New Carver Resources

The New Carver Files

• So you want to be a carver …
• Your First Tools …
• Three Impor­tant Things to Learn — Sharp­en­ing, Sharp­en­ing, Sharpening
• Paint­ing and Finishes
• Projects for the New Carv­er (And Not So New Carver)
• Carv­ing Woods and Such
• In the Shop … Safe­ty; Tool Reviews; Tips and Hints
• Advance Top­ics

Cau­tion­ary State­ment: Wood carv­ing is a poten­tial­ly haz­ardous activ­i­ty and should be under­tak­en only with safe­ty a con­stant and pri­ma­ry con­sid­er­a­tion. To avoid injury thor­ough­ly under­stand the use of all tools and tech­niques and review all projects before start­ing. The projects and all oth­er mate­r­i­al on this site are pre­sent­ed as is, with no war­ran­ty or guar­an­tee of any kind expressed or implied. The own­er and authors dis­claim any lia­bil­i­ty for injury, dam­age or loss that may occur when using any of the con­tent of this web site.  Seek pro­fes­sion­al instruc­tion and advice before under­tak­ing any project.

Please use the form at the bot­tom of this page to sub­mit sug­ges­tions for addi­tion­al resources. 

So You Want To Be A Carver .…

Advice For New Carvers by Richard Absh­er - click => WOM Help Files

Advice To The New Wood­carv­er by Ken Bing­ham —  click =>WOM Vol 1 Issue 2

Rec.crafts.carving News­group FAQ — see in par­tic­u­lar Types of Carv­ing; Carv­ing Woods; Tools — Hand and Pow­er — click => WOM Help Files

The Nuts and Bolts of Carv­ing — A Short Course in Carv­ing Basics by Will Sharp

Day 1 — Select­ing Wood For Carv­ing 
Day 2 — Types of Carv­ing 
Day 3 — Choose Your Poi­son 
Day 4 — Select­ing Your Carv­ing Tools 
Day 4 — Com­ments… 
Day 5 — The Basic Tool Kit 
Day 6 — Car­ing For Your Tools 
Day 7 — Pat­terns 
Day 8 — Short Course In Anato­my For Carvers 
Day 9 — Fin­ish Your Carv­ing 
Day 10 — The Many Cuts For Carvers 
Day 11 — The Prac­tice Stick 
Day 12 — Must Books   (Days 1–12 at the same loca­tion — click HERE)

Day 13 — Bad Hair Day — click HERE

Day 14 — Win­kles, Wrin­kles, Wrin­kles — click HERE

Day 15 — Trans­fer Please! — click HERE

Day 16 — Of Course You Can Draw . . — click HERE

 

Wood­carv­ing Basis by L.S. Irish at LSIrish.com - click HERE 

Gen­er­al carv­ing con­sid­er­a­tions by Tony Wispin­s­ki — click => WOM Vol 1 Issue 1

Stages in learn­ing how to cre­ate chip carv­ing designs by Jeff Fleish­er — click => WOM Vol 1 Issue 1

Fail­ure by Graeme Vaughn — click => WOM Vol 3 Issue 1

Danc­ing in the Wood — Com­po­si­tion for Wood­carvers by Car­il Chasens — click =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 3

Wood­carv­ing Class Eti­quette by Vic Kirk­man — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 6

Begin­ner Wild­fowl Carv­er Advice by Vic Kirk­man  click =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 3

Chip Carv­ing Pat­tern Stamps and Keep On Turn­ing by Jeff Fleish­er - click =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 4

Carv­ing Tips and Tech­niques — click => The Carv­ing Bench

More Tips and Tech­niques — click => The Carv­ing Bench Archives

Carv­ing Tips at The South­east Carv­er site — click HERE

Sim­ple Exer­cis­es for Hands that Craft (down­load­able PDF at The Carv­ing Bench) — click => The 5–5‑5 Workout

Chris Pye — Wood­carv­ing Newslet­ter archive — click HERE

NFTN — Carv­ing faces — click =>WOM Vol 1 Issue 5

NFTN - Tips for carv­ing large fig­ures - click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 3

NFTN - Learn­ing to carve faces, Love spoons, Retainig prospec­tive in relief carv­ing — =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 2

NFTN — Cut­ting with the grain — click =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 3

NFTN — Copy­right Infor­ma­tion — click =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 4

NFTN — Trou­ble with crush­ing wood — click =>WOM Vol 4 Issue 4

Top­ics in Relief Carv­ing — Stop Cuts, Low Relief, High Relief, Smooth­ing the Back­ground, Lam­i­nat­ing, Using a Depth Gauge and much more — by L.S. Irish — on Fun­da­men­tals and Tech­niques page under Relief Wood Carv­ing — click HERE

Your First Carv­ing Pat­tern by L.S. Irish — tech­niques, tools, etc for relief — read online or down­load e‑book — click HERE

Incised Carv­ing, Wood Block Prints, Intaglio Carv­ing — by L.S. Irish on Spe­cial­ized Tech­niques  page — click HERE

Let’s Carve Eyes by Gene Gra­ham at Tree To Trea­sure Wood Carv­ing — click HERE

 

Your First Tools …

Safe­ty First! Wear a glove, learn to work safe­ly, learn to sharp­en, and learn the Wood­carv­er ‘s Mantra! — click HERE

Basic Begin­ner Tools, The Begin­ner’s Tool Kit, and Carv­ing Tool Close­up by L.S. Irish — click HERE

Buff­ing, Hon­ing or Strop­ping? What is the dif­fer­ence any­way? Read Vic Ham­burg­er’s com­ments — click HERE

NFTN — Select­ing your first knife; Mak­ing cuts by hand; Pro­tect­ing your carv­ing tools; Gloves — click =>WOM Vol 1 Issue 2

NFTN — Tool length — click => WOM Vol 3 Issue 5

NFTN — Pow­er carvers — click => WOM Vol 3 Issue 4

NFTN — Tak­ing care of cuts (on the carv­er), Cut-resis­tant gloves — click => WOM Vol 2 Issue 5

About Tools at Smoky Moun­tain Wood­carvers — click HERE

Tool Roll Pat­tern at The Carv­ing Bench — click HERE

For more infor­ma­tion see also Retail Sup­ply Hous­es and Tool Man­u­fac­tur­ers and Dis­trib­u­tors — click HERE

 

Three Impor­tant Things To Learn: Sharp­en­ing, Sharp­en­ing, Sharpening

Tool Sharp­en­ing Tips and Tech­niques   click =>WOM Help Files

Sharp­en­ing — terms and items used in carv­ing by Ken Bing­ham — click =>WOM Vol 1 Issue 3

Sharp­en­ing by Mac Prof­fit — from the Smoky Moun­tain Wood­carvers — click HERE

Sharp­en­ing Carv­ing Tools by L.S. Irish — click HERE

Sharp­en­ing Of The Tupe­lo Knife at Vic Kirk­man Orig­i­nals — click HERE

Basic Strokes Of The Tupe­lo Knife at Vic Kirk­man Orig­i­nals — click HERE

How To Make A Strop at Vic Kirk­man Orig­i­nals — click HERE

NFTN — Home-made strops; “Pinch­ing” the edge — click =>WOM Vol 1 Issue 3

NFTN - Sharp­en­ing; Sharp­en­ing V‑gouges — click =>WOM Vol 1 Issue 5

NFTN - Tool care tip; Advice on gouges; Sharp­en­ing — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 5

NFTN — Tool Sharp­en­ing, includ­ing R. Gal­landt’s 5 wheel sharp­en­ing rig — click =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 1

NFTN — V‑Tool Sharp­en­ing — WOM Vol 4 Issue 3

Buff­ing, Hon­ing or Strop­ping? By Vic Ham­burg­er  — click HERE 

 

Painting and Finishes

Some Ran­dom Thoughts About Paint­ing Your Bird Carv­ing by Jo Crae­mer — =>WOM Vol 1 Issue 2

Chip Carv­ing — In Search of the Per­fect Fin­ish by Jeff Fleish­er — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 3

Shel­lac — The Ver­sa­tile Fin­ish by Vic Ham­burg­er — click =>WOM Vol 4 Issue 6

Paint­ing Char­ac­ters and Car­i­ca­tures by Fred Key at The South­east Carvers — click HERE

Paint­ing San­ta Claus at The Carv­ing Bench — click HERE

NFTN — Paint­ing with acrylics — click =>WOM Vol 1 Issue 5

NFTN — Brush tip; Wax fin­ish for drift­wood; Fin­ish­es for bark carv­ing; Paint­ing grass — =>WOM Vol 1 Issue 6

NFTN — Get­ting flesh tones on carv­ings; Using dyes in lieu of oil stains; Try­ing to get “old” fin­ish­es — WOM Vol 2 Issue 1

NFTN — Paint­ing with col­ored pen­cils; Antique fin­ish­es; Stains — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 2

NFTN — Paint­ing tech­nique; Wet sand­ing; Nat­ur­al stains — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 3

NFTN — Hide glue as a seal­er; Seal­ing fish carv­ing; Clean­ing air brush­es; Hints for stor­ing paint — =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 4

NFTN — Gold leaf for gild­ing signs — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 5

NFTN — Paste wax fin­ish­es, Ebony stain tip, Spoon fin­ish, Paper sack rub­down, Ges­so — =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 6

NFTN — Paint­ing tuto­r­i­al from Susan Irish, click =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 2

NFTN — Paint­ing, Wood dies and oth­er fin­ish­es, Paint­ing “old” eyes — =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 5

NFTN - Antiquing. Oil fin­ish­es for chip carv­ings, Fin­ish­ing a real­is­tic carved eye — =>WOM Vol 4 Issue 1

NFTN — Paint­ing fish — click =>WOM Vol 4 Issue 2

NFTN — Fishy paint prob­lems — click =>WOM Vol 4 Issue 4

How-to Air Brush Lessons — click HERE

Col­or­ing Your Pro­ject by L.S. Irish — top­ics include: Water­col­ors and Wood Burn­ing; Adding Skin Col­ors with Water­col­ors; The Col­or Wheel, Who Is R. G. Biv?; Paint­ing Eyes; Dry Brush Col­or Appli­ca­tion and much more.  Click HERE

Basics to Paint­ing by L.S. Irish — top­ics include: Wood Carv­ing and Burn­ing Paint­ing Sup­plies; Paint Kit Sup­plies; Steps to Suc­cess; Gen­er­al Tech­niques used in Wood Carv­ing Paint­ing and much more.  Click HERE

Fin­ish­ing Your Projects by L.S. Irish — top­ics include:  Prepar­ing for Fin­ish­ing, Stains, Oils, and Wash­es, Oil, Wax, and Ure­thane Fin­ish­es.  Click HERE

 

Projects and Tutorials For The New Carver (And Not So New Carver)

Tips On Bark Carv­ing by Tony Wispin­s­ki - click =>WOM Vol 1 Issue 2

Pen­cil Carv­ing by Tony Wispin­s­ki — click =>WOM Vol 1 Issue 5

Carv­ing “The Cow Plaque” by Tina Toney — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 2

Bot­tle San­ta by Tina Toney — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 3

101 Things to Carve on a Rainy Day — by Grahme Vaugh­an — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 4

The Hunch­back San­ta by Tina Toney — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 4

San­ta on a Pear by Tina Toney — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 5

Pals — 2 San­tas by Tina Toney — WOM Vol 2 Issue 6

Projects by Pete LeClair - all WOM issues begin­ning with => WOM Vol 4 Issue 2

Carve An Old World San­ta with Ron Cor­reia (may not work with some browsers)

Pat­terns — An assort­ment of pat­terns by “Ol’ Don” Burgdorf — all WOM issues begin­ning with =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 5

Pat­terns at The South­east Carv­er site — click HERE

Wood Spir­its Tuto­r­i­al by L.Sl Irish — click HERE

Trans­fer­ring Pat­terns, Pounce Pat­terns, Enlarg­ing and Reduc­ing, Sim­pli­fy­ing Pat­terns  by L.S. Irish — click HERE

Welch Love Spoon Tuto­r­i­al by L.S. Irish — click HERE

Begin­ner Projects — a wide vari­ety of free begin­ner projects by L.S. Irish — click HERE

Fun­da­men­tals and Tech­niques of Pyrog­ra­phy — free tuto­r­i­al by L.S. Irish — click HERE

Chip Carv­ing Sem­i­nar by L.S. Irish — click HERE

Art Styles of Pyrog­ra­phy Tuto­r­i­al — free ebook by L.S. Irish — click HERE

 

Carving Woods And Such

What is Dia­mond Wil­low by Bob Gan­der — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 2

Cre­at­ing Ridges in Dia­mond Wil­low by Bob Gan­der — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 5

Mak­ing Dia­mond Wil­low Walk­ing Sticks by Ken Laninga — click =>WOM Vol 4 Issue 2

Vac­cum­ing Kiln for Dry­ing Wood by Lynn Diel — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 4

All About Tupe­lo Wood at Vic Kirk­man Orig­i­nals — click HERE

How To Square A Block of Wood at Vic Kirk­man Orig­i­nals — click HERE

NFTN — Clean­ing Cypress Knees; Soft­en­ing end grain with an alcohol/water mix; Bark for carv­ing, Repair­ing worm holes — click =>WOM Vol 2 Iss­sue 4

NFTN — Cracks in logs from dry­ing; seal­ing logs while dry­ing — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 5

NFTN — Clean­ing up the fuzzies in bass­wood, Dry­ing bass­wood — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 6

NFTN — Wood types, Gath­er­ing carv­ing woods, air-dry­ing wood — WOM Vol 3 Issue 1

NFTN — Dia­mond wil­low, Clean­ing carv­ings, Cracks in carv­ings, Carv­ing “punky” wood — click =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 5

NFTN — Dif­fer­ent carv­ing woods — click =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 4

NFTN — Carv­ing sticks: col­lect­ing and dry­ing, deal­ing with soft wood — click =>WOM Vol 4 Issue 3

NFTN — Cre­at­ing a Band­sawn blank, Types of carv­ing wood — click =>WOM Vol 4 Issue 4

About Wood from Smoky Moun­tain Wood­carvers — click HERE

Carv­ing Woods Tuto­r­i­al by L.S. Irish — click HERE

Basic Wood Glos­sary by L.S. Irish — click HERE

 

In the Shop … Safety First; Tool Reviews; Tips and Hints

Safety

Because of the inherent risks associated with working with wood and the resultant dust, always seek professional instruction and advice before undertaking any project.

NFTN — Tak­ing care of cuts (on the carv­er), Cut-resis­tant gloves — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 5

Thoughts About Dust Col­lec­tion — click =>WOM Help Files

Dust col­lec­tion in the work­shop by Tony Moore — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 1

NFTN — Dust con­trol — click =>WOM Vol 1 Issue 2

Air Cur­tain Portable Pow­er Carv­ing Sta­tion by Thier­ry Varem-Sanders — click =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 3

Tips and How-to’s

Draw­ing an Ellipse by Bill Judt - click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 4

Adapt a TV Table for Carv­ing In The Den by Bill Aker — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 5

Dri­ven Pul­ley Speeds Chart by Joe Brott — click =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 1

Golf Ball Cov­er Cut­ter by Captn Dave LaVoie — click =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 3

Tool Reviews

Record Carvers Vice by Don Leners — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 2

Delta Band Saw by Don Leners — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 3

The Endura Engrav­ing Sys­tem by Cathy Krum­rei — click =>WOM Vol 4 Issue 6

Workholders of various sorts

Brac­ing Table for Relief Carv­ing by L.S. Irish — click HERE

Mul­ti-posi­tion work hold­er by Dan­ny Fultz — click =>WOM Vol 2 Issue 2

Carv­ing Arm Primer by Greg Wilk­er­son, with down­load­able pat­terns by Lynn Diel — click HERE

NFTN — Sim­ple hold­ing meth­ods for relief carv­ing — click =>WOM Vol 1 Issue 3

NFTN — A Carv­ing Vice by Bill Dentzel — click =>WOM Vol 1 Issue 5

Shaving Horses, Mules and Ponys

John Alexan­der’s Eng­lish style shav­ing horse page at Green­wood­work­ing, includ­ing his­to­ry and detailed con­struc­tion infor­ma­tion. — click HERE

Drew Langsner’s Con­ti­nen­tal (dumb­head) style­shav­ing horse plans at Coun­try Work­shops — click HERE

Hybrid Shav­ing Mule plans and fin­ished Mule at Coun­try Work­shops — click HERE

Tom Ret­tie’s Con­ti­nen­tal (dumb­head) style shav­ing horse — click HERE

Matthews and Young Bench-top shave pony infor­ma­tion page — click HERE

Richard Rom­bold’s Dou­ble-head­ed shav­ing horse — dumb­head style at one end and a stick hold­ing vice at the oth­er — click HERE

 

Other Neat Stuff …

Build-it-your­self carv­ing dupli­ca­tor plans at Copycarver.com — click HERE

 

Advanced Topics

Under­tak­ing Com­mis­sioned Carv­ings, includ­ing Com­mis­sion Sales Check­list, Con­tract to Com­mis­sion An Art­work, Copy­right Agree­ment by Susan and Michael Irish — click =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 1

Pric­ing Wood­carv­ings by Joe Dil­lett — click =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 2

NFTN — Joe Dil­lett on Writ­ten Con­tracts For Friends — =>WOM Vol 4 Issue 5

NFTN — Ivan Whillock on Comis­sions, Bar­gain­ing down prices, Show­ing your work at a show — =>WOM Vol 4 Issue 5

The Prodi­gal Son by Bill Judt — click =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 2

Pyrog­ra­phy (wood burn­ing) Gallery — see the arti­cles by Kath­leen Menen­dez in WOM  back issues — click HERE

Dia­mond Wil­low Jew­el­ry by Bob Gan­der — click =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 3

Por­trait Carv­ing in Relief or “Por­traits by the Inch” by Steve Schoolar — click =>WOM Vol 3 Issue 3

NFTN — Carv­ing A Female Face — click =>WOM Vol 4 Issue 1

The Art of the Auto­mo­bile: Vin­tage Vehi­cle Carv­ings by W.W. Fayette — click =>WOM Vol 4 Issue 3

Carv­ing a Cus­tom Walk­ing Stick by Vern Robin­son — click =>WOM Vol 4 Issue 4

Mak­ing a Brown Trout Stick (with a Ram’s Horn Head and a Hazel Shank) by Wilf Lai­dler — click =>WOM Vol 4 Issue 5

Fish carv­ing instruc­tion (pow­er carv­ing) at FishCarver.com — click HERE

 

Mag­a­zines and Books

There are sev­er­al good mag­a­zines and many books avail­able for the new carv­er. Click HERE to vis­it the Ven­dor Files — scroll down to the Magazine and Book Pub­lish­ers, Book Sell­ers. There you will find links to Chip Chats mag­a­zine (includ­ed an index to arti­cles and pat­terns,) Carv­ing Mag­a­zine, and to Wood Carv­ing Illus­trat­ed (includ­ing an arti­cle index.) Also includ­ed are links to the major carv­ing book publishers.

Ques­tions, queries, posers? Please use the Con­tact form on the About page — click the link in the menu bar at the top of the page.  Bro­ken links may also be report­ed using the same form.

Last update — 3–12-14

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Please use this form to sub­mit sug­ges­tions for addi­tion­al New Carv­er Files.