The Carvers' Companion
For Woodcarvers, By Woodcarvers
  • Home
  • WOM
    • Current Issue
    • The Galleries
    • Back Issues
  • W3E
    • W3E Home
    • Secret Pal Exchange
    • Spoon Exchange
    • Friendship Cane Exchange
  • The List
    • The Woodcarver List Mail Group
    • The Woodcarver List Facebook Group
  • The Files
    • The Vendor Files
    • Video Files
    • Online Resource Files
    • Instruction Files
    • Art For Carvers Files
    • Interest Area Files
  • New Carver
  • Events
  • About
  • Tri-City Carvers

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

««»»

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

New Carver Files Suggestion

Please use this form to sug­gest links to add to the New Carv­er Files page
  • What is the name of the resource?
  • What is the name of the per­son pro­vid­ing the resource?
  • Please pro­vide a brief descrip­tion of the video.
  • Please pro­vide the URL of the web site for the resource.

 

Search

Sponsors

Please support our sponsors; click on each link to visit the vendor web site.  Let them know you saw their ad on CarversCompanion.com

AWCbanner2

2019 International Woodcarvers Congress Seminar information now available at awcltd.org

Previous Issues

The Carvers' Companion
Copyright © 2023 All Rights Reserved
iThemes Builder by iThemes
Powered by WordPress