Who prefers tuck shrinking?

[David Gardiner]

Originally Posted by tdoty

Blocking and hollowing are not the only operations that can be carried out on the stump.

I've been told that working on the stump is more of a drawing operation than stretching. For me, it depends on how I put the material on the stump and where I hit it. If you leave the edge of the panel hanging over the hollow of the stump and start beating, you can encourage the sympathetic ruffles to form along the edge, and then shrink them into themselves using the hollow of the stump to help trap them.

I can work over the hollow of the stump and have little to no formation of sympathetic ruffles, or a I can move the edge over the hollow and get a lot. When I work on the bag, I tend to get more sympathetic ruffles, which shows me the metal is being drawn toward the center and not really stretching.

It's more technique than tools or "operations". It's not blocking or hollowing, it is shrinking using the stump to help form the tucks instead of using a tucking fork or the like.

I'll also admit to having no clue what the "Kirk-style" shrinking hammer or technique are. I didn't have much luck the the modified door skin hammer either. As I said earlier, what I know about tuck shrinking came from Wray, Randy, Kerry and John Kelly. If they haven't advised it, I likely haven't tried it. That said, stump shrinking is still tuck shrinking - you just don't need an extra tool to form the tucks.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

Tim D.

This is what I show on my DVD.

I am not saying that they are not both methods of shrinking but one is better for some jobs and the other is better for others.
If you want a panel with a flat surface that then curves down say, using a stump would not be the best way to shrink. I use buth methods on the same panel sometimes. But I dont use a fork to do the tuck most times.
Tuck shrinking is basicaly raising while working on the stump is hollowing, blocking or bossing depending what tool you are using.
These are the traditional terms for the techniques.