Craft Articles

Traditional wood carving techniques utilizes a hand-held cutting tool when sculpturing wooden figures, ornaments, mouldings or similar. Today, many craftsmen prefer to use power tools even when carrying out traditional wood carving techniques. There exists a wide range of different traditional wood carving techniques, including whittling, chip carving and relief carving.

Whittling is a wood carving technique where shapes are carved out of raw wood using a knife. The term whittling is sometimes confused with general wood carving, but when you whittle you use no other tools than a knife. Other wood carving techniques can on the other hand utilize not only knifes, but chisels, gouges, mallets etcetera. If you want to try whittling, the preferred type of knife is a small, light-bladed one. Many whittlers all over the world use ordinary pocket knifes, but you can also purchase advanced whittling knives. A specialized whittling knife will typically have a larger and more comfortable handle than a standard pocket knife and is therefore easier to use.

Chip carving is a time-honoured wood carving technique where knives are used to take out small triangular chips of wood from the surface of the carved item. When you perform chip carving, you will work with to planes: the surface of the wood and the spot beneath the surface where the cuts intersect. By varying the size and position of the triangles, chip carvers can create very beautiful and unique decorative patterns. 

The most commonly used relief carving technique involves fixing the wood in a workbench. You can for instance use a clamp or a carvers screw to secure the wood. Most craftsmen will then prefer to sketch out the main lines onto the wood, but it is of course possible to work free-hand as well. If you wish to create a highly elaborate pattern, it can be a good idea to prepare the pattern on paper first and then trace it to the wood. Proceed by grounding out the space between the lines using a gouge. A gouge is similar to a chisel, but the edge is curved or angled in cross-section instead of being flat. After the grounding, an upstanding pattern will remain for you to work on. During relief carving, it is common to go over the same part several times before the item is ready. This can be compared to the chip carving technique described above, where the items tend to be finished in one sweep rather than being gradually shaped into the desired form.