Thread: A little Bali report

Inside everything was handmade ..



In the background you can just make out someone working with the floor as his bench and using a power plane to thickness the boards.

One of the other places I visited made more upmarket panels.



They were happy to let me watch them at work ..



Floors for benches and body weight to hold the work ..





The chisels were - at best - rather rudimentary. Do you think the steel was 3V or M4?



Working from tracings ..

Of course, Bali was not all woodworking ...





Regards from Perth

Derek

Thanks for that, brilliant stuff. Not the greatest working conditions but then again they probably don't have to put up with "team" meetings and performance reviews.
Seems fair.

I'll take a wild guess and say that the carving tradition there gets its roots from Hinduism, as there are some very elaborate carvings associated with it.

Really would like to visit Bali one day.

Originally Posted by derekcohen

The chisels were - at best - rather rudimentary. Do you think the steel was 3V or M4?

If they are anything like the tools I saw used (also incredibly well!) in Vietnam, the steel would be whatever the local blacksmiths could get their hands on - old car springs, worn-out files, etc.

Amazing how practice & skill can make HSS redundant...

Cheers,

At first you feel sorry for the little buggers but then when you get over your self, you have no choice but to sit back and just admire there skill and ability to make things work no matter the conditions without any complaints.
Thanks for sharing, some great photos there

Many thanks for sharing these with us Derek.

Interesting to see how the working faces of their mallets have become cupped through working on those chisels, but very scary to see how close they put the family jewels and limbs to those sharp edges when they sit on the plank or whatever they are carving.

Did you see how they sharpened their chisels?? If they are like the Vietnamese carvers I have seen it is all done by eye, and they don't worry about such esoteric concepts as secondary bevels, finely honed backs on chisels, honing gauges or strict adherence to sharpening regimes based on sequentially finer stones.

Hmmm, perhaps there is something to be learned here.

Cheerio

Derek, very nice pictures. I live in Thailand in the north, Chiang Mai. They do a tremedous amount of carving up here as well. All done in the same manner as you show. A lot of women working on the carving here. It always amazes me how they can sit on the floor like that and work, particularly in the summer time when it is 42 degrees. No air con in these shops and factories!

Neil

Originally Posted by woodie one

... Did you see how they sharpened their chisels?? If they are like the Vietnamese carvers I have seen it is all done by eye, and they don't worry about such esoteric concepts as secondary bevels, finely honed backs on chisels, honing gauges or strict adherence to sharpening regimes based on sequentially finer stones.

Hmmm, perhaps there is something to be learned here.

Cheerio

Hi W1

The only thing that resembled a sharpening medium was a round, hollowed stone. You can see it in this picture ..



Nothing flat there!

Regards from Perth

Derek

Many thanks Derek - very interesting!!

Cheerio