Introduction to Woodcarving: Woodcarving
If I’m being honest, even I think the title is goofy. I do believe there is a valuable distinction between woodcarving as a general term and woodcarving, meaning carving specifically with gouges. Immediately, there can be common aesthetic differences between the two. Pieces made by whittling are frequently left with tool marks showing. This creates a more rustic look. (This is not to say that all whittles are left with tool marks or that those with tool marks are only rustic.) On the other hand, woodcarving is frequently smoothed with rasps, files, and sandpaper. This leads to a more refined look. (I’m going to assume that, at this point, you understand I have reservations about making blanket statements.)
These gouges are hands down my most frequently used gouges. The widest one for large material removal, particularly on larger relief carvings. The next up would be the thin one right at the top of the picture. That one is excellent for navigating smaller pieces of wood. Also shown are a V gouge, U gouge, and chisel (being just a fully flat gouge).
Woodcarving is often considered to be utilizing gouges as the primary tool for shaping the wood and removing the excess. This gives some advantages over whittling. This makes it significantly easier to attach your work to a fixed surface, freeing up one of your hands to give you more control over your tools and how you make cuts. (This isn’t only for using gouges; you get the point.) This is one of my favorite parts about using gouges.
I recently added a Panavise to my holding tools, and with a block of wood to cushion the aluminum faceplate, it is one of the cheapest ball vices I was able to find and it does a fantastic job of holding my carvings, and letting me get more detail.
Another benefit of using gouges is that they come in different sweeps. I’ll dig a little more into sweeps later in this article, but for now, it is how the curve of the gouge is described. These can go from U-shaped gouges to wider sweeps, V-shaped gouges, slant gouges, and I’m sure you could get pretty weird with them. This allows you to make more versatile cuts than just a straight knife would allow for, such as taking deeper cuts, creating lines that are more precise than would be easy to do with a straight-edge knife, and being able to isolate specific spots, even in the middle of a flat surface.
For working on harder woods, gouges can be absolutely indispensable. Many gouges, particularly full-size gouges, can be used with a mallet to provide more force. This can allow for exacting work and be significantly easier on your wrists. Additionally, this gives you a fantastic excuse to buy or make another tool. And what else has this all been about?
Some of the information that we cover in this blog post will be the same as the previous one, and, in the interest of brevity (feel free to laugh at that), we will simply link back to the previous article so that you can peruse that blog post at your leisure. Or not. The section in question deals with choosing the woods to carve and the subjects of your carving.
And now, onto the fun part of all of this!
What tools should you get?
Are you ready?
It all depends on what you want and how you carve things. I know it’s a disappointing answer. It certainly wasn’t the answer I wanted when shopping for gouges for the first time. I wanted the sweeps, the brands, the sizes. But unless you have a big budget for purchasing new gouges (May we all be so fortunate.), odds are you will be better off buying your gouges piecemeal as you run into challenges and begin new projects.
The first few gouges that I purchased were all palm gouges. These gouges generally have a much smaller iron than full-size gouges and a rounded handle designed to fit nicely into the palm of your hand. These gouges were perfect as an accompaniment to my whittling tools, and I still use several of those gouges. I shopped for FlexCut first and picked up a V and U gouge. (The U gouge chipped very quickly on the live oak spoon. It was not a good time.) My only criticism of these gouges is that I do not like how springy the steel is, but that issue isn’t as big of a problem on softer woods and easier carving material.
A collection of palm gouges, the top two from Drake Knives, the FlexCut gouge is third, and then the fourth is one of the rounded gouges that I purchased to practice sharpening.
I then purchase some of the palm gouges from Drake Knives, which have been absolutely fantastic. I bought a very wide sweep, a wide U gouge, and a veiner. A veiner is a mildly disconcerting term for a very thin U gouge. These gouges are absolutely fantastic for carving channels in the wood. I have no complaints about these gouges that couldn’t be attributed to user error, such as not paying enough attention when I sharped the belly on the gouges. Otherwise, they arrived super sharp and hold a fantastic edge.
I used the palm gouges as my primary gouges until I began working on larger and more intricate pieces. I could no longer get my hand close enough to the work to effectively use my palm gouges with their shorter irons. So I decided to do some research on full-size gouges. In the process, a ton of names came up. I am a big believer in buying older tools and fixing them up to better understand how they work, but when I was looking at purchasing used gouges, I ran into a couple of issues that I couldn’t convince myself of. For the first one, I was not confident in my sharpening abilities. There wasn’t a great way for me to find out how sharp the gouges would be, and sharpening a curved edge, in my experience, is an art. I knew I could maintain a sharp edge on the gouges I purchased with a hone. Additionally, I found that many used gouges were nearly the same price as the new ones I could find.
Rex Kreuger has a really fascinating video where he talks about how with the rising popularity of woodworking in general, used tools are becoming more expensive (Link Below). Particularly the well-known brands, i.e., Stanley, older Craftsmen, Buck Bros*, and the list could go on forever. This isn’t to say that there aren’t any deals to be had purchasing used tools, but the search is significantly more arduous, and you are better off looking for off-the-beaten-path brands. This is a big ask for someone relatively new to the hobby or starting out. You have no way of knowing what to look for, and no amount of reading reviews and guides will substitute the actual experience of working with the gouges and sharpening them.
So, if it wasn’t obvious, I opted for new gouges. I also wanted them from a company that would send them to me already sharp. I knew I would learn a lot from buying dull tools and sharpening them myself, but I also knew that would take time and cost me precious steel. In this case, I opted to purchase some cheap used gouges to practice sharping and getting a good edge on so that I could repair and sharpen my better gouges without as big of a cost. (We’ll talk about this more in a future sharpening post.)
So. I had a list of things that I was looking for. Sharp gouges that were full-size and new. Then came the most significant task, deciding on a brand. So many factors to account for. Handle material, steel type, availability, and customer service. (If we’re being honest, I would imagine that if you walked into a random store (maybe not that random for a store that sells woodworking gouges) and bought the brand the workers there recommend, you would probably be just fine.) But I was on a mission for the best brand! I was hoping for a smaller maker based out of the United States for no particular reason except that I’m a smaller maker based out of the United States, and it’s really nice when people buy stuff from you. I didn’t have much luck, but I’m sure there are options if you are more determined.
I learned about some really fantastic brands. Stubai. Two Cherries. Henry Taylor. Hirsch. Narex, who I understand, makes a wonderful, inexpensive set of gouges that I’m looking forward to getting my hands on. And, of course, Pfeil. I immediately discounted Pfeil as being outside of my price range. So I looked at Stubai. Great gouges with great reviews. No reason not to buy them. And then I looked again at the Pfeil gouges. This went on with every other brand. The result was always the same Whenever I looked up reviews for the different brands. Blank is a great brand, and their gouges are great, but if I were you, I would go for Pfeil. People trained with master carvers talked about how their teachers had all these brands in a collection of gouges but always a set of Pfeil gouges.
So I gave in and bought Pfeil. And they have been absolutely perfect. The steel is perfectly rigid, they hold an edge better than any of my other gouges, and I find their handles perfect for my hands. (This was a weirdly big deal for me.) So I went for Pfeil, and I recommend that you go for Pfeil. Still, if you have a preference for any other brand, or if you can get a good deal on a different brand (particularly any of the ones mentioned above), then that will be an absolutely fantastic tool for you (most likely).
Unfortunately, I’m bad at taking pictures, and I didn’t even take this one. Most of the detail on the face is lost, but you can make out a lot of the detail I added to suggest the fur. I’m pretty proud of this one, and it was only possible by using the very edge of my larger Pfeil V-gouge. Absolutely worth to get the extra detail without a ridiculous amount of work and time.
Sweeps!
So gouges have a slightly weird measurement for determining how curved or flat the gouge is. The sweep is a measurement of the arc of the radius, so theoretically, if you were to grab a gouge and press the edge into wood, then continue doing so, making sure to make a line with the previous mark, you would make a circle. (It turns out it’s tough to line the cuts up perfectly, I wouldn’t recommend trying to get it perfect at home.) Practically? This won’t matter too much when using your gouges. The higher the number, the flatter the gouge.
When you purchase your gouges, I recommend picking one or two and trying to only use those gouges for your carving. This will teach you so much about the versatility of your tools. You don’t necessarily need a small gouge if you can use the belly of the gouge to take shavings off. If you can control your gouge, you can use the corner to take small slivers instead of getting smaller gouges. This will show you several techniques that can be used in different situations and make you a better carver.
