Woodcarving Tips

Woodcarving Tips

• Strop often, sharpen less
• A good tool becomes an extension of your arm.  
• Keep your tools well and they will keep you well
• Find cheap tools at estate sales
• Attend a carving show.  You will be inspired
• Always bring wood into your shop at least two weeks before you plan to use it.  It needs to acclimate to the humidity.
• Keep your tools well and they will keep you well
• Anybody will buy anything if you make them think they need it
•  It is much easier to carve using two hands and hold down devices
• Sawdust in the air can, combined with a flame or spark, can cause an explosion.
• Use a sharp straight edge of broken glass to clean up a carving.
• There are no mistakes in woodcarving, only new design possibilities.
• Gouges can be used upside down.
• You can sharpen your tools with various grades of sandpaper.
• You can put wood into a microwave to dry it or to kill bugs in it
• Never carve when you are impaired or tired.
• Don’t carve after sanding, the grit will dull your tool
• A good tool is worth the price you pay for it.
• Carve away from yourself.
• Crumpled up brown paper bags can be used for fine sanding
• Bad tools don’t get used
• Crazy glue can be used to glue cuts closed.    
• Boil a cypress knee and the warm bark will peel off
• A chisel is not a pry bar.
• The width of one eye is equal to the space between the eyes.
• No matter how much wood you have, you won’t have the right size for your next project
• Remove pencil marks with rubbing alcohol
• If you price a carving too low it won’t sell
• The most valuable lessons are learned from your worst mistakes.
• Wood dust can explode if there is an open flame nearby
• Use spar varnish on wood which will be displayed outside    
• Do not use a mallet on palm tools
• Agree on the price for a carving before you start it
• Use a scraper to remove excess glue
• Standard drying time for fresh-cut wood is 1 year to 1” of thickness.
• The corners of the mouth line up with the centers of the eyes.
• A high swivel chair with a back and footrest is the perfect carving chair.
• There are cheap tools to be found at yard sales and estate sales
• After cutting away the skin of a golf ball, use the excess skin for a paint cup.
• Turn a problem area upside down and then try to carve it.
• Wood dust can cause cancer and other diseases
•  Always plan to demonstrate at any show you attend.  Those who demonstrate usually draw a crowd.
  
•  Cover your workbench with inexpensive rubber mats.  Relief carvings will not move.
•  Smaller pieces of wood can be glued together to make larger pieces of wood.
• Most carvers have a variety of different woods stored away in their workshops and will pass a piece or two on to a new carver.
• A V-tool actual has 3 separate blades.
• Young children can carve soap but be careful, the chips are slippery.
• If you have wet acrylic paint on a palette, put it in the freezer between painting sessions
• You can make excellent woodcarvings with a single knife.
• You can never use too many pictures for references.
• A power saw can cut faster through flesh than wood.
• Never stand in a direct line with a table saw blade.
• Rubber bands can be used as clamps.
• Use a v-tool for outlining, not using stop cuts will save lots of time and you will not crush the wood fibers.
• Original carvings sell better than carbon copies.              
  
•  Wood carves easier when “wet” but most likely will crack while drying.
• .Thin cardboard can be used as a strop.
• Shave the hair on your arm to test the sharpness of a tool.
• Books are worth their weight in gold but a good carving video is better
• When picking something thing up, you will knock over another, maybe even 2 or three.
• The more costly a tool, the more likely it is to jump off your workbench.
• A mixture of 50% rubbing alcohol and 50% water sprayed on wood will make it easier to carve.
• Tools should be purchased as needed. 
• Looking and acting like a professional will help make you one.
• Tools can sense when you’re afraid of them.
• The best way to learn is to do.
• Wood contracts and expands with humidity.
• Sell the right things at the right shows
• Grinling Gibbons glued layers onto his carvings.
• Let the customer be involved, update them on their carvings progress. Email them pictures in various states of completion.
• You can soak a thin board in water, cover it with a wet towel and use a household iron to  remove any warping or cupping
• Word of mouth is the best selling tool.
•  You can burnish wood by using a rounded piece of hard wood to press into your carving.
• Wood is dry when it has a 10% or less moisture level
• Cuts usually happen reaching for tools.
• Always get a deposit which will cover the costs of a commission carving.
• Clean sandpaper using hard rubber
• There is always more than one way to do something.
• Slowing down wood drying time will lessen checking.