[Woodcarver] Merrilee's window and door corners.

[Joe Dillett]

Well, that is a sad thing Jan!  I have been so busy I don't get on as much
as I would like to.  But I will share that I am carving 16 window and door
corners for my sister's new addition.  I have 7 done and 9 more to do.  They
are all different and I am at the point now that I am getting confused with
what I have done and which ones to do next.  They look great on the window
sashes!  She better never sell her house (lol)
Merrilee
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Hi Merrilee,

Is there a chance that you would share some photo of those window and door 
corners? This sounds like a very interesting project.

About a year ago Tina (one of my apprentices) and I carved 60 window and 
door corners for a new addition of a very old house. There was a right and 
left hand design and a larger middle design. The design was a simple spoon 
carving to match the old ones in the house. The customer brought in a few of 
the old ones (made about 1860). Being that they were almost 150 years old I 
assumed they were hand carved. The customer was in the process of stripping 
the many coats of paint from the old ones so we couldn't tell if they were 
all hand carved or not. A month after we finished them the customer called 
and said that she needed 10 more. She also said that she had found one that 
was never installed in her attic. She brought it over. I was surprised to 
see that it was machine done. It looked like they used a template and 
several different router style bits.

We made the new ones out of plain sawn southern yellow pine, with a very 
wide grain pattern, to match the old ones. We had difficulty carving the 
soft early growth part of the grain withough crushing it. We needed to 
sharpen the chisels at a very low angle and keep them extreemly sharp to 
keep from crushing it.

My house is about 100 years old with that beautiful wide southern yellow 
pine woodwork. I've been tempted to put some carving on it.

Joe Dillett
The Carving Shop
645 E. LaSalle St. Suite 3
Somonauk, IL. 60552

(815) 498-9290 phone
(815) 498-9249 fax
http://www.thecarvingshop.net [business web site]
http://www.carvingmagazine.com ['Ask Joe' column]
http://community.webshots.com/user/joe_dillett
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