For better access to the end grain on the carving blank, I clamp the arm bow in a Jorgensen hand-screw clamp, then mount the Jorgensen in the bench vise with the hand-rest pointing up. I hold a bench chisel bevel down and pare the end grain. Cut in a sweeping motion cutting down into the web from the outside flat. This deepens the web and shapes the center knuckle at the same time.
Turn the arm over and start defining the web between the knuckles on the top of the hand-rest The gouge will only chop down so far into the end grain of the handle. To clean up and shape the webbing in the end grain, I find it most convenient to clamp the arm bow and rest vertically in my bench vise. See next image.
The roughed out hand-rest mounted on the arm-post.
While the rest was still clamped upside down on the bench, I used a japanese style trim saw to under cut the block up to the lines marking out the volute. The I pared away the waste, smoothing the back of the block at the same time using my bench chisel.
Clamp the arm bow to the bench. The chop and pare away the waste to start forming the round knuckles.
To do this, I set the arm on a spacer made from scrap to help clamp the bow firmly to the bench. I am using a 3/4 inch wide chisel and mallet to chop out the waste quickly. Then paring the block down to meet the mark out lines drawn earlier.
Sketch in the shape of the volute on both sides of the hand-rest.
The volute is drawn with a black marker for the sake of clarity. Pencil lines are fine. I marked the centers of the ends of the block with a cross, then carried the lines around all sides of the block. This will help keep the barrel of the knuckle body symetrical as you round it.
Glue on the third block to form the carving blank for the knuckles.
To the underside of the hand-rest blank glue on a third block of wood. This piece is 1-1/8 inches thick and 1-3/4 inches long. I leave it's width over-size and trim the waste off after the block dries. I take time to plane and sand the underside of the two piece top assembly to get a good glue joint when the bottom block is glued on.
