Wood Spirits on Basswood

[tonyloconsolo]

Hi,
I would like carve wood spirits faces on basswood see attached picture and I don't have any tools. Could you help me to buy the necessary tools for this carving. I’ve already bought Relief Carving Wood Spirits by Lora but not sure what kind of tools to buy
Thanks
Tony

[Claude]

Hi, Tony, and welcome to the forum.

A set of tools for carving wood spirits...a lot depends on your budget. If you're just starting out and have a limited budget, I'd suggest the beginner's kit from Little Shavers Wood Carving Supply Rick provides quality tools that are already sharp, safety glove, and a strop to keep the tools sharp, all at a decent price.

If you have several hundred dollars to spare, I'd suggest getting a set of Pfeil gouges. You still ought to get a safety glove and strop to keep the tools sharp. Many places sell these. Here's one example: http://www.woodcraft.com/search2/sea...g&pagesize=120

Now, having said that, if you ask 10 carvers, you'll likely get 7-10 different opinions as to what brand to buy. If nothing else, this tells you that there are quite a few quality tools available and being used by people.

Which gouges to buy? Again, lots of different opinions. If you're planning to carve your wood spirits in basswood that is less than 3 inches across and 12 inches tall, I'd suggest staying with gouges in the 1/8-to 1/2 inch sizes (3mm-12mm). Larger than that, you could go up to gouges in the 1/4 to 3/4 inch (6mm-18mm) sizes. What sweep (curve)? I'd start with a double bevel straight, a double bevel skew, a wide #3, a narrow #3, a wide #5 or #6, a #9, a #11, and a narrow V tool (60 to 75 degree). Rick's beginner's kit should be perfect for the smaller size carvings (and will work nicely on larger ones as well, just take a little longer...)

One advantage to getting the beginner's kit from Rick is you get to try different tools and get used to what they can do. As you get more experience, you'll be able to tell you want a wider one of whatever, or a narrower one. You can then buy a specific tool to fit that need.

Personally, I started with a Flexcut set Carving Tools - FR310 Beginners Palm Set Flexcut Tool Company and still use every gouge in the set today. When I bought this set, I hadn't heard of Rick's set yet, so I bought the Flexcut set, a glove, couple of knives, some stropping compound, a thumbguard, and then made my own strop from a piece of scrap suede and a short length of left over shelving. I would have saved money going with Rick...

Claude

[TreeWizard]

Based on the gouges Lora uses in the demonstration she provides in the book, I'd say the advice from Clyde is right on. The beginners set from Little shavers will have nearly all the tools she used in the demonstration.

[Bob K.]

I agree with Claude 100%!

[tonyloconsolo]

Hello all
your response is appreciated.
Thanks
Tony

[helluvawreck]

Hi, Tony, I just got through carving that same wood spirit and am thinking about carving it again right away. This next time I am going to carve it a little larger and maybe also a little deeper. I like that pattern a lot and it was fun to carve. It was my very first wood spirit. As a matter of fact I love all of Lora S Irish's patterns. The intructions in that book are quite clear and very well written. You will enjoy it.

I've been carving now for about 10 months (on weekends only). Before that it was hit and miss over a number of years so I'm certainly no expert. I think that Claude has given some good solid advice on carving tools. I will mention several that I would advise you to get when you are able after your first initial tools. First, I would get a small set of those small dockyard micro carving tools (Woodcraft sells them among others). They will help you clean out some small places that are hard to get to. Second, Pfiel has a couple of short bent skew chisels but I can't remember the number. One is a left hand and one is a right hand. When your pattern has a lot of jagged areas like the edge of the beard on this wood spirit these tools help you clean these serrations out and are very efficient at it. I find myself reaching for these tools quite often. You can also use that double bevel skew for the same thing and I also have that one.

During my carving of this wood spirit I took a good many pictures and will be posting it on my Lumberjocks blog and will also post my finished wood spirit here on this forum.

I hope that you enjoy carving this wood spirit because it's a fun project. Lora Irish is such a wonderful resource for woodcarvers.

[helluvawreck]

Claude, I hope that you are doing well. I am inexperienced here and while I was carving this wood spirit I wanted to find that tutorial that Lora Irish did on this site but I was unable to find it on the search button. I also tried Google but still couldn't find it. Do you know about that tutorial that she wrote? I would like to read it.

Thanks