Look at all of that flat surface, 8 x 20 inches of it! Not a hollow in sight. So when I made this walnut serving board recently, I just had to sculpt the bottom.
If you’re short on green wood, this might be a great project that will help hone your adze skills. I started with a dry walnut board, 1 1/2 inches thick, that I had around. I penciled some guidelines on the edges, then worked cross-grain with the adze — working in toward the middle from both edges to avoid blowout. I quickly pared over that surface with some cross grain gouge work, then hand-planed the top smooth.
The recipient is fond of the pineapple motif, so I carved a series of them on each end using simple gouge chip cuts. I first realized the incredible possibilities of this technique through Peter Follansbee’s work in reproducing the furniture and carving patterns of the 17th century. Here is just one of Peter’s posts over the years incorporating the technique in a variety of ways.
Essentially, you drive a gouge straight down, then make an angled second cut somewhere behind that to remove a chip. By varying the size and sweep of the gouge, the distance between cuts, and the arrangement of the elements, all sorts of interesting shapes and patterns can be created. Effective and a lot of fun.
David Fisher, Carving Explorations 
I thought of you when I say this and the walnut boards in the shop
On Fri, Dec 30, 2016 at 1:01 PM, David Fisher, Carving Explorations wrote:
> Dave Fisher posted: ” Look at all of that flat surface, 8 x 20 inches of > it! Not a hollow in sight. So when I made this walnut serving board > recently, I just had to sculpt the bottom. If you’re short on green wood, > this might be a great project that will help hone your ” >
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Elegant and beautiful .
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Dave, Your serving board looks great. I have made a few bread boards by cutting some larger logs parallel on the to the two sides of the pith. This produces two nice quarter sawn boards. I already have plenty of wood chips, so why not make a bread board out of the wood. My old chopping block even produced some nice boards out of soft maple with some very nice spalding colors. Thanks for sharing. It is always nice to see beautiful uses of the wood around us.
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That’s a great way to get a couple good boards, Paul. Thanks.
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What gouges did you use for these particular pineapples?
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Mark, below are the gouges I used, but keep in mind that sweeps from various makers can vary and a number of other combinations could produce pleasing results. Designs can be adapted to use the gouges one has on hand. I’ve bought a lot of carving gouges over the years, and a selection comes in handy for stuff like this.
Sides: #8 25mm
Leaves: #8 10mm and #7 11mm
Bottom: #8 6mm
Middle Divisions: #6 14mm
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A Happy New Year, David. That is another lovely piece of craftsmanship, and it is a reminder to me that my neighbour, who is a cake maker, said there is a growing market for hand made cake stands for weddings etc., (turned or carved? I’m not sure which, or maybe both). I did have a brief look around the Internet and there are some constructed with reclaimed wood and nicely finished, but I want to find some decent sized pieces of timber to make ones out of single pieces, I’m not sure what timber – have to make time to experiment, nothing ventured – ….
Anyway thanks for sharing. All the Best.
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