Thread: How Did You Start Wood Carving?

With an interest in woodworking since I was a young kid I messed around making little boxes for fishing & nut bowls etc all of it very crude.
A little later when I was 18 after flirting with marquetry I got a book out of the library by Tangerman- Basic Whittling - yer - this'll do me I thought ! I loved it , never had I experienced such a challenging but enthralling art. I'm not one for formal learning but certainly read everything I could on the subject & visited museums etc.
My best way of learning is by doing.
Mike

G'day Robson,
Nothing so formal for me, I've just dabbled at the bench since I was a kid. I think the first thing I "carved" was a handle for a knife blade I found when I was about 11. Tried to make it curvy to fit my hand, just using a rasp and files!
I much prefer in-the-round work, not relief carving. At the moment I'm working on a traditional looking chair seat from camphor laurel, using adzes and carving gouges, but may finish off with a rubber-backed disc on the grinder.

Cheers,

G'day RV, I was taught in Australia by someone you know believe it or not.. Rick Wiebe from Okanagan Valley. Knew him when I was a teenager in Ontario but was never taught anything by him. Thirty years later I'm in South Australia when we get a phone call from him and his wife wanting to visit us as they are in Australia on holiday. Hadn't seen or spoken to him in all that time. He gave me a week of informal training while they visited with us. I've been back to Canada twice in the last 12 years to 'pick his brains' on carving related matters as my skill levels rose to the point where I could make use of the information he had to impart. I'm more than grateful to him.

I served a cabinet making apprenticeship with the 'Beaver Man' Colin Almack who carved a beaver, on each piece of furniture. There are a whole bunch of these guys in North Yorkshire, most notably 'Mousey' Thompson.

Training consisted of watching while the boss carved and talked through one example of a beaver and then being let loose on ashtrays and the like - presumably because this sort of item could easily be discarded if (when) the carving didn't turn out so good.
Ongoing training consisted of being ridiculed by everyone else in the workshop for, inevitably, sub standard efforts. You knew you had achieved an acceptable result when the smart Alec comments ceased. I think this 'method' helps to make you highly self critical of your output. No bad thing when you become responsible for overseeing your own work.

Shortly after finishing my apprenticeship I moved to Australia and the carving tools stayed in the box for 32 years. Not much call for carving on chipboard cupboards!
I can't help wondering where I might have gone with this had I got round to it sooner.

Philip.

After twenty five years making eighteenth and nineteenth century toys I sold my business and then started to muck around with the choice couple of tonnes of stuff I had held back for myself. Just carving in the round and doing whatever I feel like. Carving is fun. (good thread by the way, good question)

I wish I'd got into carving at an earlier age, I started just over 4 years ago after being forced into an early retirement and unable to continue playing the sports I enjoyed due to a genetic health problem. I needed an interest and just picked up an old blunt chisel in my shed one day and tried to carve a skull out of a piece of pine, that was enough to get my interest and I started from there. I have no notion of joining clubs, just prefer to do my own thing. I really enjoy the challenge and the creative buzz you get from it, I make plenty mistakes but learn every time I carve something new, just have a crack and see how it comes out. I have learnt heaps from the knowledge of you guys on this forum and I really appreciate that.
Cheers.

Originally Posted by Mike the knife

With an interest in woodworking since I was a young kid I messed around making little boxes for fishing & nut bowls etc all of it very crude.
A little later when I was 18 after flirting with marquetry I got a book out of the library by Tangerman- Basic Whittling - yer - this'll do me I thought ! I loved it , never had I experienced such a challenging but enthralling art. I'm not one for formal learning but certainly read everything I could on the subject & visited museums etc.
My best way of learning is by doing.
Mike

Another one for the Tangerman book here Mike.
When I was a very little tacker a kindly aunt gave me a set of small carving tools (the cheap lino cutting type) a block of wood and that exact same book.
Still got the book all these years later and still find myself referencing it from time to time.

Originally Posted by artful bodger

Another one for the Tangerman book here Mike.
When I was a very little tacker a kindly aunt gave me a set of small carving tools (the cheap lino cutting type) a block of wood and that exact same book.
Still got the book all these years later and still find myself referencing it from time to time.

Yes exactly & I see the Chris Lubkeman " little book of whittling " inspiring the next generation too , although it's extremely basic in comparison with the Tangerman .
I'm a big fan learning from books & have thought about writing a whittling book myself but the production values expected in modern publishing put me right off, photos must be excellent , it has to be presented on specific file types etc
When I look at the old Tangerman book with it's grainy washed out photos & rather amateur looking yet perfectly functional pen drawings it looks positively archaic although it remains a gem.

There are I think other problems about starting to carve nowadays , especially the total lack of familiarity of younger generations with using their hands to make anything all !
Then there are so many other diversions - literally other things to do , it does take awhile to learn , certainly there's no instant gratification.

However despite he difficulties a Google search will quickly prove that woodcarving is still being taken up by many new people everyday.
Long may it continue !
Mike

[QUOTE=Mike the knife;

There are I think other problems about starting to carve nowadays , especially the total lack of familiarity of younger generations with using their hands to make anything all !
Then there are so many other diversions - literally other things to do , it does take awhile to learn , certainly there's no instant gratification.


Mike[/QUOTE]

Fear not Mike! I believe there is a woodcarving app you can download to a smartphone.