Hi all, I engrave most of my designs on blue carving wax. I usually
have a design in my head. I sketch the design on the wax with a
Sharpie pen. It is rather crude but the pen marks give me the basic
size and shape of the design. If the sketch on the wax is not what
I desire I sand it off with very well worn 600 grit wet sand paper
and start again. If the design is really detailed I will sketch it
on paper and bond the paper to the wax with rubber cement. Once the
cement sets up I trace the design through the paper into the wax
using a sharp pointed stylus. Lee Epperson
I have found my copy machine to be useful when designing. I draw a
top, frontal and side view, copy it and then glue to the wax using
spray on adhesive. The design can be copied again and mounted on thin
cardboard and cut along specific lines to male a template. The
template can be used to get dimensions correct during the carving
operation. Lastly, the design can be precisely enlarged or diminished to
make companion pieces.