Terry Wolff's Wood Carving Information

I FINALLY GOT AROUND TO CARVING A SPOON

2011-01-14T14:11:00.000-08:00

HERE I AM STANDING NEXT TO MY CARVED SPO


USING PINCH DOGS

This is a commission I recently completed for a design firm in LA. Its final destination is a restaurant in Las Vegas, Nevada called the Wicket Spoon. The restaurant opened this past month.

BUILDING THE SPOON

It was carved from several pieces of Sugar Pine which grows in northern California and southern Oregon. The spoon measures just over seven feet tall and has a key hole in it. Don't ask me what the key hole is all about because no one seems to know. I finished it with a satin black enamel, There approximately over a dozen coats of paint on the finished spoon.

PERFECT, ALL CLAMPED UP

JUST ANOTHER VIEW

BOTTOM VIEW WITH KEY HOLE

I started with a set of engineering drawings supplied by the client. I took them to a copy shop in Taos and had them print a set of full size prints. This made it easy to get all proportions correct and this was critical with this client as they had all their dimensions to an 1/8th of an inch.

Using a band saw I cut the various pieces to as close to the exact size as possible. This cut down on the amount of carving time required.

SHOWN HERE ON PATTERN

I carved the spoon in sections, glued these sections together and then finished carving them as a unit.

FINALLY CARVED AND SHAPED

THIS SHOWS THE INSERTED MORTISE

One problem with making a large realistic spoon or say something such as a carousel horse is that there are weak spots. Areas where there is a shear point and on this spoon it is where the handle curves down to meet the scoop. A shear point is where the grain is r. Solution, I decided to insert a diagonal mahogany mortise to add strength.

The rest is history. I have provided several photographs to show you some of the steps and how the finished piece actually looked. Enjoy!!!

FULLY CARVED SPOON

SIDE VIEW WITH 4FT RULER

Terry R. Wolff

COMPLETED SPOON

COMPLETED SPOON (UNDERSIDE)

HAPPY NEW YEARS AND HAPPY CARVING, EVERYONE!!!

2011-01-01T10:55:00.000-08:00

Here it is New Years Day and I had planned on skiing today but it is so darn cold, below zero that my studio needs my attention today. So i will be out there keeping the fire going and doing some carving as well. I have a few projects left over from last year that I need to finish up and today looks like a good day to do that.

Terry R. Wolff

LIVING ROOM DOOR AND MATCHING TRASTERO

2010-09-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am getting really close now. This door is the most elaborate of the series. It is the door that separates the living room from the mechanical room, leaving only one more door left to carve. What does this mean? It means that now I will have to hang them. But more importantly, it means that the house is getting closer to completion and that I will be starting on a new main entrance door to replace the existing one.

The reason that this door is quite different from the rest, is because I chose to have it compliment the entertainment trastero (a common Spanish hutch found here in northern New Mexico) which is located near to this door. Well lets face it, at about 1,600 square feet, everything is close to everything. Anyway the Indian blanket has been replaced by this door and has become our cats new bed to fight over.

The first of the interior doors that I completed for the Solar Ranch was about two years ago and was made from Ponderous Pine whereas these eight doors that I am now working on are made of Sugar Pine and vary slightly from the original door.

The second interior door was originally an exterior door when the mechanical room and laundry room were one in the same. However about three years ago I decided to add solar water heating and need somewhere to put the 240 gallons of heated water. So in order to accomplish this I added a separate laundry room off the mechanical room which gave me another interior door. This door was never carved! So guess what I will be doing with this door sometime in the near future?

Terry R. Wolff

PANTRY DOOR WITH BUILT-IN SPICE RACK

2010-08-17T17:41:00.000-07:00

Back in October of 2000 I started building our house out in Carson on the west side of the Rio Grande. An area known as part of the West Rim. This was exactly one year after I started my woodcarving studio which I finished that June. We moved into the house in February of 2002 with the exterior completely done and mush of the interior completed as well.

I worked on the house around carving commissions, carvings I did for a few years for Taos Fall Arts and doing installs for Gary over at Taos Mountain Electronics. In 2003 to make my life just a wee bit more interesting or maybe complicated I added a solar business to the mix (thus the name of our property, Solar Ranch). What was I thinking. Perhaps that I could do it all!!! Well, here it is 2010 and I am finally realizing that I don't seem to have enough energy as I did when I was in my 20's or for that matter in my 50's.

This past month or so just trying to up grade the solar site and bookkeeping programs are tiring me out. But after working on the Turner carving project with Peter Templeton I had decided that this is also the year to finish my inside doors. I did do a door for the bathroom a few years back. And I do have almost all the cabinets and furniture made and carved. I just have these last eight doors to do.

The spice door is my fav. It combines the door to the pantry with a built in spice rack which can be accessed from either side. As with most of my projects, they always seem to involve carving. All eight of these doors are carved on at least one side with a theme I created for the house. You can see it here on this door. This theme is carried throughout the Solar Ranch, on all the doors, gates, and furniture.

Here are some additional photo details of this door.

Well that is all I have for now.

Terry R. Wolff

VERMEJO PARK RANCH CARVINGS

2010-04-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

Carvings for Ted Turner's Lodge Costilla at Vermejo Park Ranch in New Mexico

Hey I know this posting is well over due. And I know, what is with the fancy title name? Well, that is a big part of the reason why it has been so long to get back to this blog. Okay, in all fairness I also did a fair amount of skiing, other carving commissions, kept my solar business running and tended to the Solar Ranch as well. But for now, here is the Vermejo Ranch story and I just may break it down into a couple episodes if I find this article getting too long plus there are other photos which I would like to share with you.

Vermejo is a sizable ranch (588,000 acres to be more accurate, about the size of 3/4's of the state of Rhode Island) located to the east of Taos. Actually part of the ranch occupies the north eastern portion part of Taos County. Anyway the owner of the ranch (Ted Turner) decided that the old Lodge Costilla, originally built in 1915, needed to be replaced with a new lodge. So begins this woodcarving story. Now at the close of this two year plus project, which I have only been involved with for a few months, I have the time to share this story.
Peter Templeton, owner of Tree Of Life Woodworks was commissioned by Turner Enterprises in conjunction with Conron & Woods (Santa Fe) the project’s architect, to make and design approximately 80 pieces of furniture for the lodge. 21 of the pieces included woodcarvings of wildlife . Okay, now I hope you can see where I am going with this. Peter (Arroyo Hondo NM) along with Leonard Archeleta (Taos Pueblo NM), Terry "T-Bone" McCaulley (Pilar NM), and myself (Carson NM) were the woodcarvers brought in to do the carvings for this project.
Together we carved a total of 16 queen-size headboards, 2 buffet servers, a console table, a computer table, and a seating bench. The wood was southern Douglas Fir which was cut and milled from the forests on the ranch. Once the wood was cured and delivered to Peter's shop, the furniture was started. The furniture was done in two phases, the first of which included all the furniture which had no carvings. The second phase were the pieces which required the carvings. Peter, Leonard, and I did the drawings for the carvings.

The buffet servers had elk heads carved (Leonard and Terry) into their doors while the console table had four mule deer carvings (Leonard). The bench had a combination of local animals and scenery from the ranch carved into it. The computer table had a backboard which had a Rio Grande Cutthroat carved into it.

My favorite parts of this project were the headboards because they incorporated both the animals and scenery from the ranch. There were a total of 8 bedrooms, each with two queen size beds. Each room had its own theme; there were Antelope, Bear, Buffalo, Eagle, Elk, Game Birds, Mule Deer, and Wild Cat Rooms.

Peter Templeton took on the buffalo room. Although he would have liked to have done more carving, his time was limited by all the other work, such as coordinating his woodworkers and woodcarvers not to mention other on going projects as well.

Leonard Archuleta carved the headboards in the Antelope, Elk, and the Mule Deer bedrooms.

Terry McCaulley carved the beds for Eagle and the Wild Cat rooms.

I Carved the Bear and the Game Bird headboards.

Even though this is a woodcarving blog, before I sign off I want acknowledge Chris Burdekin, Jon Evans. Jason Rathbun, Victor Fonseca, Juan Gonzalez, and Shawn Putnam. who were the woodworkers that did an excellent job of making all these pieces of furniture for us to carve. For me this was a fun project and a chance to work with some really good woodworkers and fellow woodcarvers.

On my next posting I may continue with this project by showing more images of woodcarving or I may touch on another subject. Now that I hope to be having more time in the studio I will get back to finishing the knives I started earlier this year, which means you will be getting updates on those blog posts as well.

Terry R. Wolff

PS Tree of Life Woodworks can be found on the Web a TOL-Woodworks.com, more information about this project will be posted there in the future.

CARVING WITH PETER TEMPLETON

2010-04-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

Within the next few days I will be starting a series on the carvings I did along with Peter and two other carvers. But for now I am going to direct you to a page on Peter's website (tol-woodworks.com/article-taosnews2100401.html) which is an article written by Matthew van Buren for the Taos News, our local weekly newspaper. On this page there is a like to a page of additional photos taken by their photographer Tina Larkin. The last photo was one that I took of a carving which I did for myself during the project.

Since the Taos News article explains that this project is all about, I will not waste your time by saying more. Just read the article and see some of the work which we did.

I will be posting more about the Vermejo Park Ranch project in the very near future. But first I have given the article to Peter so that he can review it. After all, it is really his baby and I am just glad that he included me to work on it.

I hope you enjoy the work and in the near future I will be adding all the names of the people who deserve the credit for what their part was on this project but for now this is all I have time for.

Terry R. Wolff

IT HAS BEEN TOO LONG

2010-02-01T09:57:00.000-08:00

Hey, sorry for the delay in getting something on this site. I still am not quite up to doing articles on a regular bases but I am sure that will come in time. Anyway I have been quite busy this winter and I have to admit, that whenever I have any free time I am off to the Taos Mountain to do some skiing. So until the middle of April, skiing will be one of my main priorities. As I get older I have come to realize that it is very important not to procrastinate, so therefore as long as this body is willing to do black diamonds and double black diamonds on Taos Mountain I have no other choice than to submit to the mountain.

As for the knives I was able to finish up the ones that had been ordered and yes, I will be continuing the knife series as I find time. I hope that I have the time to work on getting them done this month so that will be one less thing to have to worry about. What me worried?

I just finished these signs over the week-end which is amazing since I had a full weekend of skiing as well. And now have to do one additional one.

I have been hired on by Tree Of Life Woodworking to work on a carving project for one of Ted Turner's NM Ranches. The project consist of carvings for the dining room and 16 headboards for the eight guest rooms. There are two other carvers on the job and so far I have just been doing the drawings for the carvings. Last week I did eight full size headboard layouts. And they were traced on to the headboards and two of them are now being carved. This is a fun project as the subject matter is of animals which are on the ranch including background scenes from the ranch as well.
Also I recently noticed on FaceBook that I had an inquiry about crook knives. Most people don't know what a crook knife is so in the near future I will address these. In the mean time crook knives were a popular tool of the northwest Indian tribes. Their use went from as far north as Alaska to British Columbia to Washington State. I don't think it was used by any tribes farther south and may not have been really used in Washington until perhaps the early 1900's.

Well that is all I have time for now so until next time.

Terry R. Wolff

ANGEL OF HEARTS; A TRIBUTE TO DAVID CHAVEZ

2010-01-03T09:01:00.000-08:00

Inspired by David Chavez and the works of Patrocino Barela

I would like to tell you a little story about this woodcarving (No. 8730). I carved it as a Valentines gift for my wife-to-be, Linda. The year was 1998, it was about two hours before she was coming home from work to my converted school bus. I suddenly realized at about for in the afternoon, that I had forgotten to get her a gift (oh, what a guy thing to do!!!).

I quickly went out to my fire wood pile and located an exquisite, but quite gnarled piece of Rocky Mountain Juniper (perfect). Working feverishly for the next couple of hours, I had the carving waiting for her when she arrived. Day saved with seconds to spare!

Besides the amazingly short amount of time that this chunk of fire wood became a treasured gift, there is more to the story...

A few years prior to this, a chap by the name of David Chavez strolled into my studio at the Pueblo Alegra Mall and asked me if I could teach him to carve. David not only wanted to learn to carve but he had a certain style of carving on his mind and that is what he wanted to do. He wanted to carve in the style of Patrocino Barela a famous Taos carver from the days of the great depression.

So David became a student and a good student at that. Turns out that David's uncle had a collection of several hundred of Barela's carvings, and some of these are what we used to train David to achieve a carving style which was like Berela's, was definitely David's.

David studied with me for a couple of years, during which time we became friends. David was beginning to get a following of people who wanted his angels and he started doing local art shows. One autumn when I was teaching carving at UNM I had invited David to bring some of his work and talk with my class. After the class David told me that he was invited to do a Christmas show at Los Alamos and asked me to do the show with him and I accepted.

David's style was similar to the above angel except that the wings were always down or added on. I told Dave that I would do relief carvings and we decided that at the end of the show we would just split any profits. And if there were any profits we decided that other shows would be in order.

That week I went to a local wood mill in El Salto and had them cut me diagonal Juniper slabs which I would use for my relief carvings. I took some of the slabs to my UNM class and had the students look at a slab and see what they thought they saw in it. Being the majority of my class were hispanic with a strong Catholic origin, it came as no surprise that the majority of them saw Mother Mary. Thus the birth of my Taos Spiritual Series. By the time of the show we both had a good number of carvings.

Unfortunately just before the show, my friend David had a heart attack which took his life. I never did the show. I had know from early on that David had this heart condition and that is why he retired and took up woodcarving. The Carving had enabled David to do something creative and something he enjoyed in the last years of his stay here on earth. For me I gained a friend. A friend who was a Taos native and who shared his knowledge of the area. A friend who I will never forget. A friend who turned me on to private showings of the the carvings of Barela and the stories of how his uncle came to have such a valuable collection (each carving was worth a minimum of $1,000 and many of them much more).

David's uncle was Barela's neighbor.Seems that Patrocino was more often than not shy of money for food and such, So, David's uncle would purchase carvings from Patrocino and times for as little as a pint of whiskey or he would give Patrocino's wife money for food. Over the years he had acquired more carvings than he had room to display them so many of them were stored in boxes to be rotated out for display or just stored away. When he died, he left his collection to the members of his family.

I am ever thankful for this time I spent with David and his family and for being privileged to see this wonderful collection of Patrocino Barela's woodcarvings.

Terry R. Wolff

P.S. A footnote about Patrocino Barela life. Born during 1900 in Bisbee Arizona, his father moved his family to Taos in 1904. He emerged in 1936 as one of America's most important artist when he was featured in a show of Federal Art Project artists in New York's Museum of Modern Art and was the first Mexican American artist to achieve national acclaim. Patrocino was a prolific woodcarver. He died at the age of 64, when a fire took his life as he slept in his carving shed on the night of his 33rd anniversary.

KNIFE MAKING (PHASE TWO)

2009-11-15T09:29:00.001-08:00

In this step I have roughly shaped all the raw steel knife blanks into their actual shape as you can see.

With the work load that I have taken on since I started this project, it is taking me longer than I had anticipated to show you the various phases of making a knife so it looks as though there will be other postings made in between my "KNIFE MAKING" posts.

So I am rethinking my my plan and have decided that my next "KNIFE MAKING" post will follow the progression of one knife blade. I just went through all my photos and have found enough images so I can do it. So my next post about this subject will show the various stages from beginning to end.

I will start on this as soon as I find the time.

Terry R. Wolff

TWIRL SIGN

2009-11-15T09:01:00.000-08:00

I just finished and delivered this sign to a local toy store in Taos. The sign was carved from 2 inch Sugar Pine stock, which has a natural finish with spar varnish for protection from the elements. This sign was designed by Cowgirls Design, a Taos graphic design shop. I think that they did a great job on the design and am glad that I was asked to make it a reality.

Twirl is located just off the Taos Plaza next to the Alley Cantina in Tom W's old Buddhist Tea Room. An interesting building to visit and it is amazing to see what they did with the place.

Terry R. Wolff

KNIFE MAKING (PHASE ONE)

2009-10-29T13:15:00.001-07:00

Well I am at last at it. Starting my knife making process. And yes I do mean process. There are several steps I take in making my carving knives and I will write about them on this blog as I proceed though the process.

(I just want to make a side comment here as I know that there are a

number of those reading this that are doing so on Facebook. And I want those of face book to know that what you are reading is being

imported from my blog therefore you are not seeing this in the same format that is in the blog. So if you want to see this post as I had intended it to be please take the time and go to my blog which is located at http://carvinginfo.blogspot.com.)

Today is Phase One.

This means that I go to where I keep my knife templates and select which ones I want to make. As you can see I keep them all in one place so I can easily access them.

Next I go to my raw steel stock and with a trusty Sharpie I layout the shape of the knives on the appropriate knife blanks. I will layout all the knives which

I intend to make during this session of knife making, this is the first step of the knife making process. Today I will be doing

the layout for some eight different knives. Six of these are for carving or crafts, one is a kitchen/do everything knife, and the last is a mini dagger or cleavage knife which is warn from a chain or lanyard as a neckless and usually by some Harley gals (yes the knives are in a scaber).

After I finish a knife blank layout, I put the blank into a bin where they wait for the next step in the process.

As you can see, there is not too much I can say about Phase One. Perhaps tomorrow I will start Phase Two.

Terry R. Wolff

KNIFE MAKING TIME

2009-10-23T18:26:00.000-07:00

Just got back from spending some catch-up time at Wired Cafe to find that I received some knife orders today. So I went to the cupboard to fetch some knives and the cupboard was depleted. Now I am going to have to play catch-up on some knife making.

The next thing I did was to make sure that I had enough steel to make some more knives and I do. So I will be busy this week making a batch of my standard 1" Magic Knives and maybe some mid size Magic Knives also. I am going to use up some of the knife blanks I made and then as I deplete my stock of blanks I will start discontinuing some of the various sizes I have been offering. I also plan on making a couple of batches of Detailing Knives as well. Both the Curved and Straight cutting edge blades but I am thinking of discontinuing the French Curve Detailing Knife but I will make that decision as I work my way through the up coming knife making process.

The reason I decided to write this is because once I post it to the world, I will have to get started making these knives.

The Magic Knife is used in my one knife carving technique. I will touch more about this in a future posting. I will also talk more about how the Magic Knife is made and why it has that name also in some future posting.

For more information about my Magic Knives and my Detail Knives please visit Shop Taos where you can read more about them.

Well enough blogging for today.

Terry R. Wolff

CARVING SYMBOLS & MY CARVING THEORY

2009-10-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

One of the thinks that I really enjoy carving are symbols. I have always enjoyed type fonts so it only seems natural to me that symbols would follow. Symbols can be carved either into the wood (incised) or they can be carved as relief.

The carvings shown to the right are part of a commission I did for a Colorado client. She also ordered a sign and only one of the two carvings shown here. I did the second one for Linda and myself.

I find Chinese calligraphy also makes for interesting incised carvings. I first realized that I was able to correctly imitate their calligraphy was at a Chinese restaurant in Bellingham WA. Their menu had a number followed by the calligraphy which was for the kitchen staff. The waitress had left her pad with the menus so we could put the number of what we wanted. I decided that I would insert the calligraphy instead and before I knew it, the staff was talking to me in Chinese (this later happened to me in a remote village in China as well). That is when I knew that I could write the unknown language and have it understood. Over the years I have done several calligraphy commissions which are now here in the US as well as in Japan and China.

Here is my thoughts about carving anything. First is to perfect your very basic skill level and secondly look for the basic shapes in all your subjects. I look at each subject or project in basic shapes which will later be refined as the carving progresses toward completion. For example when I teach a new student to carve I have them do some extremely basic incised exercises. I then advance them to using those initial exercises into an abstract design. From there I move them into carving a "Welcome" sign (Letter Carving). I use this word because it includes all the previously learned exercises. Do I want them to become sign carvers is not the point. The point is that by perfecting their carving skills in small increments they can easily and effortlessly move into whatever carving style they may choose.

I will carve a welcome sign just to warm up before tackling a much more complicated commissioned carving. The commission may not even include any lettering at all. The point is that in less than twenty minutes I have warmed up carving something so basic I can practically carve them in my sleep and maybe I do. I have started more winter fires with welcome signs than most people have carved anything (that is because, they don't all appeal to me or there is an earlier carving on the other side). This is like doing stretches before heading to the lift to start a day of skiing (I wonder if I will be able to write blogs and ski too?).

Although most of the symbols I carved have been incised carvings, I have done carvings such as Celtic designs in relief as well. The important thing to remember is whatever you choose to carve, identify its basic shapes and go from there. Once you do that, even if you are carving a letter, you can carve them backwards and upside down because they become geometric shapes and not letters. the same goes for carving a face, a horse, or whatever you choose to carve.

Anyway I am done rambling so if you are a carver just find yourself an interesting design and have at it. You may be surprised at what you may accomplish.

Terry R. Wolff

WOODS I LIKE TO CARVE

2009-09-21T18:06:00.000-07:00

There are several woods which I prefer to carve. Since I do commissions I use various woods for different carving projects. The next two woods are perhaps my most commonly carved woods and are perhaps the best woods for getting started with. These two woods are my carving mainstays. Any carving project could be accomplished with either of these woods.

Linden wood (Bass Wood) is an excellent wood for general carving as it has a relatively soft, tight, straight and perhaps boring grain. Which makes it an excellent wood to sink your knife or carving tools into. I like this wood for doing commissions of small figurines and reliefs. Since this wood will not hold up well to the elements it is not good for exterior sculpture or signs. This wood takes finishes well.

Sugar Pine or northeast white pine are good woods for most general carving projects which do not have fine details unless you have extremely sharp tools. Other then synthetic carving media, pine is a good choice for carved signs which are going to be painted or are going to be stained or finished naturally.

Some of my favorite carving woods include...

Walnut, this is an excellent wood and one of my favorites. It is an interesting wood in that it has a grain which is hard, has character, fun to carve, and takes to oil finishes. As far as I am concerned, this is what marble is to stone sculptors. Carving of walnut can be finely detailed or abstract with only smooth curves.

Teak, which a number of carvers tend to stay away from since it is renown to dull your tools is really a great wood. Teak has a rich grain that makes it interesting to carve.

African and Honduran Mahogany are good carving woods. However their grain can be tricky to carve and cause ripping if you are not careful. As with most tropical woods they have an open grain. Philippine Mahogany (Luan) is not a true mahogany and can be an okay wood some carving projects. Luan is actually any tropical wood that has similar characteristics and their grains range from soft to extremely hard and stingy. Luan really has nothing in common with a true Mahogany other then if stained with a mahogany stain they may appear to be Mahogany.

Eastern Cedar and Southwestern Juniper although both have a tricky grain to carve, do produce interesting carvings. Eastern Cedar comes from larger trees then the Southwestern Juniper. This means that the Eastern Cedar is mostly available as the reddish heart wood and also is known as Aromatic Cedar. Juniper has a reddish heart wood with a creamy sap wood and makes for some interesting carvings. The early Spanish settlers of the southwest used this wood for carving their Santos. There are about three different types of Juniper, some tend to have a more brownish heard wood. Juniper and Eastern Cedar are very similar and often mistaken for each other. I like Juniper because of its contrast between the heart wood and the sap wood and allows me to use this in my compositions.

Fruit Woods are always good for carving as they have a lot of grain characteristics which make for interesting carving. My favorites are Cherry, Pear, Apple, and Plum. I have a seen some interesting works carved in coconut and other types of nuts.

Other woods you may consider...

Oak can be used but it has drawbacks in that it has a heavy grain which can interfere with your design. With that said, if you keep your design simple or use the grain as part of that design you will be happy with this wood. American oak both red and white have a broader grain then English Oak which has been used for appliques on English furniture. So if you could acquire English Oak you could easily do more detailed work without having the grain interfering with your design.

Alaska Cedar which comes from well you can figure that out on your own. This wood carves much like Linen wood but is somewhat harder. It has a yellowish coloration and was used by northwest tribes to carve mask and totem poles.

Aspen and Cottonwood have also been used for carving but I personally have not enjoyed working with them.

There is a variety other woods that have been used by carvers from all over the world so there is no end to woods that you can use for carving. I have only mentioned some of the woods which I am personally familiar with. So find some wood and start carving.

Terry R. Wolff

THE BASIC CARVING TOOLS

2009-07-12T21:17:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned before I use traditional hand tools and carving knives. Throughout my years of carving I have come to realize that there are but a handful of tools which I refer to as the Basic Carving Tools. These are the tools that will do over 90% of your carving needs. I consider all my other tools as specialty tools.

Over time I have acquired several sets of these basic tools. Some are redundant and others are of various sizes, some smaller and one larger.

Here is my personal recommendation for the Basic Carving Set for both the beginner and for anyone who carves with traditional carving tools. I will list them by tool type, size, and sweep for the gouges...

V-Parting Tool - 1/2", 60 degree angle
Gouge - 1" wide, #3 sweep
Gouge - 1/2" wide, #5 sweep
Gouge- 5/8" wide, # 9 sweep
Magic Knife - 1" wide blade
Detail Knife - straight blade
Wood is Good #20 Mallet

There you have it, the six main tools plus the mallet that everyone should start out with.

Here are a few other recommendations for once you have mastered the basics. These are tools which I have found quite useful...

Skew Chisel - 3/4" wide blade
Carvers Chisel - 3/4" wide blade
Fishtail Gouge
Detail Knife - curved blade
Detail Knife - french curved blade
Crock Blade Knife - used by northwest Indian carvers
Scorp
Adz
Draw Knife

There are other tools which you can add to your collection. But remember, that they are just that, part of your collection. Over the past 30 years I have acquired what I would call a fair amount of tools. Some of these tools were required because of doing antique restoration and may have been used on only one project and then left to collect dust. Others were acquired to make some projects easier. Many of the tools I have, have not been put into service in years but when I need them, they are always a welcomed site.

But as I had mentioned, that for most of you, 90% of all the carving work you do will involve the Basic Carving Tools which are mentioned here. Get these tools and learn them well.

Terry R. Wolff
See samples of my carvings

GETTING STARTED

2009-06-21T13:20:00.000-07:00

There are any number of ways in which you can carve wood. Some of these include the use of traditional hand tools, power carving using rotary electric tools, chain saw carving, and various combination's of these and perhaps others.

I will be concentrating mainly on traditional carving techniques which uses tools such as gouges, fishtail gouges, knives, chisels, scorps, drawknives, and a carver's mallet. This does not exclude the use of modern tools such as saber saws, bandsaws, table saws, joiners, planners, grinders, chainsaws, and other devices which I recommend for bulk removal of large amounts of waist wood (this simply means any wood which does not belong with your finished carving).

All carvings consist of two basic roughing out cuts followed by your detailing cuts. The first of these is called a Stop-Cut and the second is called a Back-Cut. (A word of caution, and I really mean this... DO NOT START DETAILING YOUR CARVING BEFORE IT IS COMPLETELY ROUGHED OUT!!!)

STOP-CUT - this is the first cut which you will make around a portion of wood which you do not want removed (This is like making a wall around a city to prevent outsiders from getting in). This can be made with a chisel or a v-parting tool. I personally prefer the use of the v-parting tool as I find that it goes faster. When working large sculpture this can be done with a chain saw.
A. When using the chisel you only want to drive it into the wood with one easy stroke of the mallet and keep your cut about a 1/16th of an inch outside the line of your carving (this will prevent damaging the wood you want left behind). When you make your first cut you basically just want to pierce the surface of the wood. Always start your cut parallel with the grain. So lets say you have a circle which you want to keep, therefore you would start at both the top and bottom and work your way a 1/4 of the way around the circle until your chisel perpendicular to the grain. Once you have completed your initial stop-cut, go back a second time and carefully drive the chisel deeper into the wood.
B. When using the v-parting tool (parting-tool), you simply follow along the line of your carving. Here you will want to make one pass of the tool as described above. I prefer to drive my tools using the mallet as it provides more control to the cut. Again the cut would start at the bottom and top with the grain and end a 1/4 of the way around the circle until it is perpendicular to the grain. One thing you need to keep in mind when working with the parting-tool, is that while one side is cutting, the other side will be ripping which means that on softer woods this could cause problems if you are not careful. This means that your Stop-Cut can be no deeper that the depth of your parting-tool or you will rip the woods surface.
BACK-CUT - this is simply the cut which you will make to start eliminating your waist wood. This cut is usually made with a gouge, but a chisel may be used if you are looking for a rip look. The gouge is driven toward the Stop-Cut.
A. Once the Back-Cuts are made, continue by making your Stop-Cuts deeper. This is followed by another round of Back Cuts. You will continue this process until you have reached your desired depth. You will notice that as you go deeper, that the parting-tool will be further away from the line where you started and that is acceptable as you will correct that after you have reached the desired depth.
B. You will notice that your gouge edges have cut into the wood which you want as part of your carving, that is why we kept the Stop-Cut away from the carving line. Next you will cut the wood straight down at the line with your chisel in order to eliminate this.
C. You will follow this procedure until you have completely roughed out your carving (I highly recommend this because if you start detailing, you will be sorely sorry later on).
D. Once your carving is completely roughed out it will be time to start your detailing cuts.
I have been asked numerous times, "How can you carve so fast?" Here is my secret and it is really quite simple.
A. Before I start a carving project, I carve a no brainer carving first and if I still don't feel ready, I will do it again and again until I am ready.
B. This is for new carvers, you beginners as well for us seasoned carvers. Here is what I teach every new carver and I will list it in steps. After all the years I have taught carving, this still holds true. I have just refind it over the years and I am giving it to you for free so I hope you take advantage of this (I am saying this because I have come to know that people seem to have it in their minds that they get what they pay for and on this blog it is FREE. So my dear friend if it will ease your mind and make you feel any better that you have to pay for what you get, you are welcome to go to
Solar-Catalog.com/order_payments.html)
C. All carvings consist of four basic types of cuts.
- VERTICAL CUT
- HORIZONTAL CUT
- DIAGONAL CUTS
- CIRCULAR CUTS
D. Start by purchasing a soft, even grain wood such as Basswood or Linden Wood. If you use any wood with a hard grain or because it was "free", you will not be doing yourself any favors plus wasting your time.
E. My first exercise for you is to do a series of these types of cuts on incised rectangles and arches (about a 1/2 inch wide and 3 inches long) until you get really good at it.
F. The second exercise is to create a series of design elements (keeping them from zero to about an inch wide) which incorporates all of these cuts.
G. The third exercise is to carve a sign with 3 inch incise letters such. Use "WELCOME" or "OPEN" as these both of these include these four basic cuts. I refer to these as the sparing partners (just like every boxer does to ready themselves for a fight). As you become proficient at these you can literally go to any style carving without having to think about your cuts. This leaves your mind free to concentrate on your subject matter.
H. I don't care what you are planning to carve. Whether its a carousel horse or anything else in the round, or a relief carving, or carving signs, this is the absolute best way to get started. This is the key to fast proficient carving.
I. Or you can jump right into whatever your finished project maybe and dinker around with it, slice by slice until you finally give up out of frustration, which I have seen over and over again.

In closing, here is my theory. Start by doing a simple project over and over until you are proficient at it. I like using the signs mentioned above because I wind up with a finished carving that can be sold or given away.

By following this method, all other carvings become easier to do in the long run. If you want more in depth coverage on this, I do have all this and more available in my book.

"By warming up carving just a 20 minute Welcome Signs before starting a commission, means I won't have to think about my cuts, tools, or wood grain. I just have to concentrate on the subject matter."

Terry R. Wolff

INTRODUCTION TO BLOG

2009-06-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Terry Wolff and the reason I am starting this blog is to get some of my 30 plus years of woodcarving knowledge out in the hands of other carvers or would be carvers and to also get your feedback as well.

I started carving as a professional back in 1976 and continue to do so. My background is in commercial art and electronics. Nice combination right?

Anyway over the years I have accumulated a bit of knowledge and lots of tools. So at this point, I should let you know that I am a traditional carver. Meaning that I mainly use hand tools such as knives, gouges, and chisels. When necessary I will resort to power tools in the roughing out stages of a carving project.

As a professional carver, I have chosen to do what is called for by my customers. I do not necessary feel that this is the best way to go about carving. I think that it is good to experiment with different carving styles and subjects but in the end find the one which suits you best. In other words, as you get into carving you will feel more comfortable with certain styles and subjects and that is where you should direct your energies.

My carvings have ranged from small caricature figurines, bias relief, free standing realistic, stylized, and abstract sculpture, carousel animals, carved signs, burial urns, grave markers, and just about anything else you can think of. You can check out my work at SignCarving.com or at TerryWolff.com to get a feel for the type of work I do.

I live in northern New Mexico just west of the town of Taos and south of Colorado at a place I call the Solar Ranch and rely on the Internet for my lively hood. This is because there isn't anyone out here to support me.

And just because "the Internets" is one of my sources of generating income, I am dedicating this paragraph to promoting my income sources so I can keep things going. So, here it is, besides carving, teaching carving, I sell carving knives (which I make), some wood care products, a couple of books which I have either written or published, The Text Book For Carving Letters and I maintain an on-line solar energy retail business at Solar-Catalog.com.

That is about all you really need to know about me. You have my Web Sites which you can view at your leisure. So in future blogs I will be concentrate on things that have to do with woodcarving. Things such as styles, techniques, tools, finishes, and woods for carving.

So if you have a topic you would like some information on please send me an e-mail and I will post it on this blog and if I remember, I will send you an email announcing the post.

Terry R. Wolff