WOOD-CARVING. 



155 



Section XIII. — Wood-Carving. 



The wood-carver is represented by a whole class of artizans 

 who use a number of chisel-like tools, especially in the finish of 

 their products. The following classification of these wares is 

 attempted : — 



1. Coarse Wood-Carving. 



All sorts of bowls, plates, platters, corn, meal, and bakers' 

 shovels, kitchen-rollers, milliners' blocks, milk-ladles, wooden 

 spoons, wooden shoes, shoemakers' lasts, saddle-trees, &c. 

 Beechwood is chiefly used for these articles, and sycamore-wood 

 for cooking apparatus; wood of birch, aspen, lime and poplar are 

 also used, and boxwood for the finest Russian wares. 



Short wooden butts are chiefly used, which for the larger 

 bowls, platters, &c., should be 3 feet and more in diameter, and, 

 on account of their size, are becoming scarce. For smaller 

 articles, and especially sabots, or wooden shoes, the better sorts 

 of timber are required. All the timber used should split easily, 

 bo perfectly sound and free from defects and knots. 



As the finished articles must be, above all, safe from warping 

 and sufficiently strong, the cuts should be along their lines of 



Fig. 48. 



greatest extension. The butt is therefore split into from four to 

 six sectors, from which the core and bark are removed and the 

 shape roughly hewn-out with an adze. The further finish is 

 given to the articles with special instruments, which are bent 

 according to its shape, and of which figs. 48 and 49 represent 

 general types. 



