See more ideas about Whittling wood, Wood carving, Wood art.  Green Woodworking Woodworking For Kids Woodworking Bench Woodworking Projects Woodworking Jigsaw Woodworking Skills Woodworking Organization Woodworking Logo Woodworking Workshop. This item is unavailable | Etsy. Slicing seat. See more ideas about whittling, carving, wood carving.  Another little whittling project finished off in my hotel room with a knife and a couple of palm gouges. Last week when I was away from home our sewer drain backed up. Luckily my wife noticed something was wrong and contacted the water company. See more ideas about Whittling, Carving, Wood carving.  Another little whittling project finished off in my hotel room with a knife and a couple of palm gouges. Last week when I was away from home our sewer drain backed up. Luckily my wife noticed something was wrong and contacted the water company. Safety should always come first, so be careful anytime you use a whittling knife. The second version of the v-cut is sometimes called a gouge cut, but all you are doing is making a small v shaped trench along the side of the wood. Every type of wood for carving has its whittling green wood, and if you know the differences you can choose the proper kind of wood for every project you are planning, be it building, making furniture, creating decorations, or other. The ideal wood to whittle is basswood as it is soft enough to easily whittle with a knife, but hard enough to add fine details into the wood. If the wood is too dry, the wood can be hard and brittle. Then perform a push whittling green wood right up to that cut you made, this will allow the sliver of wood to come off and separate right at the point you made your stop cut. The wood of the whittling green wood pear is very comfortable and workable.

All I had to do was walk down to my local convenience store and pick up a few rolls. This is extremely important for both your safety and your overall whittling experience. A dull knife will require more force to cut, which puts you at a higher risk of being cut as the knife exits the wood. Keeping your knives sharp is quite easy to do, and even relaxing!

My wife often says I like sharpening my knives more than I like whittling, and she might be right! The task is methodical enough to quiet your mind, and the end results are very satisfying.

Your leather strop with polishing compound will be your go to sharpening tool. It took me several years to start using them but now that I do, my knives have never been sharper. If you have a piece of leather to use for your strop, you will want to affix it to a hard flat surface like a block of wood. I would recommend gluing the smooth surface to the wood with the rough side sticking up.

The rough side accepts the polishing compound you will be adding easier than the smooth side. Then all you have to do is take your polishing compound either green or FlexCuts yellow and rub it in evenly like a crayon on the leather surface. You can heat up the compound a little with a hair dryer or heater to make it easier to spread, but I have found just rubbing it in with your finger or even stropping a little with a knife will push the compound into the leather fibers.

For reference, look at the picture above and imagine the knife moving away from you. While you are whittling, you will want to make sure your knife edge is still sharp. Simply re-honing the blade on your leather strop every 20 — 30 minutes will go a long way to keeping your knife sharp and your cuts smooth.

A highly useful tip for whittling for the first time is learn how to cut with the wood grain. Pushing your knife through the wood grain incorrectly could cause the wood to split and take off an entire sections of wood that you may want to keep attached. You can fix it with glue, but that will slow down the whittling process. The easiest cut you will make is cutting with the grain. Cutting with the grain means that you are pushing your knife through the wood in the same direction of the wood grain.

This makes for a smooth and easy cut with very little to no roughness of the wood. This will be one of your more common ways to remove wood with your knife and is easier to do with quality wood with no knots, as well as with wood with fine grain.

Another common cut is cutting across the wood grain. Cutting across the grain means that you are pushing your knife from the outside in towards the middle of the wood and cutting through the grain fibers.

This can be more difficult, as instead of sliding your knife between layers of the wood grain, you are cutting through each individual layer of wood. In order to do this effectively, you will need a sharp knife to produce a smooth and clean cut. This is where things get tricky. Cutting against the grain means that you are cutting from the inner layers towards the outside of the wood, either in a scooping motion or from the ends of the wood inwards with the blade cutting up and out of the wood.

Looking at the picture above, you will see that the wood is starting to split and separate independently from the knife edge.

This can cause entire sections of wood to come off that you wanted to stay on and add detail to. For a beginner, keeping track of how the wood grain flows through the block or stick can be hard. Especially if you are using basic pine wood from the hardware store, since the wood grain is thicker and can change direction. This is a skill best learned through practice and learning from your mistakes. You will mess up a few times; I still do to this day!

You can also just practice cutting by grabbing some scrap wood and seeing what angles you can safely cut into the wood without splitting it. There is more than just taking a knife and starting to cut away wood.

By learning and using different cutting techniques, you can easily cut through wood without wearing yourself out and dulling your blades. For quick picture references, my dominant hand will be holding the knife and my off hand will be wearing a glove and holding the wood.

This is the most basic cut that just about everyone knows about, but should be used sparingly and only for roughly cutting the wood to an approximate shape. All you are doing is holding the wood with your off hand and pushing the knife away from you with your main hand. There is very little finesse but allows you to apply force behind the blade.

The push cut will probably be your go-to cut for most whittling projects. You will hold the wood with your off hand and push from the back of the knife with both thumbs on your right and left hand. By pushing the back of the blade with your thumbs, you can add more control to your cuts while reducing fatigue in your main cutting hand. The sweep cut is just like the push cut but with a slight twist, literally. Hold the wood and knife like you would with the push cut, but instead of pushing the knife in a linear path you will be adding a slight arch to the cut.

You will start off cutting into the wood between a 90 degree and 45 degree angle, then as you are pushing into the wood, rotate the knife so that it returns to 0 degrees and on the same plain as the wood as shown in the picture above. The stop cut is useful if you want to add a push cut in the middle of your wood carving but stop at a precise point.

In order to create a stop cut, just push your blade directly into the wood at a 90 degree angle to create a simple cut you may have to rock the blade back and forth.

Then perform a push cut right up to that cut you made, this will allow the sliver of wood to come off and separate right at the point you made your stop cut. The paring cut is a very common technique that allows you to combine a high level of control with some strength. First, hold the wood in your off hand, and place your thumb on the end of the wood block with your knife where you want to start the cut as shown in the picture above.

These can be a real treasure trove. Something 1ft in diameter and 2 ft long is perfect for a knee high axe block. Sourcing Wood. What wood do I want?

Where can I find wood? Most beginners make the mistake of aiming for a deep bowl. This makes the spoon uncomfortable to use in the mouth and of course, it takes more time. Step five: Draw your spoon design on your wood block using a piece of charcoal or pencil, marking the handle and the bowl. A cereals spoon is no more than six inches long and three inches in diameter.

Step six: Using a very sharp knife blunt is dangerous , whittle and slice around the outline. The best thing is to work along one dimension at a time, following the wood grain. Work from both ends of the piece, carving away from yourself in all directions, with small movements. You will end up with a square spoon, with no depth in the bowl. Step seven: Carve out the bowl. You will need an Indian crook or hooked knife, which has a curved blade.

Work across the grain, gradually scooping out the bowl. A word of caution: this step requires the most patience and precision and carries a greater risk of cutting yourself. Step eight: Decide whether you would like to sandpaper the utensil, recommended for beginners, so as to obtain a smooth finish.

If you intend to sandpaper, store your work at room temperature for a few days in order to dry the wood out a little and make sanding easier. Step nine: Oil your finished spoon to stop it drying out or getting dirty. Get a nut oil from your local supermarket - walnut is a good choice. Avoid using olive oil as it goes rancid. Dip a bit of oil on a cloth and wipe the spoon applying two to three coats. It is a good idea to allow twenty-four hours between coats.

The oil enhances the grain, protects the spoon and prevents it from splitting. If you are allergic to nut oil, you can use horse grade linseed oil not the normal woodwork linseed oil. Follow Steps one, two, three and four above. To make a butter spread knife, you need to end up with a piece that is ten inches long, two inches wide and three quarters of an inch thick. The finished knife will only be around eight inches long, but the extra length allows a firm hold as you whittle off.

You should always hold the carving knife in the dominant hand and keep the wooden piece on the left. Step five: Mark the shape of the knife along the piece using charcoal from the camp fire or simply a pencil. Step six: Start carving out the knife handle.

Note which way the grain is running and whittle off a little bit at a time following that direction, always away from yourself. Step seven: Turn your attention to the blade and start whittling off with the sharp knife. The spreading edge needs to be rounded and thinner. The back edge is straight, thicker and stronger. Step eight: When you are satisfied with the shape of your handle and blade, cut to size with a saw, removing the two extra inches from the handle so as to end up with an eight inch long knife.

Next: Follow sandpapering and oiling instructions as for spoon. Recoat the knife with oil every so often. Do not dishwash. Alisoun 17 December, There used to be a guy in Scotland from whom I could order custom sized blocks of lime for carving.

Caroline 9 June, Hi, I love the spoons what a skill and with very few tools, I found the bird whittler and got hooked on whittling it is amazing what you can do with just a knife and I love doing it in my spare time.

Thanks David. David 3 October, Hi Lisa, Off hand I dont know of any but I will ask a friend of mine from down there if she knows of any and get back to you. Lisa 2 October, Hi -my husband has started an interest in whittling -would like to buy him a place on a whittling course -do you know any in kent or nearby? Tom 29 January, Dan, I am in Leeds area and have been learning to carve.

Regards Tom. David Alty 18 December, Hi Jenny, Basically you need a good sharp whittling knife and a crook knife. Jenny Winser 17 December, Hi. David Alty 16 December, Hi Allan, I think if you are carving lettering or figures into wood then you are better off with seasoned wood.

Allan Taylor 15 December, Hi, to you all, yes another beginner, and yes obsessed with wood work, and carving. Fio Adamson 8 May, Am looking for someone who could run a whittling workshop on Sunday May11th as a tutor has cancelled at short notice.

Thanks for your interest David Alty. Have you any suggestions. Many Thanks Jim. Thank you Peter. Maureen Richardson 4 July, Have just read your piece on whittling and fully agree it can be additive.

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