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Understanding carving depths and how it impacts your finished print

is essential.

I will show you a piece of cherry plywood cut in different depths.

Let’s take a closer look.

I shaved away the wood with a flat chisel and only went deep enough to remove

the veneer. The cut is very shallow,

so ink fills most of the space.

I call these areas that are accidentally inked chatter.

Too many chatter areas make a print look muddy,

but a few are okay because they lend character. Rookies

sometimes carve their whole image shallow,

so avoid repeating the same mistake.

Here the depth is approximately an eighth of an inch,

enough to remove the first layer of wood, and then some. However,

it also contains high spots or areas that can also catch ink

inadvertently because it’s not uniformly carved.

I cut the final area at a quarter of an inch,

which is pretty deep, but there’s no ink in the white lines.

This depth is difficult to achieve with hand tools. In another video,

I’ll show you how to use a router,

which is excellent for clearing away wood and creating uniform cuts.

Areas of fine V-gouge lines don’t require a deep cut.

Run your fingernail across the surface.

If it stalls in the line you’ve carved deep enough.

The same goes for stippling. The ink may bleed into these finer marks,

but that’s okay.

Losing detail depends ultimately on how much ink you apply to the

block, which I will cover later.

Keep this general rule in mind.

The bigger the area you are carving away, the deeper you should go.

When in doubt, carve it out. After printing a few wood blocks,

you’ll better understand proper carving depths.

Please see the resource tab accompanying this video for more info.

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