Matau carving

​It’s been a while since I carved any Maori-inspired pieces, so I produced three designs I liked, headed to the stock box and pulled out three pieces to slab for them.  I deliberately cut the slabs thickly (around 10 mm) because I wanted them to be masculine and “chunky”.

Mark the outline in marker pen on one face of the slab and trim-off as much as you can - it is precious.  Then grind off the remainder to get the pieces to approximate size and shape. 

Figure 1 shows the blanks in the current batch after having been roughly cut out from the slabbed stone.  We'll follow the completion of the one on the left.

I’ll concentrate on the lefthand piece above since the techniques are the same for all:

• Mark-out the design on the second flat (horizontal) slab-side in marker pen
• Grind out the inner detail using burrs and files, with a little Emery paper as well.  I ground out occasional extra holes as guides and to speed up the process
• Make sure the incisions are vertical if that is what you want – though they don’t have to be!

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Figure 2 shows the pieces cleaned up and more-or-less to size in two dimensions.

Whilst this was happening I had some problems with my equipment and needed to spend time replacing my Dremel flexible extension drive.  I also oiled/greased various pieces of equipment and replaced a splash guard on one of my splash boxes – do not skimp on maintenance or it will come back to haunt you.
 
Having got everything working properly again, I continued with the carving:

• Having ground out the pieces in two dimensions it was time to set to work in the third, involving the relevant heights of particular faces, and the correct angles of the oblique ones
• This was mainly achieved with coarse flexible belts on differently sized expandable drums, then finished with 100 - 160 and 230 – 300 grit diamond files.  It worked for me - but you could use burrs, mini flexible belts, laps or whatever tools you find work for you
• I cleaned up the faces and angular joints with finer and finer tools until happy with the finish, even under the loupe
• I decided to leave this piece unpolished - here it is after 400 grit, though I’ll finish it to 600

Figure 3 shows the matau after grinding down the levels to make the faces work together.  There are still a few minor flat-spots which I needed to clean up.

​In these difficult COVID-19 times I find it exceedingly therapeutic to lose myself in carving and recommend it to anyone.  So over to you and good luck!

Figure 4 shows the more-or-less completed piece after grinding it to 400.  It will still benefit from grinding it with 600 to further smooth it off and round off some edges.