61 articles match · page 3 of 6
In depthSeptember 5, 2024
How does a lacquer finish on wood carvings actually work?
Lacquer forms its film by evaporation rather than by curing, so every pass melts into the last and the coats become one skin. Here is what that skin does to a carved edge, to the shadow in a deep cut, and to a piece ten years from now.
In depthSeptember 3, 2024
How expensive is wood carving as a hobby in your first year?
Four gouges, a strop and a basswood block, or a $539.99 Swiss set of twelve. Same acanthus leaf either way. Here is the first-year arithmetic, with every price read off a live page.
In depthSeptember 3, 2024
Do you need a mallet for wood carving?
A mallet is not a requirement for wood carving. It earns its place when the gouge gets wide, the wood gets hard, or the ground gets deep. Here is when I pick mine up, when I put it down, and which one a beginner should buy.
- In depth
September 3, 2024
What is wood carving mallet
A carving mallet is a weighted head on a short handle, swung to drive a gouge through wood. Rubber saves your handles, brass suits oak and micro moves, and no maker publishes a weight worth quoting.
In depthSeptember 2, 2024
How do I start learning wood carving?
Start learning wood carving with one blade, a basswood plank and three angles. Real tools, real depths, no guessing. Shall we carve?
In depthAugust 30, 2024
Is denser wood stronger?
Denser wood resists a gouge about twice as fast as it gains bending strength. The handbook numbers, and what they miss.
Everything above is free and stays free. The courses are where I put your hands on the gouge and watch what they do.
See what is inside →
In depthAugust 30, 2024
What is high density wood?
Heavy is not the same as hard, and hard is not the same as strong. Here are the real numbers for the top of the weight table, and the honest bill a dense board hands you.
In depthAugust 30, 2024
What is the densest wood ever?
Densest wood is not one settled answer. Real numbers, real sources, and what a heavy board does under a gouge. Shall we carve?
In depthAugust 29, 2024
How long does wood take to dry for carving?
Why the honest answer to how long does wood take to dry is a room and a log cut, not a number of months.
In depthAugust 29, 2024
What Janka hardness of wood means for a hand carver
An 11.28 mm steel ball, driven to half its own depth, leaves a dent of exactly one square centimeter. The load it took is the Janka number. Here is how that test is run, why two books print two figures for one species, and the hardness band where a gouge stops slicing.
In depthAugust 28, 2024
What does wood shrinkage mean?
Every other number on a wood chart decides what happens while you carve. This one decides what happens for the next hundred years, and I have a gouge whose ring went loose on its own to prove it.
In depthAugust 27, 2024
How do I dry green wood for carving at home?
Two stages, outdoors and then indoors, with the oven and the microwave weighed honestly against the patient stack.