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Christian
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WOOD
The main hand tools used in wood carving are gouges, knives and rifflers.
Also, some electric tools are useful for speeding up the "roughing out" stage, especially chainsaws, angle grinders and drills.
Wooden mallets are good for small carvings or detail work, but for more heavy-duty wolloping, the best thing is a rubber mallet from a camping store.
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Dont be tempted to buy budget price tools - cheap gouges and rifflers are okay for working on soapstone or plaster, but wood is much more
demanding. You need the very best tools, and you need to keep them sharp.
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Gouges
A gouge is a chisel with a curved cutting edge.
There are three variables :-
Shaft - Straight, Curved, Spoon, Back-bent
Width - the width of the cutting edge
Sweep - the curve on the cutting edge, from almost
flat to U shaped (no.s 3-9)
No-one could own all the possible permutations, so start with an all-purpose selection
eg. Straight ¾" no.4, Straight 1½" no.5, and a Curved 3/8" no.8.
Curved and spoon gouges are great for scooping out hollows, and straight gouges are best for use with a mallet. You
might only use a back-bent gouge very occasionally, but when you do, you will make cuts that would be impossible with any other tool.
Also, there are small palm-held gouges known as Blockcutters which are good for working in confined spaces.
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Knives
My favourite carving knife is the "Sloyd" design, with a 2" blade. The curved blade is long and pointed enough to
get into tight corners, and the shape of the handle lets you make a real fist round it so you put a lot of power into the cuts.
Some chic Japanese knives look similar to the Sloyd, but not as chunky. One for the ladies perhaps.
Beware.... Tool suppliers often put "Chip Carving knives" in with other carving tools. These have flat blades and are only
suitable for engraving.
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Rifflers and Rasps
Rifflers are small curved files for smoothing out concave curved places. They come with various shaped ends such as "Ski" and "Rat's Tail".
Rasps are similar but bigger, for quick basic shaping of flat or convex surfaces.
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Power tools
You can save a lot of time by attacking your log with a chainsaw. This is a noisy, oil splattered assualt, but
with a bit of practice you can do your "roughing out" in hours rather than days.
Petrol chainsaws are more powerful than electric ones but the exhaust fumes make them unsuitable for indoor use.
Don't be blinded by technical specs; to use a chainsaw as a carving tool you have to be able to manoeuvre it, so weight and balance
override any other consideration. Go to a DIY store, pick one up then flick it around like Zorro. Now, imagine that plugged in...
An angle grinder is useful for scooping out if you fit an Arbortech wood cutter blade. Make sure you get a grinder that's
light enough to hold in one hand.
The Dremel rotary tools are small enough to hold like a pen and get into the smallest recesses. Best used with a diamond cutter.
Most people already have an electric drill in their DIY box. Just get a selection of sanding discs and you're off.
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STONE
Stone carving also uses chisels, gouges and rifflers but they are much more robust, and nowhere near as sharp.
As with wood, there are lots of sizes and weights, so you need to ask a sculpture supply shop which would be appropriate for the stone you intend to work with.
You can use a metal covered dummy mallet (round), or a solid lump hammer (square), weighing 1-2lbs.
Soapstone is the softest stone, and can be carved with anything, a butter knife, a nail file etc.
Alabaster and serpentine are a bit harder so you need some actual stonemason tools, but in very light guages.
Marble is much harder, and so requires heavier guages, and the ultimate is Granite (as in "hard as granite.."), which really does need pneumatic power tools
and a lot of determination.
Apart from soapstone, you generally start off by removing a lot of stone with a lump hammer and a "point". Next, you pick up a "claw" chisel for a bit more accuracy,
then a flat chisel to remove the furrows left by the claw. Finally, use a riffler to remove the chisel marks.
All types of stone are finished off with wet-and-dry paper. Work your way through the grit grades eg. 125, 250, 400, 600, 800, 1200. At each stage you should change your water.
Finally, apply some stone polish to seal the surface.
Power tools can be used to speed things up, but watch out for the clouds of dust they throw up.
An angle grinder with a stone cutting disc can be used on most types of stone, but be sure to wear a decent respirator, one with exchangable filters, graded for dust.
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PLASTER and BREEZE BLOCKS
Again you can use chisels, gouges and rifflers, but dont use your expensive ones.
Also, you can raid your DIY box for hand saws, craft knives, surforms, and drill bits.
You REALLY dont want to breathe in concrete dust, so keep that respirator handy.
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