Plinth and Jamb Complete

Hooray! The weather here in Charleston has finally broke. We've went from layers of thermals doing our best to keep warm indoors prior to spring break, to t-shirts and shorts working under our timber framed stone shed. Picking up speed and quality on our fireplace project as well.

First up was "tooling" all of the previously carved surfaces. For this we chose a bolster, 2" chisel to be struck with a "dummy", a very lightweight hammer that doesn't give much of an impact, allowing optimum control without risk of damage.

Next us was the last remaining profile the cavetto. I find convex shapes most challenging as it requires a instinctive feel for the precise angle of your chisel to assure you don't dig in to deeply. The process is carve a row top and bottom, carve out the mass in the middle, repeat with increasing caution. Repeating this when the profile is itself extruded on a curve is a real challenge to be faced in the next piece to be carved, the mantle.

I was able to borrow a 1" "bullnose" that was a tremendous help. Unlike a gouge which blade itself if curved, the bullnose is a straight chisel with the edges rounded. This one was the perfect size and I was able to carve out the cavetto quickly and accurately. Finally with jamb and plinth complete I was able to mount one atop the other. Exciting to see our design coming to realisation!