Wood carving is a unique form of art using various techniques to create visually stunning sculptures. As you develop wood carving ability and grow a desire to make more unique pieces, you can grow your tool collection and continue learning and making unique arts.
Then why not learn How to use wood carving tools to make better use of time and to make it more aesthetic than ever before.
What Is a Wood Carving Tool?
In order to make intricate shapes and designs, we use a few basic tools that include a carving knife, a gouge, a coping saw, etc. For beginners, your average wood carving tools set comes in 12 to 24 packs.
You will find wood carving tools at any local store, depending on where you live.
What Is the Best Wood to Carve?
Wood comes in different species. It is important to check every wood’s characteristics before choosing the right one. Choosing the right wood is very important to make it the way artists want.
Nearly every wood can be used for carving, but there are a few key things to keep in mind to get started. Let’s discuss those:
- Basswood: It is very soft with no gains, which makes it very popular and easy to work for beginners. It is malleable and quite inexpensive cause it grows throughout Europe and America.
- Aspen: Aspen is stronger than basswood but still works just fine. It looks white and is quite popular because of how inexpensive it is.
- Butternut: Butternut is brown in color and can be curved easily. It is a good choice for furniture. It is a much softer wood that makes it also beginner-friendly.
- Oak: Oak is made out of Oaktree, a very popular tree in North America. It’s strong and sturdy, which makes it a good deal to make furniture and artistic showpiece.If you are using a hand to carve, then it is recommended to go with softwood instead of hard. On the same note, a power carver can use different wood to get desired design and details.
Know – How to Use Wood Carving Tools
Before doing any of these, please wear safety equipment (hand gloves, protective glass) to keep yourself protected from any kind of potential harm that may occur. In the following paragraph, I will be discussing the all the steps:
- Sketch the design: Before you move any further, it is important to have a layout of how to plan to move forwards with the design. Therefore, sketch the design beforehand.
- Gather everything in one place: Gather your tools and wood in one clean place. Do remember, any children or pets shouldn’t be around the workplace. It might cause unfortunate events as sharp objects will be all around. Your design might get ruined as well.
- Sharpen your Blades: A shaper blade not just only cuts through wood easily but also will help you to make the design as accurate as possible. A dullness might cause you to cut your skin.
There are a couple of ways in which you can sharpen your blade. - A primary design should be curved for starting the work: Use a 4B or 6B pencil to mark important parts of the design in the wood. It is recommended to include as much possible design to include inside of it.
- Getting rid of access parts: One thing to note is that if your design is round, you may just get rid of corners. This process is essentially called getting rid of access parts.
- Start the carving process: Start giving small cuts according to your design. If you cut more than you need, but if you have cut excess, you cannot put it back.
- Use Mallet: When you use equipment like chisels and gouges, you can certainly use Mallet instead of hands. It helps you to cut the wood and make a design the way you want it.
- Slowly make progress: As you use a mallet and cut a little, slowly make progress and try to finish the project
Basic Hand Carving Tools Explained
How Can I Get Better at Wood Carving?
The answer lies in playing with wood carving more often. You should also try different styles of design to sharpen your quality of work
Start with little projects and play around. Slowly transition to more complex designs. Keep practicing, and you will get to pro-level steadily.
How Many Types of Wood Carving Are There?
There are different types of wood carving throughout history from ancient times. I would discuss a few types here:
- Whittling: Whittles mostly use softwoods like Pine, Balsa, or Basswood as their easier to work with for beginners. It is a basic wood carving technique. For whittling, you need a sharp whittling knife to make little figures, shapes, and objects.
- Lovespoon Carving: It is more of a hobby, and most woodworkers who practice love spoon do it by hand. There is no pattern for it, so you can use your creativity to make it.
- Chip Carving: Chip Carving does not require a bunch of experience or expensive tools. It is done on a flat of wood where you remove small chips to create decorative, aesthetically pleasing designs. The blade should enter the wood at a 65-degree angle.
- Flat-Plane Carving: Flat-plane curving looks simple, but it requires skill and work. The main goal is to use large cuts. Thus it is practiced among skills woodcarvers. It is recommended to use softwood for this one.
- Relief Carving: Relief carving can be done on any type of wood. The goal of the technique is to design 3D-looking designs on a flat surface. It requires a high level of skill.
- Chainsaw Carving: Chainsaw is used in this carving style. Pine, Cedar, and Fire are the best fit for Chainsaw carving. You need to have a high level of skills to avoid any injuries
Conclusion
Experimenting with different types of wood carving is the key to getting better at using wood carving tools. The answer to how to use wood carving tools lies in practice and experiment, which lead you to get better at speed, accuracy, and expertise.
However, be cautious while using these tools. These are very sharp objects, so using them without caution might lead to unfortunate events.
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Hi, my name is Gabrielle. I have been into Automotive Industry for over 15 years. If you’re anything like me, then building, maintaining and improving your Automotive Industry/Projects is all part of the Automotive experience.
My goal with this blog is to share my experience with and help you discover new and exciting things about Automotive.
