[Colin_Partridge]

Anita you may be a newbie but your enthusiasm is inspiring. I can remember when I was the same as you. The kit from rick is an excellent one I purchased one for each of my grandchildren last year. Mind you the tools havent seen daylight yet but one day I hope they get inspired like you. BTW you must be very artistic the first thing I noticed was your avitar. Did you design it if so that is a work of art in itself.
Colin

[MelNM]

Anita I hope you share your first carving with us.
Mel

[Chahlie]

Hi All,

Anita, if I may pass along a bit of wisdom I read in carving book, by Rick Butz, sometime back. "Taking 3 small chips/shavings is better than taking 1 big chip/shaving," you have way more control and you don't have to figure out a way to replace the wood you didn't want to remove. I also purchased the beginners kit from Rick at Littleshavers. It was and is an excellent investment, as others have said "USE" the glove....the money you save on bandaids and trips to the ER can be put towards more tools and more carving wood!!! LOL!

Glad to see your so excited with your new hobby!

Chahlie

[DADDIO]

welcome to the wonderful world of carving anita,good luck with the carving let your mind run wild and be creative,wear that glove.learn to keep your tools sharp and how to sharpen them,i got very discouraged when i first got started because my cheap tools wouldn't stay sharp and carving wasn't near as much fun.i learned to sharpen on them then as i got better tools learned to keep them stropped good and how to keep'em sharp and then it became much more fun,post us a pic of your first piece

[knightflight]

Sorry, did not see the replies, was off the board for quite some time.

Colin - I did not design the display font for my avatar, although coincidentally typography is an interest of mine so I have designed a few fonts in the past (using Adobe Illustrator as well as freehand). I draw portraits mostly though, just started doing that a lot again - am scheduled to be in a couple art shows in the next couple of months, doing a couple murals, all drawings and paintings of people. Woodcarving (so far as I can tell from what little I have done) engages that same part of my mind that drawing does, so it is really exciting for me so far and really looking forward to doing something really artisitic!

Chahlie - Thanks for the neat advice, have not heard that suggestion before but seems to make a lot of sense!

Daddio and Mel - I posted a pic a while back of a little elephant I did out of a cedar block (a closet freshner no less!) with my old cheap tools from W*M. That was my first official carving. Nothing spectacular, but was a LOT of fun. It's in the Beginner's forumn. I was in my closet one day, saw the cedar block hanging there and I decided "today is the day I will try woodcarving!" I've carved some eyes since then, but will probably not post pics till I finish a "real" carving like the next elephant from Basswood, with the nicer tools. I have so much other "art" going on right now that, alas, the carving has had to take a back seat momentarily, just carving once a week now with a group of folks in town.

[A74Charger]

Hi everyone, I'm also a new carver. I blame Daddio. He and I work together and I used to sit and watch him carve, got brave and started asking questions. Broke down and bought a knife from Daddio, now I have 3 sets of tools, 2 pocket knives, and a head full of ideas. Thanks Daddio for putting up with my questions.

[Thomp]

Welcome A74Charger,

A great place for them questions are here on the forum, give daddioa break

heck if you ask the right questions you might be able to teach him something new....

you got some tools now get some quality wood that dont split out or flake off and put some ideas to practical application,

the beginner section is just jam packed with ideas and projects, .. keep your first carving for yourself to show yourself the progress you made since you started or you'll regret it later..... mine heated the fireplace bout 10 minuets when i was a kid

Thomas
....

[DADDIO]

no problem,man i'm glad to help anyone that has an intrest in something i can help them with,be warned that carving bug bites hard oohh yea get a glove!!!!!!
yea thomp he's been reading the other post i told him just about anything you want to know is here,what a great forum and helpful people,and your right before you know it he could be showing me something and i ain't to proud to learn either.

[Thomp]

Couple of safety items that might need is a Kevlar glove and a thumb guard...
oh and a big box of them cartoon character covered bandages

[DADDIO]

yea i kicked a thumb guard in with the knife deal and we use them sponge bob bandaids round here too