Chipping Away has helped thousands and thousands of people just like you get started into the wonderful hobby of woodcarving.  We have many students in their 80's and even a few in their 90's!

But we believe there are age limits as to when your child should give woodcarving a try!  Giving a young child a sharp knife or tool is not a good idea.  In fact should a child cut himself,  it could seriously dampen his spirits and turn him off of woodcarving altogether.  Around the age of 14 years, a child shows signs of developing two essential traits necessary for woodcarving:  eye-hand coordination and patience.  Without eye-hand coordination,  and without the patience to follow your instructions, the risk of personal injury is very high. 

So What About Children under 14 years of Age?

A child's interest in being creative should never be ignored but encouraged as much as possible.  If it is carving or sculpting that the child shows an interest in, then by all means encourage them ~ but do so with a medium other than wood and without sharp instruments.  As a matter of fact, carving and sculpting common hand soap with plastic or wooden knives is an excellent substitute.  We even have instruction books to help you and your child with such projects .... click here

Before You Begin ~ You Must Choose A Style

There are four main styles of woodcarving and the same tools are not always used for each.  This makes it necessary for you to choose the style of carving you want to begin with so you will know what tools and instruction books you need.  I will describe them here and offer some suggestions for getting started.  Then once you have chosen a particular style, I suggest you look through our Product Index for various books that will help you get started. in your chosen style.

WHITTLING:  This is perhaps the oldest style of woodcarving and is done with a basic carving knife.  When the carving is completed you can see 'knife stroke'.  That is to say that the carving does not have a smooth surface.  The carving may be painted or left natural. May we suggest you look through our Product Index for various books that will help you get started in your chosen style.

Tools:  A Basic Whittling or Carving Knife as pictured here is all you need to get started.  You may want to add other carving knives as your skills improve.  See our WebPages under the heading of Carving Knives and Beginner Carving Tools.

CARVING IN THE ROUND:  This is a carving that is completed all the way around and has a more 'lifelike' surface and texture.  It might be a person, animal, or bird; it might be big, or small; it might be to scale or lifesize. The carving may be painted or left natural.

Tools:  Choosing tools for carving-in-the-round is a little more involved.  Most carvers use a variety of knives, chisels and gouges as hand tools and still others choose power tools.  Pop suggests you look through our website and if you still have some questions just call and speak with one of our sales consultants. (519)743-9008 Eastern Time 9am to 4:30pm Monday through Saturday.

RELIEF CARVING: Relief carvings have a flat back and the image is carved in 3 dimension. This style is often used for scenes, but can be a carving of any subject and is usually displayed by hanging on a wall.   As with other styles, it may be painted, stained, or left natural. Tools: Start with a Basic Carving Set and add other tools as your skills improve.  Here are two great sets shown on the right to consider for your first carving experience. May we suggest you look through our Product Index for various books that will help you get started in your chosen style.

CHIP CARVING:  Chip knives are used to remove selected ‘chips’ of wood. In theory chip carvings have just two levels: the wood surface, and the point beneath the surface where the cuts meet. Patterns can be of a free form style or based on geometric shapes such as triangles, circles, simple lines and curves.

chip carved mailbox

Tools:  Chip carvers uses only two or three knives.  You can purchase these already sharpened (adding a leather strop is a good idea)which will delay the need for sharpening stones.  Here is a great Beginner Kit ...see the Webpages under 'Chip Carving' for other tools, books, etc.