If you are interested in becoming a wood chainsaw carving artist, Carve Me A Bear! Chainsaw Carvings recommends you start with basic wood carving (without the added danger of the chainsaw). The best way to learn wood carving is to get out there and start doing it. Start with something simple, get used to the knife or chisel that you’ll be using and start getting used to the different types of wood. Some types of wood carving are ship carving, carving in the round, letter carving, and relief carving. Some tools used in carving are chisels, gouges and knives, mallets, files and rasps.
Wood Carving Tools & Basics for Beginners
The tools you use need to be razor sharp to be effective. There should be a shiny cut through the wood with no streaks that indicate a nick in the blade. You need to be able to determine the direction of the grain. To do this just look at the long cell fibers. The darker streaks of the annual rings can help indicate the direction of the grain. Carve the wood in a downward direction onto the parallel lines of grain. If the wood is tearing and your tools are sharp, then you are probably going in the wrong direction. Turn around and carve the opposite direction. You can also try to carve diagonally across the grain and even parallel to it, but carving upwards against it will only tear and splinter the wood.
Carving Wood Faces, Eyes, Wrinkles & Folds
Carving a wooden face is often a daunting task to a new wood carver. You can quickly become skilled at it with a lot of practice though. There are many styles and methods available depending on the result and the level of realism you expect from the finished piece. There are a few tricks you can use to keep the final product from looking stiff and “wooden”. Using the proper techniques will give you a realistic figure.
Carving Wood Decoys & Small Animals
Other popular items to carve are decoys, waterfowl, and water creatures. Simple decoys can be easy to produce and will help you gain familiarity needed to make more realistic animals as you gain experience. Simple animal figures are a good place to start. With simple animal carvings you can learn and produce pleasing animal likenesses. These simple skills can be used later for more intricate carvings. As your skills increase so will the quality and designs of your wood animals.
Other Things to Carve in Wood
You can carve household items and decorations for the house. Simple and practical items will help you make something useful and you will use some new techniques and gain valuable experience as you learn to carve. Carving walking sticks and canes are easy to carve and very popular. There are several common carvings done on walking sticks but you can carve whatever you wish. Caricature carving is also a popular style of carving, which allows you to make something fun using your newly acquired skills. Caricatures can be as intricate or as simple as you like and can be any figure or style that you would like to work on.
Chainsaw Carvings in Las Vegas Nevada & Helena, Montana
With any woodworking venture, it can be a little daunting when you try and figure out where you will start. Remember to start simple and use new skills learned as you move onto larger and more intricate pieces. To purchase a custom wood chainsaw carving for inspiration, contact Carve Me A Bear! Chainsaw Carvings!
