(Forming Props With Your Computer... pg 2)

Once you have the data in hand, all that remains is to mark the wooden block and start whittling. I’ve made a couple of props this way now, and have a few observations to pass along that may be helpful:

First is the choice of materials. For my first block I used pine, which involved a fair amount of work. For my second I chose balsa, and that was much easier to carve. However, there is a tradeoff – with the balsa it is much more difficult to control the depth of the cut, and much easier to remove too much material at once. I imagine that this would get easier with practice and, of course, a sharp knife is imperative in order to have the maximum control of the cutting process. You might want to experiment to see which you prefer to use. Of course, the pine should be less susceptible to denting and damage with repeated use, too.

A second consideration is the thickness of the block. All of the discussions that I had read about carving forming blocks talked about the thickness of the block, so I just assumed that it was necessary to use the full thickness. Then it occurred to me: if you can carve up to and not go over the slanted line on top of the block, then you can certainly do the same thing with a horizontal line on the side of the block. That is, you can mark the block so that you use less than the full thickness, and end up with less work. (refer to illustrations below.)

The ability to control the cut depends somewhat on the grain of the wood. You will want to have the grain running in the direction of the cut. It is also easier to carve from the narrow end to the wide end (see illustrations, below) as this involves cutting both with the grain and into the block. Cutting in the opposite direction tends to tear the wood fibers rather than cutting them cleanly.