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Chip Carver's Workbook

About the Author:

Dennis "Pop" Moor and his Son Todd are known as "The Canadian Masters". Together they started Chipping Away, a carving shop in Kitchener, Ontario and have a weekly television series on all areas of woodcarving plus they teach and judge.

Dennis is president of Chipping Away, Inc. The firm publishes books, manufactures woodcarving tools and sharpening machines and are distributors for many other companies. Chipping Away also sponsors an annual International Carver's Conference in September.

What is Chip Carving:

Chip carving has a long history of use as decoration for various wooden household items. Knives are used to remove selected chips of wood in a single piece. Patterns can be free-form or geometric with figures such as triangles, circles, lines and curves.

Contents of Chip Carver's Workbook

Chapter 1: Choosing the Wood

• An explanation of different types of wood and how they are subject to Carving; wood sources, storing wood, returning moisture to wood and warping problems.

Chapter 2: The Tools

• Knives drawing instruments, templates and safety.

Chapter 3: Sharpening

• Sharpening, shaping, fine honing, stropping and power sharpening.

Chapter 4: How to Hold the Knives

• How to hold the knife and stab knife and the angle of the cuts.

Chapter 5: Three Main Chip Shapes

• Two sided or curved chip with a pattern for practice.
• Three sided or triangle chip including layout and measurements.
• Straight line chip.

Chapter 6: Standard-Sized Borders

• Using three-sided chip.
• Using two-sided chip.
• Framing with straight-line chips.
• Patterns for borders.

Chapter 7: Large-Width Borders.

• Many examples and pictures.

Chapter 8: Curved Borders

• Many illustrations and pattern.

Chapter 9: Grids

• With illustrations and patterns.

Chapter 10: Rosettes

• How to divide circles into equal parts.
• Illustrations and patterns.
  

Chapter 11: Layout and Design

• Layout borders
• How to handle corner borders.
• Beautiful pictures.
• Carving large areas.

Chapter 12: Getting the Pattern onto the Wood

• Heat Transfer
• Gluing the pattern on.
• Ironing the pattern on.
• Using lacquer thinner.
• Self-adhesive transparencies.

Chapter 13: Lettering

• Style
• Upper and lower case.
• Spacing
• Carving the letters.
• Pictures showing cutting.
• Pattern for letters and numbers

Chapter 14: Finishing

• Cleaning up your work.
• Staining or clear finish.
• Staining problem with basswood.
• Very nice illustrations.

Chapter 15: The Projects

• Napkin holder with clear illustrations, layout and pattern.
• Plant box with pattern and clear illustrations.
• Letter holder with clear illustrations and drawing of a rosette.
• Trinket Box with great illustrations and pattern.
• Tissue box holder with layout suggestion.
• Mailbox with great illustrations and patterns.
• Cheese and Cracker Tray with layout and illustrations.
  

All throughout this learning experience there are "Chip Tips" like the exampel here.

Galley: Two pages of unique completed projects.

Sources of Supply.

I found this to be an excellent chip-carving book and very well presented especially for people (any age) wanting to learn this art. It is a great learning book if you already chip carve, giving ideas you may not have thought of before and it could certainly help you teach others.

Mike Bloomquist mentioned in his last review that this next issue would include a review about something he didn't care for and this must be it. (You don't know what you are missing Mike!!)

I hope you all will enjoy this review, as I have never done this before. I just know chip carving is a great hobby.

An interesting note - Last summer I went to Evart, MI to the Wood Carvers Roundup for a one day visit. I looked all over for Dennis Moor and couldn't find him. I was in a few group pictures that were taken there and when I later received the pictures we were both in the pictures. Sorry I never met Dennis or had the opportunity to chat with him.

Marilyn Osterhouse is, among other things, an excellent chip carver.

She says of herself, "I learned to carve way down in southern Texas with my husband about 14 years ago. In 1993 we retired in northern Arkansas where we belonged to a carving club in Mountain Home of around 200 people. We were there for three years when I lost my husband. I stayed for four more years and then moved back to Michigan where my four boys and their families and my parents live. I belong to a small carving club now in Portage, MI and still do a lot of carving at home. I have ten grandchildren and have exposed all of them to carving as well. I also do stained glass (and so do my grandkids), take in sewing and play the organ for my church."