How to Carve Wooden Shells

Keep your carving tools sharp to carve wooden shells for furniture projects.

Wooden shells are traditional relief-carving elements in furniture pieces. They are common on wooden chair backs and china hutches. You can carve your own wooden shell into a woodworking project using chip carving techniques and tools. Practice carving the design on a scrap piece of wood before you carve it into the actual piece of wood you will use in your project in order to avoid ruining the project.

Things You'll Need

• Dimensional board at least 1 inch thick
• Pencil
• Flexible ruler
• Eraser
• Parting chisel
• Bench knife
• U-gouge chisel
• V-gouge chisel
• Fine-grit sandpaper

Instructions

1. Draw a shell onto a dimensional board that is at least 1 inch thick. Use the flexible ruler to create the outline of the shell and to draw the divisions inside the outline.

2. Erase any stray lines that were made during the drawing process that are not part of the final design. Trace over the lines of the final design to make them darker.

3. Use a parting chisel to cut at a slight angle from the outside of the lines toward the center of the design. Score all of the carving lines with this tool.

4. Clean up the scored lines of the parting chisel with a bench knife. Hold the bench knife at a slight angle, and remove any chips that were left behind by the parting tool.

5. Carve the recessed areas of the shell with a u-gouge chisel. Remove thin shavings one at a time until you are satisfied with the recesses in the carving.

6. Carve out the fine lines and details of the shell, such as the ridges along the surface of the shell, with a v-gouge. Hold the chisel at a slight angle, and apply light pressure to the handle to remove thin slivers of wood.

7. Refine the curved edges of the shell with a bench knife. Carve away small chips from the edges until the scalloped sections of the shell are curved.

8. Sand the carving with fine-grit sandpaper. Be careful when sanding areas with fine detail so that you do not remove the details in the sanding process. The carved element can now be included in the overall woodworking project.

Tips & Warnings

• Maintain a sharp edge on your carving tools to produce crisp cuts in the wood.

• Carve in the opposite direction of any body parts to avoid cutting yourself if the tool slips.

References

• Carving Patterns: Introductory Primer to Carving
• Zongkers: Carving Out a New Life for Old Furniture: Traditional Relief Carving Adds Value to Flea Market Finds

Resources

• Carving Patterns: Shells