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Interested in wood carving, but don’t know where to start?

Can’t find any helpful articles that give detailed and thorough explanations to all of your questions?

Then you have come to the right place!

This article will be a guide to all the information you will need right here in Best Wood Carving Tools website.

How to get started

Most of us have varying stories on how we all started carving, but the important thing is that everyone here has the desire to learn and create. But before you can start creating anything, you must first understand the styles of woodcarving.

Choose carving style and tools

Whittling (hand carving): Mainly uses whittling knives and is meant for carving shapes, figures, and utensils. This is the most popular style of woodcarving, mostly because it is significantly easier to learn and cheap to purchase tools. There are specialty tools you can purchase to compliment your primary knife, like hook knives which are used for shaping wooden spoons. However, they are not at all necessary at this point when we are taking baby steps to get started.

Relief Carving: This style utilizes gouges and chisels to carve objects into a piece of wood, typically the end result is a picture. This is a bit more of a methodical style because the techniques are different, tools are different, and it tends to be less forgiving when mistakes are made.

Chip Carving:  Another wood carving style is called chip carving. This technique is used to create symmetrical and geometrical designs in wood planks by literally chipping out material.

Wood to carve

I always felt like the best wood for carving with is the one in your hand. Lately, I feel like this is mainly true for those who are familiar with multiple types of woods. This goes without saying to be careful what type of lumber you begin with, the harder it is the more experienced the carver should be.

I always suggest basswood to anyone who hasn’t had any experience carving other types of wood. It is the best wood to begin with while learning new techniques and carving styles.

Basswood is rather forgiving to those who don’t completely know what they’re doing. Since it is a softwood, it is very easy to cut material of wood from it while not straining your tools too much.

If you were to use hardwood, you would notice right away how much more difficult it is to cut. Not only this but you will need to sharpen your equipment much more frequently as well.

Basswood Whittlers Carving Blocks

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Wood Carving Tools

The necessary equipment will vary on which style you choose, but here are some of our top selling and highest quality wood carving tools!

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Mora 120 Check Prices

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The Morakniv 120 is a whittling knife similar to other Mora knives at first glance, but in reality it is much different and unique.

Best Product Features: The single best trait that is the most useful and separates this knife from the rest is it’s short tip. The 1.9″ laminated steel tip provides maneuverability, accuracy, and supports complicated techniques to achieve any type of cut.

To add, the oiled birch wood handle is very comfortable, even for long period of pressure on the hand. It’s tapered oval shape is crafted for optimal grips in any hand!

If you are looking for a quality, affordable, and long lasting knife for whittling then check out prices for the Mora 120.

Not what you wanted?

Check out more of our top recommendation: Top Rated Wood Carving Tools
Also, if you were more interested in folding knives read our article about the Best Pocket Knife For Whittling

The Opinel No. 8 is the best selling pocket knife created from a well recognized French brand which dates back since 1890 with records of even Pablo Picasso using their knives for crafting.

Best product features:

• The ergonomic beechwood handle feels already broken-in and is very cozy to hold right out of the box. Even when repositioning your grip while carving, it is very natural and comfortable even with decent pressure applied and a firm grip.
• It’s overall size makes it super easy to throw in your pocket and be on your way. Though the handle is round, it does not feel bulky while carrying. Shoot, at only 1.6 oz you may just forget its even there.
• The knife’s Virobloc locking mechanism makes it very simple to lock the blade in place and helps keep the hinge slot clean while working. This is also what makes the knife feel like a fixed blade, which I love. Stability is a big deal when making a deep groove. Also I just like that its not your typical locking mechanism and gives it almost a certain novelty that is very interesting and cool.
• Lastly, its cost effective. Especially, if you are on the market for something different to tryout and don’t want to cough up a significant amount of cash.

Best Seller

Opinel No. 8 Check Prices

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Best Seller

Wayne Barton Chip Carving Set Check Prices

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Wayne Barton Chip Set is made by an established and credible company that makes chip knives.

Important Qualities: Wayne Barton style chip carving is widely considered the best among the majority of chip carvers. These two knives are the only ones he uses for all of his work, and it is quite impressive.

This knife is extremely durable. Heft and balance are incorporated into the set due to the dense lightweight handle and the blades full tang, meaning the blade runs through the full length of the handle instead of partial tang where it extends partially through it. 

Rules of Safety

The reason so many enjoy this craft is because people love the reward of what they are capable of creating with their own hands. It relies heavily on hand movements and it is absolutely necessary to follow certain rules that not only protect hands from accidents, but also makes for a better carver.

First Project

A project could be something as simple as making basic cuts to wood to create a defined shape or something that’s as complicated as woodworking. It’s important to become familiar with these basic cuts that fit your style of wood carving, they are essential to laying out the foundation of mastering cutting techniques. You can find these basic cuts by heading over to our Whittling Guide or our Chip Guide.

Once you have learned and practiced the basics, you should take a stab at some of these suggestions and how-to’s:

Top Leading Spoon Carving Guide<<

How To Carve A Book Necklace Pendant<<

21 Stupid Simple Wood Carving Ideas For Beginners<<

I recommend basswood, as discussed earlier, until enough familiarity and knowledge is developed with skills and of the wood itself. Once at this point, it is safe to begin dabbling with other woods that interest you.

Wood Types

There are tons of types of wood out there, but most prefer to carve soft wood because it requires less stress on their tools. The harder the wood the more deformation and fracture a blade will encounter, this causes for more frequent sharpening. The best wood for carving is basswood, especially when beginning.

7 Reason To Use Basswood

Another way to acquire lumber is by visiting local craft stores or even just by finding a good sized log outside.

Sharpening & Honing

Here’s something not a lot of people will tell you:

You will spend just as much time sharpening your tools, if not more, as you will using them.

Caring for them is just as much of an art as wood carving is. You initially won’t be good at it and won’t even know what you’re doing for that matter, but with time, practice, and education on what to look for the process can become much easier.

Now this pegs the question:

What damages do I look for before sharpening my tools?

There are 3 things to inspect before sharpening or honing:

• Chipping

This is a very common problem among carvers that’s typically caused by too much stress on the blade, or carelessness with it. You can tell if a blade is chipped if it has bits or chunks of metal material missing along the edge. Micro chipping is also a tedious thing to deal with since it isn’t visible to the naked eye, usually it requires a loupe magnifying glass or microscope to see it.

• Rolled Edge

A blade’s edge is very thin, and when it sees abuse it will either chip or roll. So literally the edge will roll over itself to one side. Any steel is going to deform in some way when it is used often. Generally you’ll hear of one or the other happening, but hardly both, this is usually determined by the steel type and the heat treatment when making the steel.

Bladesmiths have a complicated compromise with heat treatment in regards to toughness and hardness. Hard takes a keen edge, but this means the hard steel will be brittle and susceptible to to fracture before deforming. So this leaves the blacksmith to make the steel “tougher” by tempering higher and making the steel softer to lower brittleness, but unfortunately this results it deformation rather than fracturing.

• Dullness

Simply put, the edge is not sharp and can not complete cutting tasks necessary for continuing a project.

What’s the best sharpening stone for my tools?

People have their preference of stone types and how they go about routine sharpening. There are ceramic, diamond, water, and oil stones which all work just as well as the next, it mainly comes down to personal preference.

Best Sharpening Stone For Longer Edge Retention<<

Here’s our top recommendations on what to use:

Conclusive Tips

If you wanted to receive some experience from others then think about looking up some work shops in your local area. There are plenty everywhere and they help tremendously for beginners. They cover everything in this article and more.

Learning on your own is a great route to take as well, just make sure to address all our guidelines and helpful tips to get you started wood carving!