Hen and Chips...

Recently I have been carving  Ale hens.

These hens are simple to make, and once you have confidence you can make them as stylised as you like...

I have decorated some of my hens with a very simple line of chip carving.

Using the back of the knife gently score a guide line around the cup.

You can just make out the scratch in the photograph.

Then push the tip of a very very sharp knife into the wood at the top of the triangle. If you have trouble sharpening your knife then head off to the art shop and buy a scalpel. The scalpel tips are fragile so be careful. The blade must be angled toward the bottom left of the triangle...

And keeping the blade point in the top of the triangle rock the blade toward the bottom left...

Pull the blade out and replace the tip at the top of the triangle.

 This time the blade must be angled toward the bottom right of the triangle...

And rock the blade down...

Now the tricky bit...
Carefully push the tip of the blade into the triangle, at a slight angle. Push until your knife tip has reached the pinnacle of the triangle...

Once you think you have cut the wood fibres up to the pinnacle, swing the blade to the right...

The chip should easily come free...

Done !

I have seen some extremely ornate chip carved treen.
This is the start point...

I use the same three cut technique to form the eyes...

And with a hot nail I burn in the pupils...

The finished Hen...

Not quite...

Now Dolly says it's finished...

I'm sure you're going to have fun with chip carving...

ENJOY...J