Beginners Guide to Wood Carving - Lets Talk Wood
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.ย. 2024
- A few thoughts on selecting wood, where you can find it and the difference between green and seasoned wood.
Most of us who carve are often limited by location and availability of raw materials and i don't believe their is any right answer to what it the "right" wood to carve.
I usually work on the basis of taking what is available at the time but most of us will find a personal preference depending on what works best for us and our style.
Every man everywhere: “I will get around to making something out of this at SOME point.”
I'm with the guys on this one.
Isn't that relatable...
I like to make a ring from wood, and give it to my crush
I’ve literally been sitting on a beautiful birds eye maple burl slab. About a 60 pound slab at the start and I’ve yet to get going on the rest of it... been slowly picking at chunks here and there. Small sculptures, bowls, cups.
Have had the slab for 6 years now.
Thank you. This should be the first video to watch on wood carving.
This beginner's series is just what I need! As a rank beginner I've found a few things that make a big difference as I just start out: GREEN wood (I'm using birch.), SHARP tools, and PATIENCE. I'm thinking hand strength is an under-appreciated factor, and this takes time and practice to develop.
I know, my hand gets so fatigued so quickly when I’m whittling away.
I’m loving this wood carving series I’m binge watching it right now. I love how you talked about not overlooking sticks and branches specially since I like to carve a pocket knife so tired always have one on he just told romanticism of our forefathersfathers have done it for years can do some Wood carving projects based on using sticks and branches, it could be anything from functional stuff like spoons forks butter knives, whisks, to fun or decorative stun like kids toys a top, ball in a cage, figurens etc.
Have a blessed Day
Anthony ✝️☯️✌️❤️😊☕️
I'm working a comic right now and there is going to be a wood carver character and I'm doing research how he would find wood. Your video was very helpful as a start for reference thank you!!!
I literally just started watching your channel, this is my second of your videos haha, I have just subscribed, I've been doing wood carving for a little over a year now and love learning new tips and tricks from fellow carvers. Awesome channel brother. -Kyle
thanks man. I appreciate your wisdom on the topic
"...where they have permission to cut wood.."
... Of course I had permission for all the wood I carried out of the forest the last 30 years! Thank you for reminding all the others.
I worked briefly as an arborist and we had a few locals we knew who always appreciated straight logs or mulch dumped on their lawn, so we'd always take a detour to dump there rather than the hour round trip back to the yard.
super helpful, thank you my friend ...
My first experience with carving was when I had to cut some lower branches from a couple of Holly trees. The texture of the wood is wonderful and smooth and so white. I’ve made myself a beautiful walking stick. But now it’s dry, my goodness it’s hard.
I wanted to try holly. Did u have any splitting happen later anywhere ?
Fantastic video. Been trying my hand at spoon making, and thus video gave me some focus. Subscribed!
Very useful thanks. Birch it is!
awesome info, thanks for sharing
Another very helpful video , thanks!
I think the only thing you didn't mention is the grain of the wood, many of your examples of how the wood cuts are more reliant on the straightness and direction of the grain rather than just species of wood.
I started with greenwood willow. It’s pretty great, soft but strong and flexible
I've recently discovered a market, in urban areas, for what I was burning with brush piles, in the form of walking sticks
Hi - do you have a video explaining how to prepare harvested wood for carving?
I.e., how to take a log and process it into blocks for carving.
I recently had some tree work done and am, at this very moment, taking a break from splitting all the logs into firewood (with a hydraulic splitter).
I have, not coincidentally, also recently taken up wood carving... literally, in the few weeks I had to wait to rent the splitter, I got to staring at some of the wood thinking, "what can I make from that?"
Went and bought myself a proper carving knife and I've carved (or whittled, I suppose) a small sphere and an acorn from green oak.
I have a few 2" - 4" branches of various species (oak, ash, birch, maple, spruce, pine) that I selected out, but they've all cracked to some degree.
Anyway - back to the point: How do I take full round, ~8"-16" diameter, 12"-16" long logs and turn them into carving (or whittling) stock?
I'm 3/4 done splitting all the wood, most of it into pieces smaller than a quarter-round, but I'm going to start selecting out some straighter logs and probably just splitting them in half, to hold aside for carving.
As I said, I'm brand new at this, so upcoming projects will probably be the typical beginner ones; a chain is probably next and I'm sure I'll do a ball in a cage, some small animal/people figurines, and I definitely want to carve more acorns from oak.
The size of the blocks I'll be able to "mill" will be limited by the size of the saws I have to cut it with - not sure what the maximum depth is of the portable table saw I have, but it can't be much more than a few inches. I also have a Sawz-All with blades up to maybe 6" long and a hand saw that's probably 12" long.
I may want to cut some 1" thick planks, as well as square/rectangular blocks.
Sorry for the long comment, hope you can help.
Thanks!
Dennis it really depends on what you want to carve. For spoons I would process much like firewood and splitting into quarters or eighths, then remove the central pith at the top of the wedge as this is the most likely part to split. Bowls are the same process but split into halves or quarters depending on size.
You can take any of the pieces mentioned above and either round or square them off for other carvings, just make sure you split along the grain as you would for firewood.
Once you give the splitter back you can use wedges (metal or carved wood) to split any remaining logs. Personally I prefer to use a froe but they aren't easy to find (the are possible to make fairly easily though if you have some thick'ish metal laying about. They are also great for splitting out small boards and wooden tiles (shakes) which can be carved into plates and cutting boards.
Hope that helps, Hamster
I like watching your helpful vids! Could you talk a bit about wood toxicity when it comes to carving kuksas, bowls, etc?
Thanks!
thank you for this video
Great video. Thanks. Better to use a wedge/split piece, or ok to carve a full round branch? Anything to be aware of either way? Just had a juniper spoon (unsplit) crack radially toward the center after some hours in.
@woodcraft hamster Just what I've been looking for. What is it like using cherry wood for carving? Isn't it a hard wood? Thanks
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I tried carving seasoned willow yesterday and it was really difficult.
Was it the wood or was it just my lack of skill?
Hi Hamster, really enjoying your tutorials. My knowledge of tree identification is as poor as my knowledge of carving. This is obviously an issue when trying to source materials in the countryside. Living in Scotland it seems crazy to buy wood online that costs a fortune when I've so many trees around me. Any advice on how to identify british trees would be so much help as I can't tell the difference between a tree and a slab of concrete. Thanks Buddy.
The darker/longer branch is of which species, please?
Thank you!
so I am curious, with oak and maple wood what would be your expert advice in carving it? I have a few bits of this wood and its dry as far as I can tell (its been left around for at least a month for a large pile, but the sticks I have have been dry for at least 6 months) and the type of blades I have for it is a clip blade ( or maybe muskrat clip blade?) and a long spey blade in a pocket knife setup. what would be your advice for me on this matter?
Hope you have a great day & Safe Travels!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I recently had to chop down some ash on my property, I've cut it into manageable-ish lengths. I'm very new to carving and have more wood now than I know what to do with (although I do have some plans) but my question is, how should I store this wood!? Can I keep it as green wood somehow? At the moment it's piled up under an elder tree and has been for about two weeks. Is it even green anymore?
I have carving tools meant for linoleum when I took a printmaking class. Would they work for woodcarving too? Just curious. Also if you were to find sticks that are already on the ground how do you know what type of wood it is especially in winter when they don’t have leaves? They tend to look the same to me. Thanks!
We just cut down our willow tree so I wanted to learn wood carving. But idk what kind of wood it is
Hi there from New Brunswick Canada 🇨🇦. I just finished carving my kuksa and a spoon out of green birch. Now I need some advice on how to dry it and finish it. I desperately need your advice
Thanks
Kim
for spoons make sure whatever finish you apply is safe for human consumption. I think shellac is. As it comes from a bug just food for thought
Useful video. I am lucky recently an found a large Yew branch that had snapped off. I have carve a few runes but its heavy going. Have you had any experience with it or offer any tips
N Jones I'm told you can't use it for food contact items as it contains drug taxol for treating cancer 👌💕💪🐺
Yes that right the whole tree except for one tiny part is poisonous but i still wouldnt chance it. It such a beautiful wood so i will make sure i use it for something decorative
N Jones right on the most poisonous part is berries and in leave's it is why its one reason it grows more common in cemetery there's been cases of roman soldiers drinking wine from flasks! Made from yes and being poisoned as for hardness not an issue for this wild fox I loves a challenge you turn a negative into a positive🐾🐺💪👌
All spot on so far, one thing to add is that the wood can be carved but it needs to be seasoned first as it is the sap that is poisonous. Obviously don’t use for spoons and if using any powered tools like a lathe or band saw make sure you have a dust mask.
Seasoned yew and hand tools are generally fine but it’s quite dense to will give you, and your tools, a workout.
Woodcraft Hamster yes true 💪🐺🐾💕👌
Do you recommend elm for spoon carving?!
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Sir!! Can a use mango tree??
Is this in England?
I’m starting with pecan wood that’s green wood.
Is there any wood that is poisonous
Awesome interesting video I must sends ya the thank you package lost a close friend cute foxie Alan Mann 💕💪🐺🐾
I got some wood that I never carve its called pople I think
Hi
BASSWOOD
It's good to see Woodprix have new instructions to save my money and energy to build it.
OMG...you do look like a hamster :) thx for the awesome video mate.