In mid-July, 2o20 I decided I would commit to really learning to carve. I have been an off-and-on woodworker for many years, but had done little free carving in that time.
This blog was primarily an outgrowth of me wanting to record what I learned as I progressed, so I’ll be posting about the different things I did in the coming weeks.
Resources I picked up.
Tools I’ve found useful.
Woods that seem easy or difficult to work with.
I’ll come back and link each of these sections as I am able to complete them. In the short term, I’d say I’ve always been a bit of a tool collector in the sense that I have more tools than I really am able to use. Tools I thought would be useful, and might be for specific types of jobs, but I’m appreciating needing just a few high quality tools for carving and really becoming expert with each and use them to their full advantage for efficiency. You can do ALOT with a sharp hatchet.
Speaking of sharp, this is the biggest realization from this weekend. I thought most of my tools were pretty sharp, and some of them are, but after spending a couple of hours REALLY sharpening my drawknives and carving blades makes working shear joy. Smooth sheening surfaces with every cut. I can’t stress enough taking the time to go through every grit of abrasive and really getting the two planes of a blade to meet in a glorious angle.
I’ll come back and add pictures this weekend when I have time to take them and transfer them.
Szience.com 