Wood Whittling 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 r Simple Wood Carving. Wood Carving Faces.  Easy-To-Do Wood Carving Ideas for whittling and chip carving to help get you started and familiar with various cuts and techniques. Woodworking For Kids. Easy Woodworking Projects. Wood carving is a fascinating hobby that allows you to make sculptures like wood art or faces in wood using simple woodworking tools. If you are here, then clearly you are looking for information about this hobby. We made this comprehensive guide about wood carving for beginners to help you become more knowledgeable about the subject.  Is Carving Different from Whittling? What Beginners Need Before Carving. Best Wood Types for Carving. Basswood. Butternut.  Sugar maple is one of the best wood for chip carving, mostly because it is such a dense wood. White Oak. Lastly, we have one of the most popular hardwood available on the market - white oak. as its name suggests, this is a very light and yellowish wood with medium coarse grains. it is the ideal wood for chip carving. Whittling is the art and style of woodcarving performed using a carving knife. Opposed to relief carving and other techniques whittling typically produces a sculpture oppose to adding detail to a piece (such as furniture). A trademark of whittling is that the knife strokes are clearly visible on the final piece giving it a rugged natural feel. Below are some examples of pieces created through whittling. What Type of Wood Should I Use? Simply put.. that depends! Woods can be separated into two categories, softwoods and hardwoods. Both can be carved or whittled but starting out you are going to. There are many videos available that can teach you how to properly use a sharpening stone and a strop. The thumb of your non-cutting hand provides the power to push on the back of the knife or thumb of your cutting hand. They made not a regular spoon but a spoon with a wavy handle. Whilst oil can add a bit of color to blemish damaged surfaces, it does not work all that well as a softening agent. The knife must then be pushed through the wood; it's all about wood for whittling and carving you angle! Ultimately it is up to your interest and curiosity to take you further into the wlod world of whittling and wood-carving. It seems to whitttling some story.

I won't get into sharpening in this instructable, however there are plenty of resources out there for you to learn. So once you have your tools, you'll need something to carve. There are tons of different kinds of wood and they all carve differently. My recommendation and the wood that I learned how to carve with is basswood.

It's cheap and you should be able to find it locally. The grain is small and the wood is soft. However, it isn't crucial that you even know what kind of wood you have, so don't worry. Use what you have— that's part of the fun of carving wood. Make sure the wood is dry ; you'll have more control over it. Carving with wet wood adds a level of unpredictability, since as it dries it tends to warp and crack.

Understanding grain is essential to wood carving This is where your intuition will develop over time. While I will not go into the science behind the structure of wood, I will say that it grows in regular patterns that appear as grain. The orientation of the grain is going to determine how easily you can carve the wood. If you've ever had a splinter, you know what grain is and how its orientation matters. You will want to start with straight-grain wood which is exactly what it sounds like , where the grain runs in one direction.

You can use the ends to determine what direction the grain runs in. The pictures below show you what to look for. Note that the grain can go down slightly Basic vocabulary is as follows : when you are carving in the same direction as the grain, you are carving with the grain. If you are carving opposite the direction of the grain, you are carving against the grain. If you are carving perpendicular to the grain, you are carving across the grain.

Which way to carve: You always want to carve with the grain or across the grain. The grain can also run up and down slightly, so make sure you are carving with the grain in the down direction.

The next step contains pictures of carvings in each direction for your reference. Before we start, let's go over holding the knife correctly: The picture below will show you how to hold the knife. When right-handed, my left hand is holding the piece of wood and my right hand is holding the knife.

My left thumb is on the back of the blade and will be providing the cutting force. Never push the blade forward with your right hand ; you will not be able to move the blade with precision. Notice that my fingers are out of the path of the blade.

Don't be silly: Never push hard on the blade. If it gets stuck because you carved too deep into the wood or the grain orientation changed , stop and backtrack. If you try to force the blade, it could slip and cut your finger. There's no need to go fast Speed doesn't help you carve better. Take your time, at least until you feel comfortable carving.

Pay attention: The sound and the feel of your cuts are important. You can hear the difference between carving with, against, and across the grain. This will be useful in developing intuition about the direction you are cutting in.

So let's figure out what actually happens when you carve: You'll be making a scooping motion. First, the knife has to dig into the surface of Wood For Whittling And Carving With the wood a little bit.

The knife must then be pushed through the wood; it's all about the angle! As you push through the wood, angle the knife up ever-so-slightly and you will have shaved off a bit of wood.

With many types of wood, the shavings will curl; this is an indication that you are going in the right direction. You should remove the wood in very thin layers; if you go too deep, you'll end up tearing out on the way back up. The pictures below will show you what it looks like when you go with the grain, against the grain, and across the grain. Also, your shavings are fairly informative. Check out the difference between shavings going against the grain and shavings going with the grain.

A good way to learn knife control is to try keeping the knife at a fixed angle; see how long of a shaving you can make in one cut. The more you carve, the more you will understand the grain.

It's somewhat difficult to explain in a paragraph with a few pictures, but it will make sense as you experience it first-hand. Start with gently curving objects that allow you some room to make mistakes. As you get better, add details regardless of the orientation of the grain; there is always a way to make the right cut.

Most important of all, have a good time! Reply 7 weeks ago. Very good and easy woodcarving project! Hey great article. I'm interested in picking it up as a hobby and the information was super helpful! What should I whittle with for beginners? Those 3 pictures are the only ones so far that have made me understand grain. Thank you so much! Another thing to keep in mind with Balsa, is that it is so lightweight, you may not want to make heartier utensils with it.

Aspen is another VERY soft wood for hand carving. In fact, you may have noticed that it has a Janka rating slightly lower than Basswood.

The wood is generally straight and fine-grained. Like basswood and Balsa, Aspen has a very light color. One more unique thing about Aspen, is that it has the distinction of being the most widely distributed North American tree according to the US Forest Service.

To summarize, if you have access to Aspen, then you have access to a plentiful and very renewable carving wood. It shares many of the good qualities of Basswood, and could be an excellent alternative if Aspen is either cheaper or easier for you to get. However, for whittlers and hand carvers, Butternut has some key advantages. For one, Butternut is much softer and easier to carve by hand compared to Black Walnut, which is much denser.

In fact, this approach has been used in the past by woodworkers who were trying to mimic Black Walnut, with less expensive Butternut wood. Given the time, tools, and a bit of experience, you could create a spectacular heirloom piece with this wood. Cedar also happens to be the most colorful wood in our list so far, and tends to be light redish pink, and can sometimes even have slightly purple shades in dark spots.

It has a wonderful scent that I can only describe as rich, slightly sweet, and crisp. Like Basswood, Cedar is a wood that you can find at hobby and craft stores in dried form.

Why not? White Pine is another very soft wood, and it has the same Janka hardness rating as Aspen listed above. The color of White Pine wood is a very light, almost white color hence the name. White Pine can be a great wood for hand carving, but there are a couple of challenges that make it more difficult to work with:.

A second challenge of working with pine wood, is that it tends to have more knots than the types of wood at the top of this list e. Basswood and Aspen. In the hands of a skilled carver, knots can be incorporated into a carving, which can really add a lot of character and beauty to a piece. With all that said, White Pine is not always challenging to work with.

And you can often find pre-dried blocks of Pine in craft and hobby stores. White Pine is a plentiful wood, that is soft and easy to work with, as long as it is dried and you keep an eye out for knots. The colors and grain develop differently depending on the location and soils where the tree was grown.

The color tends to range from a light carmel-brown, to a much darker coffee color. For example, a nice straight grained block is attractive and can be shaped or carved into a more uniform piece.

Whereas a block with small knots, can be worked around to reveal the natural curves and waves of the wood. Although the end result is exceptional, it requires some challenging work.

Black Walnut is much more difficult to carve compared to Basswood, Balsa, etc. Hand carving with walnut will be tough, but if you have some experience already, go for it. Another thing to keep in mind, is that Black Walnut is quite expensive, so unless you have a cheap source for it maybe your backyard?

Black Cherry trees produce a beautiful wood that is loved by woodworkers, and has been used in furniture pieces for hundreds of years. The color of the wood is a big part of what makes it so attractive. It ranges from light reddish-pink, to a deep rich red color. The grain of Cherry is typically straight. And unlike the fine-grained Basswood, Cherry grain is typically much more visible, which will add a nice aesthetic to your finished project.

When it comes to carving, Cherry is similar to Walnut in hardness. Similar to Walnut, if you want to work with Cherry, you may also consider turning to power tools. Instead, a light coat of varnish or an oil finish will work well. Once you start to get a feel for the wood, and your knife, then you can upgrade yourself to some Basswood, Aspen, or other finer grained woods.

And dry is not always better like it is for firewood. One of the challenges of carving with green wood, is that you need to plan for how the wood will change as it dries. As wood dries, it shifts in size, and can also crack or chip as the moisture content goes down. On the other hand, dry wood is more stable less likely to shift and crack over time Wood For Whittling And Carving Knife , but it is also harder.

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