How does a Novice Woodcarver Choose their Tools?

When it comes to tools, many people like to one step. Newbies are prone to buy dozens of sets of knives at once. However, after many people buy carving knives, many carving knives are rusty and never used. So, for newbies, there is no need to buy too many tools at first. I suggest buying a few carving tools to practice and get a feel for them first. What if you try it for a few days and then realize you’re not interested in carving at all?

1. Engraving Gravers

Don’t choose too many knives for a novice, just buy what you must be able to use. Here will not recommend embryo knife. Because you have to start with small wood, carving on small wood does not require the use of complex embryo knife. There must be some confusion here as to what size wood is considered small. However, there is no definition, I think as long as the length of the wood does not exceed 15cm and the width or diameter of the wood does not exceed 8cm, there is no need to use a embryo knife (The veteran may think it’s nonsense. But that’s OK, a novice will have no problem following it)

A pneumatic engraver is also a good choice. You know, it’s been the most popular device recently. I bought one last month for my engraving business. Guess what, it’s totally my favorite now! The Air Engraver is a combination of an engraver, a micromotor and hot air all in one. It is equipped with a powerful electronic carving knife that plugs in and makes carving happen. You also have the flexibility to choose the voltage according to different requirements, with 110 volts and 220 volts to choose from. It does not need to be equipped with a noisy and heavy compressor. You can save a lot of time and increase your work efficiency if you use this unique new equipment.

2. Tools for handling materials

The wood you start carving with may be a regular square or round shape purchased from Amazon, a branch or twig picked up on the street, or a discarded item given to you by someone else. How do you get them into the shape you need? You’ll need to use a saw for this step! I recommend the following two types of saws:

1. One is a plain saw for pure cutting: it will perfectly cut the size you need from a large piece of raw wood. You only need to purchase one of these hand saws. Remember, it doesn’t need to be too big.
2. The second type is the wire saw: it is specially designed to shape the material. If you need some detail, then a wire saw can be used to contour the shape of a wood sculpture.

Carving block for holding material

I think this is non-essential. However, it will be of great use when carving smaller pieces. If you want to buy one, buy a 360 degree all round carving block. It will greatly reduce your burden and increase your efficiency.

Sanding and polishing tools

After the carving stage of sanding and polishing, this stage is mainly sandpaper can be. I recommend buying 180, 240, 320, 400, 800, 1000, 1500 mesh. I recommend imported sandpaper, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Their products are cheap and good. In particular, you should choose to buy sandpaper with coarser particles, so that it is not easy to lose sand.

The purpose of waxing is to protect your work from cracking due to moisture loss. I usually use natural beeswax. Yes, I highly recommend this! After all, the whole country is now promoting environmental protection.

That’s all for now. Remember! The tools are not the key, the key is that you practice a lot. Practice makes perfect!

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