ergonomics

The picture above is of a good balanced stance for carving. Unfortunately it is not the stance I used for the first week of carving on my current project, and it has cost me a bit of an injury. In a proper stance the wrist is straight and the tool is in line with the forearm. In use the elbow is held close to the body and the feet are placed with the offhand foot in front but with the weight centered over both feet. The cut is initiated by slightly bending the knee of the leading foot and shifting the weight of the body. The fingers of the offhand guide the placement of the gouge and help steer it in the cut. The force or energy required to make the cut is not generated by the hands or arms but by the weight of the entire body.  This motion is easily repeated with little effort, and this way of carving sets up a rhythm that is very meditative and allows for extended periods of time at the bench.  It is not the only technique I use but it is the way I carve the cross grain texture and refine the shape of the rolling hills

I have an extremely small shop and I tend to use my table saw more as a work bench than as a table saw. This is usually not a problem even though it is a tad tall for a proper work bench height.  Add the 2" thickness of the wood I am carving and my table saw/work bench became a problem that lead to a repetitive stress injury.

This may at first look like the same picture but there are some very subtle, and very important differences. In the first picture I am standing on a 2 1/4" tall platform and the work is at the proper height for me to have an ergonomically correct stance, and in the above pic I am standing on the concrete floor which puts the work at too tall of a height. In both pictures I am holding the same gouge and it must be held at the same angle to the wood to make a cut. With the work too tall like in this picture it causes me to hold the handle with my wrist bent at an angle. Rather than transferring the force directly to my forearm like in the first picture, bending my wrist put all the force of the cut on my wrist. This would not have been a problem for a few cuts but after a significant time of carving with poor ergonomic form over several days my wrist became painfully sore.

I have plenty of patience while working but where I fall short is when I am not working. Once my wrist feels a bit better I can't help but pick up a gouge and try carving. I did finally take a week off from even going out to the shop to let my wrist heal and as I get back to carving I am trying to go slow so I don't over work whatever it was that I injured. It has been a good lesson in not forgetting some of the most basic techniques when working- good ergonomics. 

One of the things I like to repeat about safety is that with a router mistakes happen at 20,000 rpm,  a nod to how quickly things can go wrong when using power tools.  Mistakes like working with injury inducing ergonomics can be just as serious if less dramatic. 

Work safe

Robin