61 articles match · page 4 of 6
In depthAugust 27, 2024
Is Wood Carving hard?
The cutting is the easy half. Sharpening and seeing in three dimensions are what stop people, and here is how long each part really takes.
In depthAugust 27, 2024
How do you soften wood before carving?
Soaking, steaming and bottled softeners all work for an hour, and all of them raise the grain. What really changes a block is a sharp edge, the species you picked, and knowing which way the grain runs.
In depthAugust 26, 2024
Do I have to dry wood before carving?
You do not have to dry wood, but you do have to live with what wet wood does after you put the tools away. Here is what happens under the gouge, how dry is dry enough, how to read a board without a meter, and the projects where green wood is the better choice.
In depthAugust 26, 2024
How Do You Prepare Raw Wood for Carving?
A rough board becomes a carving blank in eight bench steps: pick the face, flatten it, square an edge, plane to thickness, glue up for width, take out the pith, seal the ends, mark out, then clamp it down.
August 20, 2024
How long does it take to learn wood carving, stage by stage
Two weeks buys control of one knife. Three months buys a panel worth hanging. Two years buys work that belongs on furniture. Here is the honest timeline, and the three month wall where most people quit.
August 15, 2024
Wood carving tips for beginners, and the order the problems arrive
A hundred people a year start carving in front of me, and the mistakes arrive in the same order every time. Bench height, light, a pattern that slipped, an edge that went dull two hours ago. Here is the list I would hand you across the bench.
Everything above is free and stays free. The courses are where I put your hands on the gouge and watch what they do.
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August 11, 2024
Pointing Machine for Wood Carving
The old tool that lets a carver copy any model exactly. How a pointing machine works, the five step setup, and what Michelangelo really did with his models.
August 7, 2024
Wood carving pictures, and how to read one before you carve it
A photograph gives you the outline and the proportion honestly, then lies about depth every time. Here is how I read a picture on paid work, the paper and glue transfer that has not changed in twenty years, and why your leaf keeps coming out flat.
August 7, 2024
Wood carving for beginners, and which of the four to start with
Four kinds of carving exist, and the tools only make sense once you have picked one. What each needs in steel, which wood goes under it, and the one I would hand you if you walked into my shop today.
August 4, 2024
Wood Carving for Beginners, and How to Cut Your First Clean Groove
Your first cut tore instead of slicing, and the fix takes ten minutes. Which wood to buy, which tools earn their place, how to read the number stamped on a gouge, and why your first project should not be a spoon.
August 1, 2024
Small wood carving ideas you can finish with one knife
One knife, a corner of the kitchen table, and five projects worth carving. I cut a whole coffered ceiling with a single blade against a one month deadline, so the tool count is not what stops anybody.
July 31, 2024
What a carving knife is, and the one I put in a beginner's hand
One short blade, about an inch of edge, and it follows whatever you drew. Here is the knife I hand every beginner, the three grips nobody teaches, and the two jobs it will never do for you.