.

Finishing with slicing and chasing cuts

Except in the toughest and finest-grained woods, removing most of the waste wood by chopping with the grain is likely to leave quite a rough surface within the letter. The exact form and internal surfaces of the letter need to be refined and to do this, highly controlled slicing and chasing (push) cuts are required. The process of removing most of the waste wood should show where each cut needs to be started and the direction in which it should proceed, but always be cautious, at least to begin with. If the stems have serifs, these can usually be formed by delicate push-cuts after the main parts have been finished, rotating the chisel outwards while at the same time lifting the handle to form the curved face.

Fig. 12.4a–f
Stages in carving a wide stem and serifs with the grain vertical.

(a) The stem has been stabbed and the face of the stop-end cut away.

(b) The sides of the stem have been cut away with chopping cuts, slightly inside the drawn outline. Notice that this has left the sides very rough.

(c) The sides of the stem have been finished with slicing-rocking cuts and one serif has been carved.

(d) The chisel is in position for carving the second serif. The handle has been lifted and rotated outwards as a push-cut is being made.

(e) Another view of the chisel making the push, lift and rotating movement to carve the serif.

(f) The second serif has been carved, completing the stop-end.

Consistency

When carving formal lettering with the grain vertical, special attention may be needed to maintain consistency of form and weight. Because the removal of waste wood is less predictable and controllable than when chopping at right angles to the grain, care has to be taken to ensure that stem width and curvature of the entasis are as uniform as possible, by checking and comparing as you proceed.

CARVING NARROW HORIZONTAL STEMS

These stems, cut against the grain, should not present any particular difficulty, but it is advisable to delay stabbing narrower stems and junctions until wide stems, whether upright or oblique, have been completely carved. This makes it easier to judge depth of stabbing and to correct any minor mishaps in finishing the wide stem. The only problem is likely to be with the end or ends, especially if the design includes serifs. The triangle of the stop-end is cut away first, and the carving proceeds as for a wide stem cut against the grain in the modern Roman alphabet (Chapter 8), each serif being cut from its point inwards towards the stem, using a series of delicate oblique slicing cuts to form the curved face.

CARVING CURVES

When carving curves with the grain vertical, the order of cuts and the tools used are exactly the same as usual (Chapter 4). The process should present little difficulty, as long as a simple rule is followed: in each part of the curve, the direction of working is reversed. Thus the inside face of a curve is carved first with a narrow chisel, the first cut being made with the grain in the middle of the curve. Carving then proceeds in two stages to either end.

Fig. 12.5
Directions of cutting when carving letter R with the grain vertical. The usual order of carving is followed, i.e. the stem first, tail second and bowl third, but the cuts in the tail and bowl are in the reverse directions from those followed when the grain is horizontal. Notice the ‘safety cut’ in the outer face of the bowl.

Fig. 12.6a–f
Stages in carving letter R with the grain vertical. The grain angle is shown by the vertical parallel lines.

(a) The stem has been stabbed, the stop-end faces carved and waste wood removed from one side of the stem with chopping cuts, slightly inside the drawn outline. Notice the roughness of the cut face and that the corners and serifs remain to be carved.

(b) Both sides of the stem are carved and finished with slicing-rocking cuts; the serifs have been carved with push, lift and rotating movements of the chisel.

(c) The tail has been stabbed, its stop-end and inner face carved with slicing cuts from the bottom upwards.

(d) The tail has been carved completely, the bowl has been stabbed and a ‘safety cut’ made in the centre of the outer face.

(e) The convex inner face of the bowl has been carved from the middle out to the top and bottom of the curve. Notice the angle in the counter where the bowl and tail meet.

(f) The outer face has been carved, from the top and bottom in towards the middle, completing letter R.

Fig. 12.7
In memoriam G.M.H. (detail), 1997. Weathered oak with acrylic. The very narrow acute-angled junctions in these condensed letters are much easier to carve when the grain is at or near vertical than they would be if the grain were horizontal.

In a similar way, the outer, concave face of the curve is cut in two stages with one or more gouges, but starting at the top and bottom of the bend, against the grain, and working towards the middle. Because the middle part of the curve which is also the deepest runs along the grain, special care is needed to avoid uncontrolled splitting. The best way to do this is to make a 'safety cut' with a No.6 or 7 gouge in the middle of the curve before beginning to carve the outer face.

CARVING DIAGONALS, ACUTE-ANGLED JUNCTIONS AND POINT-ENDS

Here again it is advisable to carve any wide stems, whether vertical or oblique, before stabbing narrower ones. However, because the grain runs along the acute-angled ‘knife-edge’ rather than across it, stabbing the narrower stem at a junction can be done to the full depth required without danger of the wood crumbling. As a result, it is not usually necessary to stab any junctions or point-ends in two stages (Chapter 6) before carving them.

Fig. 12.8a–d
Stages in carving an acute-angled junction and point-end with the grain vertical.

(a) The wide stems and their ends have been stabbed.

(b) The wide stems have been carved completely.

(c) The narrow stems have been stabbed. Notice that stabbing them after carving the wide stems makes it possible to see the depth of the stab-cuts. Half-depth stabbing is not required.

(d) The narrow stems have been carved, completing the two junctions. The narrow stem in the point-end has been aligned carefully with the point itself.

Diagonals

The overall procedure, as when cutting curves, is to do all the operations (apart from stabbing) in the usual order, but in the reverse directions.

Acute-angled junctions

On the whole, acute-angled junctions present fewer difficulties when working with the grain because there is little danger of the ‘knife-edge’ crumbling, but they are not always trouble-free. The most likely difficulties are first, uncontrolled splitting and secondly, cutting the narrower stem too deeply so that the characteristic form of the junction is lost. Splitting can usually be avoided by using slicing-rocking rather than chopping technique to remove most of the waste wood, especially if there is any doubt about its toughness. Depth of stab-cutting can be more easily controlled if the wide stems are cut before the narrower ones are stabbed, because then the depth of the stab-cut at the junction can be seen. It is sometimes advisable to stab a little less deeply than you think is required, remove the waste wood at a slightly shallow angle, then finish the stem and junction by slicing a little more wood from either side.

Point-ends

Carving point-ends with the grain vertical is, as with other operations, carried out in the usual sequence, but with all cuts being made in the reverse direction. Special care is needed, however, to carve the angle of the point very accurately, because on both sides it has to be carved away from the point rather than towards it, at exactly the angle required for the rest of the letter outline. Having carved away the triangular face of the point-end, carefully cut the other side of the point and carry on to carve the remainder of the outer face of the wide stem. Then carve the inner side of the wide stem, towards the triangular end face. When the wide stem is completely carved, stab the narrow stem and carve it inner face first, towards the junction, forming the ‘knife-edge’. Finally carve the outer face, making sure that it is exactly aligned with the triangular end-face and the point.

DESIGN

In theory, grain angle should have little influence on the design of letters and inscriptions. In practice, however, things are rarely so simple, because the fibrous and elastic nature of wood, coupled with its highly directional grain, mean that it is not an entirely passive medium for lettering as, for example, most stones are.

Letter design

Very formal letters with many upright stems running parallel with straight grain are quite difficult to carve accurately and consistently. One helpful idea, mentioned earlier, is to emphasize the entasis of wide stems a little. This makes it easier to finish the stems with slicing and chasing cuts because there is a slight but significant angle between most of the stem outline and the grain. It is, however, important not to overdo this so that the entasis becomes conspicuous.

Fig. 12.9
War Memorial (detail), 2008. Oak. Formal sloped Roman lower-case is very well suited to working with the grain vertical because there is usually a slight angle between the grain and the wide stems.

Inscription design

Unless your client’s wishes, the visual environment of the work or the nature of the text restrict your choice, it is always worth thinking about using an alphabet which will minimize your technical problems when cutting the inscription. When working with the grain vertical, the most obvious choice is to use sloped rather than upright Roman in both upper and lowercase designs, because all the main stems are then at a shallow angle to the grain. There may also be opportunities to design sloped Roman more freely and less formally, placing the letters at slightly varying angles and closer together, making an attractive visual texture. This and other possibilities are discussed further in Chapter 16.

Fig. 12.10
War Memorial (detail), 2008. Oak. Sloped Roman upper-case designed in a semiformal way makes an attractive visual texture. The variable slope of the letters and the vertical grain make carving upright stems easier.

Thinking in the reverse direction, it is always worth considering working with the grain vertical if there is more likelihood than usual of an attractive piece of wood splitting at acute-angled junctions. This difficulty can arise either because the wood is less tough or consistent than is desirable, or because the design includes letterforms with very narrow acute-angled junctions, for example italic lettering, discussed in Chapter 13. Although other difficulties may arise, working with the grain vertical does at least minimize the problem of these junctions splitting or crumbling.

MORE ON WOOD SELECTION

The ideal wood for letter-carving is one which is very tough (i.e. split-resistant), without being either too soft or excessively hard. In fine-grained woods such as holly, hawthorn and fruit woods (especially apple and pear), it makes little difference how the grain runs in relation to the letters as long as you are careful always to cut in the right direction. Beech and sycamore are less tough, though generally reliable, but wood selection becomes more important when the wood is likely to be much more variable, particularly when using more coarse-grained woods such as ash and oak. These so-called ring-porous woods are excellent for lettering when of good quality, but careful selection may be necessary to avoid difficulties in working.

Fig. 12.11
Birch Rune (detail), 2016. Birch and acrylic. Slightly modernized tenth-century lettering for an Old English verse. Notice the very close spacing and the way the letters are allowed to ‘grow’ into the spaces around them, creating a dense visual texture.

Ring-porous woods

Ash, oak, sweet chestnut and elm are among the woods known as ring-porous because they produce a zone of wood at the beginning of each year’s growth which has large water-carrying vessels, often visible as small holes or tubes clearly marking each annual ring. This spring-wood has low density and is usually softer and weaker than the summer-wood laid down later in the season. To select ring-porous wood for lettering, especially with the grain vertical, it is advisable to look at the annual rings on the end-grain, where the wood has been cut across. To do this, it is worth taking a chisel (with a good safety-guard) to the timber merchants to shave off the sawn end-grain of stacked boards. There are two things to look for: first, the speed of growth and secondly, the direction in which the boards have been cut.

Selecting for moderate growth-rate

Speed of wood growth can be seen by looking at the thickness (radial width) of the annual rings. If the wood grew very quickly, the pore-zones of the spring-wood will be wide and there are more likely to be extreme differences of hardness between the spring and summer-wood. Such fast-grown wood is often to be found in the middle of the trunk, laid down when the tree was very young. It can give rise to severe problems when cutting letters with the grain vertical, because the weak spring-wood may crumble or split away from the hard summer-wood, especially if the board is slab-sawn (see below).

Fig. 12.12
Ash Rune, 2016. Ash, cleft and shaped, salvaged from railway brush clearance, with acrylic. The ancient runic letters can be very decorative and the top junction has an interesting form. Notice that the wood has been cleft on the quarter and has very even growth. This is ideal for lettering in a ring-porous wood such as ash.

Fig. 12.13
Oak Rune, 2016. Quarter-sawn oak, acrylic. This shows the characteristic figure of quarter-sawn oak and very even, moderate growth rate. This is ideal for lettering, especially for large-scale and exterior work.

Very slowly grown ring-porous wood, on the other hand, has very narrow rings, which may have very little hard, tough summer-wood. Timber of this kind may be made up almost entirely of weak spring-wood and be liable to break across the grain or crumble (joiners refer to it as being ‘carroty’). When selecting ring-porous wood, therefore, the overall advice is to avoid both very fast and very slowly grown timber, looking for even growth with annual rings between 2 and 4mm wide, which represents a moderate growth-rate.

Selecting for direction of cut

As discussed in Chapter 1, boards with annual rings running through them at right angles (‘quarter-sawn’), or at a steep angle to the board face, are much preferable to those with annual rings running parallel or at a very shallow angle to the face (‘slab-sawn’). A disadvantage of slab-sawn boards in ring-porous woods is that one is always carving through alternating layers of harder and softer wood. This makes good finishing more difficult and uncontrolled splitting more likely, especially when working with the grain vertical.

Chapter 13

DESIGNING AND CARVING ITALIC LETTERS

Of all the formal alphabets which are commonly carved in wood and stone, italic gives the greatest sense of movement and fluidity. This dynamic character is a direct consequence of its origin. Italic was invented and developed in the sixteenth century as a rapid and highly legible form of handwriting for use in legal and ecclesiastical documents. Even in its more formal, carved forms, italic lettering can incorporate much of the character derived directly from the movement of the hand and pen.

Sheaf and Grain, 2017. Birch with acrylic. This wood was found on a scrap heap. The bark had decayed and peeled off easily, leaving a pleasantly mottled surface to the sound wood underneath. Notice the fairly heavy cursive italic with crossover points carved rather than being smoothed out.

LOWER-CASE ITALIC

The upper-case italic alphabet (see below) is closely related to sloped Roman upper-case, but the lower-case letters are much more distinctive. As with other alphabets, letter o is a key to the design of other lower-case letters, but with the exception of c and e, the relationship is much less obvious and direct than it is in upright and sloped Roman. This is because italic letters were originally formed by the freer and more flowing movement of the hand and pen, rather than being built up by successive strokes of the brush, pencil or chisel. Although formal italic for carving usually has to be drawn rather than written, it is highly desirable to retain as far as possible the graceful shapes developed by the sixteenth-century secretaries and writing-masters. These shapes, like those of sloped Roman, are tilted forwards, usually between 2° and 5°. In the designs developed here, a minimal slope of 2° is adopted. This can of course be increased and the designs adapted if you prefer, but beware of overdoing it.

Figs 13.1 and 13.2
Verbum Tuum 1, 2009. Very hard Welsh oak, cut from an unused house beam. Formal italic: notice the curving letterforms and acute-angled junctions. Although slowly grown and slab-sawn this wood was exceptionally tough, and very good for lettering, even with the grain horizontal.

Fig. 13.3
Italic lower-case alphabet. The forward slope of the letters is 2°.

Basic structure of italic lower-case

Because italic is based so closely on pen lettering, drawing the letters for carving can be problematic for anyone who is not an experienced calligrapher. Written italic is a condensed alphabet, usually executed with a broad-edged pen held with its edge at a more or less constant angle of 40–45° to the writing line (the writing or pen angle). As a result, all italic letters with curves are not made up of an outline and counter of different sizes and shapes, but of two identical overlapping shapes, written by the two edges of the pen nib, which are usually tilted to the right. In the case of letter o, the shape is an ellipse.

Italic lower-case letters can be written or drawn in three ways: directly with a broad-edged pen, with double pencils, or with single pencil lines. For experienced calligraphers, direct pen writing is a practical way to begin designing italic letters for carving. For anyone not so experienced, drawing the letters with double pencils, or with a single pencil and the help of some simple stencils, is likely to be a more practical approach than attempting to draw them entirely freehand.

A simple way to use double pencils

Using double pencils can be difficult for those inexperienced in calligraphy, but is a useful skill to develop. The easiest way to make double pencils is to use two pencils with hexagonal bodies and fasten them together near their points with an elastic band or adhesive tape. If necessary, shave away one facet on each pencil till their points are one wide stroke apart. Using them is made much easier by drawing freehand the single line ‘skeleton’ shape of the letter or numeral you wish to design, lightly in pencil. Draw this outline so that it touches the bottom lettering line, but is one-third of a wide stroke less than the x-height. Place the double pencils obliquely, so that the left-hand (lower) point is on the top of the outline and the right-hand one is at the x-height. The angle between the points (the writing angle) should be about 40° to the horizontal. Trace round your outline with the lower pencil, trying to keep both points in contact with the paper, but concentrating on drawing the outline accurately while at the same time keeping the writing angle constant. Any gaps or errors can then be made good by drawing freehand. This method of drawing can be used on its own, but is also useful in combination with stencils.

DESIGNING ITALIC LOWER-CASE

All italic alphabets are condensed, based on a letter o which is distinctly narrower than that of Roman alphabets. For carving in wood, however, it is advisable to avoid very narrow italic letters, at least to begin with, and to adopt a more rounded shape of letter o than that used by many calligraphers. In making aids to drawing italic it is more practical to draw within stencils (i.e. holes in thin, stiff card) rather than drawing around templates (i.e. shapes).

Fig. 13.4
Italic a (detail), 1997. Pearwood. Notice how the letter is made up of superimposed shapes which are almost identical. Pearwood, though fairly soft, is very tough and so ideal for carving italic.

Fig. 13.5
Sheaf and Grain 4 (detail), 2017. Birch with acrylic. Cursive italic with crossover points carved, showing the forms of the letters. Notice how the ligatures run into the letters following. When hard enough, birch is a good wood for lettering.

Drawing italic lower-case letter o using a stencil

Italic letter o is made up of two identical tilted ellipses, the second moved up and to the right of the first by the distance of a wide stroke, while not changing its angle of tilt. The basic ellipse can be drawn either freehand or on a computer, and the drawing used to make a stencil. Having decided on the x-height, draw ellipses of varying width to determine the proportions of your letter o, bearing in mind that these will influence most of the other letters in the alphabet. A suggested x-height-to-width ratio is 1.6:1, so that an ellipse 40mm high would have a width of 25mm. If drawing freehand, check the ellipse carefully for symmetry by turning it upside-down and looking at it in a mirror. Bisecting it along both long and short axes can also be helpful.

Fig. 13.6
Italic s (detail), 1997. Pearwood. Notice the slight forward tilt to the letter and the very slight inward curve to both ends. It is easy to exaggerate this, which weakens the letterform.

Fig. 13.7
Stages in making and using a stencil to draw italic letter o.

Draw the lettering lines, including a half-height line, on thin, stiff card. Draw an ellipse one third of a wide stroke smaller than the x-height, tilted forwards by 5°, and trace this onto the card, touching the bottom line. Cut out the tilted ellipse very precisely. Having cut out the ellipse, this stencil can then be used to draw letter o quickly and consistently, as shown. Alternatively, draw the first ellipse using the stencil and add the second with double pencils.

Italic letters related to o: q, c, e and s

Letters q, c and e are derived directly from o, letter q being formed simply by adding a tail. Having used the stencil to draw the left half of a letter o, the ends of letter c and the bowl and tail of letter e can be drawn in freehand; both letters are a wide stroke narrower than o. Notice that the bowl of letter e is not circular, but a continuously varying curve.

Italic letter s is, as in Roman alphabets, based on two unequal circles, but these are drawn inside the lettering lines and used to draw two overlapping s shapes so that when the letter is completed it appears to be tilted forwards slightly. Notice that the ends of letter s curve inwards only a little, and the upper end and serif are very like those of letter c.

Fig. 13.8
Italic ng (detail), 1997. Pearwood. Notice the relationship of proportion between the arch and the bowl.

Fig. 13.9
Letter o related to q, c, e and s.

Letters with bowls: a, d, g, b and p

Like letter o, the bowl for these letters is made up of two identical overlapping shapes. As in sloped Roman, all five letters have the same shaped bowl, either upright with a stem on the right (a, d, g), or rotated with a stem on the left (b, p). All the letters are the same width, narrower than letter o by half a wide stroke. The distinctive shapes making up the bowl have to be drawn freehand, but making and using a simple stencil to draw a grid makes it much easier to draw them consistently. This grid is useful even if you are drawing with double pencils.

Making a stencil to draw italic bowls and arches

To make a stencil, draw the usual lettering lines and a mid-height line on thin, stiff card. Mark and cut out two slots a wide stroke in width and tilted forwards by 2°, so that their outer edges are the width of the letter apart. It is helpful to cut the slots a little higher and deeper than the x-height. Having used the stencil to draw two sets of parallel lines, these can be used as a grid when drawing the curved parts of each bowl freehand, as shown. Alternatively, one line can be drawn freehand and the second, identical line can be drawn in with double pencils.

When learning to draw the curves of bowls freehand, you are likely to see significant variation in your letterforms even when guided by the grid. To draw them more consistently, look not only at the curved lines, but also at where they cross over. These crossover points are governed by the angle and shape of the curves you draw, and keeping them constant, once you have developed a pleasing shape, will greatly help consistency of design.

The basic letter in this group is a. With the stem on the right and a straight ascender the bowl becomes letter d; with curved descender, letter g. With the bowl rotated, the stem is on the left and with an ascender forms letter b; with descender, letter p. The form of curved descender in letter g is also seen in letters y and f (see below).

Fig. 13.10
Drawing bowls for italic letters.

Letters with arches and troughs: n, h, m, u, y, v, w

The basic letter in this group is n, and again the arch is formed from two identical overlapping shapes. It is the same width as a bowl, and the stencil grid used to help in drawing bowls is equally useful for troughs and single arches, which are both of the same width. The arches of letters n, h and m should branch out from halfway down the left stem, not higher. It may be helpful to draw the arch in two stages. First, draw the shallow curves from the left stem to the top of the right stem, which they meet more or less at right angles. Do not try to draw the sharp curve at the top yet. Notice that these curves are somewhat flatter than those in the top part of the bowl of letter a, so the crossover point is a little lower down. Secondly, draw the curves which form the crown of the arch, which are markedly asymmetrical and much sharper (smaller radius) than those at the bottom of a bowl. Finally add the serifs and, if you wish, a subtle bend outwards to the bottom of the right-hand stem.

Fig. 13.11
Drawing arches and troughs for italic letters.

Letter m is designed as a double arch, with the arches narrower than that of n, but otherwise drawn in the same way. Letter u is drawn as a rotated n, but with slightly more open (wider radius) curves than those in n and m. Letter y is like u, with a curved descender like that of g.

Fig. 13.12
Italic m (detail), 1997. Pearwood. Notice the narrow arches and very small radius curves. Again, this letter shows the sharpness which can be attained in tough, fine-grained woods.

Fig. 13.13
Letters v, w, r and t.

Letter v is like u but without the right-hand stem and with a curve and serif on the right. Letter w is a double-v with narrower troughs the same width as the arches in letter m.

Letters with stems: t, i, l, and j

Letter t is an italic version of lower-case Roman letter t. Its stem is of course tilted, and is also slightly curved and parallel-sided (i.e. without entasis), much as the diagonals of letters M and W are in the Roman alphabet. The foot of letter t has the same curvature as letter v, leading out to the tail.

Letters i and l can be drawn as plain stems, but harmonize better with the rest of the alphabet if their stems and feet are curved like those of letter t. Letter j is like letter i but with a straight stem and a curved descender like that of g and y.

Fig. 13.14
Some ascenders and descenders.

Stems into curves: r and f

Letter r is an italic version of its sloped Roman counterpart, drawn with overlapping lines and a more flowing form. Letter f is a hybrid, almost a chimera, and the only letter of the italic alphabet with both an ascender and a descender. Its upper end and serif are like those of c and s, its crossbar is like that of t and its tail is like that of g and y.

Letters with diagonals: k, x and z

All three of these letters are very like their counterparts in the sloped Roman alphabet (Chapter 11), except that they are drawn a little narrower and within the horizontal lettering lines. An alternative design for k is discussed below in the context of a more cursive italic alphabet.

CARVING ITALIC LOWER-CASE

Although it does not call for any new techniques, carving italic lower-case is more technically demanding than the processes discussed in previous chapters. This is because many of the letters have very narrow radius curves, long tapering junctions, or both, and to carve these successfully requires both care and precision. Some of the difficulties can be avoided by modifying the design (see below under ‘Alternative designs’) but learning to draw and carve classical italic opens up a wide range of possibilities for the letter-carver.

Choice of wood

When learning to carve italic, high-quality wood is essential. The wood should be fairly but not excessively hard, and very tough. Particularly because of its long, tapering junctions, classical italic is often easier to carve with the grain vertical, but beech, sycamore, holly and the fruit woods can usually be carved successfully with the grain horizontal. Ring-porous woods such as ash and oak can be problematic with the grain horizontal, particularly if they are hard, but at their best are excellent. If you are in any doubt about the quality of a particular piece of wood, it is always worth trying to carve a letter such as a on an offcut or the back of the workpiece to try it out.

Tools

It is likely that you will need to extend your range of tools to carve the narrow radius curves characteristic of italic. When carving letters with arches and an x-height 40mm or larger, a 6mm No.8 gouge and a 3mm No.1 chisel will usually be sufficient, but if the letters are smaller, a 4mm No.9 gouge and a 2mm No.1 chisel will probably be needed. It is likely that you will need to reduce the sweep of the gouges to about one-third of a circle (see Chapter 10) and make a special strop to keep them sharp.

A suitable strop can easily be made from a 10 × 4cm rectangle of 5mm plywood. Using a chisel, shave one edge down to a knife-edge and round off the other with abrasive. Cover both edges and one or both faces with thin leather, nap side out, pulled taut and secured with contact adhesive. The rounded edge, with strop dressing, will sharpen the inside of a narrow No.8 gouge and the sharper edge, a No.9.

Fig. 13.15
Heléna, 1984. Holly. The first piece of italic I ever carved, as a birthday present for a young lady who disliked having her name mispronounced (and is now my daughter-in-law).

Carving the more open (wide radius) curves of italic letters is easier with gouges wider than the 6mm or 8mm ones recommended for use so far, though these do have to be used with great precision. In particular, a 12mm No.3 is very useful. It not only reduces the number of gouge-cuts required in curves, bowls and troughs, but with a high degree of control makes carving the concave faces of long, curved acute-angled junctions rather easier.

Carving curves

Italic letters with curves only (o, c, e and s) are carved in much the same way as their counterparts in sloped Roman, both with horizontal and vertical grain. Notice, however, that the narrowest parts of the bowl, where the crossover points have been smoothed out, are more slender and at an oblique angle to the grain. Care should be taken not to stab them too deeply or carve away more wood than the design requires.

Fig. 13.16a–d
Stages in carving italic letter e with grain horizontal.

(a) The whole letter has been stabbed and the face of its stop-end cut away.

(b) The whole of the inner face of the letter has been carved and ‘safety cuts’ made at the top and bottom of the outer face.

(c) The left part of the outer face has been carved.

(d) The outer face of the bowl has been carved, completing the letter. Notice the changing curvature.

Fig. 13.17a–c
Stages in carving italic letter e with grain vertical.

(a) The whole letter has been stabbed and the face of its stop-end cut away.

(b) The inner face has been carved completely and a ‘safety cut’ made in the outer face. (This was found to be unnecessary as the wood is tough.)

(c) The outer face has been carved, completing letter e.

Stabbing narrow radius curves

At the narrow radius curves in italic bowls, arches and troughs, the width and therefore depth of the cut changes over a very short distance, and this has to be reflected in the depth of stabbing. To do this, tilt the gouge in towards the inside of the bend as usual, but also sideways, away from the narrowest part of the bend. By doing this, the gouge will cut the wider part more deeply and make removal of the waste wood and a cleanly cut bend much easier to achieve.

Carving bowls, arches and troughs with grain horizontal

Stab the long, acute-angled junction, if there is one, to half depth only and the remainder of the letter to full depth. (Letter v can be stabbed to full depth.) When carving letters with a straight stem it is usually best to carve the stem first. Then in carving the bowl, arch or trough, carve both inner and outer faces round to the start of the acute-angled junction before beginning work on the junction itself. This should be carved in two stages as usual, with a light second stabbing between them, at each stage starting with the side nearer the stem, which forms the ‘knifeedge’ of the junction. Letter m is carved like a double letter n, completing the stem and first arch before carving the second arch. Letter w is more easily managed by working right to left, carving the right-hand v shape completely before beginning on the left-hand one.

Fig. 13.18a–e
Stages in carving italic letter a with grain horizontal.

(a) The whole letter has been stabbed; the acute-angled junction to half-depth only. The faces of both stop-ends have been cut away.

(b) The stem has been carved completely.

(c) The inner face of the bowl has been carved as far as the acute-angled junction.

(d) The outer face has been carved as far as the acuteangled junction.

(e) The acute-angled junction has been cut in two stages with a light additional stab-cut between them (see Chapter 5), completing letter a.

Fig. 13.19a–d
Stages in carving italic letter n with grain horizontal.

(a) The whole letter has been stabbed, the acute-angled junction to half-depth only. The faces of the stop-ends have been cut away.

(b) The stem has been carved completely; carving of the inner face of the arch has been started at the bend.

(c) Both faces of the arch and right-hand stem have been carved, as far as the acute-angled junction. Notice the turn out to the foot and serif.

(d) The acute-angled junction has been carved in two stages, with a light additional stab-cut between them, completing letter n.

Carving bowls, arches and troughs with grain vertical

When stabbing bowls, arches and troughs with the grain vertical, the whole letter can be stabbed to full depth before carving any wood away. Then carve the bowl, arch or trough completely, right into the middle of the stem. The whole of the inner face can be carved before beginning work on the outer face, and it is not usually necessary to do this in two stages. Finally, carve the stem itself with slicing rather than chopping cuts, being very careful as the ‘knife-edge’ of the junction is formed. In carving letter m, start by carving the right-hand arch, then the middle stem and left-hand arch, finishing with the left-hand stem. In carving letter w, carve the left-hand trough before the middle stem and right-hand trough.

Fig. 13.20a–d
Stages in carving italic letter a with grain vertical.

(a) The whole letter has been stabbed to full depth, including the acuteangled junction. The faces of the stop-ends have been cut away.

(b) The whole of the inner face of the bowl has been carved, into the centre of the stem at both junctions.

(c) The whole of the outer face of the bowl has been carved. Because the grain is vertical, it is not necessary to carve the acute-angled junction in two stages. A 'safety cut' was not necessary.

(d) The stem and serif have been carved, completing the letter. Notice the grain angle: carving both faces was begun in the middle of the stem and proceeded towards either end.

Fig. 13.21a–d
Stages in carving italic letter n with grain vertical.

(a) The whole letter has been stabbed to full depth and the faces of the stop-ends cut away.

(b) The whole of the inner face of the arch, including the acute-angled junction, has been carved into the centre of the left-hand stem.

(c) The whole of the outer face of the arch has been carved.

(d) The left-hand stem has been carved, completing letter n.

SOME ITALIC VARIATIONS

One of the more attractive properties of italic lettering is the range of variations which can be designed, a few of which are illustrated here. Some of these increase the range of visual variety open to the letter-carver, others avoid some of the technical problems encountered when carving, and some do both.

Condensed italic

The basic italic alphabet developed here is more rounded that that used by many calligraphers. In terms of design italic lends itself to narrow, elegant letterforms which are very attractive. These can be designed simply by starting with a narrowly elliptical basic shape to draw letter o and adapting the rest of the alphabet in proportion (see opening image for Chapter 16).

Carving these condensed letters can present a challenge, however. Even with very small radius gouges (Nos.8 and 9) and a narrow No.1 chisel, precision and skilful tool manipulation are required if the very tight (small radius) curves are to be carved successfully. When carving condensed italic, it is always much easier to work with the grain vertical. Indeed, working with the grain horizontal may be impossible without some design modifications, which are discussed below.

Fig. 13.22
Condensed italic letters. These letters are based on a much more narrowly elliptical letter o. They show the main shapes and proportions which govern the remainder of this alphabet.

Modifying junctions

One of the most difficult features of ‘standard’ italic, especially with the grain horizontal, is the long, curved acute-angled junction characteristic of bowls, arches and troughs. It is possible to evade this problem in a very simple way, by designing a junction like that used in sloped Roman lower-case, or by tapering the curve of bowl or arch into a hair-line which touches the stem. The disadvantage of using these alternative junctions is that the lettering will lose some of its dynamic quality, becoming less like italic and more akin to sloped Roman. It can, however, be a very useful strategy if some kind of italic lettering is required on wood which will not allow the standard forms to be carved successfully.

Fig. 13.23
Alternative junctions for italic bowls, arches and troughs. These simple junctions are useful if the long, acute junctions characteristic of classical italic cannot be carved.

‘Dissected’ italic

Another solution to the problem posed by acute-angled junctions is to ‘dissect’ letters which include them. This can be done in two ways: first by ending the curve of the bowl, arch or trough just short of the stem, or secondly, by breaking the stem where the two meet, leaving the curve intact. Because there are sloping faces on either side of the narrow gap, any tendency for the wood to fracture is greatly reduced. With skilful carving the gap at the wood surface can be very narrow and have little effect on the overall character of the inscription. If the letters are to be painted in (see Chapter 15), especially in a dark-toned colour, the gap can be simply painted over and may be almost invisible. On the other hand, the first method especially can make a neat and shapely form which need not be concealed. ‘Dissected’ italic can be very useful for work in wood which would otherwise be completely unsuitable for carving italic, but can also be elegant and attractive in its own right.

Fig. 13.24
Old Ships (detail), 2006. Oak with acrylic; a boat frame discarded from a restoration project, with the original nails which secured the hull planks. Dissected italic (first version) was used because the grain angle varied across the face and the wood was slowly grown.

Fig. 13.25
Two forms of ‘dissected’ italic. Breaking the junction either at the curve or stem makes it possible to carve italic in wood which might otherwise be unsuitable, but can also be an attractive design variant.

Crossover points

When italic letters are drawn with single or double pencils, the twin shapes overlap at crossover points. When written with a broad-edged pen these disappear, and when designing italic letters for carving it is usual to smooth them out. There is no actual need to do this, however, and with precision and delicacy, the points at crossovers can be carved so that they just meet. When they are carved in this way, attention is drawn to the various shapes which make up italic letters, which can add interest and variety to the design. It also makes the letters appear lighter and less bold than they otherwise would do, and so can be particularly useful when designing a bold, ‘heavy’ italic.

Fig. 13.26
Bold italic letters with crossover points. By not smoothing out the crossover points, the shapes making up italic letters are emphasized and the letters appear lighter in weight. This can be useful when designing a bold italic.

Making italic lettering more cursive

Italic written with the pen is frequently cursive; that is, with letters joined by ligatures, as in swift handwriting. Making the design cursive adds to the dynamic quality of italic lettering while not detracting from its formality and elegance. Letters vary in the ease with which they can be joined to others. In the design of italic used here, letters f, j, o, q, s, x and z are not usually joined at all, though some of them can be. Letters b, g, p, r, v, w and y can be joined to a previous letter but not to one following, whereas all the others can usually be joined both to preceding and following letters. Making italic cursive is usually most effective when a condensed rather than a rounded design is used. If this is done, an alternative design for letter k can be useful, as shown.

Fig. 13.27
Oak grain (detail), 1997. Weathered oak with acrylic. Even in a coarse-grained wood such as this oak, italic may be possible and is always much easier to carve with the grain vertical.

Fig. 13.28
Summer Haiku (detail) 1997. Pearwood. Carving crossover points rather than smoothing them out makes a rather heavy formal italic both lighter and more lively in appearance.

Fig. 13.29a–b
Many Waters, 2018. Oak with acrylic. Narrow cursive italic with a pronounced slope and pointed curves. In this fairly lightweight alphabet the crossover points have been smoothed out. Notice how the words have been ‘stacked’ with no interlinear spacing, to create a compact visual texture, making the inscription less formal and more decorative.

Making narrow radius curves into points

One difficulty with carving condensed italic cursive is the very sharp (narrow radius) curves which connect stems to ligatures joining some letters together. Unless the letters are fairly large, a No.9 gouge and a 2mm No.1 chisel will probably be required. The problem can be simplified, and an interesting variant of italic designed, by making curves at the tops and bottoms of letters into blunt points, the same shape as gothic arches.

Fig. 13.30
Condensed cursive italic. Joining italic letters with ligatures in imitation of pen-strokes emphasizes their dynamic quality, and is particularly effective with condensed letterforms. Notice the alternative form of letter k, which is useful in this context.

Fig. 13.31
Condensed cursive and pointed italic. Re-drawing the curves at the tops and bottoms of letters as blunt points can make them easier to carve, and is also a useful design variant.

To carve a point of this kind, the bend is stabbed as if it were to be carved as a curve, but a small stabbing cut is made from the bend into the point with a No.2 skew chisel, bisecting it as in carving a point-end (see Chapter 6). The point can then be carved as a simple acute-angled corner. This design is particularly useful if the grain is horizontal, as the point can easily be cut into from both sides.

ITALIC UPPER-CASE

Italic upper-case letters are essentially a slightly sloped, condensed version of the modern Roman alphabet. The width of the letters conforms to the elliptical shape of letter O and the narrow letters are reduced in width less than the wide ones. Condensing the letters with acute-angled junctions and point-ends makes these rather more difficult to carve with the grain horizontal, and working with the grain vertical (see Chapter 12) is significantly easier.

Fig. 13.32
Italic upper-case alphabet. This alphabet is a condensed, slightly sloping (2°) variant of the modern Roman upper-case alphabet.

ITALIC NUMERALS

The non-ranged numerals shown here are designed for use with italic lower-case lettering. They are a version of the Roman numerals shown in Chapter 10, but like italic letters are mostly made up of overlapping identical shapes. Because of this they are difficult to draw freehand or with stencils, and the most reliable way to design them is by using double pencils, though with some modification of technique.

Fig. 13.33a–b
Funny Valentine, 2018. Oak with acrylic. Narrow, cursive italic with a very slight slope and pointed arches. The words are ‘stacked’ vertically but with some lateral displacement so that space can play an important part in the design, even though the wood is narrow.

Fig. 13.34
Non-ranging italic numerals. These numerals are designed for use with italic lower-case. They were mostly drawn with double pencils at a shallow (25°) writing angle.

As noted at the beginning of this chapter, the easiest way to use double pencils is to draw a single-line ‘skeleton’ of the letter or numeral, a little smaller than the size required, and trace round this with one pencil, the other following it and so repeating the shape. Because our numerals are derived from Arabic ones, however, the writing angle of about 40° used for letters does not produce acceptable forms. For most numerals, a writing angle of about 25° will be at least a good starting-point, but the diagonal in numerals 3 and 7 should be a full wide stroke and this is easier to draw in freehand. Having drawn a numeral with double pencils, it will be necessary to draw in the narrow parts of curves at the crossover points freehand, particularly in the middle of numeral 8.

Chapter 14

TWO ALTERNATIVE METHODS OF LETTER CARVING

Although the v-section you have carved so far has been the classic way to carve Western lettering, it is by no means the only effective method. In some situations other forms may be equally legible, less demanding in terms of materials or involve less labour. The great advantage of the v-section is its versatility. In many woods, as long as the letters are designed with sharp corners they can be carved in v-section and contrast between the widest and narrowest parts can be as extreme as one wishes. One of its disadvantages is that if letters over 10cm high are required, the amount of wood which has to be removed and the labour of cutting it away escalate rapidly. Also, when normal v-section is used, the depth of the letter is related to its height, so large letters cannot be carved on thin boards or panels without the risk of splitting the workpiece or even cutting right through it.

Hilton Herbs sign (detail), 1996. Oak with acrylic. Fairly large-scale lettering (x-height about 200mm) using ridge-cut technique. Notice the constant depth of the letters and the forms of the junctions. Photograph by Heather Giles, courtesy of Hilton Herbs.

Two alternative methods of letter carving are discussed here, both of which are more akin to conventional wood-carving than v-cut lettering. Both produce letters which are very shallow in comparison with v-cut letters of the same height, but which are highly legible and very suitable for use with colour (see Chapter 15). The first, which is perhaps the more useful, is seen and used so rarely that it seems to have no standard name, so is here termed ‘ridge-cut’ lettering (as distinct from v-cut). The second method, which is widely used, involves cutting away the background, leaving the letters in relief.

RIDGE-CUT LETTERING

Apart from the few times when I have used it in my own work, I have seen this form of lettering only once, in Rouen, France, used to carve very large letters on stone panels near the Place Jeanne d’Arc. An obvious and potentially very useful alternative to v-cut lettering, it involves cutting a steep but fairly shallow margin to the letter, then carving down from the mid-line to the edge, producing a ridge like a roof along the centre of the letter. (A somewhat similar but more difficult technique, usually called ‘cushion section’, is sometimes used, in which a rounded, convex centre section is carved for gilding.)

Fig. 14.1
Profiles of ridge-cut lettering.

Depth is constant

In v-cut lettering, wood is cut away at a constant angle, so that the depth of the letter at any point is directly related to its width. In ridge-cut lettering, the depth to which the edge should be cut remains constant whatever the width of the letter, and in practice this is usually quite shallow. For example, a depth of 3–4mm is quite sufficient for letters 10cm high, and this has two major practical advantages. The first is that large letters can be carved on relatively thin wood. The second is that the amount of wood which has to be cut away is much less than when carving a v-section letter of the same size. This becomes significant when carving very large letters, so that using ridge-cut technique can make large inscriptions much less laborious.

Fig. 14.2
Comparing the profiles of v-cut and ridge-cut letters. In each case the shaded area shows the wood which has to be carved away.

A third consequence of constant depth is that at any point the slope of the faces, and so the angle at which wood is cut away, varies with the letter width. In the narrow parts, the faces are much steeper and the angle between them much more acute, which imposes limitations on the design of ridge-cut letters.

Designing ridge-cut letters

Design possibilities with ridge-cut lettering are more limited than when using v-cut, mainly because the narrow parts of letters have to be relatively wide to avoid very steep faces on the central ridge which would be liable to fracture. As a result, contrast in width between wide and narrow parts has to be reduced. Ridge-cut lettering can work well in both upper and lower-case, but calls for letters which are:

• 10cm or more in height;

• heavy (bold), rounded and open in design;

• with less contrast than usual between widest and narrowest parts;

• and which have stems with slightly exaggerated entasis.

Fig. 14.3
Designs for v-cut and ridge-cut letters compared. The v-cut letters (a) are adapted for ridge-cutting (b) not only by making the letter bolder overall, but also by increasing the width of the narrower parts more in proportion to the wide ones.

Fig. 14.4
Hilton Herbs sign, 1996. Oak and acrylic. The letters are ridge-cut, which involves removing far less wood than v-cut, and so is very useful for large letters. The open, formal lettering was designed to be legible from a distance, as this sign is used for outdoor shows. Photograph by Heather Giles, courtesy of Hilton Herbs.

Fig. 14.5
Hilton Herbs sign (detail), 1996. Oak and acrylic. The letters are ridge-cut; the decoration on the initial H is v-cut. Notice the tool-marks, left deliberately to give a little variation in texture. Photograph by Heather Giles, courtesy of Hilton Herbs.

Ridge-cut lettering may be more difficult with grain vertical because horizontal stems are then running across the grain rather than along it and so are more likely to fracture. This limitation may require the contrast between wide and narrow parts of letters to be further reduced. In any case, it is useful to try a few test-cuts on the back of a workpiece or an offcut to determine whether the design can be carved on that particular piece of wood.

Wood selection

There are no particular requirements for wood to be used for ridge-cut lettering, but toughness (i.e. resistance to splitting) is essential. Wood which is very tough and only moderately hard is ideal. For smaller letters, up to 15cm in height, sycamore and beech are usually good. For larger letters oak is the obvious choice, and is the only European hardwood which can be used for work which is to stand outdoors.

Carving ridge-cut lettering

Ridge-cut lettering is rather more like conventional wood-carving than v-cut lettering, and until one is experienced in this way of working it is useful to draw in guide-lines to show the centre of each stem or bowl and indicate where the junctions and facets will be.

The first operation for any letter is to cut its outline completely to the required (uniform) depth. This is what carvers usually refer to as a stop-cut, as it determines how far the chisel or gouge travels in the carving process. It is important to make this outline cut very accurately since, with the exception of minor adjustments, it will be the actual edge of the finished letter. It should be made at a steep angle (about 70°) to leave an obtuse edge which will give a sharp shadow edge to the letter, but not vertically, and never over-vertical so that the edge is overhanging. When approaching acute angles, which occur not only at the usual junctions but also, for example, in the internal triangle of letter A, it may be useful to make a shallow cut by hand before the main one, to minimize any tendency for the wood to fracture or flake at the surface.

Having cut the outline, it is necessary to make stab-cuts sloping up from the edge to the centre-line at any internal corners where two faces meet. This can be done with a No.2 skew chisel or, if the junction is long and acute, with a No.1 chisel, but care is needed not to stab too deeply.

Fig. 14.6a–e
Stages in carving ridge-cut letter F.

(a) The letter outline is drawn, with mid-lines and junction lines added.

(b) Stop-cuts are made (at 70°) round the letter outline. Inside corners, where faces will meet, are stabbed with sloping cuts and waste wood is cut away from the foot of the wide stem.

(c) The side-faces of the horizontal stems are fully carved.

(d) The end-faces of the horizontal stems are carved and carving of the side-faces of the vertical stem has been started. Notice the form of the junction between the wide and narrow stem.

(e) The wide stem and its junctions have been carved, completing letter F.

Fig. 14.7
Hilton Herbs sign (detail), 1996. Oak and acrylic. Notice the form of the top of letter t: the four ridges at the junction all slope at different angles. Photograph by Heather Giles, courtesy of Hilton Herbs.

Fig. 14.8a–e
Stages in carving ridge-cut letter R.

(a) The letter is drawn, with mid-lines and junction lines added.

(b) Stop-cuts are made round the letter outline and the counter. Inside junctions are stabbed and waste wood is removed from the feet of the wide stem and tail.

(c) Both faces of the bowl are carved completely. Notice the half-cut junctions between the top of the bowl and the wide stem.

(d) The tail is carved completely. Notice the form of the junctions between the tail and the bowl.

(e) The vertical wide stem and its junctions are carved, completing letter R.

Fig. 14.9a–d
Stages in carving ridge-cut letter N.

(a) The letter outline is drawn, with mid-lines and junctions added.

(b) The letter outline is stop-cut and inside junctions are stabbed. Waste wood is removed from the stem ends.

(c) The vertical stems are carved completely. Special care is needed at the very acute-angled inside junctions.

(d) The wide diagonal is carved, completing letter N. Notice the six faces converging on one point at the top left, with three degrees of slope.

There is no fixed order for carving the letters, but in general it is useful to remove waste wood from the stop-ends of all stems, then carve narrower stems and bowls before wide stems. When carving internal corners, wherever possible carve towards the corner till you nearly reach it. Then, in several stages if necessary, slice down the stab-cut away from the corner to form the junction.

Curves and bowls are carved using chisels for outer (convex) faces and gouges for inner (concave) ones, changing the angle of cutting to form the changing slope of the ridge as you progress round the curve. Always work with the grain and use the shallowest gouge you have which will cut the curve required. This will usually be a No.3 unless the letters are being carved decoratively (see below).

When carving stems, always cut the sloping end-face before starting to carve the sides. The sloping side-faces of straight stems are carved from the centre-line to the stop-cut at the edge, the angle of cutting depending on the width of the stem and the depth of the stop-cut. The aim, having cut both sides, is to produce a clean straight ridge along the centre-line and clean sharp edges. Horizontal stems, being narrower than wide ones, are carved at a steeper angle and slicing rather than chopping cuts are likely to give more control and a better finish.

When carving a wide stem, use overlapping shallow chopping cuts with a wide No.1 chisel to remove most of the waste wood and then finish with delicate slicing cuts. Waste wood which will not come away can be removed with rocking cuts along the stop-cut at the edge. For an upright stem it is usually best to begin in the middle and work towards the corners. Oblique stems may be a little more difficult. It is very important to work in the correct direction with the grain to achieve a clean finish, so carving has to start at one corner rather than in the middle and particular care may be needed when starting at a junction.

Variations in ridge-cut technique

A great deal of variety can be created in ridge-cut lettering by carving decorative texture onto the faces of the wider parts of the letters, rather than carving them flat. The easiest way to do this is to carve one or more faces with a gouge rather than a chisel. The effect can vary from shallow concave facets cut with a No.3 gouge, to a strongly ribbed effect made with parallel and slightly overlapping cuts with a No.6 gouge, which is both decorative and highly tactile. These and other textural effects can be developed in a lively way with colour (see Chapter 15).

SIMPLE RELIEF LETTERING

In all kinds of incised lettering, letterforms are made by cutting them into a surface. Relief lettering is made in exactly the opposite way: the background is cut away, leaving the letterform as a block standing proud of it. Lettering in relief is much more like conventional wood-carving than cutting in v-section and, letter for letter, is considerably more laborious. It is never an entirely simple process and what will be discussed here is its simplest form, that is, flat-topped letters on a flat background. Even at this most basic level, however, there are many opinions on how it can best be done.

Fig. 14.10
Some simple variations in ridge-cut technique. In addition to smooth carving, side-faces of stems and parts of bowls can easily be cut with gouges in a variety of ways. Gouges used in these sample cuts were Nos. 3, 6, 8 and 9.

Fig. 14.11
Fairground (detail), mid-1990s. Beech and acrylic, from a small-scale experimental ridge-cut alphabet, varied with gouge-cuts and decorated with acrylic paints.

Fig. 14.12
Two simple relief letters. These two letters show most of the forms needed for relief lettering. The letters are 70mm high and the depth of relief is 4mm.

Perhaps the most commonly recommended method is to cut round the drawn letter outlines with a deep gouge, then to begin cutting background wood away (‘grounding out’), deepening the relief of the letter with further cuts round the edge as the work proceeds. This process, however, requires gouges with much deeper sweeps than those modified for use in letter-carving, so an alternative method is described here, which uses the tools you will already have.

Design of simple relief lettering

The limitations in design discussed in relation to ridge-cut lettering (see above) apply equally to lettering in relief. At least when one is starting, the most effective letterforms are likely to be large, simple and open, without pronounced serifs and with less contrast between their narrowest and widest parts than is usual in the basic or lower-case Roman alphabets. It is possible to carve small letters in relief in very tough woods, but as size goes down the degree of difficulty goes up and so does the number of tools required. When starting out, therefore, it is advisable to design letters at least 8cm high, but a depth of 4mm is quite sufficient at this size to give an effective inscription.

Good relief letters can be carved in any tough wood, but to begin with a wood which is not very hard is advisable: sycamore and beech are both useful. For sign-work, oak is as usual the only practical choice among European woods, but avoid very slowly grown wood as it may crumble at corners.

Fig. 14.13
Alderbank, 1995. Oak. A small house-sign with relief lettering and carving at the client’s request.

Carving simple relief letters

Letters 6–8cm high are suggested as a suitable starting point. Having designed and drawn the letters on the wood, draw a second outline 3mm outside the first, very carefully and accurately. At this second outline, make a vertical stop-cut to the depth at which you wish the letters to stand proud of the background, all the way round each letter. For 8cm high letters a 4mm deep relief is usually sufficient. Start lowering the ground, slicing almost horizontally with gouges and mallet, working towards the letter and cutting gently as you reach the stop-cut. Do not try to reach full depth with the first cut, but remove the waste wood in stages, beginning with a No.6 or 4 gouge to part of the depth and continuing with a No.3.

Carry on grounding-out around, within and between the letters until you have achieved as flat a surface as possible (some visible tool-marks are inevitable) at the depth you require. In the latter stages of grounding-out, shaving with the curved edges of No.1 chisels may give better results than a No.3 gouge, especially in softer woods. The only difficulty is likely to be at acute-angled internal corners, for example in the internal triangle of letter A. Cut the ground away as close as you can to the corner with a No.3 gouge, then cut right into the corner with a No.2 skew chisel held at a very shallow angle. If the angle is very acute (as for example in letter N or between the tail and stem of letter R), the very small amount of wood at the apex can be shaved away with a pointed, flexible scalpel blade.

Fig. 14.14a–f
Stages in carving relief letter R.

(a) Letter outline is drawn and a second outline is drawn 3mm outside the first one: this is where the stop-cuts will be made.

(b) The outer outline is stop-cut (vertically) to a depth of about 4mm.

(c) Grounding-out has been started with a No.6 gouge. Notice that, where possible, the gouge cuts are made more or less at right angles to the stop-cut.

(d) The first stage of grounding-out is complete; the second stage has begun on the left and in the counter, with a No.3 gouge and the curved edges of No.1 chisels.

(e) Grounding-out is more or less completed.

(f) The edge of the letter proper is cut, down from the inner outline to the base of the stop-cut, completing the letter. Notice that this gives the letter a strong obtuse edge. Where edges meet at an inside angle, small sloping stab-cuts are needed into the corners.

Having removed any waste wood in the angle between the vertical stop-cut and the horizontal ground, make the final form of the letter by cutting a steeply sloping face between the inner outline (the actual edge of the letter) and the bottom of the stop-cut. This is not difficult, but has to be done with care and accuracy. It is usually best to use overlapping slicing cuts with chisel or gouge rather than chopping straight down. Finally, clean up the angle between the sloping edge of the letter and the horizontal ground.

When carrying out the final stages of carving, internal corners require special attention. Make a small sloping stab-cut into the corner and having carved nearly up to it, carve into the corner with slicing or push-cuts: do not try to start at the corner and carve away from it.

Grounding-out of relief letters can be greatly speeded up by using a router, either hand-held or electric powered, but this has to be done with great care and accuracy, and still leaves one with the problem of clearing the ground which the router cannot cut away.

CHAPTER 15

THE USE OF COLOUR AND SURFACE FINISHES

Many pieces of lettering carved in wood require nothing more than an appropriate surface finish (see below) and sympathetic lighting to look their best. In other cases, adding colour can greatly enhance both the appearance of the work and its effectiveness in communication, so it is always worth thinking about the possibilities of using colour from a very early stage in the design process. Colour can be used in a variety of ways, both in the letters themselves and on the surface of the wood into which they are carved. The illustrations throughout this book show some of the ways in which this can be done.

Poseidon 2 (detail), 2020. Oak with acrylic. Background painted with wash before carving. Letters double coloured, first with a dense wash, secondly flooded with a dilute wash left to dry, so that the pigment formed a sediment in the v-cut.

Fig. 15.1a–b
Vertuous, 2008. Formal italic in very tough, hard Welsh oak. An inscription like this looks well with no added colour.

SELECTING THE RIGHT PAINTS AND BRUSHES

The kind of paint suitable for any particular work depends in the first instance on where the work is to be sited. If it is to remain indoors, or at least sheltered from wind and rain, acrylic paints are very effective, versatile and easy to use. If work such as a sign is outdoors and exposed to sun, wind and rain, some form of oil-based paint may be required, though high-quality acrylic paints can last for several years (up to 20) before they need renewing.

Acrylic paints

All paints consist of solid particles of pigment suspended in a liquid binder which dries to form a solid layer adhering to the wood. The binders used in acrylic paints are synthetic resins which are dispersible in water until the mixture dries, when the paint layer becomes waterproof. This means that acrylic paints can be thinned and brushes washed with water, thus avoiding the use of possibly harmful organic solvents.

Fig. 15.2a–b
Magnificat, 2008. Pine driftwood with acrylic. Background painted with colour washes before carving; letters under-painted with white to maximize intensity of the top colours, which are obviously decorative and celebratory. Notice that the warm colours are light and the cool ones darker; their separation emphasizes contrasts of both tone and hue.

Acrylic paints are widely available from art materials shops and outlets. It is worth paying extra for top-quality ‘Artists’ or ‘Professional’ paints rather than cheaper ‘Students’ materials because the paints are likely to have better covering power and the pigments may well be more permanent and lightfast (i.e. resistant to fading). Every tube of paint should show the pigment of its contents as a code number, and it is useful to check this when buying. Four basic colours which are highly permanent and which I find indispensable are:

• Titanium White PW6

• Red Iron Oxide (Red Ochre) PR101

• Chromium Oxide Green PG17

• Mars Black PBk11

Titanium White is slightly transparent, so two coats may be needed. The other three are very dense and usually cover very well with a single coat.

Fig. 15.3a–b
Hallelujah, 2018. Olive ash and acrylic. Informal Roman upper and lower-case, the letters reflecting visually the rhythm of the words when spoken. The aim was to combine the legible and the decorative. The pigments are Red Iron Oxide (Red Ochre) and Chromium Oxide Green, both very dense and easy to use for direct painting of letters.

Other colours which I also use frequently are:

• Phthalo Blue (green shade) PB15:3

• (French) Ultramarine Blue PB29

• Pyrrole Red PR254

• Lemon Yellow PY3

• Burnt Umber PBr7

All these paints can be mixed to make intermediate or secondary hues such as violets and bright greens. Some are transparent and may need underpainting (see below).

‘Oil-based’ paints

Traditional oil paints use linseed and other oils as a binder, but modern ‘oil’ paints are much more likely to be based on alkyd resins. These synthetic resins are soluble only in organic solvents such as white spirit, which have to be used for thinning the paint and washing brushes. Alkyd paints can be useful for exterior work, but care is needed to make sure that they will not ‘bleed’ into the wood and that they will dry hard. The ‘enamel’ paints used for models can be very useful for sign-work, but some of them require a proprietary solvent rather than white spirit for thinning.

Brushes and their care

Synthetic bristle brushes are in general more useful than the more expensive traditional sables, especially with acrylic paints. For painting-in letters, long-bristled signwriters’ brushes, which have a chisel end and are available in a range of sizes, are most useful. Small, pointed brushes are effective only for small-scale work, touching-up or where great precision within the letter is required.

Always try to avoid getting paint into the base of the bristles. Especially when using acrylic paint, which dries quickly, wash and then dry the brush every 20–30 minutes in clean water to avoid paint drying on the bristles, as this cannot then be removed. After using acrylics, wash brushes by rubbing a little liquid detergent into the bristles (roll them between your fingers), then rinse thoroughly in warm water. After using alkyd paint, rinse the brush in white spirit or solvent, dry it on a tissue, rub liquid detergent into the bristles and wash with warm water.

Problems with paint

The two main problems with paint are: bleeding into the wood and a failure of paint to dry. Neither is frequently met with, but both can be very troublesome if they are. In most woods it is advisable to paint inside carved letters onto the raw wood. The cut end-grain absorbs the paint to a greater or lesser extent and this makes the colouring more durable than a surface coating would be. Problems can arise, however, if the paint shows a tendency to bleed out onto the surface at the letter edge, blurring its sharpness or creating ‘whiskers’ of colour. This can occur in almost any wood if the paint is over-thinned.

A good consistency for painting-in letters is that of slightly thick cream. Mix the paint with a stick (not a brush) diluting as necessary until it drips slowly off the end of the stick. This should be safe on most woods, but carving and painting-in a small v-cut across the grain on the back of the workpiece, or an offcut of the same piece of wood, is a useful way to make sure.

Some ring-porous woods (see Chapter 12) allow paint to run out from the letter edge, giving a ‘halo’ of hair-like lines of colour. This can happen with many ring-porous woods if the paint is too dilute, but the most notorious is American red oak, which has large open ‘pores’ (water vessels) in the spring wood and should be avoided as a wood for carving. Other oaks and ash are usually safe in this respect, though a test painting is always worthwhile.

Another problem can arise when using ‘oil’ paints on certain tropical woods such as teak and iroko, which are themselves naturally oily. If painted directly onto them, alkyd paints are likely not to dry well and may remain sticky indefinitely. If these woods have to be used, coat the inside faces of the letters with knotting (shellac dissolved in methylated spirit) to seal the cut end-grain. This will usually solve the problem.

PAINTING-IN LETTERS

Painting-in letters can be a means of enhancing legibility and decorative appeal, emphasizing the meaning of words or any combination of all three. Two words of caution, however: first, painting-in letters is unlikely to conceal any weakness in design or carving and, on the contrary, is much more likely to reveal them. Secondly, painting-in letters is not merely a matter of filling the letters with paint. To be done well, it requires some of the dexterity of the signwriter and a critical eye for detail.

Fig. 15.4
Cariad (‘love’ or ‘sweetheart’). Upper version ash, 2015; lower version beech, 2020. Two versions of the same design, showing the great difference, especially to legibility, made by painting-in the letters with a strongly contrasting colour.

Unless a wash is being used for background or second colouring (see below), painting-in is most easily done on an easel at about 60°. For smaller work a table easel may be useful, with clamps or a movable bar so that work can be moved up to the level required as the work proceeds. A short mahlstick as used by signwriters is very useful to support the wrist of the painting hand, and it can also hold a small pot of paint. Good lighting, which can be moved easily so that edges can be clearly seen, is also essential.

Fig. 15.5
Festri, 2009. Quarter-sawn oak and acrylic. The pigment is Mars Black, a very dense black which is easy to use. A playful and informal house-sign. (Translation: The Old Vestry.)

Painting-in can be done using a single colour or, in a variety of ways, two colours or even more.

Choice of colour

Choice of colour for lettering is usually governed by a combination of personal preference, consideration of where the work is to be sited and what it is intended to communicate. In general, the greater the contrast between letters and background, the more legible the inscription will be.

Fig. 15.6
Laborare, 2014. Black walnut and acrylic (pigment: Red Ochre). In this and the preceding example both woods are quite dark, but the greater tonal contrast of Festri makes the letters more legible from a distance.

Fig. 15.7
Take my hand, 2018. American cherry, an offcut from a colleague’s workshop, with acrylic. Light on dark tonal contrast is as effective as dark on light. Without paintingin, this italic inscription would have been very difficult to read.

The contrast can be one of tone (light and dark) or hue, but tonal contrast is usually the more emphatic of the two. In high-contrast work the letters will seem to come forward more and the words will appear visually ‘louder’ (see Chapter 16), whereas with low contrast they will stand out less and the whole work will appear ‘quieter’.

Underpainting

When acrylic paint is applied to the cut surface of wood some of it is absorbed, and when dry the colour may appear duller and less intense than it would be on paper, even if the paint is fairly opaque. One solution to this is simply to apply a second coat of the same colour, but with some pigments this may not give the vivid colour required. The solution is underpainting, that is to apply a first coat of a paler hue before the final one. Reds, oranges and yellow-greens all appear more vivid with yellow underpainting, while white enhances blue-greens and, especially, ultramarine blue and violets.

Fig. 15.8
Dedication board (detail), 2010. Beech with acrylic paint and gold leaf, for the library of a monastery. The Ultramarine Blue paint is vivid because it was underpainted with white. (Translation: Take up and read.)

Single colour painting-in: brush technique

For all but the smallest letters (x-height 20mm or less) the best brush to use is a signwriters’ brush of suitable size, with synthetic bristles and a chisel end. Ideally, paint should be dense enough to cover well but liquid enough to flow easily from the brush. If the paint does not cover well enough it is better, and less work in the long run, to use two coats rather than to struggle with paint which is too thick and viscous. Try to work systematically. Divide the letter mentally into parts and complete one part before going on to the next. This avoids trying to work over half-dried paint.

A good principle when using a signwriters’ brush, or other brush with long bristles, is to let the brush do the work! This involves pressing the side of the brush gently on to the work-piece, bending the bristles, then stroking with the side of the brush rather than dabbing with the tip.

Working on a v-cut letter, it is usually better to paint the bottom of the v-cut before starting work on the sides. In this way, any small excess of paint can be taken up as the sides are painted. When painting a stem, complete the upper stop-end and serifs, if any, before starting on the sides. Having painted the bottom of the stop-end, put the tip of the brush into it and press the bristles gently so that they bend and lie in the groove between the end and side-faces. Now draw the brush up the groove towards the corner or serif, decreasing the pressure as you go, until the tip springs free. With a little practice the angle between the faces will form the brush into the right shape to give a sharp corner or serif quite spontaneously.

When painting the sides of a stem or curve, the aim is to produce a sharp colour boundary at the edge of the v-cut. To do this, the brush must be moved parallel to the edge, pressed in gently so that the bristles bend and form a flexible coupling between your hand and the wood. What should be avoided, unless it is absolutely necessary, is dabbing or drawing the brush across the cut edge.

Fig. 15.9
Painting-in a letter: brush movements. Arrows show the direction of brush movement.

(a) Painting a corner and serif. The bottom of the v-cut has been painted. The brush is bent into the groove between side and end-faces, then moved up and out with decreasing pressure until it springs free.

(b) Painting the side face. The stop-end and serifs have been painted; the brush hairs are bent so that they are laid flat onto the face of the letter to produce a clean edge of paint.

If mistakes (‘over-runs’) are made and paint gets on the surface of the wood, wipe it off immediately with a dry fingertip and an old, clean rag. Any staining which remains can be removed by scraping gently with a sharp penknife after the paint has dried. Do not be tempted to wet the area: this will only allow the paint to spread and stain further.

Inspecting your painting-in

Even when lighting is moved to show edges clearly, it is very difficult to paint v-cut letters perfectly at the first attempt. To correct small errors (‘under-runs’), turn the work upside-down and illuminate with a very low angle, raking light. Small underruns usually show up clearly as brightly lit lines which can then be painted in. Repeating this with the work the right way up will usually enable you to detect and correct even very small errors.

Double colour painting-in

There are two main ways of painting-in letters with more than one colour. The first is to paint in the usual way, but to use different colours on different parts of the letters.

A more subtle effect is to paint different faces in different colours, which can have the effect of making the letters appear to change colour when they are viewed from different angles. To decide how the colours should be placed and how one should give way to the other, place the carved lettering in an oblique light (sunlight is best) and adjust it so that the shadow in an upright stem falls exactly on the bottom of the v-cut. The lighted and shadowed areas now show how the two colours can be placed.

Double or multiple colouring can also be used to great effect in ridge-cut lettering (see Chapter 14).

Fig. 15.10a–b
Ver (Spring), 2009. Antique oak with acrylic paints. Semi-formal Roman, mostly lower-case with very close spacing and overlaps which are not carved. Stop-ends painted in spring flower colours. (Translation: So great a love must not be in vain.)

Fig. 15.11a–c
Waterline (detail) 2016. Oak boat frame with original nails, acrylic paint. ‘Dissected’ italic (first version, see Chapter 13). The two-colour painting is arranged so that the letters appear to change colour when viewed from different angles.

Fig. 15.12
Fairground (detail), mid-1990s. Beech, from a small-scale ridge-cut alphabet (see Chapter 14), varied with gouge-cuts and decorated with acrylic paints.

Fig. 15.13a–b
Trash, 2018. Brown oak with acrylic paint. Informal lower-case; letters painted with white, then flooded with dilute blue wash left to dry so that the pigment formed a sediment in the v-cut.

The second method of double colouring starts with painting-in the letters with one colour. When this is thoroughly dry, the workpiece is laid flat (a spirit level may be useful), and the letters are flooded with a thin wash of a second, contrasting colour and left to dry for 24 hours. The pigment settles out of the wash into the bottom of the v-cut, producing a soft-edged line of the second colour. This works best with dense pigments such as Titanium White and Ultramarine Blue, so some trials may be needed to find good combinations.

COLOURING THE BACKGROUND

In colouring the background to an inscription the possibilities are even more varied than when painting-in the letters themselves. There are two basic ways of doing this: before carving and after carving.

Colouring the background before carving

This is the simpler process, but can be used only if the letters can be seen well when they are traced or drawn down onto the painted surface. This means that very dark backgrounds cannot be used in this way, unless a special (white, yellow or red) copying paper can be used instead of the usual black carbon paper.

After simple painting of the background, the letters are traced onto the surface and carved through the colour layer. The colour of the wood then becomes the colour of the letters. This is of course the same colour that the wood had before work on it was begun, but in contrast to the painted surface it may appear significantly different. It is also worth remembering that all woods darken on exposure to light and in some, such as oak and cherry, this darkening can be very marked.

Fig. 15.14a–b
Some Things, 2017. Ash with acrylic paint used to ‘lime’ the wood before carving. Formal upper-case, condensed Roman, with some features of late Roman (‘rustic’) brush lettering.

Fig. 15.15a–b
Words, 2018. Chainsawn oak with acrylic colour-washes applied after the italic lettering had been designed but before carving. Notice how the surface texture and low tonal contrast between letters and background makes the inscription ‘quieter’ and less legible from a distance.

Colouring the background can range from a delicate wash to full-colour painting. A very simple surface colouring can be made by applying a wash of Titanium White with a sponge, then quickly rubbing it into the wood surface with a clean cloth before it dries. This imitates the process of ‘liming’ the wood, making most woods much lighter in tone. It also makes any grain or figuring more conspicuous and looks attractive on almost any wood. This pale wash can be varied by tinting the white or by using other dilute colours as transparent layers.

Fig. 15.16a–b
Job, 2017. Short log of holly, cut into five pieces with acrylic paint sponged on. Semi-formal condensed Roman, the letters carved through the paint layer. Notice the tonal contrast between the very pale wood and the strong colours of the background, making the questions very emphatic.

As when painting-in letters, the greater the tonal contrast between the letters and the background, the more easily legible the inscription will be. Deliberately using low contrast, however, can be equally effective. The inscription will be visually ‘quieter’ and though it may not be easily read from a distance will be perfectly legible from close to.

At the other end of the colour intensity scale, the wood can be painted in full colour before carving, but a thin paint layer only should be used. Carving through thick paint usually forces the paint up slightly at the edge where the chisel or gouge cuts in, and may make it flake off. Applying paint by dabbing it on with a small piece of natural sponge is an effective way of obtaining a thin layer of intense colour, and allows colour areas to be blended into one another more readily than when using a brush.

Colouring the background after carving

If pale coloured softer woods such as sycamore are painted with a colour wash after carving, the cut end-grain within the letters is likely to absorb much more pigment than the background, creating a tonal contrast which makes the letters very legible so that further painting may be unnecessary.

Fig. 15.17
Fragile, 2007. Sycamore; surface faceted with a belt sander; acrylic wash applied after carving. This is a very direct example of design reinforcing meaning. The letters are partially carved but still decipherable, the uncarved parts being outlined with a scalpel.

Fig. 15.18a–b
Until God burn Time, 2018. Oak with acrylic paint. The dark background was applied after carving, the letters painted white (two coats), then flooded with ultramarine wash which was left to dry and settle out.

Fig. 15.19
Seafarer, 2011. Sycamore and acrylic paint. The surface was shaped with a power tool, coated with a fairly dense wash and rubbed back with abrasive when this was dry. The lettering was then traced on and carved.

If letters cannot be drawn or traced onto the wood, for example if a very dark background is needed, it may be necessary to paint the background after the letters have been carved. This inevitably results in background colour getting into the letters, so these then have to be painted-in. The easiest way to do this is usually to use one or two coats of Titanium White in the letters and then apply the desired final colour.

Exploiting surface texture with colour

Although most carving work is likely to be undertaken on smooth surfaces, it is perfectly possible to design and carve on highly textured material. The two most common ways for wood to be textured are weathering and sawing, particularly if a chainsaw is used. It is also possible to create surface texture deliberately, both by hand with gouges and with power tools.

In weathering, softer spring-wood is usually eroded most rapidly, leaving ridges of harder summer-wood standing proud of the surface. If working with weathered wood it is usually worthwhile wire-brushing the whole surface to remove any very soft or loose material. Delicate carving may not be possible, but the pattern of wood growth can be made more conspicuous with colour-washes, especially if a little colour is removed from the ridges by rubbing back with fine abrasive before carving is begun.

Fig. 15.20a–b
Poseidon 1, 2020. Driftwood, probably spruce, well weathered and with ruststained nail-holes; acrylic paint. After wire-brushing the background was coloured and partly rubbed back with abrasive to emphasize the grain pattern, before the lettering was drawn on, carved and painted-in.

Wood cut with a chainsaw may also offer opportunities for using colour to incorporate texture into the design. It is usually necessary to clean up rough and splintered ridges by hand with chisels and gouges, but the patterns created by the saw teeth give a dynamic quality to the wood surface which can be greatly developed with colour. One drawback is that it may not be possible to trace letters down onto the rough surface, so that direct drawing is required.

SURFACE FINISHES

Surface finishes enhance the natural colour and figure of the wood, and protect any paint which has been applied to it.

Exterior work

For exterior use such as sign-work, a suitable decay-resistant wood such as oak should always be used and, where possible, the work should be sited where it is not subject to dripping water. Tree-drip is particularly harmful as it encourages the growth of green micro-plants, and unless they are well protected wood signs should never be placed under trees. A sunny position sheltered from the worst of the weather is always preferable.

Simple signs can usually be fixed in place by means of glass-plates screwed to their ends. These can be countersunk to bring them flush with the back of the board if necessary. Always use solid brass plates as opposed to brass-plated steel (so-called ‘brassed’) plates, and solid brass screws, as steel screws rust rapidly in oak.

For finishing signs outdoors an exterior grade acrylic varnish is probably the best choice. Both matt and dead-flat finishes are available, but neither will protect the wood from decay. A problem with varnishing can arise when the coat of varnish weathers. In order to restore the appearance of the sign it will then probably be necessary to strip the surface down to bare wood again before re-varnishing it.

Fig. 15.21a–b
Chainsawn, 2009. Beech and acrylic paint; colours applied before carving. This is an example of the dynamic surface texture which can be created (in this case inadvertently) with a chainsaw, and which can be creatively developed with colour. (Translation: Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.)

An alternative for exterior work is to coat the work with a drying oil such as Danish oil (see below) and then simply leave it to weather. Oak in a sunny position usually weathers to an attractive grey colour and will remain sound for at least twenty years and usually much longer, though the letters may need touching up or repainting.

Interior work

For interior work where the background has not been painted, the best surface finish is probably Danish oil. This is a proprietary mixture of drying oils, which brings out the colour of the wood well and dries to a low-gloss finish. (If the letters have been painted-in, they will be slightly glossy.) Two coats are usually sufficient, the first applied with a brush, care being taken to avoid pooling of the oil in the letters, and buffed off with a cloth after 10–15 minutes. The next day a second, much lighter coat should be applied with a pad of cotton rag.

Protecting acrylic background painting

If the background has been painted, even with a light wash, it is better to use acrylic varnish rather than Danish oil to protect the surface and paint layer. Decorator’s acrylic varnish is available in a range of finishes from gloss (not recommended) to dead flat, which when dry is completely invisible. When using acrylic varnish, take care to coat inside the letters thoroughly, but do not allow accumulations in corners or on edges, as these may show up as white spots when they dry. One coat is usually sufficient and, because the wood has already been painted, a diluted priming coat is not necessary.

Fig. 15.22
Oak grain (detail), 1997. Weathered oak and acrylic paint. This piece was hung on a sunny wall for twenty years with no surface treatment before being brushed off and the letters re-painted. It shows the pleasantly coloured and textured surface of well-weathered oak.

A word of caution

Both acrylic and oil-based paints will adhere to acrylic varnish. Oil paint will adhere to wood coated with Danish or other oil-based finishes, but acrylic paint may not. If a piece of work is treated with an oil finish it will then probably not be possible to paint-in the letters with acrylic paint: oil paint will have to be used.

SAFETY NOTE

Danish oil is solvent-based and should be used in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. Always use it and leave it to dry in a well-ventilated environment and avoid breathing in the vapour from it as far as possible. Rags used for applying it are inflammable, must not be stored in a confined space and should be disposed of carefully when they have dried off.

CHAPTER 16

VISIBLE LANGUAGE

Letters are the building-blocks which we combine into words, phrases and sentences to make our language visible and so communicate meaning, ideas and emotions to others when we are not present. Designing and carving letters is a demanding and (hopefully!) enjoyable activity, but having learned the skills, how are the letters to be used? What kind of visible language can we make, and what do we wish to communicate? The aim of this final chapter is to suggest some possibilities. This is not simple, because letters are like the shape-shifters of myth and legend, who could take on a great variety of shapes and forms while still retaining their identity. Although these changes may not alter the basic meaning of the words, they can act much as tone of voice and gesture do in spoken language, radically changing what the words communicate.

Dropping Slow 2, 3 and 4, 2006. Sycamore with acrylic paint; ‘dissected’ italic (second version, see Chapter 13). Three identically designed inscriptions with contrasting colour treatments, intended to communicate different moods or responses to the words.

One way to begin deciding how to use lettering is to think about what you wish your work to do for those who view it. There are three main possibilities which can work alone, in pairs or, occasionally, all three at once. The lettering can aim to be:

• informative, communicating information, and/or

• decorative and aesthetically pleasing, and/or

• interpretative, expressing and communicating the meaning which the words have for the maker, or the feelings which they evoke.

Lettering designed and carved by hand will almost always aim to be aesthetically pleasing and therefore decorative to some degree, so attention is focused here principally on informative and interpretative work.

Fig. 16.1
Teresa, 2010. Oak and acrylic paint. A (temporary) grave-marker, requiring only simplicity, dignity and legibility: formal modern Roman.

Fig. 16.2
Proverb 7, 2017. Oak with acrylic paint; board cut from a baulk of old, weathered timber. Semi-formal Roman lower-case with very close spacing. Legibility is still important, but dignity is not.

INFORMATIVE LETTERING

If the work is intended to be primarily informative, legibility is an important quality to be aimed at in the design. Legibility can be seen as a measure of how easily and reliably the different letters of the alphabet can be identified and distinguished. This can be optimized by the clarity and distinctiveness of the letterforms, and by contrast of tone (light and dark) between the letters and their background.

Fig. 16.3
Autobiography (detail), 2012. Chainsawn oak with acrylic paint; background painted before carving. A first coat of white was rubbed back, then colour washes applied, giving a subdued but decorative effect.

Fig. 16.4
Poseidon 2 (detail), 2020. Oak and acrylic paint; background colour wash and double colouring in the letters for decorative effect, which also relates to the words. (Poseidon was god of the ocean, and was said to have blue hair.)

Fig. 16.5a–b
Slant and Twist, 2017. Cleft ash (from a firewood pile) and acrylic paint; an attempt to interpret the meaning of this two-line poem by combining the form of the wood with the design of the lettering. Notice the upper-case letters used for emphasis.

Fig. 16.6
Katherine, 2019. Oak and acrylic paint. Slightly condensed formal Roman upper-case, designed and painted for maximum legibility and to harmonize with its setting in a parish church.

Fig. 16.7a–b
Questions for Job, 2020. Pine driftwood with acrylic paint and gilded glass beads. The wood was soft, coarse and burrowed into by shipworm larvae, but cut in two and reassembled, the form was intriguing and the holes suggested stars. The tall, pointed upper-case was a practical solution to the coarseness of the wood, the vertical grain and the need for the words to be emphatic. The painting was all done after carving; the letters painted in white with colour washes added.

Fig. 16.8a–c
Bless you most, 2009. Beech (from a firewood pile) with acrylic paint. Semi-formal lower-case, massed on the second and third sides with very close spacing. This communicates a much gentler and conversational mood than upper-case would have done.

As already observed, lettering can also convey a quality very like tone of voice in spoken language. Upper-case letters tend to appear AUTHORITATIVE if they are questions, and otherwise ORDER or ANNOUNCE. They sound ’louder’ in the mind than lower-case, which are more conversational and usually ‘quieter’. These differences are significant in deciding what kind of information is to be communicated, and how design can enable this to be achieved.

MOVING TOWARDS INTERPRETATION

In designing work which is intended mainly to be informative, legibility is always the primary consideration, though the appearance of the work is likely to be equally significant to the client and viewer. In moving away from lettering which is simply informative the visual qualities of the work remain important, but interpretation of the words begins to have a role to play in the design. What do these words mean to you, the designer and maker? Do they have a special significance for you, and how might this be communicated to anyone who views your work? This is perhaps the most personal and elusive aspect of lettering and everyone has to find their own way of working into it. It is, however, possible to give some pointers: ideas and ways of working which may be useful.

EXPERIMENTING WITH DIFFERENT ALPHABETS AND SPACING

Combining upper- and lower-case letters in the same inscription can be useful in achieving the visual equivalent of the right tone of voice. It can be done in two ways. The first is simply to design parts of the text in upper-case to show which words you feel need to be more emphatic, and the remainder in lower-case.

Fig. 16.9a–b
Questions, 2017. Cherry wood. All the letters are lightweight and semi-formal, but the use of upper-case makes the first question more emphatic than the second. Notice how the close spacing, massed texture and lack of added colour slows the pace of reading, though the text is still perfectly legible.

The second way is to combine upper and lower-case letter-forms in a single alphabet. This has two advantages. First, it gives the visual equivalent of a tone of voice between the imperative and the conversational: softer than the one and a little more emphatic than the other. Secondly, it allows more flexibility in design. There is a wider choice of interesting shapes, and it may be possible to avoid using awkward ascenders and descenders. For example, upper-case letters B and R may be thought more interesting than lower-case, and using D and G may avoid spacing problems.

Combining upper and lower-case gives opportunities for experimenting with spacing, especially very close spacing without condensing the letters. It also makes possible the linking of letters and the making of new letterforms.

When used with more than one line of lettering, this kind of design can be made to work vertically as well as horizontally, creating an overall texture of lettering which can be visually pleasing. Legibility is reduced, but this slows the reader down and may help in appreciating the quality of language and imagery.

The variety of letterforms and patterns available to the designer becomes even wider if different languages are explored. Old English, for example (the language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons) has some familiar letters and others we no longer use, but adapting their written letters can produce interesting textures, especially when using close spacing. Even older are the runic letters which the written script of the Anglo-Saxons replaced. These are now primarily decorative, and though they are all composed of straight lines, they nevertheless pose some intriguing problems for the designer and carver.

If letters are moved even closer together, they begin to overlap. This may make reading more difficult, though not impossible, but at the same time produces a wealth of new shapes and spaces.

Fig. 16.10a–b
Psalm 90, 2012. Cherry root wood. Designing on this unusually shaped piece of wood was made much more effective by combining upper and lower-case letters. The second side was so hard that it could not be shaped by normal means and had to be sculpted directly with gouges.

Fig. 16.11
Verbum Tuum 4, 2009. Very hard Welsh oak. Very close spacing without condensing the letterforms gives opportunities for experimenting with shapes and combinations. The oak grew within a mile of where the slate base was quarried. (Translation: A lantern to my feet.)

Fig. 16.12
Fiona and Mike, 2008. Ash and acrylic paint. Carved on a half-cylinder from a sapling, this name-piece gave an opportunity to play with letterforms and combine them into a visual texture.

Fig. 16.13a–b
Cherry, 2020. American cherry and acrylic paint. Lightweight upper and lower-case letterforms combined with very close spacing to create a visual texture which is both legible and decorative. Vertical grain made it much easier to carve the acute angles and narrow gaps.

Fig. 16.14
Birch Rune, 2016. Birch and acrylic paint. Modernized tenth-century Old English lower-case with very close spacing, making a dense visual texture which, though quite legible, is for today’s viewers primarily decorative. (Translation: (Birch) has no fruit, yet without seeds it produces shoots. It is glorious in its branches, tall in its crown, beautifully adorned, spreading its leaves high, reaching to the sky.)

Fig. 16.15
Wood Runes, 2016. Five letters from the English runic alphabet, each having the name of a tree carved on the wood it names: thorn (hawthorn), yew, birch, oak and ash.

Fig. 16.16a–b
Arise, 2010. Ash with acrylic paint. Steam bent, unused trial pieces from a furniture maker. The italic letters are overlapping but the overlaps are not carved, breaking the letters up and producing new shapes and spaces. (Translation: Arise, my love, arise and come.)

Fig. 16.17a–b
Peace comes dropping slow, 2010. Sycamore with some ripple grain. In this piece the overlapping of italic letters is carried a stage further. The overlaps are carved as separate shapes, making a complex mosaic of v-cuts and ridges.

Italic is especially interesting when treated in this way because, when drawn with pencils, most of the letters are composed of two or more distinct shapes (see Chapter 13). If the overlapping areas are not carved, these basic shapes are broken up and the lettering becomes visually more varied and complex. If the overlaps are treated as separate shapes and carved, the complexity is increased still further and though the lettering is difficult to read, the visual textures and patterns produced are both decorative and intriguing.

EXPERIMENTING WITH ORIENTATION AND POSITION

Changing the orientation of lettering from horizontal to vertical can provide a simple and decorative way to work with wood, which can be especially effective when this has an obvious relationship with the way the wood would usually be seen. More subtly, re-orienting some words from horizontal to vertical is a useful device when change itself is the subject of the inscription.

Sometimes the subject of the text either directly or indirectly suggests vertical movement, for example the gentle falling of rain. In such a case it is possible to make the design imitate the words by making the words seem to trickle (rather than cascade) down the wood, overlapping each other in a slightly irregular, random way.

As an alternative to changing orientation, the significance of words can be suggested more strongly by superimposing the principal line of text onto one or more words which are related and drawn much larger. The background word or words will be partly obscured and the combination needs to be designed so that they can still be read to complement the main text. At its simplest, with straight lines of letters, superimposing text in this way tends to produce a very static design. However, this idea can be elaborated by using a longer text designed in a more dynamic way, and by the use of colour.

Fig. 16.18a–b
Drink, 2019. An old oak barrel stave, with acrylic paint. Fairly small but bold formal Roman, celebrating the former use of the wood. The letters are double-coloured with two reds. The second part of painting had to be done in several stages as each section of the curved stave had to be kept level while the second wash dried within the letters.

Designing letters in overlapping and undulating lines can be effective in suggesting rhythm which complements the meaning of the words, but the words themselves may have rhythmic qualities which can be suggested in a visual form. The rhythm of verse in English is marked by emphasis or stress which is heard when the verse is read. When reading aloud, the voice tends to drop in pitch and increase in volume on stressed syllables, and rise on unstressed ones. If this audible pattern is translated into an up-and-down movement in a line of letters and words, the rhythm of the verse is given a graphic form which can be wave-like or dancing and so reinforce its meaning.

WHAT KIND OF MESSAGE IS BEING COMMUNICATED?

Many different kinds of message can be communicated by choosing words and designing them so that the lettering interprets and complements the meaning they have for the designer. If the meaning is very personal, lower-case letters and simplicity are often sufficient, but other personal observations may be made vivid and more in the character of announcements by the use of colour, texture and vigorous upper-case letterforms.

Less personal, more social and political observations may be made very effectively in a graphic, visible and tactile form, especially when they can be amplified by images or objects incorporated into the design. As the artist David Jones showed in his ground-breaking painted lettering, such messages can be even more striking when the language they are written in is ancient or unfamiliar, so that the reader has to decipher them.

In a similar way, religious belief and faith can be affirmed and celebrated by designing familiar prayers and other pieces of liturgy in a striking visual form. This is particularly effective when colour, letterforms or layout have a close relationship with the meaning of the words. If the words are very familiar, lettering which is not immediately or very easily legible is not likely to be a problem and may even add to the significance of the piece. Experimental layout and colouring, while always being respectful of the text, can make a lively, harmonious and decorative contribution to the meaning which the words have for the viewer.

Fig. 16.19a–c
Mutation, 2010. Oak; a weathered offcut found in a fence, with acrylic paint. Semi-formal Roman lower-case, the words changing orientation to echo the meaning of the words, with the word ‘tout’ (everything) emphasized. (Translation: And everything has changed so much in me, everything except my love.)

Fig. 16.20a–b
Memory and Rain, 2019. Ash, colour-washed before carving; lightweight informal lower-case. Notice that the short words stay horizontal, while the longer ones trickle down vertically. The reduced legibility is intentional: to slow the reader down.

Fig. 16.21a–b
Logos, 2017. Oak ‘limed’ with white acrylic paint before carving. The English words run through the Greek (meaning ‘word’) while leaving it legible. Condensed lightweight formal Roman; the whole design intentionally very static.

Fig. 16.22a–b
Poseidon 2, 2020. Oak, colour-washed before carving; the letters double coloured. Notice how the English lettering follows the rhythm of the spoken verse, giving a much more dynamic feeling to the design than the static Logos (see previous illustration).

Fig. 16.23
Summer Haiku, 1997. Pear wood; formal italic. The simple, unadorned italic is in keeping with the very personal message of the verse. Notice how carving the crossover points instead of smoothing them out lightens the fairly heavy letterforms.

Fig. 16.24a–b
Autobiography, 2012. Oak, chainsawn and bandsawn offcut from a colleague’s workshop; acrylic paint applied before carving. The colours represent the rocks where I grew up (Sussex chalk cliffs) and where I live now (Cambrian siltstone). The words sum up a great part of my work in lettering and visible language. (Translation: I do not seek: I find.)

Fig. 16.25a–b
Gwastraff a Rhyfel (Waste and War), 2020. Chainsawn ash, with acrylic paint and rusted steel. The wood was found on a pile of offcuts; the steel was a rusty can found flattened in the road. Semi-formal lowercase with special letterforms (dd, rh and two forms of y) for the Welsh language. (Translation: Idleness is the sword’s praise / and rust is its honour.)

Fig. 16.26a–b
Ave (Hail!), 2010. Quarter-sawn antique oak, ‘limed’ with white acrylic paint; mineral pigments (lapis lazuli and malachite) in acrylic medium; gold leaf. A very familiar text (so legibility is less necessary than usual), treated experimentally and decoratively. (Translation: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.)

Fig. 16.27
Man deth (A man does), 2018. Old oak ‘limed’ with white acrylic paint. An Old English proverb in modernized tenth-century lower-case; a message as relevant today as it was a millennium ago. (Translation: A man does as he is / when he may do as he will.)

On the other hand, lettering need not always be serious, and a sense of fun can lead to a smile of appreciation in the reader. This is likely to be all the greater, and the appeal of the work more lasting, when there is a more serious meaning behind the humorous façade.

Fig. 16.28a–b
Cracked, 2016. Cracked olive ash with acrylic paint; the text suggested by the state of the wood. Another opportunity to contrast formal lettering (cursive italic) with apparently humorous words which nevertheless have a more serious meaning.

Fig. 16.29a–b
Tread softly, 2006. Deeply weathered oak; ‘dissected’ italic (second version, see Chapter 13). Wirebrushing to remove loose and decayed material revealed a rich surface texture. Apart from pockets of decay, the wood was remarkably sound.

Truth is not confined to time or space, and ideas from the distant past can be as relevant today as they were a millennium or more ago. Sayings from history can send powerful messages to us, and often do not need more than good layout and sound carving to be effective. The art lies in selecting words which have bite and relevance, an ability which is shown very clearly in David Jones’s inscriptions.

SAFETY NOTE

A suitable face mask should always be worn when wire-brushing, as the dust released may be harmful and is very likely to contain fungal spores if the wood is at all decayed.

USING UNCONVENTIONAL MATERIALS

Once one moves away from designing on flat, smooth rectangular boards, the shape, colour and surface texture of the wood can start to play a more active part in the design process. Looking critically at the wood and imagining words carved on it is likely to suggest some possibilities and to discourage others. The ideal material, particularly for interpretative work, is one which has a relationship with the words. This can be a visual connection or one which is related to the wood’s previous history. It can arise naturally by chance or be made by design, and wood need not always be bought, unused or in pristine condition to be useful in creative design and carving.

Used, weathered and eroded wood may limit what can be designed and carved on it, but may also suggest design ideas and opportunities. Driftwood from beaches and offcuts from others’ workshops are potentially rich sources of material. Wood always carries its own history in the way it has grown. This record is overlain, though rarely completely hidden, by human use, weathering or erosion, so designing and carving words on the wood can be seen as simply adding another chapter to an ongoing story.

If the wood is heavily weathered or decayed at the surface, it is usually necessary to remove loose material from the surface by wire-brushing.

Occasionally one may come across pieces which were made for a specific purpose and then for some reason not used. These are usually of good quality wood and their shape may suggest design ideas which can be very stimulating and productive.

Fig. 16.30a–b
Except the Lord, 2015. Oak: trial 45° tenon joints (unused) for a house frame made by Peter Kaufhold; acrylic paint. Both the form and the history of the wood suggested the text. Semi-formal condensed Roman uppercase, which has some features in common with late Roman (‘rustic’) brush lettering.

Fig. 16.31
Oldships, 2016. Oak boat frame, discarded from a restoration project, with original nails which secured the hull planks; acrylic paint. ‘Dissected’ italic (first version; see Chapter 13). The history of the wood suggested the text; both originated early in the twentieth century.

Fig. 16.32
Sea Kennings, 2020. Driftwood and acrylic paint. Apart from carving and colour, all these pieces of wood are exactly as found. Kennings are poetic metaphors used in Old English poetry. All these mean ‘the sea’. (Translation: Seal’s track; play of salt waves; fishes’ bath.)

Fig. 16.33
Surf Rider (detail), 2020. Driftwood (probably an ash branch); painted with acrylic washes before being carved. Precise carving was impossible on the eroded surface; nevertheless, it suggested an interesting text which suited its character and history.

Equally stimulating and useful are pieces which have been used and then discarded as a result of demolition or renovation. These are particularly valuable when the former use is obvious and can be related to words one would like to design and carve.

Driftwood is, literally, scrap. Lost, discarded, washed up on a beach, battered and worn, it can be a particularly fertile source of interesting ideas. Sometimes whole boards or tree branches are found, but even quite small pieces can suggest significant words. However, driftwood does need to be treated with caution, and it is necessary to inspect it closely for grit in the grain, which can damage chisels and gouges. Also, it has to be accepted that driftwood may be far from perfect as a material for carving. It is often impossible to carve finely finished lettering on driftwood, but this can be compensated for by qualities of form and texture which are likely to be lacking in more conventionally sourced material. The main problem is likely to be softening through decay or long immersion. If you can push your thumbnail into the wood it will be much too soft to carve. If your thumbnail will only just dent it, it is worth drying it out and seeing what can be done with it.

Offcuts from other makers’ workshops can also provide high quality wood and be a fertile source of ideas. Pieces which are not useful to a furniture maker, for example, perhaps because they have flaws or are too small, can be very useful for small-scale lettering.

Designing and carving letters does not preclude one from other branches of woodwork, and there are often opportunities to shape and carve wood in order to make a suitable workpiece which complements the chosen words. The possibilities are limited only by one’s imagination!

Fig. 16.34a–b
Dappled, 2009. Brown oak with acrylic paint. Formal italic on a beautifully figured offcut of brown oak, a gift from a furniture maker. This is an obvious case where the wood tells the maker what it has to say.

Fig. 16.35a–b
Wild Swans, 2011. Cleft sycamore, an offcut from tree pruning whose shape suggested a bird’s wing. Acrylic paint was applied after cutting the surface texture but before carving the letters. Formal italic, showing how readily it can be designed into flowing lines, like the flight of the birds.

ENVOI

In creating visible language and using it to communicate meaning (and perhaps feelings, beliefs and emotions), we have to work in partnership with our tools and materials, much as a gardener works in partnership with site, rocks, soil and plants. It has been observed that traditionally, Japanese and Western gardeners approach design and making in different ways. Whereas the Western gardener might say, ‘I am a gardener. I wish to plant a cherry tree here’, the Japanese gardener would be more likely to say, ‘I am a cherry tree. Where do I wish to live?’ For us as letter-designers and carvers it is probably a mistake to treat the wood merely as raw material and think, ‘I am a letter carver. I wish to carve these words on this piece of wood’. We are likely to be better attuned to our material if we think, ‘What words can this piece of wood carry?’ and even, ‘What does it want to say?’ This may sound fanciful, but it is not. Listen to the wood: listen with your eyes and your hands and be patient: it will tell you what to do.

APPENDIX 1: BASIC ALPHABET

APPENDIX 2

EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS SUPPLIERS

Apart from blocks to raise the workbench to working height, all the equipment required can be obtained from local hardware stores or by mail order online.

Chisels and gouges

Recommended makers: Pfeil, Stubai and Ashley Iles.

Pfeil tools are available from: classichandtools.com and rutlands.com

Stubai tools are available from: yandles.co.uk, charnwood.net and tiranti.co.uk

Ashley Iles tools are available from: ashleyilestoolstore.co.uk

Water-cooled grinding wheel

These are essential for preparing and maintaining chisels and gouges, but are only needed occasionally after that. Very high-quality machines are made by Tormek, and although less expensive models are sold by major tool outlets such as Tool-station and Screwfix, buying one for yourself is still a major investment. An alternative is to seek out access to a machine from other craftspeople or organizations in your area, such as woodworking clubs or the technical departments of Further Education Colleges.

Arkansas gouge slips

These are available from: classichandtools.com and tiranti.co.uk

Autosol metal polish, used as a dressing for strops, is widely available from car parts stores and online.

Wood

Hardwoods suitable for lettering are not usually stocked by most timber merchants. Because only very small quantities are likely to be required, it is worth searching for local and specialist sources which supply other wood crafts, such as furniture makers. Tree services and forestry contractors may be helpful in supplying less-common woods, and craftsmen or specialist joinery firms may have offcuts available which are suitable for lettering work. Some timber suppliers have stock which can be visited to select particular pieces and are worth seeking out, such as Yandles of Martock, Yeovil, Somerset (yandles.co.uk) and Duffield Timber of Melmerby, Ripon, North Yorkshire (duffieldtimber.com).

Acrylic paints and brushes

Recommended paints: Winsor and Newton Professional Acrylic paints.

Recommended brushes for painting-in letters: ProArte Prolene Series 10 signwriters’ brushes, available in a range of sizes.

All these are available by mail order from pullingers.com

APPENDIX 3

FURTHER READING

The most useful books are those with a variety of ideas for the design of carved lettering. Of these, the most informative and easily available is:

Perkins, Tom, The Art of Letter Carving in Stone (Crowood Press, 2007)

Although not directly connected with wood at all, this book includes a lot of information on the geometry of Roman lettering and alternative methods of spacing. In addition, it has a wide variety of designs, drawn and photographed, for letters and formal inscriptions such as memorials, many of which could successfully be used in wood.

In addition, the following books are well worth searching for in libraries (both are out of print and expensive on the second-hand book market):

Harvey, Michael, Creative Lettering, Drawing and Design (Bodley Head, 1985)

This book has extensive information on alternative methods of drawing letters, and detailed analyses of letterforms. Altogether it is a great source of design ideas, many of which could be used for carving in wood.

Harvey, Michael, Carving Letters in Stone and Wood (Bodley Head, 1987)

An interesting variety of alternative methods for carving letters in wood is very briefly described, but here again Harvey’s design ideas, both for letters and inscriptions, are varied and stimulating.

There is also a short film Silent Voices by the Goldmark Gallery about my work which is available online on YouTube, and which has some short clips of carving and painting-in letters.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is a truism that most if not all books are written by individuals but made possible only by communities. Without the help of many people this book could never have been started, let alone finished. The first salutation must go to Harry Spring of Princes Risborough, a professional carver who in 1967, having been made redundant, generously showed me the basics of letter-carving and so enabled me to develop a sound technique. The book itself has grown out of nearly twenty years’ teaching at West Dean College and owes a great deal, not only to the excellent teaching and learning environment there, but also to the students themselves, who helped me to learn far more than I could ever have taught them.

The greatest contribution to this book has come from my wife and family, who have weathered the inevitable ups and downs of authorship with love and patience. Special thanks are due to our son Matt, who has helped me on numerous occasions to escape from the traps of the digital world into which I have fallen. Mike Goldmark and his team at Goldmark Gallery have for many years been unfailing in their support and encouragement, and I am particularly grateful to Roger Porter who scanned all the drawings for me, and to Jay Goldmark who re-photographed several items for this book. My thanks go also to Hilary Self of Hilton Herbs who generously made their trade sign available for illustration, and to Heather Giles who photographed it exactly as I asked.

Finally, I have to thank The Crowood Press for the invitation to write this book, and for their unfailing advice and support during its writing and production.

A note on the figures and illustrations

Many people (I am one) do not have access to computer graphics, so the line drawings and diagrams have been drawn either freehand or using only the simple aids described in the text.

All the works illustrated are by the author, who also photographed most of them; photographs by others are individually acknowledged. The majority of the illustrations were taken not for exhibition but solely as records of work over the last thirty-odd years. Photographs of equipment and carving processes were taken at the workbench, under very variable light conditions. These again are not exhibition pieces: they simply show how the work was done.

INDEX

acrylic paint 177–8

choice of 178

suppliers 204

annual rings 9, 10, 11, 147

arches and troughs (lower-case letters) 116, 133, 155–6

ascenders and descenders 114, 120–1, 132–3, 154, 156

ash 9, 11, 97, 146–7, 157

background colour 184–6

beech 9, 11, 146, 157

birch 9

bowl of letter 47, 55–7, 88, 94, 115, 132–4, 142, 153–4, 158–60

brushes 179, 181

suppliers 204

chasing cuts 31, 141

cherry, American 10

chisels and gouges, safe storage of 13–4, 19

selection of 14–15, 77, 121–2, 157

sharpening of 16–19

suppliers 204

chopping cuts 28–9, 37, 140

circular lettering layout 109–11

colours for lettering 178

condensing and extending letters 106–8, 161

controlling and placing tools 23, 24–5

counter 41, 43–4, 47, 84–6, 87, 88, 94, 106–7, 115–6, 132

crossover points in italic lower-case 152, 154, 155, 162

cursive (italic) 162

cutting tools, see chisels and gouges

design of inscriptions 77, 96, 105–6, 109–11, 126, 137, 146

direction of cutting in relation to grain 24, 36–9, 43–4, 56–7, 140

double pencils 151

drawing and tracing 14, 35, 79, 84–95, 115–8, 130–36, 151–6, 164–7, 170, 174

driftwood 197–8

enlarging and reducing letter sizes 106

entasis 35, 59

extending and condensing letters 106–8

fibres (wood) 9

finishes 186–7

fruit woods 10, 146, 157

gouge, see chisels and gouges

grain of wood 9, 11, 139–40, 145, 187

grids, as aids to drawing 82, 87–95, 130

grinding of tools 12, 16–17, 121–2, 204

hand positions and grips 22–3

hawthorn 10, 146

holly 10, 146, 157

honing chisels and gouges 17–18, 19

interpretation of words through design 126, 137, 191–9

junctions, acute-angled 59–63, 144–5, 159–62

between curves and stems 122, 132–3, 159–62

legibility and communication 81, 137, 189–96

lighting 13

lower-case (minuscules, ‘small’) letters 33, 113, 130, 149, 151, 190

mallets, selection of 16

use of, 23–4

maple, hard American 10

numerals 72–5, 96, 124–5, 136, 166–7

proportions of 74, 124–5

oak 9–10, 11, 79, 146–7, 157, 179, 186

oil (alkyd) paints 179

oil for wood finishing 187

orientation of lettering 193–5

painting-in letters 179–82

point-ends 65–7, 144–5

pore zones 10, 147

preparation of tools for lettering 16–19

proportions of letters 33, 35, 38, 42, 47, 49, 51, 55, 59, 65, 82, 106–8, 114–5, 130, 134–5, 152–6, 162

changing and modifying 106–7, 109–11, 126, 162–4, 170, 192–6

quarter-sawn 11, 147

reducing size of lettering 106

relief lettering 173–5

ring-porous woods 10, 11, 140, 146–7, 157

rocking cuts 31, 37, 140–1, 145

sap-wood 9, 10

scrap and discarded wood 197–8

selection of wood for lettering 9–11, 79, 146–7, 157, 171, 179, 197–8

serifs 83, 114–5, 141, 155

sharpening of chisels and gouges 16–19

gauge (bevel) 16

shaving cuts 29

slab-sawn 11, 97, 147

slicing cuts 30, 140–1, 145

slip-stone 13, 17, 204

softwoods 10

spacing, of letters and words 77–9, 99–106, 118–20, 136

inter-line 105, 120–1

vertical 105–6

ways of judging 79, 99–104, 118–20

spring and summer wood 9–10, 147

stabbing and scoring cuts 26–7, 35–6, 140, 144–5, 158

stop-ends 35, 36–7, 39, 56–7, 140–1

storage of tools 12, 13–4, 19

stroke width 35, 42, 49, 55, 59, 65, 82, 106–7, 114–5

changes in 106

strop and strop dressing 13, 18, 157

stropping chisels and gouges 18–19

sycamore 9, 146, 157

symmetry and asymmetry 59, 91, 129

templates and stencils, as aids to drawing 84–6, 130, 152, 154

tools, see individual names toughness in wood 9, 59, 146, 157

tracing and transferring letters 34, 79

tulip tree 9

under-painting 181

upper-case (majuscules, ‘capital’) letters 33, 81, 99, 134, 164, 190

varnish 186–7

walnut, American black 10

‘weight’ of lettering 35, 81–2, 106, 114

wood fibres and grain 9

suppliers 204

varieties, see individual names

workbench 12

x-height 114, 151–2