Best size of Characters to start carving

[K. Ellenburg]

Whats the best size of characters for a beginner to start off with? I know the answer to this question will be as varied as the carvers are on this forum but the reason I ask is because of the books I have on carving all the patterns seem to be to small for me to do the detail on such as the eyes and nose. They all seem to be around 8 inches tall or smaller, I know this is due to the page size of the books, I also know I can enlarge them. I was wondering how many of you guys enlarge the patterns to make it easier to carve.
Also did you guys find this to be a problem when you first started carving?
I have about 3 of Mike Shipleys books, Pete Leclairs, Harold Enlows, Tom Wolfes and a few others, all of which are great books.
I know that Lynn's all seem to be over 12 inches tall but on the other hand you have guys like Gene who seem to prefer smaller carvings. So what do you guys think is the best size for a beginner like me to start off with?
Kevin

[CarverFromNoWhere]

I found it easy to start really small but I didn't do caricatures, I did woodspirits but when I started to do bigger stuff it was really easy after having done it small. Ya can make it any size your comfortable with, jsut follow the instrucions untill ya figure it out for your self, I hope this helps
Carl

[gene-messer]

Kevin ... as a beginner .. I would not recommend anything at first under 5 to 6 inches .. Those are both good sizes to start with ..

Too small of figures for beginners puts the knife too close to the fingers and puts at risk bad cuts ..

a figure 6 to 7 inches is just about right for the half way mark between larger and smaller figures ..

once you get good on these figures .. the smaller ones will be much easier ..

give it a try .. I dont think your be disappointed ..


Gene

[arbarnhart]

Economics drives my answer to some degree - wood is cheaper when you use less of it. I just checked a reasonably priced vendor and a 12" long 3"x3" costs 3 times as much as an 8" long 2"x2". Now before someboady runs the math to point out that the BF price is about the same, that's not the point. At either size you will probably go through a few before you start being happy with your work. If you are happy with "select white wood" for carving then the BF price comes way down as you can get 2x2s at your local home store.

[Claude]

I agree with Gene: start with 6 to 8 inch tall figures, especially if you are going to hold them in your hand while carving. If you have large gouges and intend to use a carving vise of some sort, then just about any size is ok. I currently carve most of mine about 3 to 5 inches tall because that's the size I like, and I don't have to set up my bandsaw to rough out a blank - I can start with square 1.5 inch by 1.5 inch, or 1 inch by 1 inch stock and just carve away the excess. The smallest I've carved is a 3/4 inch by 3/8 inch snowman, and the largest is probably the stacking Santa, at around 14 inches tall.

The key is to try one, and if feels too large, do the next one smaller; if it feels to small, do the next one larger. The next thing to remember, and you'll see this in Gene's videos, is to take small chips off the wood - don't try to hog off large pieces, as it requires a lot of force and you'll end up hurting yourself badly. Look at Gene's hands: all his cuts are made with wrist or finger motions only - no arm or shoulder force is used.

Claude

[Buckskin]

This is a great thread. Thank you guys for sharing because I want to do some of this carving.

[K. Ellenburg]

Thanks for the feed back guys.
Kevin

[Thomp]

in carving size, lot of Arthur's such as Pete LeClair dont specifically give dimensions so the carver gets use to using wood blocks at hand leaving size choice to the carver..

i on the other hand think your tools have some of the process in choosing size of carving..

its hard to use full size tools on small carvings where mini or micro tools would preform best..

if your talking about knife only carving only the knife shape may need size modification..

[Terry Vance]

I think the area you are going to display them will dictate some of that. If you have a bookcase with 8" between the shelves you wouldn't want to carve anything that would not fit the shelf.

Keep carvin'

[jillsy]

Hi Kevin,

I was just wondering what types of characters you're carving?

To answer your question, I'm also siding with Gene. 6-8 inches is a good size to begin carving. Generally, my carvings tend to be 7 inches.

For a beginner, you don't want to go too small. Not only because of the risks of hurting yourself, but because it may be too frustrating. The smaller the carving, the smaller the details. However, if you start carving too big (more than 8 inches) it can also be just as frustrating spending all that extra time trying to work with all that wood.

In my experience, the patterns in books never appear that big until after they've been transferred and cut out of a block of wood! Then I'm staring at a huge block of wood (I prefer 2-3 inches thick) and get overwhelmed just looking at it. There are some that after cutting them out, I put them away and never carved them because they were just too big.

Hope this helps,
Jillsy