I've been pretty much a relief carver and like to use gouges and knife. I'm a little reluctant to try new things, but since reading the encouraging messages on this site, I'm thinking about expanding my horizons and trying my hand at power carving. I have a Dremmel. It seems like the selection of bits/burrs is limitless. I would like to know what power carvers recommend for a starter selection of bits/burrs and what kinds of wood are best for power carving. Thanks in advance for sharing your expertise.

Hi Mr. Carvit -

I use an Automach reciprocating carver for roughing out my pieces. That's alot different from the dremel and grinder-type carvers, so I don't think I can help you there.

There are others here, though, who can - hang in there!

Teri

I have a dremel for light duty and small stuff and a Foredom for the bigger duties. also have a ryobi reciprocating tool, but it too is not a heavy duty tool...will do it if you take your time, let it cool etc.

[Donna_T]

Hi,
You're right in that there are soooo many choices of bits. I like to rough out with a Carbide Kutsall or blue bit, cylinder or rounded nose flame shape depending on the project. If I'm doing almost all the work by power, I've even had good luck of using a coarse sanding drum to rough out things (beware of carving with hand tools after using a sanding drum cause the little particles of grit left in the wood will sure dull your tools fast! I use a Dremmel for light work, a Foredom for heavier work, and I still use a reciprocating tool for roughing out vise-held projects. Just like buying tools that it turns out that you won't use very often, bits are the same way. You'll find yourself using 2-3 for 90% of your work.
Donna T
Donna T

Mr._Carvit,

Donna_T is using a good choice for the roughing out. a good set of diamond tips are a great thing to have for the detail work if you want to instead of you hand tools. You can get these very cheaply at woodcraft.com. I paid $24.00 U.S. for a kit of 20 bits. This is good until you actually figure out what shapes you need to do what.
Make sure you practice on scap to see what you can achieve with each bit.
You could get an attachment for your dremel to route. There is also a table attachment for your dremel. Good for keeping your background cuts even depth.
I am new to carving and use a dremel. The reason I use a dremel is that I am doing it for some stress relief and I didn't want to go in debt to find out if I liked carving or not. Guess what?! I like it!
Probably time for me to upgrade or maybe quit being chicken and learn with hand tools.

Brad

I also use a dremel and recently purchased the Crafts All in Cutter for $55. I like it because it uses dremel bits for low speed and you can change the collets and speed to use router bits. It also comes with the plunge router accessory and the flex shaft can be purchased separately.