Do you do any whittling or woodcarving? What tools did you start with?
Admin
I started with a Ramelson palm wood carving set and added from there as I needed. I have several different brands tools now. I make my own knives, not gouges just straight knives for carving and whittling.
I have been carving western red cedar for no more than 20 years.
As my grandmother predicted, I would come to carve what I could see in the wood.
That was quite a shock when it first happened, when I knew I was holding a salmon by the tail.
Formally, I got a short relief carving class as a gift. I bought what the professional carver suggested for tools.
All Pfeil (erroneously called "Swiss Made).
D5/3
1/8
8/7
3F8
5F/14
12/8
12oz ShopFox polyurethane mallet, a 2-sided leather strop and a hard wax bar of CrOx/AlOx honing compound.
I decided that I preferred to carve in the round, whole things, not just a side view.
The years went by as I bought more gouges, usually one at a time. Kits are a waste of money.
Partly because of our immersion in it, the art and carvings of the Pacific Northwest native community has been around me for most of my life.
So I began to make crooked knives, mostly from farrier's crooked hoof trimming knives. Maybe 2 dozen of those, now.
I studied the old ones in the UBC Museum of Anthropology.
I bought adze blades from
http://kestreltool.com/index.html
I make all the handles.
Very different motions to do the carving. Some of the tools are very versatile, unlike gouges.
The adzes take a lifetime of practice, decades more than I have left!
Bad, bad winter for me. Several carvings on the bench including a pair of 64" cedar "story poles".
I'll finish them in time.
I have learned how to freehand sharpen and hone every sort of wood carving tool there is. I know what "carving sharp" really is.
I have learned the wood. I can carve in western red cedar and yellow cedar like I never could, 15 years ago.
As my grandmother predicted, I would come to carve what I could see in the wood.
That was quite a shock when it first happened, when I knew I was holding a salmon by the tail.
Formally, I got a short relief carving class as a gift. I bought what the professional carver suggested for tools.
All Pfeil (erroneously called "Swiss Made).
D5/3
1/8
8/7
3F8
5F/14
12/8
12oz ShopFox polyurethane mallet, a 2-sided leather strop and a hard wax bar of CrOx/AlOx honing compound.
I decided that I preferred to carve in the round, whole things, not just a side view.
The years went by as I bought more gouges, usually one at a time. Kits are a waste of money.
Partly because of our immersion in it, the art and carvings of the Pacific Northwest native community has been around me for most of my life.
So I began to make crooked knives, mostly from farrier's crooked hoof trimming knives. Maybe 2 dozen of those, now.
I studied the old ones in the UBC Museum of Anthropology.
I bought adze blades from
http://kestreltool.com/index.html
I make all the handles.
Very different motions to do the carving. Some of the tools are very versatile, unlike gouges.
The adzes take a lifetime of practice, decades more than I have left!
Bad, bad winter for me. Several carvings on the bench including a pair of 64" cedar "story poles".
I'll finish them in time.
I have learned how to freehand sharpen and hone every sort of wood carving tool there is. I know what "carving sharp" really is.
I have learned the wood. I can carve in western red cedar and yellow cedar like I never could, 15 years ago.
I started woodcarving in 1973 when I was in high school. At the time I just had a utility knife and a very small gouge. Still I put ball and claw feet on a grandfather clock I built my senior year. Then in 1978 I found an ad for a guy teaching woodcarving. Not knowing it at the time but the guy was world renown Ludwig Kieninger, master woodcarver and sculptor. http://www.texaswoodcarving.com/ludwig-kieninger I took classes for about two years until he moved his business about 100 miles north of me.
While I was taking the classes I started this project making this table. The figure on the back left Ludwig carved half the face and I carved the other as well as the other three figures on the table.
While I was taking the classes I started this project making this table. The figure on the back left Ludwig carved half the face and I carved the other as well as the other three figures on the table.
Attachments
Most I do is the occasional spoon. I would love to do overly complicated nonsensical carving at some point. I'll get to it eventually, once l finish all the current projects I have I'll just sit down and learn how to do it. I'll cross that bridge when I get there though.
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