Share your craft projects
Make new craft buddies
Ask craft questions
Blog your craft journey
a1jim
4560 posts
and
48 followers
in about 10 years
in about 10 years
Learning wood carving online
Hi Freinds
I’ve had some long-term projects that have been sitting on a shelf for a long time and I decided to get them down and try and complete them.The reason I’ve put off completing these projects is they have lots of carving on them and having used a power carver on them, ( by my estimation they have turned out pretty well given I’ve only had one other small carving project before.Getting back to my point ,even though I thought the carving I had done turned out very well,they still require a lot of sanding (hours and hours worth),this made me think that perhaps if the carving I had been done with carving chisels instead of a power carver they would have been much closer to a finished product.I started thinking back and I remembered Charles Neil had visited a carver on his online class (mastering woodworking class) who’s name is Mary May who also has an online class that teaches wood carving and offered a number of the classes for free,so I found her website online and have watched a number of her video classes.
I’m so very impressed by her talent and great ability to teach so clearly many techniques and processes involved with high-quality carving. I wanted to share this great resource and talent with you so if you have an interest in carving you too could enjoy Her great teaching and expert videos also. Enjoy!
https://www.marymaycarving.com/carvingschool/
woodworking classes, custom furniture maker
5 Replies
Hey Jim, have fun carving! It is a hoot! Chisels and knives give a great clean finish. Easy to sand too if wanted. Dremels, power carvers etc tend to shred the grain and create a lot of clean up work.. I tend to go from the chainsaw to chisels and then knives although I do use a grinder (super coarse flap sander or a chain disc) if the shapes dictate it’s use.
Angellos
Thanks for the tips Glaros.
woodworking classes, custom furniture maker
Mary May does great teaching and demonstrates such a variety of projects. She is trained in the traditional European manner and has so much to share. Even though I don’t do much carving, I’m finding that the chisels help a lot in making good joints and cleaning up where routers and saws leave off.
Interesting Rich that you have found you can use carving tools for traditional joinery ,thanks for your input.
woodworking classes, custom furniture maker
Thanks for the info I’ll check Chris pyes out too.the pieces I have to finish need to have a clean smooth finish but perhaps in the future I’ll go with the “odd tool mark look”.
woodworking classes, custom furniture maker
