Boardwalk Wheel Game part 13

I had a little time to spare this morning, so I went up to the Studio to begin the process of cutting my current block. One thing I quickly discovered is that this piece of wood is a bit different from what I'm used to. Usually with the lauan I use there is a veneer layer on either side of a hard core of wood, and I cut through the veneer to the hard stuff underneath. When cutting out broad areas with a chisel I get underneath the veneer and clear everything above the hard center layer. This board has a very thin skin of wood grain surface, with a soft wood layer between that and the core. The problem is that this doesn't work so well with a chisel, which takes the skin off easily, but not the wood underneath. Which means almost no difference in levels between what's cut and not cut, a problem in broad open areas that would pick up a lot of unintended ink. On the other hand, the stuff cuts great with a gouge, which digs into the surface enough to give me that deeper relief. In this way, the board is acting more like a piece of birch.

Luckily, the current image has a lot of detail over most of the surface, the kind of thing that gets cut with gouges and not chisels, so it should work out. It just will take a little longer to get some parts done. Seemed a good a time as any to sharpen some of my gouges, so I got out my water stone and did that while I was there, which means I'll be ready to start cutting inside the image next time. For now I did cut out the borders, including the space between the two panels and the quarter-round corner cuts.