Wood Carving Studies/Tutorials » Ozark Walking Sticks

Painted Walking Stick

Dec 282011

After hand carving several walking sticks with wood spirit faces, I had the idea to try painting the wood spirits face. I had a really vivid mental picture of what I wanted to accomplish, but was concerned that it may not turn out well. But, as with all wood carving projects in their beginning stages, you have have a clear mental picture and then work to accomplish the results that you expect.

I set out to hand carve the wood spirit face in the walking stick first, just like I have done on other sticks. I left the eyes without any carved detail because they would be painted during the painting and finishing stage.

walking stick carved

Bushy Mustache Wood Carving Tutorial

Beginner Wood Carving Information, Wood Carving Studies/Tutorials No Responses »

Nov 092011

Bushy Mustache Wood Carving Tutorial

By Patrick Mullally

This tutorial is provided with permission of Mr. Mullally, who operates a wood carving site at: http://www.irishmancarvings.com

Only tools needed is a parting (V) tool and a detail knife. I also use a small veiner now and again.

First get the mustache roughed out. Then mark in your lines where you will be making deep cuts with the parting tool. I usually take one section at a time…trying to keep the hairs irregular, and rolling into the deep cut.

Hand Carved Snowman Ornament Tutorial

Beginner Wood Carving Information, Wood Carving Projects, Wood Carving Studies/Tutorials 1 Response »

Nov 062011

It’s beginning to look like Christmas time again and therefore carvers are changing their focus towards carving Christmas ornaments, snowmen and santas. One of my favorite Christmas time carvings is to carve some really simple hand carved snowman ornaments to hang on our Christmas tree. If you like carving or are just beginning to show an interest, try out this simple beginner wood carving project.

Start by finding a branch that is about 1″ in diameter and about 4″ long. For best results, allow the branch to dry naturally for a few weeks. If you don’t time to wait, place the branch in a warm, dry place for at least a day. Trim the branch flush on both ends and remove the bark. Now divide the stick into three sections (2″ piece, 1 1/2″ piece and 1 1/4″ piece). After this process, the three pieces should look similar to this:

Hand Carved Snowman Ornament - raw pieces

Santa Study Stick – Tutorial

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Oct 262011

Santa Study Stick – Beginner Wood Carving Tutorial

This beginner wood carving tutorial has been edited for clarity with permission of Tom H. It is a cooperation between Tom H. and Thomp both Wood Carving Illustrated members. It is with great sadness, to report that since this tutorial was originally created, Thomp has passed away.

Purpose of this document: It is in hopes, that those with basic to intermediate carving skills can accomplish the task of making the Santa study stick, or practice stick for themselves, then have one to copy from in their hand and continue carving others as practice. All wood carvers needs to learn carving safety, how to sharpen, hone and maintain cutting edges, in addition to general carving experience in the basic skills. The tutorial teaches the use of a study stick. Each step is in progression and starts where you left off on the prior step and builds a more completed step in the overall carving of a character, leaving the previous step as a record of how the carving was accomplished

SKILLS NEEDED: Skilled BEGINNERS to INTERMEDIATE

The carver is required to obtain:

Carving safety equipment: Good lighting, (visor, or reading glasses if needed) Kevlar carving glove and finger guards.
Tools: a serviceable Sharp Carving Knife, and a Sharp small 2mm Gouge if possible (see scary sharp method for help on this) LINK TO WCI
Materials: Box of band aids, 1×1″ basswood, White pine, cypress, or other suitable softwood practice stick 12: long. One source is heineckewood

Proceed: Starting with a blank stick 1″x1″x12″ , Divide the stick into 5 equal parts, 2-1/4″ or so and mark with pencil. Now you should have 5 bands of pencil marks all the way around the stick giving you 5 segments. You will be using the corners of the block to carve the nose.

Step# 1 – In this Step what is going on is cutting a small notch for the eyebrow at the bridge of the nose and another lower notch a slight bit larger, below the nose. Keep them small, you can always make them deeper, but you can’t add it back. The top notch will be at approximately 7/8″ from the top of the segment and the lower notch at approximately 1 3/8″ from the top or 1/2″ below the top notch. Continue reading »

Wood Carving – Carving Beards and Hair Tutorial

Beginner Wood Carving Information, Wood Carving Studies/Tutorials No Responses »

Oct 092011

When carving beards and hair, you have to realize that in nature, hair isn’t straight. Hair naturally grows with at least some curve, especially facial hair. Therefore, when attempting to emulate this in your wood carvings, you need to make a series of varied, elongated “s” and “c” shapes.

A good starting point, is to use a v-tool to make some deep elongated “s” shapes throughout the beard area to give the beard that curved, uniform depth that is seen in real life. Now you can use another smaller v-tool to carve other elongated “s” shapes to fill in the voids created by the previous step. You can now go back with another v-tool or your wood carving knife and make even more definition.

The important thing to remember when carving hair, is to never make it uniform and equal. Natural facial hair is uneven and scattered. If your facial hair was always uniform and straight, it would look like you had Crystal Gayles’ hair hanging from your chin.

When studying a new carving technique, I always like to see some examples of what I am trying to accomplish. Here are some example pictures that I hope will give you an idea of what I am trying to explain above. Short of a step by step photo example, these close-ups show the elongated “s” shapes in the wood.