How to use wood carving tools for beginners

Taking up a new hobby can always be a little stressful or frightening - even though you enjoy the activity or the thought about it, thinking of how many and what you need to obtain in order to make something serious out of it and what you need to learn can be a little depressing to those who haven’t done anything new in a while. However, there is certainly something to enjoy in starting fresh - and doing new things or taking up hobbies isn’t an exception.

When starting wood carving, you may have quite a few questions and quite a few resources to learn from. We’re happy to consider BeaverCraft’s tutorials, tips and posts one of those resources, hopefully so do you. So today we’ve decided to create a somewhat guide to wood carving - how to, what, where and so on.

Before going straight to answering those questions one by one, we’d like to mention the importance of understanding and remembering some of the rules for carving that will be mentioned later, especially the ones regarding your safety and security of the tools: forgetting them may lead to breaking instruments in the best scenario and injuries in the worst one.

How to use wood carving tools for beginners

Okay, so now that the most important part has been said, we can go to the main question number one: how to use wood carving tools for beginners? It’s no joke when you open up the Internet only to find endless tool lists that can be used for carving, especially when you have no idea how to use any of them.

First of all, while choosing the instruments, make sure you know which materials they are made of and select wisely: you don’t want anything too cheap and ineffective simply for economizing reasons. It might seem smart to buy the cheapest since it’s right there, on the market, but you’ll regret it once the instrument is broken and you need to look for another one. Look for high-carbon blades - they are the ones that have been considered the best for carving hard materials like wood.

Secondly, don’t forget to hone and buff your instruments as soon as you get them and before every use. Why do you need to do that? It will provide the longer existence time for your tools: even pre-sharpened at the manufacturing sites and ready to be used straight out of the box, they will appreciate you taking the time to care for them. Having the blade sharp and always ready for work will be of great help since that will make you forget about the problems related to dull blades and all kinds of injuries that can become a consequence of those problems.

What you need for wood carving - question answered

Now that you have an approximate vision of how to work with the instruments and what to look for, it’s time to discuss the second most important moment - what you need for wood carving? Surely, you understand that besides the tools you’ll need the wood itself. Most sources recommend basswood as the option for learning and gaining the skill you need to work with harder types of wood. Basswood is a soft wood type with a light color that won’t stand in the way of you painting the carvings as you like and will be easy to carve for your pleasure.

You’d also need something to keep your instruments smooth, polished and sharp - so you’ll need a stropping kit of some sort. Containing various compounds for polishing and a leather strap or paddle, they will come in handy when you decide it’s time to make your instruments feel new again.

Don’t forget about a thumb guard and safety tape to protect your hand from any sort of troubles - that is very important. You should wear them every time you carve!

How do I start learning wood carving

A good idea would be, of course, to read and watch some tutorials and ideas on the topic - that’s when it is our time to shine. Welcome to BeaverCraft’s YouTube channel where you can find all sorts of tutorials on carving and to our Facebook or Instagram where we post useful thoughts, tricks for easier carving and share the opinions with the community.

Get yourself prepared with some knowledge, some basic tools and wood, the very first idea to carve out - and you have everything you need to start learning. You also require a little inspiration and motivation. Find them - and you are good to go!

Author:

Roman Law

Wood carving guru


From a childhood enchanted by nature, my passion for wood carving guided me on a path of creativity. With a pocket knife, I uncovered the transformative power of my hands, breathing life into driftwood and forging a lifelong connection with the medium.