Thread: Absolute newbie - any beginner resources?

I'm old enough to know that I won't hurt your feelings by telling you the truth:
Sorry, but you can't bring it off in time.

1. Really good-looking woods are costly and must be chosen with experience for the carving.
Grain direction, even the number of growth rings per inch.
2. Carving size depends partly on your skill level and experience. Partly on
your willingness to fool with details. Large or small, they are equally awkward to do.
3. Find some carvers, maybe a shed, do a carving course. The tool set depends very
much on the style of carving that you decide that you like to do.
4. Cheap tools will last maybe 20 minutes, even if they come carving sharp.
Expensive tools will last you a lifetime in the long run. You really do get what you pay for.
Most of mine are Pfeil, $30 - $75 each.
5. Expensive tools usually (NOT always) come "carving sharp." That will last less than an hour.
6. BIG learning curve to sharpen your own carving tools. Kitchen-sharp is crude by comparison.
7. Tons of learning resources but you've got to look around.

So, buy the elephant. There are several stylistic differences across Africa and Asia to pick through.
40 years ago, there was a tight ethnic Chinese community up Little Collins/Lonsdale? or a similar narrow street in the city. Go there first. My memories have faded after 40+ years.

After 10+ years of carving, I'm proud to say that I've finally made the grade as a genuine beginner.

Hi Clarence,
Welcome to the forum.
I don't know much about specialist timber places in Melbourne - but the wood I would recommend would be jelutong or huon pine to start with. The size of the elephant would depend on the block of wood you choose. Smaller is probably easier as you wont need a vice to hold it and you wont need a bandsaw to cut out the initial shape...as elephants are reasonably square.
I don't know of any tool shops in Melbourne but I know there is a carba-tec in Springvale. They have a good catalogue you may want to look at first...lots of carving chisels and knives. Maybe the people there could give you some advice.
If you don't have time for a course or are unable to find someone to show you, books and magazines can be helpful. Woodcarving Illustrated magazine(USA) and Wood Carving magazine (UK) are both great. They have taught me lots over the years with their step by step projects.
Obviously you have a good eye for detail and understand perspective...going by your beautiful photographs. Remember...study all the photo's of african elephants you can from all angles first. Also..look at other elephant carvings to see how other carvers place the feet and trunk always helps.
Hope some of this helps.
Good luck.

Thanks for your input guys. No problem with elephant photos, we just came back from Africa so I have many many photos of elephants!


If all else fails I'll get a roughout.

One of the problems with this hobby is the pandora a box you can open that Robson has alluded to. This doesn't mean that you can't cut to the chase and get things going relatively easily.

Elephants are pretty straightforward. You will need a block of timber, a hacksaw or coping saw to cut the outlines, some chisels to define the form and perhaps some sandpaper to finish it off. Varnish is optional. I say go for it! This is not as complicated as it can be made to be.

Hi Clarence and welcome. Personally I learnt quite a lot from using cheap tools and radiate pine from Bunnings, or the equivalent. But it was almost entirely about how to deal with disappointment!

Buy good quality tools as Robson Valley suggested, just one or two at a time. Research sharpening methods. Study a carving magazine or book or two. Find and use small pieces of timber that will be suitable to what you want to carve, expensive yes, but affordable if small. Privet is an excellent timber for carving, it could be had for free and for practicing you could even try carving it green and hope for the best as it dries. There might be other garden cuttings that are useful to experiment with.

Perhaps a good place to start would be to purchase a good knife, Pfiel perhaps, around $25 and a kevlar glove $17, for your other hand (hand = multi-positional, penta-soft-jawed smart-clamp and tool manipulator, which needs protection). A good knife will actually always be useful no matter what type of carving you end up doing.

Then practice on a few small pieces of jelutong or other obtainable, easily carved timber. You might even attempt the elephant as a simple stylised, small carving in the manner of a wooden Noah's Ark carved animal. The current 'Woodcarving Illustrated ' Magazine available in our news agents at the moment, has some. Just ignore the rotary carving techniques used and use your knife. Don't expect much but treat your early practice as learning, then if the result is OK that's a bonus.

Again, in the same Magazine is an excellent article by David Western on carving simple Welsh Lovespoons again using knife techniques.