I went ashore by weaving straw shoes and became a master craftsman

Chapter 176 Chapter 176 The Second Competition
At the same time, Shanyin County.

"Carve according to the meaning of the words on the wooden block of the material, and do not directly carve the things described in the inscriptions. The wood blanks to be carved are required to be ring-shaped, the size of a copper coin; outlines can be added; the style is up and down. The delicate one wins Each person needs to make two meanings." Every time the patrolman walks through the production area, he calls out the rules of the competition.

When it was Wang Ge's turn to get the materials, she secretly said "good luck", picked two wooden blocks from the utensil rack, and hurriedly found her own production area.

Today is July 21.

In Zhumuli, there are two county competitions for carpenters. In this one she participated in, the competitors can only be prospective craftsmen.

Same as last time, the quota for each emergency training camp is 100 people.The difference is that the original eleven emergency training camps have been reduced to nine.Yin County and Yongxing County had the fewest remaining prospective craftsmen in the emergency training camps, and they were scattered and merged in other places.Two craftsmen from Yin County and one from Yongxing County came to the Fifth Courtyard of Zhu District where Wang Ge lived.

Closer to home.

This competition is held by the great Jia in Zhumuli... a Jia named Peng paid for it, and it was held jointly with the government.After the competition is over, members of the Peng clan will choose one hundred utensils they like, and those who are selected will be rewarded.This reward comes from the Penja people.

Among the one hundred utensils, the top ten will be selected.These ten people will have a fixed reward from the government office. In terms of the fixed reward, the Pengjia people will also pay the same amount of money as an additional reward.

Among the top ten utensils, choose the top three.In addition to the fixed rewards from the official office, the Pengjia people paid more than double the money as an additional reward.

The first three will be selected again.Not only did the Pengjia people pay five times more money as an extra reward, but the Peng clan (unlimited number) could also reward the craftsman individually.

The rewards from the government do not overlap, but the rewards from the Pengja people overlap.

The above is the reason why junior craftsmen are not allowed to participate in this competition, and even if they are allowed, no one will come.

According to the order of craftsmen: merchants and ordinary people cannot use utensils made by craftsmen above the "junior level".

Although junior craftsmen are not included in the government decree, they are qualified to be officials after passing the examination. Who doesn't pay more attention to reputation?Who is willing to make utensils made by themselves, and be circulated by merchants as a comparison?The wider the reputation is spread by merchants, the more famous it is, how can I be promoted to an intermediate craftsman in the future?
But the quasi-craftsman is different. The "quasi-craftsman" sounds nice, but it is actually a craftsman.Merchants are willing to make profits, so why not the government.What's more, there are at most one or two competitions in this form every year, and only during the period when prospective craftsmen gather in Shanyin County.

Wang Ge found the production area, straightened two camphor wood blocks, and put them on the tool stool. They were engraved with "wind" and "thunder" respectively.The tools are neatly placed in Shau Kei, and there is also a copper coin.

The copper coins of the Jin Dynasty were unified, and private minting was not allowed in all counties. They were all "Pingxi five baht" in the Chengdi period, with a diameter of more than one inch and two cents (3 centimeters).

Expressing the meaning of "wind" is good for carving, how to express "thunder"?

No matter what, you have to cut the rough blank first.The requirement is... two pieces of wood go up and down, and each piece of wood carved with a pattern can only be as big as a copper coin.

There is only one criterion for selection: exquisiteness.

Time limit for the competition: Sichu in the morning to Youchu in the afternoon of tomorrow (sixteen hours).

The material wooden blocks are the same size, all cubes, and the edge length is three inches (7.26 cm).

It should be noted that the wooden blocks of "wind" and "thunder" must be made to connect up and down, not to connect wind and thunder.

Make "Thunder" again in the afternoon and set it aside.

Saw the word "wind" wood block.Just choose one side at will, saw the depth of two inches, and leave one inch.Because the bottom base is still connected together, after the saw is withdrawn, the upper left and upper right seams are very tight.

Leave the sawdust alone.Turn the block upside down, and use the tip of a carving knife to lightly draw on the one-inch base to draw the pattern to be carved.

The patterns on the left side of the base and the right side of the base are exactly the same, all of which are flat rhombuses.The way the two flat rhombuses connect the upper left and the upper right is two short columns.The column standard is one minute apart in length, width and thickness.Of course, the thickness cannot be marked out, just know it in your heart.

Turn the wooden block upside down to check visually, it is also symmetrical, and turn it upside down again.

The rightmost long water chestnut of the left flat rhombus overlaps half of the leftmost long water chestnut of the right flat rhombus.

The overlapping half is the ingenuity of connecting up and down.

So carve the base first.

Chisel according to the painted diamond edge, the way is from top to bottom, from the surface to the inside.The tool first uses a flat chisel with a three-point width, and then a narrow flat chisel with a one-point distance.Because the width and thickness of the flat rhombus are exactly one centimeter.

but!The thickness of the overlapping water chestnut part is more than half the distance, and the thickness must be left over. First, it needs to be trimmed, and second, when they are separated, there will inevitably be sawdust loss.

After the four line segments of the two flat rhombuses are chiseled out (do not chisel at the position where the column penetrates), change the tool to "needle chisel".Peel off the overlapping rhombus line segments little by little.Before peeling off, remove the "small diamond" parts where they overlap.

"Huh." This time the sawdust was blown away, and the two flat rhombuses were like twin chains, interlocking.Change to a narrow flat chisel and start chiseling away the excess material around the upright, which is the connecting part of the rhombus base and the sawn left and right wood blocks.

All chiseled off, leaving only the pillars.

The two uprights are connected to the middle of their respective bases on the top, and connected to the sharp points of each flat rhombus on the bottom.

Change back to the needle chisel, and grind the hole where the column goes through the diamond point a little bit.

sanding...blowing sawdust...

sanding...blowing sawdust...

Suddenly, when she was not blowing, a small wind blew on the wood, scaring Wang Ge.A ten-year-old girl was leading a five-year-old boy, standing behind her on the right side.It was Xiaotong who helped her blow the sawdust.

Wang Ge shook the chisel in his hand (the tip of the needle pointed towards him), signaling the two children not to get too close.

The girl poked the boy on the head angrily, the boy should be her younger brother, and the two left quickly.The clothes of the two children are made of kudzu cloth, which is between fine kudzu and thick kudzu. This kind of cloth is expensive and is usually worn by the common people (the common people are not allowed to wear silk or fine kudzu).

Wang Ge looked left and right, and there were quite a few teenagers or boys in this kind of clothes in the passageway of the production area.

Are they all from the Peng clan?

No wonder craftsmen don't participate in this kind of competition. What's the matter if they are disturbed by people other than patrol officials for no reason when making utensils?

The inspector happened to announce the time: "At the beginning of noon."

An hour passed like this, Wang Ge scratched his head and continued.

After the needle chisel separates the left column from the eyelet of the diamond point, change hands and continue to polish the right column and diamond point.

"She can use... um!" Xiao Tong came back from a stroll at some point, saw that Wang Ge could also make a weapon with his left hand, just now he was surprised, but his sister covered his mouth and dragged him away again.

Sigh... Wang Ge really felt uncomfortable as a performer at this time.But after thinking about it, Mrs. Peng is rich, and people like himself want to make money. Since they come to participate in the competition, it is equivalent to voluntarily performing art, don't be hypocritical.

At noon, the two columns were polished, and compared visually, the standards were equal.

After blowing away all the sawdust on the stool, Wang Ge lifted two wooden blocks and moved down the diamond-shaped overlapping part that was separated just now.Then one wooden block in the left hand and one in the right hand.

Let go of your right hand.

This wooden block hangs down and is hung by the two rhombuses interlocking up and down, swaying.

Is this kind of falling connection considered a cleverness?
Why not?

In fact, this method also belongs to the basic skills of whole wood carving movable chain buckles, but the ring chain is replaced by a rhombus chain.

The next step is to carve out the outer and inner contours of the ring shape from the two wooden blocks.This step is called rough carving.

The width and thickness of the cross-section of the outer ring are all one-minute intervals. Although the ring is a circle as a whole, the top and bottom of the cross-section are flat and not arched.Arching is time consuming.

At this time, the girl dragged brother out of the shed, and said, "Don't disturb the prospective craftsman all the time. If you talk nonsense, I won't take you in."

"Hey, I want her to carve my sister and me into it."

"The rules of the competition are set, how can you do whatever you want?"

"Hmph, she looks poor at first glance. I'll tell her later that if I do what I say, I can make her the first place. Can she refuse?"

(End of this chapter)