57 articles match · page 5 of 5
July 21, 2024
Beginner wood carving, the first year in the order it really happens
One knife, one basswood board, and a year of short evenings. Here is the whole first year in the order it really happens, from the three angles you practise in week one to the panel that finally reads from across a room.
December 7, 2023
From Russia to America, and What I Carve Now
Alexander Grabovetskiy is a master wood carver, born in 1973 in Dimitrovgrad in the Russian part of the Soviet Union. His great-grandfather built mahogany furniture in the Chippendale style. He ruined his own grandfather's chisel on a brick at six, became the only student of the carver Vladimir Tokarev at sixteen, and reached the United States as a refugee on 15 March 1996 with almost no English. He built the woodworking firm Aalmark in Indiana, hired other refugee woodworkers, then sold every machine to carve full time. In 2012 a panel called Wall Decoration took first place and made him International Woodcarver of the Year.
November 29, 2022
What should I carve as a beginner?
The honest answer is three knife cuts on a scrap of basswood, not an object. Here is the order I put in front of every beginner, with the tools, the wood and the first two projects.
November 15, 2022
The basics of wood carving, and the order they actually bite
Beginners do not fail because the design was hard. They fail in four places: the grain tore, the board slid, the tool was blunt, or the spare hand sat in front of the edge. Here is the short list, in the order it bites.
November 14, 2022
What is the best wood for carving, and the four I keep in the shop
Basswood at 410 lbf, and it is not close for a beginner. Here are the real Janka numbers for butternut, walnut and white oak, how to read a board at the yard, and the one board type I ask nobody to bring to class.
July 20, 2021
Woodcarving class in person at Marc Adams School of Woodworking
Five days at a bench in Johnson County farmland, carving a four layer panel in the Grinling Gibbons style out of limewood. Here is what the week is really like, what to bring, and how a Gibbons panel gets finished before Friday.
Everything above is free and stays free. The courses are where I put your hands on the gouge and watch what they do.
See what is inside →
December 8, 2020
Carving walnut, is it good wood for the job?
I once worked a house built entirely from purple walnut, and carved a furniture panel out of what was left over. Here is how the wood really behaves under a gouge, what bevel it wants, where it snaps, and what a board should cost you.
November 26, 2020
Is cedar a good wood for carving?
Four unrelated trees get sold as cedar, and they behave nothing alike under a gouge. Here are the real hardness numbers, why the grain destroys small detail, and what this wood is genuinely good for.
November 26, 2020
What Is the Best Wood for Wood Carving?
Basswood and limewood are the same tree, Tilia, the wood Riemenschneider and Gibbons trusted with their finest work. Five hundred years of proof, and how to buy a board that will not crack.