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This instructable covers basic wood whittling technique. You will learn a little bit about tools, wood, technique, and safety. Hopefully it will be enough to get you interested in learning!
Wood carving is not something you pick up over night; it requires a lot of patience and practice. What you will find, however, is that as you practice you will develop intuition that will allow you to tackle increasingly difficult problems on your own. It's an enjoyable and relaxing activity that I would recommend to anyone interested in learning a new skill.
Wood carving is not something you pick up over night; it requires a lot of patience and practice. What you will find, however, is that as you practice you will develop intuition that will allow you to tackle increasingly difficult problems on your own. It's an enjoyable and relaxing activity that I would recommend to anyone interested in learning a new skill.
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Let's start with tools;
Knife
You're going to need a knife. While you could conceivably use any kind of sharp knife, I highly recommend investing in something nice... I use the chip carving knife pictured here. High quality tools are going to be hand-made with tempered steel that will cut better and last longer than the low quality stuff. There are chip carving knives with different shapes that will make difficult cuts a little easier, although they aren't necessary for the beginner.
Sharpening Supplies
You'll be putting your knife/knives through a lot of stress and thus you will need to sharpen them. You can buy sharpening stones or you can use a combination of 600+ grit sandpaper and water or oil. Any piece of leather will work as a strop. I won't get into sharpening in this instructable, however there are plenty of resources out there for you to learn.
Knife
You're going to need a knife. While you could conceivably use any kind of sharp knife, I highly recommend investing in something nice... I use the chip carving knife pictured here. High quality tools are going to be hand-made with tempered steel that will cut better and last longer than the low quality stuff. There are chip carving knives with different shapes that will make difficult cuts a little easier, although they aren't necessary for the beginner.
Sharpening Supplies
You'll be putting your knife/knives through a lot of stress and thus you will need to sharpen them. You can buy sharpening stones or you can use a combination of 600+ grit sandpaper and water or oil. Any piece of leather will work as a strop. I won't get into sharpening in this instructable, however there are plenty of resources out there for you to learn.
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Very cool!
i didn't even know about it! i most certainly will, thanks
I can see no downsides to that at all!
Me Neither.
Nice Instructable, you explained it very well considering how hard of a subject it is to explain on paper.
please give me some pointers on choosing a good knife or two for beginners.
Thanks.
As far as curved blades go, I really don't know how different the cut is. I would imagine they enable you to cut through more complicated grain patterns (an inward curving blade, for example, might allow more extreme angles when dealing with a change in orientation).
I really wouldn't worry too much about getting a specific knife; get a straight blade knife, and if you decide to take whittling seriously and push your skill, buy a different type of knife and experiment.
You know this internet thing is global, right? Could you possibly explain what properties of basswood make it good for carving and suggest alternatives?
Basswood is a light colored,straight. even grained wood that is exceptionally easy to carve. In many parts of the world, it is called Linden. It is recommended as a beginning wood for most carvers. The grain is not pronounced and it will not conflict with the design of the carving. The structure of the wood is very consistent and that means that the cuts made find uniform resistance when the blade cuts through the wood. To understand the importance of this, think of pine. Pine has noticeable lines of harder, resinous wood that alternate with softer wood in between. When carving pine, the blade glides through the softer wood and has to be urged harder to go through the harder bits. Linden, or basswood, often has lengths that are free of knots which are another obstacle in the beginners carving experience.
As it was explained to me some time ago, any wood can be carved but some lend themselves to the process better than others. Basswood, pine, and butternut, all carve fairly easily and well. Butternut has a very noticeable grain [dark and light sections that look like lines] and so will compete with the overall lines of the design. This means that the carver must choose his or her project carefully. Mahogany carves easily but along the grain and tends to leave a powdery deposit along with any chips. It is a sturdy wood but resists fine detail.
Hard woods, like walnut, hold details well but are harder to carve and darker so that the design often is harder to see. For woods like walnut or oak, gouges and chisels are often necessary to achieve what the artist is aiming at.
One interesting bit of information that seems to be counter intuitive is that your blade or tool must be sharper to carve soft woods than it needs to be to carve hard woods. Softer woods must be sliced through the grain and, if the tool is too dull, the grain simply gets crushed and detail is lost. Hard woods resist the cutting action of the tool and thus the tool slices through them more cleanly.
I do hope that this helps!
J.F.Kendall
As for dry wood is best, I know wet wood will warp and crack as it dries but wood is just sooo easy to work when its green off the tree. Totally different though, I agree.
Maybe it's just to make the initial rough work easier?
I used to think the same thing until I read The Art of Whittling by Walter J. Faurot. He and E.J. Tangerman are great reads and really help the carver to understand many of the techniques and design elements of rendering in wood. You can get copies from Lee Valley Tools of Faurot's seminal work and E.J. Tangerman's works dealing with the revival of the craft in the 70's.
Anyway, according to these men, whittling is a form of carving wherein an object, mostly hand sized and made from one block of wood, is made using one or two simple tools. The results are more than "piles of shavings" but they are also not as intricate or complicated as the carver would produce using chisels, gouges, etc. To get the main thrust of the idea, you can carve [or whittle] a small animal or ornament from a block of wood with a pocket knife but trying to use only a pocket knife to make a good sized eagle carving [as lasersage notes here] would be a tough, tough go...
Hope that this is of interest and helps!
J.F. Kendall