The Woodcarver's Cabin 
 
There are many types of Woodcarving.  Here are a few:
Relief Carving
Chip Carving
Caricature Carving
Bird Carving
Duck Decoy Carving
Bust Carving
Sign Carving
Bark Carving
 
Getting Started with Woodcarving.
Woodcarvers use various tools and carve many varied woods. There are many species of trees in my area and I take extra pride in my carving when I have cut the tree, prepared the wood, dried the wood, and then finally carved and finished the carving. It's kind of like the feeling you get when you sit down at the super table and everything before you came out of the garden that you planted and took care of yourself. Of course it's not always possible to do the complete job, in that it's sometimes necessary or desirable to use an exotic wood for a carving. For example it might be desirable to use Tupelo Gum for a duck decoy carving, due to its strength and light weight.


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Getting Started!

If you are thinking about getting started in woodcarving you are probably wondering what you need to get started. Well, to begin with you need a good imagination. Can you look at a piece of wood and see something in it. If you can it helps. Can you imagine a bird, a human figure, a face or a cartoon like figure, human or amimal.

As far as material all you need to get started is a piece of wood, any size and a knife. Do you need one of those fancy $50 wood carving knives. No! A good pocket knife will do. However there are some very inexpensive woodcarving knives that are excellent to carve with and are of good workmanship. These knives can be purchaced for less than $10. But remember, I said woodcarving can be addicting. If the bug bites you will be tempted to spend a lot of money on tools. This is not necessary. More tools and more expensive tools will not help you to carve that much better. What will help you is more practice and carving with other more expirenced carvers. This is where joining a woodcarving club might be a good idea.

There are some hazards associated with woodcarving as you might imagine since you will be handling razor sharp knives and cutting tools. You might as well get you a good supply of band aids ready because you will get cut and possibly seriously if you are not very very careful. So when carving think about your safety at all times. Also you need to think about the safety of others and don't leave your knives and tools laying around with the sharp edges exposed.

Wood!

What kind of wood should you use? The best wood to use is whatever is easy for you to obtain. Most carves prefer basswood. Basswood grows in this area and can be cut and dried. It can be purchaced by mailorder or picked up at woodcarving shows. If there is a sawmill in your area they usually have basswood at times. You may need to talk to the operator and have him set some aside for you. Pine is good to carve but splits fairly easily. One of the advantages of basswood is that it is tight grained unlike pine and holds together well. It doesn't split easily and carves easily. Walnut carves easily but is a little brittle and splits and breaks fairly easily. It also is plentiful in this area and is easy to obtain. Walnut is a beautiful wood which makes up for any difficulty in the carving if it. Of course if you use Walnut you would want to finish it with some type of clear finish to let the natural beauty show through. It would be a waste to paint it with an opaque finish. More on wood later!!

Sharpening!

If you ask 10 different people to give you their advice on sharpening, you will likely get 10 different responses. This is my very simple non-scientific advice. Hopefully you have purchaced a good knife with good steel. Look for a well known brand. If you have any doubt about the quality ask a woodcarver or reputable knife dealer. Like I said before it need not be very expensive. I'll not mention a brand name here but there are some out there readily available by mail order for $10 & less that will do a good job. Caution!! Watch out for those out there who are out to make a quick buck. They realize that a beginning woodcarver is really enthusastic about his new found hobby and eager to buy tools. So before you buy, especially something expensive, seek the advice of a trustworthy third party.

Now that you have a good knife, remember to be careful. You can slice yourself up sharpening just as easy or easier than when carving.

Get yourself some good sharpening stones. Sporting and hunting supply stores, and most department stores should have them. I like the kind that comes glued to a triange shaped piece of wood that you can hold in your hand. On each side of the triangle is glued a sharpening stone, medium, fine, ultra fine. Start sharpening on the medium side if the knife is very dull. Then go the the fine, then the ultra fine. Some will tell you to sharpen in this manner:

Lay the blade close to flat, but at a slight angle on the stone and push the knife away from you as if you were trying to slice off a very thin layer of the stone.

Others will tell you:

Lay the blade close to flat, but at a slight angle on the stone drag the knife toward you with the sharp side of the blade trailing.

Others will tell you:

Lay the blade close to flat, but at a slight angle on the stone and make small circular motions with the blade.

The first method is the most highly recommended.

My advice is try all three. Use whatever works best for you. We're not all made the same and can't all do everything alike. If we could, we'd all be brain surgeons, right!

Get your knife as sharp as you possibly can in that manner then get out your leather strop. They can be purchaced and you can pay big bucks for one if you want, but you can easily make your own. Just find yourself a piece of wood, approximately 1 1/2 inches wide X 3/4 inch thick X 16 inches long. These figures can be changed to suit yourself. These are the dementions I used to make mine. I left 11 inches as is and carved a rounded handle with the other 5 inches. I drilled a hole in the end of the handle and put a piece of leather through it and tied the ends together with a knot. This is mostly for looks. Get a piece of leather 1 1/2 inches X 11 inches, from a shoe repair shop or a leather craft shop and glue it to the wood. If you have an old leather belt laying around in the attic of the approperate size, it will serve the same pupose. Of course you will want to glue the finished side down. I'll bet you can do that can't you? I put a handle on one end of mine but you might rather have a handle on both ends. Make it to suit yourself. I used 5 Minute, 2 Part Liquid Epoxy, the kind that comes in a double barrel plastic tube that looks sort of like a big hypodermic needle without the needle. You can buy it at any department store.

Get some sharpening compound. Ask 10 woodcarvers what is the best kind to use and you'll probably get 5 different answers. I have tried several kinds and I like yellowstone. It comes in a solid block 4 inches long X 1 inch X 1 inch and is packed in a little cardboard box. It has a consistancy similar to chalk. Scrape some of it off with the back side of your knife and let it fall onto your leather strop. In other words you are making a powder of it.

After coating the leather, it doesnt take much and after you get it imbeded into the leather, it will last through several stroppings. You dont have to put it on every time.

Strop your knife by laying it as flat as you can on the leather and while holding downward pressure on the knife, draw it toward you with the sharp edge trailing away from you. If you are using yellowstone, you will see your strop start turning black very quickly as you work your knife on it. This is the metal that is being cut from the knife. This lets you know that the strop and the yellowstone are doing their job.

Your knife will be razor sharp with just a little effort.

Your knife will be ready to use. When it shows the least sign of losing its sharpness, strop it again. Don't wait until it becomes dull. Strop it often and you will seldom if ever use the stones again.

I didn't go into degree of angle to hold the blade and all that techinical and scientific stuff. I don't know of too many people who are so machine like that they could hold a knife at a constant angle throughout a sharpening session anyway. Keep the blade of the knife protected by putting it in a case or toolbox where it want be bumping up against any of your other tools or it will be dull the next time you need to use it. If you just follow these simple guidelines, use common sence, and do a little experimenting on your own you will find a happy medium for the angle that works best for you. You should get good results.

Should you have any problem finding any of the above mentioned materials contact me and I will direct you to a source. Happy carving!!

Woodcarving is alive and well throughout the world!
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