Thread: Woodcarving

Judging from other postings, lots of folk have collections of sharp knives & cutting tools.
Many appear to fall into the category of weapons.
Aside from hunting & culinary use, does anyone keep them for more peaceful pursuits?
Any enthusiastic woodcarvers or decoy makers out there in cyberspace?
I've always wanted to make decorative decoys, but probably don't have the talent.

Alas no i dont have the talent of carving but this guy i work with is always carving things out of branches that he finds. He has carves an indian head with feathered headdress and a lizard hanging onto a branch. He is pretty good at it.

My grandfather retired from woodcarving (he's 84) and passed his how-to books on to me. Some of what they do is way beyond me, but I think I'm going to try "chip carving" a small design into a set of scales. He's offered to give me his carving knives, so it's just a matter of going to get them.

Chip carving looks pretty straight forward, and might be a nice way to embellish a razor. The problem I see is that the woods I use for scales tends to be very hard wood. Probably not the best way to learn.

I, too, am thinking of doing some minor carving on a set of scales, but I think I'll try using a Dremel tool first to rough out the design. I would very much like to see what some other folks have done by way of scale carving.

I would LOVE to able to carve, I got the tools and the creativity, just not the skill. But if there's one thing I noticed it's that anything can be learned with the right dose of patience and determination.

I enjoy carving. I've actually been working on an atlatl (look it up) today. My carving is entirely self taught and I've power and hand carved. Remember if carving scales to have a sharp knife; any real resistance is too dull. It won't be a razor, but please spend the time to sharpen your chisel. When power carving thin pieces pay special attention to the amount of wood supporting what you are carving. With a little pressure even a dremel can grab and split a piece of wood. Which leads to saying use a sharp and proper bit for what you are doing.