Wood Carving Tools Basics. Time to figure that out!

You’re just starting your journey exploring a world of woodworking. Natural questions like where to buy wood carving tools already arise.

First, you need to know what are the basic wood carving tools. 

There are three types of them and though they may seem similar their usage might be very different. These whittling tools are the following: chip carving knives, gouges, and chisels. A chip carving knife is a tool that is used to remove small chips of the material from a flat surface in a single piece. They have a very ergonomic design which makes it easy to hold the chip carving knife for long periods of time.

Depending on the usage chip carving knives might be straight or slightly curved. Looking for quality woodworking tools you need to know that chip carving knives can be made of either carbon steel or the other forms of steel. That will impact only the weight of the knife and, of course, it’s price. The material a chip carving knife is made of does not affect its durability.

The gouge is a chisel with a concavo-convex cross-section. One of the most needed wood carving tools.

It has a trough to make the gouge marks of the design. There is a wide variety of gouges and each of them serves for performing a specific task. This is exactly the case where you may need to get a wood carving starter kit that will include some of the essential gauges. For instance, gouges with a deep curve that is called a sweep and a shallow curve might come in handy. You would need those to dig more wood out first and then smoothen and finish your craft.

Chisel. What implies that?

The chisel is one of the wood whittling tools Just as with gouges, there are many types of chisels and each has a particular use. A chisel tool has a shaped cutting edge of a blade on its end, with a wooden handle. In order to cut into the wood – a chisel tool is forced into the material by a mallet or mechanical power. This is a tricky one because, when misused, even the best wood carving chisels may ruin your work. You need to make sure you do not put too much pressure onto the mallet. Make sure to cut through small chunks of wood at once.