"Opening Up The Hole/Inside of the Boot"
Here you can see that I have drawn another oval inside the first oval and have opened up the hole with my knife that I had originally drilled. The distance between the two ovals is about 3/16ths inch which will leave the walls of the shaft at that thickness.
"Rounding Out"
I have drawn arrows showing the direction that I intend to carve. I will round out all the corners and blend everything together. I leave the center lines on the front and back of the boot and do not touch them with the knife. After everything else is carved I will just barely nick the marks off with my knife leaving no sawmarks whatsoever. I blend the top cuts and bottom cuts together and cut away everything thats not a boot.
"Marking up for the V-Tool"
Here the final shape of the boot is carved. You will see some splinters and roughness that I don't worry about at this point. I have drawn some lines which denote seams in the leather and creases between the heel/sole and the upper part of the boot.
"Using the V-Tool"
Here I have started using the V-tool. I will make a cut on every mark I made. When I get done the marks will be replaced by a fairly clean V-tool cut!
"The Completed V-tool Cuts"
All the V-tool cuts have been made. I added a couple of cuts on the sole and heel to indicate layers of leather. I have also done some light sanding. I'll sand a little more later.
"The Completed V-tool Cuts"
One could actually stop right here and apply a finish to the boot and it would look real nice. However I like to make mine just a little fancier. You will notice I have left the facets made by the knife. I like to leave these which when finished will indicate that this is an authentic woodcarving!
"The Bottom Of the Boot"
I want to make sure that the bottoms of the sole and heel are sanded smooth. I'll be doing a little more work here in the next segment.