I finally picked a style but still need help

[Boog]

Hey everyone, Thanks for all the good advice on my knife question. I have taken that advice and with alot of searching I have made my choice do start doing Relief carving. So once again I will be asking what are the best tools to get started? I do understand that there is high relief and low relief but i eventually want to do it all. What I am asking is what do I need to get started. I believe a Good set of chisles which I already have, a mallet which I read can be obtained from an old bowling pin and some gouges. What else? I also would like to know if it is better to get a carving set with long handels or are the palm ones just as good?
I live in a small town in the Adirondacks of New York and do not have any resourses close by to see tools or have anyone show me how things are done. If there is anyone that knows of anything in this area or within a 2 hour drive please let me know. The town I live in is Malone. Thanks.

[Claude]

Relief carvings can be done with full-sized tools and also with palm tools. A mallet is good, although you could make do with a hammer if you had to. I did... Check the local hardware store - they may have mallets... The fancy round ones are not required. Probably the cheapest would be a 3 inch square piece of oak or maple or other hard wood, about 4 inches long. Drill a 1 inch hole in one side midway up, about 2 inches deep. Glue in a 10 inch piece of 1 inch diameter dowel with some Elmer's glue. Round off the corners of the block a bit, and as soon as the glue dries, you're good to go. If you want to work a bit harder, turn the 3 inch piece into a cylinder by removing all the corners, drill the hole in the end grain for the dowel, and you'll have a cylindrical mallet. If you don't whack too hard on the palm gouges, but just tap them, you can use the mallet on them also. Mallet gives you much better control than shoulder muscles...

Claude

[Robson Valley]

I agree with Claude: a mallet gives you far better control that attempting to make a smooth push. Your hand that holds the gouge acts as an elastic brake to stop overcuts.

You can shop online from anywhere for Lee Valley tools. The water stones and the strop/honing setup ought to be high on your list of essentials.

I have a 14oz mallet that's good for most work. I can swing it all day long.
I have a 30oz lead-core mallet and that thing is work to swing into bigger gouges like a 9/15 or a 5/35. I couldn't hit those gouges hard enough with the 14oz mallet to get much done.
I made a monster/caveman 44oz mallet from a piece of alder log for use with a froe for splitting western red cedar log pieces into slabs. You're probably a couple of weeks away from needing anything like that!

I still do some relief carving. Carving "in the round" isn't much more than a couple of relief carvings, back-to-back.

[Kadiddle]

Welcome Boog. We have a club that meets this Tuesday in Plattsburgh at the May Currier Center on Tom Miller Rd. 1900hrs. 2nd & 4th Tuesdays of the month. About 30 miles east. Howabout that. We also have a group that is from Malone that attends and are members. Maybe this could be of some help. Looking foward to hearing from you.
Carve On
Kadiddle aka Clyde Vincelette look in phone book and call if you want

[STAR]

Originally Posted by Kadiddle

Welcome Boog. We have a club that meets this Tuesday in Plattsburgh at the May Currier Center on Tom Miller Rd. 1900hrs. 2nd & 4th Tuesdays of the month. About 30 miles east. Howabout that. We also have a group that is from Malone that attends and are members. Maybe this could be of some help. Looking foward to hearing from you.
Carve On
Kadiddle aka Clyde Vincelette look in phone book and call if you want

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Looks like you are off and running Boog, wish I was a bit closer because I would join you.

Pete

[carvingbarn]

I would also suggest starting with mallet tools. I agree with the others, you have much better control. Check out New York carving clubs under WCI Community on the upper left of this page. May be one near you. There are some good DVDs out there also. I learned a lot from the two beginners DVDs offered by “Nora Hall”, you can find them on ling.