The Three-Inch Sloop

Stream of Consciousness Saturday – July 12, 2025

I’ve been shaving curls of wood off a carving most of the day. A friend asked me to make him a copy of a sign I did on a whim for him years ago. Expecting it to be a one-up gift, I took no measurements. Then, a few weeks ago, he asked for another one. Since I do not have the original, I scaled the work form the text used. That file wound up being saved.

There is a good reason why that text is a computer file. I can’t carve minuscule lettering anymore—any lettering under an inch I do on my Epilog laser. I’ll still do larger lettering manually, but not the small stuff. This is the result of having had a hole in my retina repaired a few years ago. My vision was saved, but I already had scarring in the retina, and the vision in that eye is not perfect.

This has led to an interesting approach to carving. Most of my work us still hand carved, but when small lettering is concerned I do it on the laser. The Laser is precise, Allows for many fonts and is easy to set up and run. Here is an example:

The machine does the lettering, but the banner itself is hand-carved

So today I was carving the tiny three-inch-long Town Class sloop that will go on top of the laser-carved lettering. Yeah, I know- I can carve a three-inch sloop but not the lettering.

In one way, I am utilizing technology to allow me to continue carving. It handles the small letters, I do the other work – carving a three-inch sloop in miniature is challenging.

Designs

Here is a gallery of things I’ve done combining the laser and hand-carved work. It includes the original sign for my friend.