Smoky Mountain Woodcarvers Association

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Woodcarving Tips & Information

Selecting a good carving tool

I have been carving for over 30 years. I owned Smoky Mountain Woodcarvers Supply for 25 years. During that time I helped lots of carvers with selecting the right tools. I also sharpened thousands of tools during that 25 years. I conducted beginner classes and sharpening seminars.

Selecting a good carving knife is important and can be daunting and frustrating especially since most people now do their shopping online. When selecting a knife keep in mind that the type of woodcarving you do will factor into this selection. For example, there differences between a beginner knife and a chip carving knife or a knife for detail work .

A knife should have good metal. Most of us have heard the term ‘high carbon steel’ in reference to the steel in a carving knife. Steel, such as stainless steel, is much too hard to sharpen. Knife makers choose steel that carbon has been added. Just the right amount of carbon softens the steel but it still hard enough to use for carving without the blade chipping or breaking and will allow re-sharping. The blade should also be tempered properly. Tempering makes it hard enough to maintain its edge yet flexible enough to endure regular and sometimes intense use. Hardness of steel is given a rating according to the Rockwell hardness scale. A Rockwell hardness (RC) of around RC59 is considering optimal. A thinner blade knife is ideal. The thinner the blade the easier it will be to slice through the wood.

How does a carver know what type of steel, amount of carbon and tempering when purchasing a knife online or in a store? Sometimes a vendor will publish on their website this information but rarely. So it comes down to having faith with the seller. A good rule of thumb is to buy from a vendor that has been in business for a long time and has a good reputation. You could get advice from an experienced carver or attend a local carving club meeting where you could also get advise. You could also take a carving class where you can get advise from an instructor. It is a good idea to avoid cheaper knives and most home made knives. A cheaper knife can be too soft or too hard. A soft blade could chip or break and would require constant stropping. A knife with hard steel is very hard to sharpen. A thin blade requires the best steel and good tempering.

Knife blades come in various widths, lengths and shapes. Select a knife that will be the best for the type of carving you plan on doing. A knife with a one and one half inch long blade would be a could knife for a beginner. Longer blades tend to unwieldy and could result in cutting the hand not holding the knife. The blade width is usually ½ inch. A chip carving knife is a short-bladed knife used to make triangular shaped cuts to create intricate designs. A detail knife has a short and narrow blade. Other types of carving will determine what other shapes to select. As in selecting a knife seek out advice to help find the right blade shape.

The next thing to consider is the knife handle. The handle should be comfortable in your hand. If it is not you will probably be laying it aside after a little while and seeking out another knife. As with the knife seek out help from a carver who could let you feel a handle in your hand. But it will take using the knife for awhile before actually deciding if it is comfortable for you.

Use same criteria when selecting a palm tool such as a gouge or v-tool a you used in selecting a knife. Gouge and v-tool handles come in short or long handles. It is a personal choice as to which one you will like. Generally I prefer a shorter handle but sometimes I will use both long and short handles on the same carving. Hand tools and mallet tools are basically the same. The main difference is the tang. The tang is the part of the metal that extends into the handle. The tang will have a ferrule where the tang enters the handle. This prevents the handle from splitting when struck with a mallet. Mallet tools are usually longer than palm tools and could have a wider cutting edge.

You should not buy a cheap v-tool. Quite often cheaper v-tools will have thick metal and too much carbon. A thick blade will mean a lot of metal will have to be removed to get a sharp edge. This is not an easy process. Carbon is cheaper than steel and will make the tool softer so that it not hold an edge. Usually the metal in a cheaper v-tool is too thick. As with the knife a thinner edge will slice through the wood easier. Of course you could have the same problems when purchasing a gouge but it is particularly important for a v-tool. Carvers have more problems with sharpening a v-tool as well as keeping them sharp. Usually cheaper v-tools are not sharp when purchased.

Happy Carving

Mac Proffitt

GENERAL TIPS & INFO

Members of the Smoky Mountain Woodcarvers Association have over the past 20-30 and even 40 years have gain a lot of woodcarving knowledge and experience through, listening to other carvers, taking classed, judging competition and personal experience, have gathered many tips, ideas, suggestions and carving information in general. We wish to share those with you and hope you will find them useful and would share one or more of your tips with us. Send them to: mac@woodcarvers.com

First and foremost, have fun.

CARVE. CARVE & CARVE some more. Nothing beats experience.

You will make mistakes. Sometimes the difference between a good carver and a not so good carver is what the carver does with mistakes.
Keep good tools that you like. Avoid bargain tools unless you are familiar with the brand name. Try to buy from a supplier that has been in business for awhile. This will help ensure that you get quality tools with good metal.
Tools that have a low profile (thinner) carve better. They will slice through the wood easier. A low profile requires good metal and proper tempering.

Without proper tempering the edge of the tool will be brittle and tend to chip off and have to be re-sharpened over and over.
Your knife (and other tools) should feel good in your hand. If they don’t you will probably just lay them aside.
If you can, find a buddy to carver with or join a carving club.
Always keep sharp tools (see ‘Sharpening’ below). A dull tool won’t cut into the wood as well and might ‘jump’ off the wood and cut you.

Be safe, wear a glove on your non carving hand and consider using finger & thumb guards. Safety gloves, except for fishing gloves, are not designed to stop a stab or straight in cut or jab.
Using an apron is a good idea.

Something like an OptiVisor will help with vision issues.
Never carve with your piece against your leg. The femoral artery is there.
Do not scratch your head with your knife in your hand or point to someone
Mounting your project in a vise is safer than carving in your lap.
Basswood is the preferred wood for most carvers. It is relatively knot free, relatively grain free, has consistent color and is soft enough to allow easy carving but strong enough to hold an edge.
There are 2 different varieties of basswood in the US: southern and northern.
The southern basswood tends to be darker and somewhat harder than northern basswood.
Wood with a more wide open grain, such as butternut, require a sharp tool. The wood tends to ‘chunk out’ if tool is not sharp.
Other popular woods are walnut, cedar, white pine, cypress knees, pine knots, cottonwood bark and butternut.
Use kiln dried wood whenever possible. Air dried wood tends to be much harder. Even kiln dried wood will get hard the longer it sits. Kiln dried wood resists cracking longer because most of the moisture has been removed. All woods tend to crack or check when their environment changes, such as from indoors to outdoors.
If you have an attic or space over your garage it can be used as a makeshift kiln.
Plan your carving project before you start cutting on the wood. Studying human and animal anatomy will help.
Build a good library of books and reference material including carving magazines (ChipChats, Woodcarving Illustrated & Wildfowl Carving).
Study casts are good to have, particularly for face carving.
Find a comfortable place to carve with good lighting.
Always use the largest tool you can. Smaller tools have their place but don’t think you have to use a smaller tool. Smaller tools are harder to keep sharp.
There are ‘hand tools’ and ‘mallet tools’. Basically the only difference is in the tang (the part of the blade that is in the handle). A mallet tool has a collar built in the tang where the handle starts. This helps to keep the handle from splitting when struck with a mallet.
The tools we use have high carbon steel in the blade. The carbon adds a certain amount of softness to the blade so we can sharpen. Even stainless steel has carbon in it except for stainless #1 which is used in surgery.
A knife with a 1 -1/2” blade is a good all around blade to have.

REPAIRING YOUR CARVINGS

.Super Glue is the good thing around to repair your carvings. Try to find a good brand, such as Zap-CA. Note: super glue lasts longer when stored if you keep the bottle upright. You might consider keeping it in the freezer or refrigerator. This is NOT medical advise but super glue can be used when you cut yourself.
Use an accelerator after applying the glue. Just spray it around the edges of the part with the glue. It sets up the glue immediately and you can go back to carving immediately. One brand is Zip Kicker.
Use a good wood filler or 2-part epoxy to repair holes, etc. They dry quickly, can be carved and painted.
Use a wood wedge in cracks for repairs.
Keep some sawdust from the wood you are carving for repairs. Mix the sawdust with white or yellow glue (50/50) to fill a void. Won’t be a perfect finish but can be carved and painted.

KEEPING YOUR TOOLS SHARPGenerally speaking, you should concentrate on keeping your tools sharp. Most tools you buy will already be sharp. You should not re-sharpen a tool unless you break it, chip it or round the edge off with poor stropping techniques. Remember, whatever works will work. Even a rock or a piece of wood might do. Find the method that works for you.

The bevel is the part of the tool that you sharpen and is the part of the blade you cut with. The bevel on a knife generally goes the whole width of the blade. Just concentrate on sharpening the bevel that is already on the blade (this mainly applies to gouges) unless you have a reason to extend the bevel. The strength of a blade is determined by its bevel length. Shorter bevels provide more strength, such as mallet tools.

HAND SHARPENING

Use a bench stone, a pull through device, diamond hone or whatever works for you to sharpen.
The direction of the stroke when sharpening is not important.
The blade will sharp when there is a ‘wire edge or continuous bur’ on the blade.
This bur will be on the edge opposite the side you are sharpening. When sharpening a knife you must do both sides. Sharpen one side and then turn the knife over and sharpen the other side. This will ‘push’ the wire to the side you sharpened first.
Finish the sharpening process by stropping the tool until the wire edge is removed.
It is not necessary to sharpen the inside of a gouge.
Sharpening v-tools can be daunting. Just remember a v-tool is 2 chisels joined together.
You must sharpen evenly on both sides. If you don’t the apex of the tool could be uneven. One side of the tool will be lower than the other. Both sides must have equal amount of metal. This is a particular problem with cheap v-tools.
Sharpening by hand can be a lengthy process.

STROPPING

When is a tool sharp? It is sharp when a cut goes smoothly through the wood. The wood where you cut should be really smooth without any scratches. A dull tool will leave the wood kinda looking like there is a slight film on the wood.
What is rounding? When a blade is rounded the cutting action will tend to stop where the rounding starts. In effect, this will be a secondary bevel.
Stropping returns the razor edge to the edge of the tool. It does this by removing a tiny bit of metal along the cutting edge.
When do you strop? When you have a newly sharpened tool (removes wire edge), see scratch in wood after you make a cut or the tool is suddenly not cutting like it should. Sometimes when you strop is a judgment call. Be careful not to over strop. You run the risk of rounding the edge off and removing metal needlessly.
You can examine the edge of the blade by looking at in good light. A bur will show up as a bright spot on the edge.
Leather is generally used to strop but nylon, wood, etc. can also work.
A typical strop would consist of a piece of leather glued to a thin board. This strop is usually about 2” wide and about 12” long but could be larger. A thin piece of leather is better. With a thick piece you run the risk of the knife edge sinking down into the leather and rounding the edge off.
Stropping compound is used on the leather to help cut the metal. Al oxide is the most common abrasive to use. It is usually in powder form but also comes in bar form. There are other abrasives available with varying results.
Don’t load up the strop with compound or the blade will just slide over the top with no results. If you do get too much compound.
Remember, you are stropping the whole bevel. This means, on a knife, you strop the whole width of the blade. Some knives only have a bevel that doesn’t go the width of the blade. This is an exception but it means you still have to identify the bevel.
Flexcut darkens the upper part of the blade and it looks like the bevel only goes part way but it really goes whole length.
When you strop it is necessary to have the whole width of blade (bevel) touching at all times.
Make sure the whole length of the blade is on the strop. This may mean angling the blade if you a have a narrow strop.
Start the stropping by placing the knife on the strop with the cutting edge toward you.
Place you index finger on the handle just back of the blade.
Push the knife away from you to the end of the strop making sure the blade (bevel) stays in contact with the strop for the entire stroke.
Rounding usually occurs when the blade is tilted, even slightly. If you do tilt the blade you will more than likely round the edge and create a secondary bevel.
It is important not to exert too much pressure. Just keep enough pressure to keep the blade flat. Let the strop do the work.
Stop the stroke before you get to then end of the stroke and turn the blade over.
It is okay to pick the blade up and turn it over but it is not recommended. By picking it up you may not get the blade flat for the return stroke.
Leaving the blade on the strop and turning it over will take some practice.
The cutting edge will be pointed away from you on the return stroke.
Under normal conditions about 8 or 9 strokes (down and back) should be enough.
If you see a scratch in the compound on the strop (or in the wood after you strop) this may require more stropping.
Use a scrap piece of wood to test your blade. Cutting hair on your arm will not tell if is sharp or not. A rounded blade will cut the hair but will not do the job on wood.
Gouges are stropped along the bevel by placing your finger on the inside of the gouge and rotating it back and forth the whole width of the bevel.
Strop v-tools as though you have 2 flat chisels joined together. Place one side of the bevel on the end of the strop and pull toward you. Do the same for the other side. The point (apex) should take care of itself as long as you are stropping evenly.
Test the v-tool on a scrap piece of wood by making an ‘s’ cut. Check the insides of the cut for blemishes. The cut should be smooth throughout the cut.
With the proper stropping you will be ready to enjoy many more hours of great carving experience.

POWER SHARPENING

Again, whatever works.
There are quite a few power sharpening devices on the market. Each one of one has its own merits but they tend to be expensive. Most carvers dread sharpening and rightly so and will jump at the chance to simply the process. These devices can suggest a quick and easy way to sharpen.
I will discuss a simple method without a lot of expense.
Keep in mind that heat is your enemy not speed.
A sanding belt works really to sharpen. You can buy a relatively inexpensive 30” belt sander for around $50.00.
Use an 80 grit belt on it. What? 80 grit is really course. Won’t this overheat the belt? Yes and so will all power sharpeners. Using an 80 grit belt requires very little time to sharpen a tool but the real value is it holds down the heat. The abrasive particles on the belt are larger and air can circulate better. The finer the grit the quicker it will overheat the blade.
When sharpening a knife push the point of the blade across the belt first. This will help push any heat into the handle and help reduce the possibility of overheating.
Gouges are rotated along the bevel.
As with hand sharpening, you must get wire edge before the tool is sharp.
Remove the wire edge by stropping or buffing.
Use a 600 grit as a follow up to remove scratches left by the 80 grit belt.
Notice the sparks that are produced by the belts. If you see lots of yellowish-orange sparks this means there is a lot of carbon in the steel.
If you have a nice even wire edge the whole length of blade you are ready to strop or buff.

POWER STROPPING

Using a buffing wheel is just stropping with speed. They can be mounted on a bench grinder or other device that accommodate these wheels.
As in power sharpening, speed is not your enemy, heat is.
There are many types of buffing wheels with several different types of material, such as leather, rubber, wood, paper, felt, cloth, etc.
The buffing wheels also come in different sizes and density.
All of these work but require attention to their attributes.
The solid wheels, leather, wood, etc., will have a tendency to over heat your tool and round it unless you are not paying strict attention.
One good recommendation is a stiff layered cotton wheel. These wheels also come in a fluffy style. Results may vary with a fluffy wheel.
The advantages of the stiff layered cotton wheel is heat is considerably reduced along with reduced rounding. Additionally, this type of wheel is easier to use. You can hold the tool lightly against the wheel or push harder with worrying so much about burning the tool.
Of course, overheating can occur if you hold the tool on the wheel too long.
If you have speed concerns you can purchase a variable speed device.
To be safe, mount the wheel so that it turns toward you NOT away from you.
Make sure the whole bevel is touching the wheel while you buff.
Be safe – hold the tool with both hands and keep your elbows in to your side.
As in sharpening, push the point of the knife across the wheel toward the handle. Gouge are rotated and v-tools can be rotated of pulled up along each side like a chisel. Gouges and v-tools can be held straight up and down and held against the edge of the wheel to buff the inside.
Strop abrasives for the buffing wheel come in bar or block form. Wax is added to the compound so that it sticks to the wheel.
These compounds come in different grits. Normally the color indicates fine or coarse and the grits in between. Green is the finest and black the coarse with colors in between.
Green compound is mostly used to touch up a tool and the use of the other grits depend on what you are trying to accomplish.
Again, test the tools on a scrap piece of wood and use good lightening to look any bright spot (bur) on the edge of the blade.

FACE CARVING

Carving a human face is not easy for most carvers. It is a good idea to study face anatomy.
Eyes tend to be the hardest to get right and getting them right is important because if the eyes are not right the whole carving won't look right. So, practice, practice and practice some more.
Eyes are not holes. Eyes are round and you will be carving a mound.
The eye socket extends about ¾ down toward the end of the nose. Think about how a skull looks.
From the hair line to hairline there are approx. 5 eye widths.
The now, at its widest point, is one eye width wide
The center of the eye always lines up with the corner of the mouth.
The face is measured in lengths of 3 from the top of the forehead (hairline) to the bottom of the nose.
The measurement from the spot between the eyebrows to the bottom of the nose is equal to the space from the bottom of the nose to the bottom of the chin and from the same spot to the top of the forehead (where the hair normally starts).
A typical error when carving the face is to not making the corner of the eye closest to the nose not deep enough. If you are right handed carve the right side of the face first. If you don’t it will be hard to see what you have done on the right side while carving the left side. The idea is to make both sides approx. equal.
Draw the nose much larger than the desired shape. You can remove wood a lot easier than putting it back.
The measurement from one cheek bone to the tip of the nose to the other cheek bone forms a right angle.
The line from the tip of the nose to the hairline is approx. 120 degrees.
Face dimensions have the same ratios for about 80% of humans.

FINISHING

The finish of a carving is quite often just a preference of the carver.
If you are planning to enter your piece in competition finishing becomes very important.
A finish can make a bad carving look good a good carving look bad. It all depends what you want the finish project to look like.
Finishes can be natural (no finish), paints, urethane, varnish, shellac, wax, or oil finish.
A natural finish can enhance the carving show the beauty of the wood. Natural finishes usually require lots of sanding. Some woods, like butternut, look better without a finish.
Most carvings are painted with acrylic paints. Acrylic paints are available at craft store in small containers and come in many different colors.
A color wheel can be useful.
It is a good idea to have good brushes. The very small brushes are good to use when painting eyes.
Proper care of the brushes will pay off. Keep them wet when not being used during a painting project. Purell hand sanitizer is a great product for cleaning brushes.
Oil paints are not as easy to use as acrylics and take longer to dry but oil paint makes wood look richer and more translucent without adding a film on the surface.
Paints should be thin. A thinner finish will show the wood. Too much paint can make the carving look like plastic or even ceramic. A carving with a thinner finish will show that it really is a wood carving.
Avoid a shiny finish unless you are deliberately trying to have this effect. Lots of competition judges do not favor a shiny finish.
Sanding a piece can be laborious and boring but the results can be worth it. Quite often it is hard to determine if you have sanded enough or have missed some spots. One suggestion is to spray paint thinner on the wood. This will show up those spots. The thinner will not harm the wood and will evaporate quickly. This is something you would want to do outside or in very good ventilation.
Sunshine is a great helper when painting. It will show you what may have missed and help you determine if you want to add more paint.
A wax finish can add to the beauty of the carving as well as protect the finish.
Wax will be easier to apply and cover the carving will it is allowed to warm up and become liquid.
Some waxes will ‘pull’ the paint off of the carving. A finish, like Feed n wax or Briwax, will not pull the paint off. Make sure the paint is dry before you apply wax. Be sure to check the instructions before applying.
Waxes can come in different tints. It is a good to test the tinted wax first on a scrap piece of wood.
Using true oils for finishing is common and gives great results. True oils include linseed, boiled linseed (linseed oil to which heavy metal dryers have been added), tung, and walnut oils. They have a distinctive ‘nutty’ odor.
Oils come in colors anywhere from clear to walnut.
Boiled linseed oil, when used as a finish, tends to turn a yellowish color over time.
Oil finishes are easy to apply. Until you’re familiar with the characteristics of a product, it’s best if you follow the directions supplied by the manufacturer.
Polyurethane tends to turn yellow over time.
Matte spray is an excellent product to put on a finished carving (natural or painted) to protect the surface. It is clear and won’t damage or change the color of the finish and eliminates light reflection. It will allow handing without damaged the finish.
Matte spray tends to turn white if used when the humidity is high.

WOODBURNING (Pyrography)
Purchase a good wood burner.
Some of the more popular brands are: Razortip, Colwood, Truart, & Walnut Hollow.
Get familiar with the burner and the pens. The temperature can be varied by a control on the burner control box.
The pen plugs into the burner via a cord. Pens come in fixed tips or removable or replaceable tips.
Fixed tips or pens are one piece construction with the tip and handle are one piece.
Replaceable or removable tips plug into a handle and plugs into the control box.
Both fixed and replaceable tips work equally as well with the replaceable tips being less expensive.
The type of pen determines how you will burn and what. The tips (also called nibs) come in a variety of shapes, lengths and thickness.
Most tips were designed for bird carving but all tips can be used in a variety of ways.
It is a good idea to get a pyrography book or take a class.
Woodburnings are allowed in woodcarving competitions.
You can use your woodburner to produce wonderful art or burn on your carving such as feathers, animal hair or to burn in certain features.
The type of wood will effect the amount of heat you need and the burning results.
Use a scrap piece of the wood you will be burning to test the results first.
It is a good idea to take frequent breaks while burning. It gives the burning pen and you a rest. Long periods of use can fatigue the metal in the tip and could result in breaking it.
Carbon will build up on the tip as you use it more. Use fine sandpaper to remove this carbon. Make sure you sand lightly.
IMPORTANT – only burn in a well ventilated area. There are devices that draw the fumes in through a carbon filter and allows you to burn in most areas in your house.