Isle of Lewis Chess Piece Series - Wood Carving a Pawn from Sycamore wood

Wood Carving an Isle of Lewis Chess Piece - a pawn
In this video, Paul carves an Isle of Lewis Chesspiece. It is one of the pawns and the images he referenced were from the Musuem of London online catalog. There were several styles of pawns found and Paul is carving one of them from Sycamore wood.
Paul intends to carve a whole Isle of Lewis Chess Set using a variety of pieces (with different styles of pawn, warders, kings etc...) Every piece will be unique, but as close to the original as possible. The light set is going to be Sycamore wood and the dark set is going to be Cherry Wood.
All of these pieces will have a separate KZbin playlist.
The tools used in this video were:
- Flexcut Roughing knife (KN14)
- Flexcut detail knife (KN13)
- Flexcut mini chip knife (KN20)
- unbranded 10mm palm chisel
- unbranded 7mm hand chisel
- Flexcut gouge FR600 - 3 by 3mm
- Flexcut gouge FR601 - 5 by 3mmThanks for taking the time to view our video - if you liked it, we would be truly grateful if you hit the ‘like’ button.
If you like this video, then consider subscribing, as we will be doing the following:
- On Sunday at 11am we will be uploading a Wood Carving video
- We will also be uploading walking, hiking, wild swimming and wild camping videos as and when we do them (sometimes with a little whittle thrown in)
Video recorded on 29th and 31st July on DJI Pocket 2, edited using Shotcut. Music by Epidemic Sound (track - Down by the Barn by Damon Greene)
Instagram - / thewalkingwoodcrafters
Facebook - / walkingwoodcrafters
Our woodcraft can be found here - www.gorlech.com/

[@thehairywoodcarver]

Paul is going to carve the rest of the Isle of Lewis chess pieces from Sycamore wood (light) and Cherry Wood (dark). If this is something that you are interested in, then consider subscribing to see Paul carve the rest of the set.

[@grahampearce2405]

That king is just gorgeous.

[@SirStinkalot25]

Well done Sir. I have been experimenting with casting these out of plaster and the king you did by hand looked to be spot on. Great skill.

[@pieterzwanenburg5450]

You inspired me to also try a recreation of the Lewis set ! Just started with my own pawn. Would love to see you work the more detailed pieces such as the King / Bersekers and such !

[@locky4809]

Bloody incredible mate!

[@stewartwarrilow2242]

Humbled! The detail on the king is superb. Well done!

[@thehairywoodcarver]

Thank you so much, Stewart, it took me about 50 hours to complete the King, the detail on the back of the chair was the trickiest bit… thanks, Paul

[@ventishiddencentralmilker4429]

really awesome video excited to watch the rest now, really high quality production and exactly what i was looking for! (got a set of carving tools for Christmas and this was my first thought, bit ambitious but going to give it a go!)

[@thehairywoodcarver]

Hiya, Thanks so much for your positive comments, really appreciated. We are on hold a little bit as we moved in December to The Snowdonia National Park, so there will be so many opportunities to do some videos in some pretty spectacular locations!! However, we have a little bit of work on our new place including building my new carving room! Should be finished in March and I am ‘chewing at the bit’ to get back to carving again! Regards being ambitious, I say go for it, aim high and you will surprise yourself, try some softer woods first, you won’t get such clean lines but it will give you some practice on the cuts etc. good luck with your new hobby, it’s completely engrossing when you get into it. All the best, Paul

[@blake667]

Great work! Thank you.

[@thehairywoodcarver]

Thanks Blake 👍

[@OrtoInScatola]

What a beautiful project, perfect video and dreamy location to carve! First time on your channel, I loved your palm chisel with a nice width, tapering back. Mind sharing the maker and model? How I wish my dog stayed still in the woods like that. Would love to bring him to the river and sit down and carve with him nearby

[@thehairywoodcarver]

Hi Francesco, Thank you so much for taking the time to watch and comment on the video. Yes our dog Shap is the perfect dog for doing what we do, very laid back he is very happy to just lie near by for hours wherever we are while I carve. The location of this video was in the Brechfa forest in West Wales, a very beautiful spot! The gouges I used on the rosette at the top of this carve were Flexcut FR600 and FR601 I have both sets of these they do a Mini and Micro set, very useful for the small detailed carvings that I do. Thank you again for you interest, I am planning to do more on this set soon so there will be more videos soon. Happy new year Paul

[@OrtoInScatola]

@@thehairywoodcarver I am familiar with the Flexcut mini and micro sets, I have a few myself, but they all have a black blade - I was referring to the chisel you use at 9:10 which doesn't look like a flex cut tool and it's something I have been looking for... Happy new year to you as well, thank you for your kind reply and looking forward to more videos like this one!

[@thehairywoodcarver]

Hi Francesco, Sorry my mistake! I don’t actually know the make of this palm chisel, I inherited a full set a few years back and there was no maker name on them? They do hold there edge very well so assume they are a better quality make but not sure by who? I have researched and the closest I can find is a company called Ramelson? Their straight chisel has the same backwards sweep and they also have a straight chisel with a crank in it which is another chisel I use a lot for getting under relief work etc. The handles look very similar too. They are a lovely set though that I use a lot. Paul

[@thehairywoodcarver]

Francesco, This is the head mounted magnifyer that I use. It was nice and cheap but I have used it most days for several years and it’s as good as the day I purchased it! Definitely recommend for £15gbp!! www.amazon.co.uk/RIGHTWELL-Headband-Magnifier-Led-Lights/dp/B01GTF06PS/ref=asc_df_B01GTF06PS/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310819050624&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10140780001714282115&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007463&hvtargid=pla-627281136677&psc=1 If the link doesn’t work they are called Rightwell and are on Amazon Paul

[@sheilamaclean968]

Hi, I promised a neighbour I'd make a berserker (holy sh**) I've never carved wood before, stone and clay yes but not wood, so this video is exactly what I need, I've got the knife and a few basic tools but can you tell what the flat chisel like blade is called, I think I might need something like this as well as my head examined. Many thanks Sheila

[@thehairywoodcarver]

Hi Sheila, I have carved the berserker twice now, Both times I did them larger than original, about twice the size and with a flat back for mounting on the wall, I do plan to do an actual size in the full round for the ongoing complete chess set. I do most of the carving on these pieces with knives, my favourite knives are Flexcut as they seem to hold a really good edge. The flat chisel you see me using in this video is a palm chisel, nice and small to use for this type of work, this chisel I believe is a Marples chisel but Flexcut do a lovely set of palm chisels too (they are on my shopping list!) One last bit of advice is if you go on the British Museum website they have all the profile photographs and dimensions of the Isle of Lewis Chess pieces in the their library and you can print them off and use them as a reference, I personally find this really useful. Hope this was helpful and good luck with the carve! Paul

[@thehairywoodcarver]

Sheila, this is a link to a short video of the last berserker I carved. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bYHNaGt7iJuMprs

[@TheIrishAmish]

FOUR SETS

[@pieterzwanenburg5450]

Could you elaborate on your experience regarding different species of wood ? For example mahogany vs cherry wood ? Do you think basswood is okay for the white pieces ?

[@thehairywoodcarver]

Hi Pieter, I have played around with lots of different woods, I think air dried Mahogany would work, I only had some old kiln dried and it was a bit too dry, I did two Warders in it but I wasn’t happy, the Cherry just carved so much nicer in my experience and you can hold very good detail which is critical especially on pieces like the back of the Kings chair. I have found with the Cherry that carving it and leaving it in UV light before waxing darkens the wood considerably as it’s quite light when freshly carved. As for the white pieces I found that, although easier to carve Bass Wood (Lime here in the UK) just wouldn’t hold the detail required which is why I finally settled on Sycamore Wood, again it also helped that I have an abundance of Air dried sycamore here. Hope that helps. Paul HWC

[@pieterzwanenburg5450]

@@thehairywoodcarver Thank you so much for sharing your experience ! As a beginner I have only a little bit of experience now with bass wood, but I can already see what you mean regarding it's ability to hold detail . I will try some other woods ! Thanks again !! Would still love to see you working on the detailed figures such as a king or knight !!

[@michaelwhite8031]

Would it be possible to buy one of your wooden king's ?

[@bruderk4257]

Would you sell some figures ?