Hair Carving Tips from Silver Dollar City Woodcarvers Shop

I had the opportunity to get over to Branson and visit the Silver Dollar City Woodcarvers Shop again and it was a pleasure as usual.  This time I went with a plan in mind.  I wanted to get some pointers about how to make my beards and hair in general, look more realistic.  I took along  the small base that I carved a few weeks ago out of a 1″ X 1″ X 3″ piece of basswood.  Here is a picture of it so you can see what I was asking:

I feel good about the progress that I have made so far with carving hair, but I still have a great amount of improvement potential.  My carved hair has some detail, but no real depth.

I met Tom and Gen Kreyling who were demonstrating some wood carving and asked Tom for some advise on how to improve the look of my carved hair.  He took out a piece of wood and did a short demonstration, by beginning with a gouge and carving some curved tracks in random areas of the intended hair portion of the carving.  Then he followed up with a U-gouge or veiner and made some more random curves that overlapped the other tracks in some spots.  Then he said that he would usually use a V-tool or two to make the final details.  He also suggested using a knife to make the final details stand out.

I plan to give his technique a try in the near future when I get a chance to sit down and put my knife to wood again.  I may even find myself investing in some more palm tools.  My beginner set of 6 is beginning to need some extra help from some other sizes of gouges.

Tom and Gen are members of the Belleville Holzschnitzers wood carving club in Belleville, IL.  They are hosting the 41st Midwestern Woodcarvers Show November 5th and 6th.  I also found out that Tom and Gen have some relatives from Naylor, Missouri, which is in Ripley County where I live and was the County Sheriff in the mid 2000′s.  They also gave a contact for a wood carving club within 40 miles of where I live.  It truly is a small world.

For more information about the Belleville Holzschnitzers or the 41st Midwestern Woodcarvers Show go to:   www.iidbs.com/holz