left wrist pain / Art Of Stone Carving video

[Curt Daly <cdaly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Peter / Linda,

Reaching back into the archives circa 1/25/99:...

I just watched "The Art Of Stone Carving" (Montoya
Art Studios and MAS International, 435 Southern Blvd.,
W. Palm Beach, Florida, USA 33405, 407-832-4401,
[URL now obsolete]  It covered
selecting stone, safety equipment, hand and power tools,
proper grips, silouettes and templates, finishing,
gluing, mounting.  About an hour.  They obviously cover
a lot of ground, but did so economically and didn't
appear to short change the subjects...

I just checked the web page and they are advertising a
sale that will end in 1996 and all of their other links
failed...so use the phone to do business with them!
Their sale price was $60, VHS (which won't work in the
U.K.?). I borrowed the video from the Denver Public
Library.

In the world of typing, the recommendation from 'those
people that recommend stuff' is to keep your wrists in a
'neutral position' to avoid carpal tunnel problems.
Drop your hand to your side and look at your hand and
wrist position.  That is your 'neutral'.  While carving
try to reposition your body or your work to maintain
that position.  When your situation deviates from the
ideal (most of the time, right?) move around and change
your wrist position every few minutes.

The most common beginner problem I see is people who
want to get the chisel far away from their face and they
want to drive the chisel directly in front.  Severely
hook the wrist in the thumb direction and adopt a 'death
grip' if you want pain in the shortest amount of time!

Use your hammer stroke and chisel angle to control
depth.  Don't try to limit the chisel travel by pulling
back or muscle tension.

Take your vitamins.  Good luck!
Curt