Carving Patterns into wood

Friday, September 9th, 2011 at 2:00 pm

As you progress with your woodworking projects, and get proficient with basic techniques and producing tight secure joints, you ambitions will start to spread beyond the simple construction process. You will want to start to add a decorative touch to your woodworking projects. Carving is one of the easiest ways to get started with this.

To get you started and thinking about this, I attach a short video that runs through the very first steps, namely setting out and marking up the design to you want to carve on your wood. To do this you will need a pencil and template of the design you want to use, a sharp marking out knife and a small sharp chisel, or more accurately a gouge.

For those of you that are not aware, a gouge is a shaped or curved chisel that is designed specifically for carving. It is well worth getting a couple of gorges for your tool box, but if you don’t have one you can also get started with carving using a beveled chisel.

One other important aspect to be aware of when you are planning to carve a pattern into a project that you are working on is the type of wood you are using. Softer wood is much easier to shape and carve than the harder woods which can be brittle and chip.

If you are new to carving then I would recommend that you put in a bit of practice first before you work on a serious project. Grab a few old pieces of soft wood and try out the technique shown in the video below.

Once your are happy with your technique then move onto something a little more serious.