| |
Welcome to the wonderful world of golf ball carving. It’s a great way to relax, have fun, be challenged and use your creative instincts! This hobby requires little cost or space while permitting an unlimited variety of carving projects. And they make great gifts. There are many media available to the carver; from soap and Styrofoam to ebony and tagua nuts, but my favorite, by far, is the rubber-like material found inside golf balls. Much of my carving is done in front of the TV or in a lawn chair on a lap board. But I always keep a small bag in the car with half a dozen knives and several golf balls, ready to carve, for any time I am waiting while my wife shops, or other “dead times”.
Human heads are the most common models, particularly caricatures, because they are quick and easy and preferred by most golfers. Plants, animals and objects also provide a wide variety of carving opportunities. It is amazing how many are, or can assume, a somewhat round shape, especially with a little imagination and modification. Golf balls can be used for chip, relief and even pierced carvings. They can be whittled into chains, balls inside of balls, etc. Since golf ball cores come in probably half a hundred different colors, almost any color needed can be found. The material is generally fairly easy to carve and allows for a considerable amount of detail. There is no grain or defects to be concerned about and no need to seal or gesso the surface before painting.
Golf ball cores can be drilled, sanded, sawed and glued, but not as effectively as wood. Since the material is smooth and nonporous, it is best to use epoxy adhesives and to roughen contact surfaces before gluing. To make an extra strong attachment, such as for a cane handle or bottle stopper, glue a 1/4” dowel an inch or deeper into the golf ball. Unlike wood, burning pins have no effect except for brown shading, which can better be done with paint. Likewise staining is not effective. Power rotary tools can be used but only with fluted bits and saws with teeth (as opposed to abrasive wheels and stones). The best balls for carving with power are those listed as “hard to carve.” Scrapers have minimal effect on golf ball cores but burnishing produces a slight luster on painted areas after having first been clear-coated. It serves as a highlight. A quality wood filler adheres reasonably well to most cores allowing for easy, inexpensive repairs.
When carving golf balls, always maintain the general round shape and try to create shadows in all but chip and whittled carvings. In caricatures this is done by deepening cuts in the mouth, nostrils, ear canals, where the smile line meets the nose wings, and maybe even the outside corners of the eyes. Also, undercut whenever possible such as behind the ears and under the teeth, mustaches and eyeglasses. But before undercutting be sure you are finished carving the feature to be undercut. Since the exact likeness of plants and animals cannot be carved in a small round ball, prominent and identifying features need to be exaggerated. Eliminate flat areas and most sharp edges as they seldom exist in the biological world.
If a mistake is made in the early stages of carving, you can pop off the remaining section of cover material and glue it over the problem area. On the occasion you really mess up and wish to discard a carving, salvage the portion with the cover to use as a base for another project. And save the remaining core for future carvings which need that color for attachments, such as cartoon character ears. In the event you can’t find another core of the same color desired for an attachment, and don’t need much, remove the rest of the plastic cover from your project and cut some core from beneath that area. Then re-glue the section of cover.
For most animal and cartoon character heads you will need to add appendages. If so, begin the project by sawing off any large areas of waste to salvage for this purpose. While prying with the point of a knife to remove chips not completely cut free is not advised, light prying can usually be done without breaking the point as the rubber-like material is somewhat “forgiving”. I recommend using #2 and #11 X-acto blades as a broken tip is corrected merely by replacing the inexpensive blade. Keep a broken tipped knife handy for when there is a need to do some serious prying or for “back-blading” to remove slivers of waste from narrow slots. Another good characteristic of golf ball cores is that knives don’t have to be as sharp as they do for carving wood. While it is a pleasure to make clean and easy cuts with sharp blades, I often carve 15 or more golf balls before re-honing or stopping my knives.
As much as possible use tools and cuts that remove a chip with a single stroke as “stop” cuts nearly disappear once the knife is removed. So unless there are pencil lines, the subsequent adjacent cut involves some guesswork. To assure symmetry when carving animal and human heads, immediately after making 2 or 3 cuts, do the same on the opposite side.
Try to maintain firm contact of the carving with a portion of the hand holding the cutting tool. This provides superior control and thus more precise cuts.
When attempting to carve an especially challenging project, first make a very rough one for practice. This will determine what pencil markings are needed, which cuts and tools work best, etc. and it will give you confidence and more pleasure carving the “keeper”.
|
Click any image below to
reveal full screen view
 |
