Rank Beginner

[Royden]

I retired some time ago. I've been lurking here for some time, doing a lot of reading, and deciding if wood carving is something that I'd like to try. I'm a little leery, since my last attempt involved stitches.

However, I've decided to jump on board. I found a local carving group, tried on a few safety gloves, thumbguards, and handled many different knives. I hadn't realised what a radical difference just the finish can make in how a knife feels in your hand.

My first purchase was a glove, and my second a knife, which should arrive some time this week. I'm going to have to borrow a thumb guard from the club, due to my thumbs being bigger than anything that the local store had.

My long term goal is to do dioramas, which it appears will involve both carving in the round and slab carving. I'm going to work first on in the round carving, particularly caricatures, on the theory that most of the skills that I learn here can be applied to slab carving.

Hopefully I can still count ten this time next year.

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

Welcome to the forum.

Dave

[Riverman]

Hi and welcome to the group!
Bob

[carvingbarn]

Welcome to the forum Royden.

[torpidhummer]

Welcome aboard Roydwn,by the way you forgot to add a case of bandaids,you never know when you will need them no matter how long has been carving.
Oscar

[Mottles]

Welcome, and you made two excellent first purchases...

[Royden]

Originally Posted by torpidhummer

Welcome aboard Roydwn,by the way you forgot to add a case of bandaids,you never know when you will need them no matter how long has been carving.
Oscar

Bandaids?

I carry an entire first aid kit!

[idigjars]

Hello and welcome to the forum. Safe carving. Paul

[Kadiddle]

Welcome to the forum. Thumb guards are easy to make, look at them and make one for your size. Several layers of duct tape can help. Sounds like you are off to a very good start.
Carve On,
Kadiddle

[mpounders]

Welcome aboard! You can make a nice thumbguard using the fingers from an old leather glove (I was able to get a tighter fit using a finger). The kind I used was leather with cloth on the backs, just a cheap work glove. I wrap it with carvers tape, which makes it fit tightly and protects the leather from cuts. It is easily removed and tape can be added or replaced as needed. It protects as well as the store-bought ones and actually seems to fit much better.