Carving Tools - What's it take to carve?
It depends on what you want to do. Knife carving only requires a knife and a piece of wood, plus some method of sharpening (sharpening stone and/or strop).
Americans do a lot of knife carving -- old timers might have called it whitlin'. Scandinavian countries have several distinct knife carving styles using specially shaped knives (chip carving knife is shown above). Some western European carvers don't recognize knives as a valid carving tool, thinking all carvings should be done using gouges. Knife carvers always have a supply of Band-Aids around; it's easy to slip with your knife and cut the hand holding the carving (or your thumb). For this reason many knife carvers use safety gloves and/or a thumb guard when they carve.
Gouge carving comes in two flavors, hand (a.k.a. palm) tools and mallet tools. Hand tools are smaller and are limited in their sweep and width. The advantage of hand tools is that you can carve in your lap, or use a small board to hold your carving while you work on it. Hand carving is typically done on smaller projects. Like knife carving, if you hold your piece in your hand you might get cut, so gloves are used. Most Americans use hand carving tools; it's cheaper and we do smaller carvings. Even knife carvers keep a few special gouges around to help with some carvings.
Mallet tools are much larger, typically being about 10-12" in length with a wider range in sweeps and widths. Mallet tools require a carving stand to hold your piece and a mallet to drive the gouges into the wood. Many carvers think mallet tools are safer since the mallet hand is always behind and away from the sharp point. You're more likely going to cut yourself putting away your tools into the tool roll, which happens a lot when you're tired.
Carvers use gouges not chisels. Chisels are flat and are used by woodworkers who need flat surfaces when joining wood. While there are some flat carving tools, they are specialized gouges. Gouges have curved cutting ends. The amount of curvature is called the sweep. Gouges use a sweep numbering system where 1 would be flat to 11 which is a sharp U shape (also known as veiners). Numbers greater than 11 are used to denote specialized gouge shapes such as "V" tool angles. Most carvers use odds or even sweeps only. There's just not enough difference in a 1 unit of change of sweep although 2 units is very noticeable. The sweep curvature may not be the same between manufacturers, so usually you'll have a preference for a single tool company if they carry all the sizes you like.
The width of the cutting edge is denoted in mm from European manufacturers or inches for American. I'm not aware of any American companies that make mallet tools. Gouge sizes vary from 0.5mm (0.0196") to about 75mm (3") although most carving is done with tools from 1/8" to 1".
There are many excellent tool manufactures. For mallet tools I prefer a Swiss company called Pfeil (available at Woodcraft). For hand tools I like Denny, Drake (available at specialty carving stores), and Pfeil. Dockyard makes the smallest carving tools, although FlexCut has some very small veiners (0.5 mm).
Gouge carving comes in two flavors, hand (a.k.a. palm) tools and mallet tools. Hand tools are smaller and are limited in their sweep and width. The advantage of hand tools is that you can carve in your lap, or use a small board to hold your carving while you work on it. Hand carving is typically done on smaller projects. Like knife carving, if you hold your piece in your hand you might get cut, so gloves are used. Most Americans use hand carving tools; it's cheaper and we do smaller carvings. Even knife carvers keep a few special gouges around to help with some carvings.
Mallet tools are much larger, typically being about 10-12" in length with a wider range in sweeps and widths. Mallet tools require a carving stand to hold your piece and a mallet to drive the gouges into the wood. Many carvers think mallet tools are safer since the mallet hand is always behind and away from the sharp point. You're more likely going to cut yourself putting away your tools into the tool roll, which happens a lot when you're tired.
Carvers use gouges not chisels. Chisels are flat and are used by woodworkers who need flat surfaces when joining wood. While there are some flat carving tools, they are specialized gouges. Gouges have curved cutting ends. The amount of curvature is called the sweep. Gouges use a sweep numbering system where 1 would be flat to 11 which is a sharp U shape (also known as veiners). Numbers greater than 11 are used to denote specialized gouge shapes such as "V" tool angles. Most carvers use odds or even sweeps only. There's just not enough difference in a 1 unit of change of sweep although 2 units is very noticeable. The sweep curvature may not be the same between manufacturers, so usually you'll have a preference for a single tool company if they carry all the sizes you like.
The width of the cutting edge is denoted in mm from European manufacturers or inches for American. I'm not aware of any American companies that make mallet tools. Gouge sizes vary from 0.5mm (0.0196") to about 75mm (3") although most carving is done with tools from 1/8" to 1".
There are many excellent tool manufactures. For mallet tools I prefer a Swiss company called Pfeil (available at Woodcraft). For hand tools I like Denny, Drake (available at specialty carving stores), and Pfeil. Dockyard makes the smallest carving tools, although FlexCut has some very small veiners (0.5 mm).