7 Quick Wood Carving Tips for Beginners

When carving really small pieces, I've found that keeping a bit of wood attached to it helps a lot when holding it. Don't be afraid to hold your chisels in a seemingly weird way. As long as it's safe, sometimes you can get more control in an awkward area without even using the chisel handle. Rather than trying to break a big chunk of wood off in a hurry, it's often much safer, easier on your hands, and surprisingly fast to trim it off in smaller pieces. Try to make plenty of contact with the wood when carving. Use your sculpture or a firm nearby surface to help keep your hands and arms steady. I'd say I use this fleshy part of my hand the most when doing this, but my forearms and fingers can play a part also. Using two hands with a carving chisel is fairly common practice, but sometimes using two hands with a knife on a secure carving can be quite beneficial for really tricky details. Try to keep a master drawing of your carving. First of all, you're probably going to need it for reference as you keep cutting down through the layers of wood. So you're cutting away your drawing every time, which can be pretty damn frustrating. But also I think it's kind of cool to keep a log of all the sketches and stuff you've made and all the characters and designs you've created. Don't be afraid to try out different woods. Limewood, basswood, cheery, walnut, gelatin and butternut are all great carving woods. Even harder woods like maple and oak can be carved, and some pine is really good for carving too. Try different woods and different tools to broaden your horizons and bulk up on experience, and that experience is going to be reflected in any future carving that you make. Are you a bit worried or confused about starting wood carving and don't really know what to do tools-wise? Click here. If you learned something from this video and you liked it, please like, subscribe and all that stuff. Thanks very much for coming. I'll catch you again later.