Instructions for Carving Wood

A wood relief carving. This is the style of carving you can accomplish with a bit of practice

Carving wood can be a very enjoyable task. Almost anyone can do it. It just takes patience, a few hand tools, a piece of wood and your imagination to create just about any design you can dream up. If you want to get serious about woodcarving, though, it helps to understand a few of the finer points of carving. One of the most popular patterns is a simple grape leaf relief pattern that you can draw yourself or download online.

Things You'll Need

• 1 mahogany wood blank 6-by-12 by-1 inch
• Grape leaf pattern
• 1 bench knife
• 1 V-gouge knife
• 1 Straight chisel, !/4 inch
• 1 straight chisel 1/2 inch
• 1 bent spoon knife

Instructions

1. Start out by cutting out your grape leaf pattern with scissors. Lay it out on the wood blank. Trim it if you need to get it to center, or cut it into pieces and arrange it according to your own taste. When it's situated on the blank trace around it. Add interior detail by hand such as the veins in the grape leaf.

2. Pick up your bench knife. It's the one that looks like a slender utility knife used in crafting, but is more heavy duty and has a slender, sharp point and a smooth handle. Resting your palm on the wood, score along the pencil line, cutting a slight groove all the way around the pattern. Go over it several times until you have created a cut approximately 1/8 of an inch deep.

3. Pick up the 1/4-inch straight chisel next. Begin at a point approximately 1/4 of an inch from the pencil line, and using the point of the chisel, rock it back and forth at about a 30-degree angle, letting the cutting edge peel back the grain, pushing it perpendicular toward the cut you made with the bench knife. When you get to the scored line, the chip should pop out. Continue along the line in this fashion working the wood away from the scored line. Change to the 1/2-inch straight chisel when you get the feel of how the wood cuts.

4. Switch to the v-gouge and continue removing wood away from the design by rocking the tool in your hands, deepening the cut, gently nudging the tool, rocking it as you push it along the lines of the carving at a slight angle, shaving off small curls of wood. Also, use the v-gouge to cut the veins in the leaf using the same rocking motion allowing the tool to cut gently. If the v-gouge chips or splinters the wood, spin the pattern around and go the other direction.

5. Pick up the bent spoon cutter next. Use it to remove small round pockets of wood by digging it straight down, then prying back on the handle, scooping out the wood as it cuts. Change back and forth between all the tools as needed, removing wood until the grape leaf carving has the relief that you desire.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't worry about perfection, or staying perfectly in the lines. Leaf patterns are very forgiving, and in fact, imperfections in the carving can actually add to the character of the carving.

• Make sure to keep your free hand out of the path of the cutting tools to prevent the tool slipping off the wood and stabbing your hand. Always wear safety glasses.

References

• Carving Patterns: Classic carving patterns
• Google images: Grape leaf patterns

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• "The Book of Wood Carving"; Charles Marshall Sayers; 1978