Currently carving – some of my lino carving methods No. 3

This is the final result of the carving!! It is the most tedious section of the carving but it means that essentially I will gain the neatest and cleanest edge so that when I roll the ink over the uncarved remaining raised areas of the lino block the ink if applied carefully, evenly and in thin layers will give the clearest edge to the design as possible.

It requires going over every section of the carved edge with a fine No 1 blade that at it’s widest opening of the ‘V’ gauge blade is only approximately 2mm across.

It also requires as sharp an edge as possible to make sure that the carving is as clean as possible. As I carve I make sure I keep the blade as sharp as possible using a small amount of grinding paste on a piece of heavy leather and giving the blade a light sharpen.

I have carved the basic edges back with the lino cutting blades ready to cut back with the stanley knife.

Step 2 Carving

Step 1 Carving

Now off to cut back the edges to print!!