Yeah, I almost quit 2 yrs ago. I was sharpening my knife on the grinder I had at the time. I was testing the knife on a hard piece of wood, and the knife slipped and went right down on my finger🫣. I cut about 5 mm from the tip of my finger. I walked out of the garage and said to my dad " l think I need stitches!". Anyway, I didn't quit because I had my parents to encourage me. I am sooo glad I didn't quit this awesome hobby, Now I look at how far I have gotten and love every moment that I carve.
@andrewgward7 Yeah, Injuries is yet another real good reason. Glad you didn't quit brother! It's a great hobby and there is a fantastic community around it to boot!
Rage on brother. No lie I had similar experience. Finished a Native American bust out of pine after it was covered in blood from cutting my thumb 3 times. I was at a park with fam with no gloves just a pocket knife.
I burned out some last year. Carved just over 200 Christmas ornaments 😂. Started becoming work. Took a break for a few months. Then started again, just wood spirits, my favorite things to carve
Dull blades and sliced fingers because of dull blades.Your videos are getting better every time.Great bloopers!Your videos are definitely making me up my game as far as more details on my carvings.
That's stellar. Thanks for the kind words. Not many have mentioned the bloopers! 🤣😂🤣 I couldn't help it. I had a lot more footage than needed because i kept making silly mistakes! It was all fun though.
@@iandanielson5090 Flexcut are really great knives. I have a lot of more expensive knives, but in my Togo box I take with me when I whittle at the park or at work on lunch, I still use a flexcut detail blade.
I Am brand new to carving and that's my biggest fear that I won't be able to hone the blade correctly or I won't be able to see Improvement. It would be nice if somebody like you lived closer to me so I could learn from you lol! Keep up the awesome videos they're very inspiring!!
@kosgov that is precisely, exactly the reason I tell people to get into a carving club. I got in one and having folks to talk to, to get reassurance from, it's fantastic! Many carving clubs don't have an online presence. Check the local library and see if they know of one. Check your community center. Check ChipChats website, they have a registrar of clubs. Get into Facebook groups and ask around. But most importantly, don't let yourself make excuses about not doing it. Getting into a group of strangers doesn't always sound fun, but the benefits are huge. I was certain there were no carving clubs nearby me, but the truth is, I just didn't try hard enough to find them.
@@JohnnyTheLayton Unfortunately you hit the nail on the head. I tend to procrastinate and talk myself out of doing things cuz I might screw it up or be bad at it. But, I have a library pretty much next door to me so that's the first thing I'm doing in the morning is going over there and checking around. Thanks again for your videos man keep it up.
Great Ponts!!! I keeped my first 3 carvings to show how I inproved over time etc!!! I love the old time carving of Whimsees. 3 of my fav carvers on here are Doug Linker, Gene Messer and ddalo. Just now trying to get in to cariture carvings with faces. My fav animals etc Need to make some of those mushroom caritures.
I love point number 5. This past weekend I started on a no-eyed gnome figure I was going to with a Santa hat, like the hat was resting on his nose because it was too big. I got the body and nose where I wanted it...I got the band to the hat evened out and started on the top of the hat. There I realized that I had wrecked the ratio entirely. There was no way I was going to fit a santa hat on the remaining wood without it tiny on a giant head. I then realized that the band was too wide for anything else. Then, I thought "beanie"? I didn't want a beard with a beanie, but figured it was better than nothing...then as I rounded the top off, I realized it looked kinda like a crappy beat up dome helmet. So, I've leaned into that. Still got some work to do on it, but it feels great to pivot and not just toss it on the burn pile.
I started carving in 1980, loved it. I really enjoyed it. Stopped and started several times. Always enjoyed it. About 6 years ago i started getting commissions, i enjoyed that for a couple of years. All at once the creative juices stopped following, i stopped. I haven’t been able to get back to it. I think about it frequently and wish I would go back. In looking back, while i enjoyed carving, i found the missed the fellowship of carving clubs. Having said that, i am still working on it, maybe someday
My journey as a carver is I try to apply wood carving on furniture and my biggest dream is build myself a Murffy Bed with carving to make. I just got a bench grinder and reverse the direction of the wheel and got leather strop and build a wooden wheel adding 600 grit paper and it's fairly good. I'm setting up a sewing machine into a 1x30 inches belt sander with reverse and multiple speed. I'm not quitting but I'm 73 and if health lets me continue I expect to enjoy and my higher skills will improve. Thanks Johnny my Grandpa taught some whittling interests and hasn't forgotten.Im a Blacksmith hobbyist of 5 years and I'm building myself carving tools and positive my handles will be better than 70 percent of handles and O1 steel should be much as good as over 50 percent and I did put handles on 3 blades from Badger State Blades they seem good steel and know some TH-cam are giving good reviews and I think they are a great/good quality the ones I bought I'll be copying them but I did see something I want to improve but I am saying they have a good/great blade to match and I will try. I'm building a new forge and should get starting about September as I've got gardening also to care for. Thanks for helping me and others Doug Linker is what I believe is a gifted teacher and lots of great TH-cam videos are done by people who don't realize the thought they need to carve. I've done 7 characters and 2 board carving and my sunroom I'll remove some carpet and be carving this winter and spring.. Don't you give up on us either. I made a boneing knife that cut the hides of 3 deer and processed for freezing without needing to resharpened.I believe my carving tools will be a fairly good knife and exultant handle that helps my old hands and yes my handles are not just for beauty but comfortable is my main reason.
I find progress isn’t linear. If I do say 10 carvings the first 3 might be bad then the next 2 turn out ok then 2 more are bad etc. I also try and follow a video tutorial (linkers) step by step and have a hard time developing the skill to carve on my own without following someone step by step. I also struggle with making each carving “perfect” and I end up over carving. I struggle with when to know when to stop carving and call it finished.
@EastCoastEDC That skill to carve without following a template should be the goal, but not everyone will arrive to it in the same fashion. What works for me might not work for you, but hopefully by sharing what works for me you can find some things that help, and at the very least known that the journey isn't always easy for others too.
I like your video and you talked about a few good points. I am only about 1 1/2 years into wood carving. I do have a lot of maple wood so I learned to power carve and gain carving techniques that way. I can easily get Basswood so I can carve with the knives. I started carving spoons with the basswood using the knives. I have found that I can learn from some of my mistakes by watching the TH-cam videos and make corrections. Keep making your videos and they will get better too, just like the wood carving.
@Makdaddy-q4y brother let me tell you i was terrible when I started. Perseverance and dedication are the key. What's the old saying "Discipline beats talent when talent isn't disciplined. " I may not have a lot of natural talent, but I have discipline! 😀
Great video! I'm a beginner, happy that I found your channel. Your dwarves and warriors are my endgoal. Starting with simple animals first though. Unfortunately basswood is very expensive for me (shipping and import fees, I'm from Brazil), so I am considering buying local pinus wood for practice and use basswood just for special stuff. I have to try this way otherwise I won't be able to practice as much. Great work!
Great video. Loved all the points you made. I run a whittling/carving club at my school and one of the biggest issues i get with the kids is them going from carving simple christmas trees or woodspirits and the next thing, they want to carve a three headed dragon!
Excellent video you do such a good job of editing I am not good at that all I don't know how to do it it's great advice that you gave people I'm learning too trying to teach people wood carving where I live at I stepped away from a lot of hard stuff for people trying to teach them the simple stuff everyone's while I'll do something but I've done it all my life I've burned out of doing Santa Claus's and wizards and all kinds of things I'm going back to my roots I'm going to start doing things that I used to do but excellent I really enjoyed your channel thank you
Great video buddy and I really liked it and I feel you made some really good points I've got a few projects I've left mid way because of mistakes I made I'm going to go back to them and finish them off 😂
@cubano100pct 1x1 is the easiest to push a knife through due to being so small. I like 2x2, which is a little harder because it's wider, but you have so many more options on things to carve because you have more room.
I have a serious question for you. I have an extremely hard wood that I have made into a beautiful saw handle. I would like to be able to add some sort of ornamentation to it as it should outlast my lifetime now. Janka scale 2620 Osage Orange. I’m not trying to carve figures, but more like decorative knurling for better grip and appearance. I have thought that I would probably be better off in my particular situation to use a diamond burr engraving dohicky to make the shapes, but I thought maybe you could offer some suggestions.
@@liquidrockaquatics3900 Power carving is what I would do. But take that with a grain of salt because I don't have a lot of experience with that wood or style. You can carve just about any wood with a knife, it's just that it may take a LOT longer on some woods to do something than others.
@@JohnnyTheLayton I ended up using a utility knife with standard utility knife blades with the big ass handle so I could retract the blade as much as needed for safety, but since those blades are disposable and razor sharp, they worked pretty decent to cut about 1/64 of an inch into the wood. That’s about all the deeper. I really needed to get done what I needed, so I ran a second groove through the first to get it to about a sixteenth deep, then took a torch to it. Something about high temperature treatments really changes wood fundamentally, but I don’t know why. I think it activates the resin inside the wood and causes them to solidify after they expand maybe because it seems as though the pores are filled more when it comes to finishing. I seen it up to 1500 and I have nice little smooth grooves that you can feel as you hold the saw so that you can register your pinky finger against it
@@JohnnyTheLayton oh and I do want to do power carpet at some point because I have seen the crazy stuff that Cam does at Blacktail studio and*chefs kiss* I love it
new guy here....first thing i realized is.....im not very good...second was. you can bleed.....so ive done a few now and well....im still not very good...
@chiliman321lb Keep practicing. Keep carving. It's like anything in life, the more time you spend on it the better you get. It becomes far easier to see your progress if you do multiples of something trying earnestly to do better each time. Like I mentioned in the video. I did 5 to 10 of every little carving tutorial I tried and seeing my progress became so much simpler it inspired me.
I "liked" this video. Good subject material. However, I offer constructive criticism: You overuse the word "terrible". Additionally, this 12 minute video should be edited down to a 5 minute video.
Yeah, I almost quit 2 yrs ago. I was sharpening my knife on the grinder I had at the time. I was testing the knife on a hard piece of wood, and the knife slipped and went right down on my finger🫣. I cut about 5 mm from the tip of my finger. I walked out of the garage and said to my dad " l think I need stitches!". Anyway, I didn't quit because I had my parents to encourage me. I am sooo glad I didn't quit this awesome hobby, Now I look at how far I have gotten and love every moment that I carve.
@andrewgward7 Yeah, Injuries is yet another real good reason. Glad you didn't quit brother! It's a great hobby and there is a fantastic community around it to boot!
Rage on brother. No lie I had similar experience. Finished a Native American bust out of pine after it was covered in blood from cutting my thumb 3 times. I was at a park with fam with no gloves just a pocket knife.
I burned out some last year. Carved just over 200 Christmas ornaments 😂. Started becoming work. Took a break for a few months. Then started again, just wood spirits, my favorite things to carve
@tomevans4402 haha, yeah, sounds like that'll do it alright!
Dull blades and sliced fingers because of dull blades.Your videos are getting better every time.Great bloopers!Your videos are definitely making me up my game as far as more details on my carvings.
That's stellar. Thanks for the kind words. Not many have mentioned the bloopers! 🤣😂🤣
I couldn't help it. I had a lot more footage than needed because i kept making silly mistakes! It was all fun though.
Well done Johnny .. Wisdom about carving ..Thank you for sharing
Always a pleasure Gene! Hopefully I help someone by sharing my own trials! 😀
Loved your blog I bought some cheap knives wrong, now I have flexcut now what a difference stay passionate about your carving your an inspiration 🇬🇧
@@iandanielson5090 Flexcut are really great knives. I have a lot of more expensive knives, but in my Togo box I take with me when I whittle at the park or at work on lunch, I still use a flexcut detail blade.
Carvers don't make mistakes, they make serendipitous design changes.
Haha, I like the way you think! =)
I Am brand new to carving and that's my biggest fear that I won't be able to hone the blade correctly or I won't be able to see Improvement. It would be nice if somebody like you lived closer to me so I could learn from you lol! Keep up the awesome videos they're very inspiring!!
@kosgov that is precisely, exactly the reason I tell people to get into a carving club. I got in one and having folks to talk to, to get reassurance from, it's fantastic!
Many carving clubs don't have an online presence. Check the local library and see if they know of one. Check your community center. Check ChipChats website, they have a registrar of clubs. Get into Facebook groups and ask around.
But most importantly, don't let yourself make excuses about not doing it. Getting into a group of strangers doesn't always sound fun, but the benefits are huge.
I was certain there were no carving clubs nearby me, but the truth is, I just didn't try hard enough to find them.
@@JohnnyTheLayton Unfortunately you hit the nail on the head. I tend to procrastinate and talk myself out of doing things cuz I might screw it up or be bad at it. But, I have a library pretty much next door to me so that's the first thing I'm doing in the morning is going over there and checking around. Thanks again for your videos man keep it up.
@@kosgov glad to brother! Thanks for watching
Wow! Such a passionate love for what you do!❤
@@RoxanneBarich Thanks!!
Thanks so much for the encouragement! I just followed you in Blue Sky. Thank you!
Yay, welcome!! 😀
Great Ponts!!! I keeped my first 3 carvings to show how I inproved over time etc!!! I love the old time carving of Whimsees. 3 of my fav carvers on here are Doug Linker, Gene Messer and ddalo. Just now trying to get in to cariture carvings with faces. My fav animals etc Need to make some of those mushroom caritures.
I watch all of those carvers too! =)
I love point number 5. This past weekend I started on a no-eyed gnome figure I was going to with a Santa hat, like the hat was resting on his nose because it was too big. I got the body and nose where I wanted it...I got the band to the hat evened out and started on the top of the hat. There I realized that I had wrecked the ratio entirely. There was no way I was going to fit a santa hat on the remaining wood without it tiny on a giant head. I then realized that the band was too wide for anything else. Then, I thought "beanie"? I didn't want a beard with a beanie, but figured it was better than nothing...then as I rounded the top off, I realized it looked kinda like a crappy beat up dome helmet. So, I've leaned into that. Still got some work to do on it, but it feels great to pivot and not just toss it on the burn pile.
@@keithjones5309 That's fantastic. That's hitting the nail on the head!
I started carving in 1980, loved it. I really enjoyed it. Stopped and started several times. Always enjoyed it. About 6 years ago i started getting commissions, i enjoyed that for a couple of years. All at once the creative juices stopped following, i stopped. I haven’t been able to get back to it. I think about it frequently and wish I would go back. In looking back, while i enjoyed carving, i found the missed the fellowship of carving clubs. Having said that, i am still working on it, maybe someday
@rexreitmayer4338 Yeah, I was able to get into a local monthly carving club and that has been a big help for motivation.
I wasn't paying attention to where you were looking I was to busy listening to you thank you for the channel
Glad you liked the video! =)
My journey as a carver is I try to apply wood carving on furniture and my biggest dream is build myself a Murffy Bed with carving to make.
I just got a bench grinder and reverse the direction of the wheel and got leather strop and build a wooden wheel adding 600 grit paper and it's fairly good.
I'm setting up a sewing machine into a 1x30 inches belt sander with reverse and multiple speed.
I'm not quitting but I'm 73 and if health lets me continue I expect to enjoy and my higher skills will improve.
Thanks Johnny my Grandpa taught some whittling interests and hasn't forgotten.Im a Blacksmith hobbyist of 5 years and I'm building myself carving tools and positive my handles will be better than 70 percent of handles and O1 steel should be much as good as over 50 percent and I did put handles on 3 blades from Badger State Blades they seem good steel and know some TH-cam are giving good reviews and I think they are a great/good quality the ones I bought I'll be copying them but I did see something I want to improve but I am saying they have a good/great blade to match and I will try.
I'm building a new forge and should get starting about September as I've got gardening also to care for.
Thanks for helping me and others
Doug Linker is what I believe is a gifted teacher and lots of great TH-cam videos are done by people who don't realize the thought they need to carve.
I've done 7 characters and 2 board carving and my sunroom I'll remove some carpet and be carving this winter and spring..
Don't you give up on us either.
I made a boneing knife that cut the hides of 3 deer and processed for freezing without needing to resharpened.I believe my carving tools will be a fairly good knife and exultant handle that helps my old hands and yes my handles are not just for beauty but comfortable is my main reason.
@JohnJude-dp6ed
Glad to brother. Thanks for the kind words and emcouragement!
@@JohnnyTheLaytonisint that steel same as beckwithforge ?
@@danielmilliken8903 Yup
I find progress isn’t linear. If I do say 10 carvings the first 3 might be bad then the next 2 turn out ok then 2 more are bad etc. I also try and follow a video tutorial (linkers) step by step and have a hard time developing the skill to carve on my own without following someone step by step. I also struggle with making each carving “perfect” and I end up over carving. I struggle with when to know when to stop carving and call it finished.
@EastCoastEDC That skill to carve without following a template should be the goal, but not everyone will arrive to it in the same fashion. What works for me might not work for you, but hopefully by sharing what works for me you can find some things that help, and at the very least known that the journey isn't always easy for others too.
I like your video and you talked about a few good points. I am only about 1 1/2 years into wood carving. I do have a lot of maple wood so I learned to power carve and gain carving techniques that way. I can easily get Basswood so I can carve with the knives. I started carving spoons with the basswood using the knives. I have found that I can learn from some of my mistakes by watching the TH-cam videos and make corrections. Keep making your videos and they will get better too, just like the wood carving.
@jrh13-65 i appreciate the kind words! I dont do much power carving, but at some point i'm sure i'll try it. Thanks for watching!
Thanks buddy I'm at that stage ,my kit came with 2bandaids I really suck, but im want this
@Makdaddy-q4y brother let me tell you i was terrible when I started. Perseverance and dedication are the key. What's the old saying "Discipline beats talent when talent isn't disciplined. "
I may not have a lot of natural talent, but I have discipline! 😀
Great vid. Raw uncut and real heart
Thanks brother. I come by it honestly.
My problem is being retired there is a problem with $$$$. and not have the money for Basswood. The Best carving is "The Last Supper."
I get that. You can make basswood pretty cheap, Loess Hills Sawmill can ship 2x2 sticks 12 inches long for $2.25 each.
loesshillssawmill.com/shop/
Great video! I'm a beginner, happy that I found your channel. Your dwarves and warriors are my endgoal. Starting with simple animals first though. Unfortunately basswood is very expensive for me (shipping and import fees, I'm from Brazil), so I am considering buying local pinus wood for practice and use basswood just for special stuff. I have to try this way otherwise I won't be able to practice as much. Great work!
@joaofalco939 Glad you're enjoying them. Thanks for the kind words.
Fun video and great advice!
@sirguy6678 Glad you liked it! 😀😀
Thanks for the feedback!
Great video. Loved all the points you made. I run a whittling/carving club at my school and one of the biggest issues i get with the kids is them going from carving simple christmas trees or woodspirits and the next thing, they want to carve a three headed dragon!
Great video Johnny.
@S.Hunter thanks brother!
Excellent video you do such a good job of editing I am not good at that all I don't know how to do it it's great advice that you gave people I'm learning too trying to teach people wood carving where I live at I stepped away from a lot of hard stuff for people trying to teach them the simple stuff everyone's while I'll do something but I've done it all my life I've burned out of doing Santa Claus's and wizards and all kinds of things I'm going back to my roots I'm going to start doing things that I used to do but excellent I really enjoyed your channel thank you
@@whittlerdave1440 Thanks brother, sincerely appreciated!
Great video buddy and I really liked it and I feel you made some really good points I've got a few projects I've left mid way because of mistakes I made I'm going to go back to them and finish them off 😂
Yes! Do it. I've learned so much from the mistakes I've made when i force myself to find a new path forward.
I have also got hayfever from pollen and my nose is blocked now and my eyes have been itching 😅
My allergies bother me in one way or another all year long. Terrible. I commiserate with you brother.
What is a good size basswood block to start with for learning? Never carved.
@cubano100pct 1x1 is the easiest to push a knife through due to being so small. I like 2x2, which is a little harder because it's wider, but you have so many more options on things to carve because you have more room.
@cubano100pct Follow me on Facebook or Insta. If you have questions about what all to get and what not, just reach out.
Dull Tools I think biggest reason. Still trying to get ultra sharp edge is a skill in itself. (IMO)
Honing and sharpening is almost a hobby in and of itself.
What was the name of the South Korean carver? Thanks
@@sambarker404 Ddalo
I have a serious question for you. I have an extremely hard wood that I have made into a beautiful saw handle. I would like to be able to add some sort of ornamentation to it as it should outlast my lifetime now. Janka scale 2620 Osage Orange. I’m not trying to carve figures, but more like decorative knurling for better grip and appearance. I have thought that I would probably be better off in my particular situation to use a diamond burr engraving dohicky to make the shapes, but I thought maybe you could offer some suggestions.
@@liquidrockaquatics3900 Power carving is what I would do. But take that with a grain of salt because I don't have a lot of experience with that wood or style.
You can carve just about any wood with a knife, it's just that it may take a LOT longer on some woods to do something than others.
@@JohnnyTheLayton I ended up using a utility knife with standard utility knife blades with the big ass handle so I could retract the blade as much as needed for safety, but since those blades are disposable and razor sharp, they worked pretty decent to cut about 1/64 of an inch into the wood. That’s about all the deeper. I really needed to get done what I needed, so I ran a second groove through the first to get it to about a sixteenth deep, then took a torch to it. Something about high temperature treatments really changes wood fundamentally, but I don’t know why. I think it activates the resin inside the wood and causes them to solidify after they expand maybe because it seems as though the pores are filled more when it comes to finishing. I seen it up to 1500 and I have nice little smooth grooves that you can feel as you hold the saw so that you can register your pinky finger against it
@@JohnnyTheLayton oh and I do want to do power carpet at some point because I have seen the crazy stuff that Cam does at Blacktail studio and*chefs kiss* I love it
One thing i am trying to do and that is carve a huge 13 inch kratos carving inspired by you🎉 its very hard 😂
That is definitely going to be a project. Take your time, practice safe techniques. Use a glove and don't carve when tired. You can do it!
new guy here....first thing i realized is.....im not very good...second was. you can bleed.....so ive done a few now and well....im still not very good...
@chiliman321lb Keep practicing. Keep carving. It's like anything in life, the more time you spend on it the better you get. It becomes far easier to see your progress if you do multiples of something trying earnestly to do better each time. Like I mentioned in the video. I did 5 to 10 of every little carving tutorial I tried and seeing my progress became so much simpler it inspired me.
Thanks 🔪🔪
@@sully4875 glad to help brother, thanks for watching.
I "liked" this video. Good subject material. However, I offer constructive criticism: You overuse the word "terrible". Additionally, this 12 minute video should be edited down to a 5 minute video.
@danielmays1986 Thanks Daniel.