[bghebert]

I find that gouges are a little safer if the piece your working on is clamped down, but they have to be sharp. A little tip to check your carving stage is to look at it in a mirror, the reverse look will really give you a different look.

[Mischief]

Hebert, thats a great tip! I dont have to drag out my husband's camera.

I just looked at your website. Noticed all those big carvings. Lol...how do you look at them in the mirror!?

[hruukki]

Originally Posted by Mischief

TScared stiff of gorges tho I really needed it for some of the cruvy parts and the face of the fox.

All you need with gouges is: keep your both hands behind the cutting edge and always carve away from yourself.

[Claude]

Originally Posted by hruukki

All you need with gouges is: keep your both hands behind the cutting edge and always carve away from yourself.

Well, when using Palm tools, I find it works best to rest your elbows on your legs, so you won't be using any shoulder or upper arm movement, and then using your wrist only, with the gouge pointed at you, proceed to cut wood. If you don't use your arms or shoulders, you can't move the gouge close enough to you to hurt you. I usually wear a leather shop apron, just in case.

I agree with hruukki, though, about the full sized gouges: best to not have your body in line with the cutting edge when it slips, because it will slip.

Mischief: Personally, I prefer non-folding knives. My favorites are the Flexcut knives, because they feel very comfortable in my hand, and they hold an edge quite well. My detail knife is a Bütz knife because of the the long skinny and thin blade. Most pocket knives have a blade that is way too thick for wood carving. If you have a Woodcraft or other woodcarving store anywhere close by, go in and hold several knives and see which one feels the most comfortable. Most Woodcraft stores will have a few pieces of wood you can use to test-carve a knife or gouge. Your other option is to go to the Little Shaver's web site http://www.littleshavers.com/BegKit.html and buy a Beginner's Set from Rick. It comes with a knife, some sharpening stuff, a set of palm gouges, and even a carving safety glove. And it all comes SHARP! Go to the Search function above these words and type in "Beginner Set" and see what the rest of the forum members say.

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Ooops - missed the photo of the kit in the background. Sorry about that - you're way ahead of me on that one.
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Claude

[bghebert]

Mischief, you get a bigger mirror. lol.. It don't help on a lot of carvings but anything symetrical like a portrait works nice, I used it a lot when I was painting.

[martyslc]

Mischief,

Great Fox! I like it!

I notice in your picture you have a beginners kit in the background. How did you fair learning about the tools? Did you not like the knife that came in the kit?

-Marty

[Mischief]

Yup...love the kit. I learnt the true meaning of SHARP from it. and from there figured out that I needed to get be angle on my pen knife reduced to 13 or 15 degrees and that sorry excuse I took to be SHARP was indeed just varing degrees of blunt. I didnt take to the fix blade knife in it kit. Though I have to admit it helped out tremendously with the roughing out.Maybe I just need one with a smaller blade. I somehow like how a pen knife fits completely into my palm. I wouldnt have been able to do many bits of the carving without the gouges. I am a little bad at stropping these gouges tho and you can also see how black my strop is. ( I asked if I should clean it in another part of the forum....and lol apparently some people do and some people dont...so I clean oneside and dont clean the other to see the difference). So I am going to call Little Shaver's soon for a nice Denny Gouge and a nice modified Kershaw. Haha! carve a little fox on a $1.50 block of basswood and now I think I deserve $70 of new equipment.

[whittlinguy]

Nice job on your first carving. If you want to carve other things I suggest that you buy roughouts. You can find them everywhere on the Internet. That way you won't have to worry about roughing it out yourself. As for the knife to use, get a fixed blade Murphy knife. Reasonable price and a good knife for a beginner (check out Murphy Knives at Little Shavers ) If you don't already have one get a carving glove and get rid of that wobbly knife unless you want to loose a couple of fingers. Make sure you keep your knife sharp by honing it with some sharpening compound and a leather strop (use an old leather belt). HAPPY CARVING and don't worry about what your finished product looks like. IF YOU'RE HAPPY WITH IT THAT 'S ALL THAT MATTERS!! YOU'LL GET BETTER AS YOU CARVE MORE.

Come back and show us some of your new work!

[bullshipper]

Great carving Mischief, I wish my first carving looked that good, as for going any further thats almost a personal choice. When I used to live in a apartment I used a tabletop band saw and hooked up a shop vac to the dust port to keep the dust down. Sometime when me and the wife sat down to dinner we would sometimes get woodchips in our meals, A little added fiber never hurt no one He! He! He!. You owe to yourself, just be careful.

Lonnie
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[Claude]

Mischief:
Since you live in an apartment, get a small coping saw from a home improvement store, and also get a WorkMate. Here's an example:

Amazon.com: Black and Decker WM225 Workmate 225 450 Pound Capacity Portable Work Bench: Home Improvement

The two boards on the top move together or apart when you turn the orange handles, so you can clamp your carving with these. The bench also comes with some orange plastic things called bench dogs. This fit down in the holes in the boards, and are also used for clamping. When you're finished with the bench, it folds down and the legs fold up into a package about 4 inches thick by 30 inches long by 24 inches high, which you can easily hide in a closet.

If you aren't familiar with a coping saw, here's one:
Coping saw - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You could clamp a piece of wood in the bench, then use the coping saw to cut away the excess wood. It will take longer than a band saw, but is also easier to clean up and put away.

Claude