Wood carving is a wonderful medium of expression through wood. Carved wood takes on a life of its own and evinces pleasure to all those who see it. But wood carving isn’t a skill that everyone is skilled enough to venture into.
The fact is that unless you try it out, you will never know if you have a flair for it or not. If you do happen to have the talent to carve wood, then do not keep it hidden. Even if you aren’t particularly gifted, there is still some basic carving that you could try your hand at.
In this post, we discuss how to get started with wood carving. We also highlight some of the basic wood carving tools with which you could begin. We take a look at some further aspects of wood carving, with a particular focus on beginners. So, without much further ado, let’s jump right in!
Wood Carving Explained
Wood Carving is a woodworking technique wherein we create three-dimensional figures out of wooden blocks and logs. The tools we use in wood carving are chisels, gouges, knives, and mallets.
The end product of wood carving is a sculpture. We get indoor and outdoor sculptures, where outdoor sculptures do not survive as long as indoor sculptures. Examples of sculptures are totem poles, statues, and ornamental balustrades.
We use several different types of wood for wood carving. Some woods are more suitable than others. You can read more about the different woods suitable for wood carving in another interesting post of ours.
To be able to carve wood skillfully, you will need some specialized tools. We feature all possible wood carving tools that we use for woodcarving in another of our posts. In this post, we feature the basic wood carving tools that you may require as a beginner to wood carving.
Should I buy a carving tool set or build my own collection?
When you plan to venture into wood carving, the first step would be obviously to acquire some appropriate tools. Wood carvers’ tools are very different from regular woodworking tools. Some are simple and easy to use, while others have specific functions and require skill and experience to use them.
You can buy a readymade wood carving toolset or build up your collection. The question is, which way is the most preferable? The best approach is to avoid buying any tools, to begin with. Work with an experienced woodcarver and try out their tools.
Another good idea is to watch a few online videos that show you the basics of woodworking. You will get an idea of what type of tools you need to start working on your first wood carving projects.
Once you have collected a bit of information and have an idea of how it’s done, you can make a list of the tools you need to get started. You can get single carving tools or complete wood carving sets for beginners online for a few dollars.
If you are on a tight budget, buying your tools one by one could save you a bit of money. You could perhaps start with a whittling knife and then add on as you improve your wood carving skills.
The advantage of having a complete set is that you can start right off, with the assurance that you have everything at hand. The disadvantage is, however, that you may end up with some tools that you don’t need and perhaps will never use.
Ultimately, the decision on whether to buy the tools individually or as a set rests on you. It largely depends on your budget considerations and personal preferences.
Beginner Wood Carving Tools
When you first decide to take up wood carving, the best approach is to procure wood that you will find easy to carve. Also, buy basic wood carving tools. If you are unsure of your skills at this new art, you could borrow tools from an experienced sculptor. You could even try your hand at wood carving at that person’s establishment.
Once you are confident that you can work on wood carving independently, you are ready for your first set of wood carving tools. Here’s a list of wood carving tools that you could begin with:
Basic Chisel Set: Ramelson Basic Wood Carving 5-Piece Chisel Set
Here’s a beginner’s basic wood carving set that won’t set you back too much if you are just testing the waters of wood carving. Ramelson is an all-American company that manufactures premium hand tools. This six-piece chisel set provides you with everything you need to get started on your first wood carving project.
The carbon steel is sharpened and polished, with comfortable easy-grip polished wooden handles. In wood carving, you need different chisels as you go through the various steps of your project. This set of six chisels of different shapes and sizes will enable you to create some fine wood carvings that you will be proud of.
Basic Gouge Set: Homeswitch Wood Carving Hand Gouges
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When you are done with roughly chiseling off the extra material in your sculpture, gouges are what you need to add dimension to it. This set of four gouges by Homeswitch should be able to get your job done. Like most gouges that you buy from the market, you need to sharpen them before use, but the performance is satisfactory.
The material is carbon steel, and the four sizes of the gouges are 7 mm, 12 mm, 15 mm, and 22 mm. The polished wooden handles have quite a comfortable grip. Once sharpened, the cutting edges on the gouges stay sharp for a reasonably long time.
Wood Carving Knife: BeaverCraft Sloyd Knife for Whittling and Roughing for beginners
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A Sloyd knife is one of the essential tools you will need for wood carving. It helps you to start removing extra wood from the job. You can complete fine whittling work with the help of a Sloyd knife.
Check out this highly-rated wood carving knife by BeaverCraft. Made in Europe, it is specially designed for beginners. It will enable you to perform simple whittling and wood roughing work with ease.
Designed with beginners in mind, it has high-quality carbon steel blades with a sharp cutting edge. The ergonomic handle is comfortable to grip and is made of oak, seasoned with linseed oil
Intermediate Wood Carving Tools
After working on a few basic wood carving projects, you will have an idea of whether you have a flair for wood carving or not. If you feel that your work is good and you get a good response for your sculptures, you can upgrade your tools. Here are a few intermediate wood carving tools worth mentioning:
Wood Carving Knife Set: BeaverCraft S15 Whittling Chip Carving Knife Kit
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Once you are a bit experienced in wood carving, one of the first things you’ll be looking at is to upgrade your whittling knives. This set of wood carving knives won’t set you back financially, but it will enhance your wood carving toolkit and hone your woodcarving skills.
The set includes a sharpening leather strop, polishing compound and a tool pouch in addition to three wood carving knives. The knives are a whittling knife for intricate whittling jobs, a roughing knife for roughing out wood and a carving knife that helps you carve out fine details like letters, animal fur, or leaves and branches.
Wood Carving Mallets: Schaaf Tools 12 Oz. Wood Carving Mallet
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Wood carving mallets are wood carving tools that you will need during every step of your wood carving journey. Although we have included this tool here, it falls under all the categories of wood carving tools. A sufficiently heavy well-balanced mallet is an essential part of any wood carving toolbox.
You can use this 12 Oz. wood carving mallet from Schaaf on all your full-size wood carving gouges and chisels. The Urethane head absorbs shock and protects your tool handles from chipping. An added advantage of using urethane is that it reduces noise while working. The ergonomic handle is comfortable, giving you more control.
Sloyd Knife: BeaverCraft Sloyd Knife
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The Sloyd knife is one of the basic wood carving tools that woodcarvers use. When you first begin wood carving, you will probably have a cheap one in your toolkit. You can use a Sloyd knife for whittling, marking, spoon carving and a variety of wood carving activities.
This Sloyd knife from BeaverCraft is Swedish-made and is a strong, versatile and durable tool. With the sharp high-quality carbon steel blade, you can carve a variety of woods, even oak and walnut with ease.
Veiner: U J Ramelson Veiner (2mm)
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A veiner is a small gouge, but occasionally it can be bigger. Some wood carvers treat veiners and V-tools as the same. But there is a subtle difference, and we will deal with V-tools separately later on in this post.
If you are looking for a suitable upgrade to your wood carving toolkit, this all-American veiner from U J Ramelson should be a useful addition. You will find this veiner suitable for carving fluting and making the preliminary cuts for relief carvings. You can make a deep cut without the risk of the corners of the tool digging in.
Bench Knife: Ramelson Woodcarving Roughing Bench and Hook Knives
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People also refer to bench knives as whittling knives or Murphy knives. Whatever we choose to call them, a bench knife makes a good addition to your wood carving toolkit. You can use it for roughing the wood before you get into the finer details in your carving project.
For additional utility, here is a set of three knives from Ramelson that you will find useful. You can perform a variety of whittling and chip carvings with this set of wood carving knives.
Files: DS-Space 5-Piece File set
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Files are universal tools in woodworking, metalworking and a host of other areas. As a woodcarver, you will need some files of different shapes and sizes. This set from DS-Space should serve the purpose quite nicely
The set of flat, triangular, half-round, round, and square files will help you out at various stages in your wood carving projects. The files have wooden handles and you even get an extra wooden handle in the pack. The carbon-steel hardened files are strong and durable and come with a lifetime conditional warranty.
Rasps: SDFSX Woodworking Rasps Three-Piece Set 100
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A rasp is a coarse file commonly used in woodworking and a handy tool to have for wood carving. We use it for coarse shaping. Like a file, a rasp also has a narrow, pointed tang to which we usually fix a wooden or plastic handle.
The three-piece rasp set by SDFSX consists of a flat, half-round and round rasp made of high-quality carbon steel. You will find these rasps comfortable to use thanks to the ergonomic, slip-resistant plastic grips.
Riffler: Libration 13-Piece File Set with Needle Diamond Files
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A riffler is a tool similar to a file that may be small or medium-sized with which we shape different materials including wood. They play a prominent role in wood carving. If it has coarser teeth, we may call it a riffler rasp. Rifflers also come in double-ended form, although the ones featured here are single-ended.
This set of rifflers and needle files crafted from alloy steel should help you a lot in your wood carving projects. Each tool has a non-slip rubber grip which makes it comfortable to use. The various shapes and profiles will enable you to reach the smallest corners and grooves. The set comes in a canvas pouch for easy storage.
Strop Kit: BeaverCraft LS6P1 Leather Honing Strop Kit
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A leather strop is a basic requirement for any woodworking shop. If you have tools that frequently need sharpening, you will need a strop.
This double-sided strop by BeaverCraft serves beginners and experienced woodcarvers equally well. It is made from high-quality ash wood and cowhide leather. Each side of the strop is treated with a polishing compound. The strop kit comes with some extra polishing compound for you to replenish whenever required.
V-Tool: Flexcut Palm V-Tool
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We use a V-tool to do outlining, texturing or undercutting, and adding detail. It is a type of gouge with a thin, sharp blade with a V-shaped profile and a wooden or plastic handle. A V-tool differs from a gouge in that it forms a wall instead of a valley in the wood.
This all-American V-tool from Flexcut has a razor-sharp carbon steel blade with an ergonomic ash handle. It comes sufficiently sharpened so that you can use it right out of the box. The RC 59 to 61 hardened blade is hand-honed and polished. The blade lasts for a considerably long time between sharpening.
Bent Tool: BeaverCraft Long Bent Gouge G7L/22
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We use a bent tool for removing wood to create cavities for wooden bowls and spoons. It is a gouge with a thin thickness and a scoop-shaped profile. It has a plastic or wooden handle.
Here’s another useful tool from BeaverCraft, a company created by woodcarvers to produce tools for woodcarvers. Like all other BeaverCraft wood carving tools, you can use this wood carving chisel out of the box as it comes already sharpened. The sharp blade and ergonomic handle allow you to work for a long time without hand fatigue.
Advanced Wood Carving Tools
After working on wood carving projects for a few years, and your skill levels increase considerably, you may feel the limitations of some of the tools you have. You want to perform more intricate tasks, but the tools you have prevent you from realizing your true potential. Here are a few tools that could help you out at this stage:
Fishtail Gouge: Pfeil 25 mm Fishtail Gouge with 5 mm Sweep
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A fishtail gouge also called spade gouge has a flared blade with the profile of a fish. You can use it to clean out corners and do undercutting in places of limited clearance.
This fishtail gouge by Swiss manufacturer Pfeil is a precision tool that will serve you well in your wood carving. The blade consists of alloy vanadium-chrome with a square tang and octagonal hardwood handle.
Coping Saw: ProTouch™ Coping Saw (2014400) by Irwin Tools
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A coping saw looks like a hacksaw, with an extremely thin blade and a regular wooden or plastic handle. But the frame is very high and looks rather like a football goalpost. A coping saw allows you to make deep cuts, much deeper than a regular hacksaw.
This coping saw from Irwin Tools has a blade made from high-speed steel and a comfortable ProTouch™ grip. ProTouch™ is a trademarked material that makes comfortable and ergonomic handles. Fitting and replacing the blade is an easy operation but you will need a spanner to tighten or loosen the end nut.
Skew Chisel
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Unlike a traditional chisel, a skew chisel has a beveled edge with the tip at an angle and not 90° to the axis of the chisel. We use them for smoothing and cleaning cavities like the inside of a dovetail and finishing end grain. Skew chisels also play a prominent role in wood carving.
This skew chisel by Faithfull is a robust tool with a polished wooden handle and deep-seated tang with a brass ferrule and a polished blade. The tool is best suited for precision paring and detailed finishing in corners. But, you will have to sharpen the edge to your preference, when you first receive it.
Corner Chisel: Narex 90° Corner Chisel, 3/8 mm
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We use corner chisels to cut sharp internal corners in wood. These tools play a prominent role in making wood joints and in wood carving. It is like a regular chisel but the cutting blade consists of two arms at a 90° to each other.
The corner chisel featured here is from Narex, a Czech manufacturer of quality tools. The blade consists of fine-grained, tempered chrome-manganese steel, with a Rockwell hardness number of 59. It has a comfortable wooden handle made from European hornbeam.
Additional Wood Carving Tools
As a woodworker, you don’t collect all your tools in a single day or a week or even over a few months. Your collection can span over several years, and for most woodcarvers, over a lifetime. It’s the same with wood carving tools. You may like to have some of the tools mentioned below, even if you seldom use them because they are nice to have:
Complete Wood Carving Kit: 20-Piece Hand Carving Tool Set by Augsun
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You will like to have this set of wood carving tools from Augsun. You get a set of different types of wood carving gouges and chisels to perform various operations. The carbon-steel blades are electroplated to prevent corrosion. You will find the ergonomically designed wooden handles comfortable and easy on the wrist.
This wood carving kit also comes with a whetstone, carpenter pencil, wooden ruler, sandpaper and a convenient storage case.
Leather Finger Protector: RingSun Leather Thumb Guard RS40
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You can use this nifty leather finger and thumb protector to prevent your thumb from getting poked with your sharp carving tools. Made from premium full-grain cowhide leather, the surface is unpolished to maintain the character and offer a better grip. The leather is comfortable as it is treated with oil during processing.
The size of this product is such that it will fit any of your fingers or thumb as required. The thumb protector will take the natural shape of your thumb or finger, the more you use the product. Keep this handy in your wood carving toolkit. You never know when it may come in handy.
Wood Carving Drill Bit Set by Honoson
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Because the requirements for drill bits for wood carving are slightly different than that of general woodworking, this drill bit set by Honoson might interest you. You might need to drill a hole or perform various drilling operations during wood carving. Keep this drill bit set at the ready in your wood carving tool kit for such an eventuality.
The set consists of ten wood carving and engraving accessories. You get ten rotary burr bits of different sizes for efficient wood removal. The drill bits are made of High-Speed Steel (HSS), which makes them strong and durable. They will cut through the material with ease, without having to exert too much pressure.
How Much Does It Cost to Get Started in Wood Carving?
Wood carving is not like other types of woodworking. You need to be particularly talented in it. Of course, anyone can do wood carving to some extent. But to achieve the level that you see in art museums or even on intricately carved furniture, you should have a gift.
So, the question here is, do you have the talent to do wood carving? There is only one way of finding out. Try doing it. You can attend workshops or learn from other experienced woodcarvers. Borrow some wood carving tools and try your hand at wood carving.
You can buy some of the basic wood carving tools and toolkits that we mentioned here. It shouldn’t cost you more than about $50 to $100.
Regarding the raw material, you need solid wood. There are carving blocks available on the market for as low as $16. The price goes according to the quality and type of wood. But you would do well to start with scraps of wood and logs that cost you nothing.
If you find that you can make reasonably good wood carvings, then perhaps you could start investing in some more advanced tools. Once you start buying tools and use costlier wood, your wood carving can become quite expensive.
So, it all depends on how you take it forward. Read more about wood carving and whether it is an expensive hobby in another of our interesting posts.
Conclusion
We hope that now you have a better idea about wood carving and the tools that you can use. If you have the potential to become a good woodcarver, nothing or no one can stop you. Once you enter into this fascinating branch of woodworking, you will find that you get better with each project. Get the right tools and show the world what you’ve got!
Happy Wood Carving!
