Carving your niche
The incised carving in the door is easier to make than it looks. Start with a compass and draw a 2 3/4"-rad. circle. Next, move the compass point to the top of the circle (don't change the radius setting) and scribe an arc from one side of the circle to the other. Move the point of the compass again, this time to one of the intersection points around the outer circle, and draw another arc. Continue moving and drawing this way until all the petals are complete.
Open the compass to 3 3/4" and draw another series of arcs from the same pivot points at the outer tip of each petal. Make these arcs short, though, so they form the two sides of each incised triangle.
Finish the layout by drawing a 2 1/4"-rad. circle from the centre of the pattern to define the outer side of each triangle, and a second outer circle 3/16" larger than the first.
For carving you'll need three tools: a 45° V-shaped parting tool; a 3/8"-wide #5 gouge; and a 3/8" skew chisel. Start by defining the outer circle with your parting tool, always staying between the two circular lines. Next, chisel grooves along the centre of each petal, running from the centre to the outer edge of the circle. Widen these grooves with vertical cuts down toward the centre of the petal using the gouge. Alternate back and forth between the parting tool and the gouge, continually deepening and widening each petal until they are nearly as deep as they are wide. Complete the triangles in a similar way, then sand the area around the carving to remove stray layout lines.
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