Thread: Type of chiseling technique.

Looks like it's been done with an outcannel gouge or flaren working at 45 degrees to the grain, or maybe a convex spokeshave. Looks cool under the lacquer finish!!!

Hi David,I would say this is certainly done with an Adze.
It was and still is a technique favoured by the craftsmen at Robert Thomson.Although the technique goes back many centuries.
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Yep, agreed.
'Adze finish' furniture was briefly all the rage in the 70's.
Then it just vanished.
Looked just like photo 5 minus the burn marks.

I don't agree on those marks having come from an Adze .
It came from an aggressive rotary tool , electric powered most likely .
Something attached to an angle grinder.

Thanks for the input everyone. I have been looking into adze's and there use and it seems you can definitely achieve this effect with them. Seems like quite the skill though!
Auscab I know that for the cabinet pictured in the first images that it was done with hand tools as it states on the Snickeriet site. I am not sure for the other two though.
I really dig the look and am looking forward to trying it for myself. If anyone has any further example of the effect or other methods for achieving it I would love to see it. Also any insights on where I might find the tools locally (SE QLD) would be great.

Good point. There are rotary marks.

So photos 2 and 4 a rotary tool. Something like an arbortech maybe.

Still think photo 5 is an adze though.

Originally Posted by auscab

I don't agree on those marks having come from an Adze .
It came from an aggressive rotary tool , electric powered most likely .
Something attached to an angle grinder.

A quick browse on the website for this cabinet states that it is and I quote "painstakingly chiselled by hand"

Originally Posted by mark david

A quick browse on the website for this cabinet states that it is and I quote "painstakingly chiselled by hand"

Well they are saying that , but its not hand chiseled . What does that make them ?

If an adze or a gouge has a chip in the blade the mark left by that runs with the sweep of the cut , not at 90 degrees to it

Its something like Arron is saying , an arbortech possibly , but I don't think its even that .
It looks like a very aggressive stone or sanding disk , the lighter colored one,image 5, looks like a small sanding disc with the sanding marks at 90 degrees to the sweep of the cut.

Some of those photos look very much like a cabinet that was on the back of FWW not so long ago. Which was accompanied by a "how it was done" article

Who has access to back issues over the past 5 years?

It could be one of these . They come with 40 grit disks and possibly more coarse than that .

3M Disc Sander 28329, Air-Powered, 0.5 HP, 2 Inch, 12,000 RPM

Originally Posted by auscab

Well they are saying that , but its not hand chiseled . What does that make them ?

If an adze or a gouge has a chip in the blade the mark left by that runs with the sweep of the cut , not at 90 degrees to it

Its something like Arron is saying , an arbortech possibly , but I don't think its even that .
It looks like a very aggressive stone or sanding disk , the lighter colored one,image 5, looks like a small sanding disc with the sanding marks at 90 degrees to the sweep of the cut.

Yes you are right,looking at the close-up photos they have definitely used something like an Arbortech rotary tool.
Why did they have to lie about how it was done.

Originally Posted by mark david

Why did they have to lie about how it was done.

I don't have think they are really lieing. The term 'chiselled' can have lots of different meanings - and it's probably only us woodworkers who immediately think of a traditional chisel and think that one of them must be involved. Other people might think to chisel something is to hew out by hand or hand-held tool but not be specific about the tool used.

A bit of a grey area.

And to chisel someone is to con them.
(Sorry, just the way my mind works.)
Regards

Originally Posted by Arron

I don't have think they are really lieing. The term 'chiselled' can have lots of different meanings - and it's probably only us woodworkers who immediately think of a traditional chisel and think that one of them must be involved. Other people might think to chisel something is to hew out by hand or hand-held tool but not be specific about the tool used.

A bit of a grey area.

When they use the phrase "painstakingly hand chiselled" it should mean exactly that,and certainly no 50 shades of gray.

It's rather like what Gustav Stickley did,although he didn't lie about how the furniture was manufactured he didn't exactly elaborate too much.
He had a beautifully fitted out traditional small workshop with lots of hand tools,and people working away quietly by hand.This was what visitors to his factory saw.
What they didn't get to see was the main factory building with every piece of modern machinery required to mass produce the furniture.
Few people have any idea of the time and cost that would be involved to make a piece entirely crafted by hand.


I suppose it comes down to the fact that the average end user is not interested in either the techniques used to make a piece or the person that designed and made it.That has been my experience anyway.

Regardless of any arguments about the piece of furniture that David is asking about then the consesus of opinion seems to be that it is done by some kind of rotary tool rather than chisel and mallet.