- Never use a dull wood carving knife
- Use your strop every 15 to 20 minutes while carving
- Find pictures or drawings of your subject matter to aid in keeping your wood carving true to form
- Learn to sharpen your wood carving knives and tools
- Only buy the tools that you need based on experience and necessity, not just because the set is on sale
- If you do make mistakes, keep carving and learn from those mistakes
- Take your time when carving and let it be relaxing
- Use thinned paint when feasible to allow the natural wood grain and carving cuts to show their true beauty
- Always wear your wood carving glove and leather thumb guard
- Practice, Practice and Practice some more
- Use good wood to learn how to carve correctly and not start bad habits
- Find some good wood carving videos so that you can see the process as it is being completed, if not find a good instructor to demonstrate live
- Find some good subject specific wood carving books
- Start without expecting to carve like a 20 year veteran
- At the very least, keep pictures to document your carvings, so you can see your progress as a wood carver