This chapter discusses woodcarving techniques. It describes different types of carving like incised carving, chip carving, and relief carving. The tools used for carving are also explained, including gouges, chisels, veiner and vee tools. Proper wood holding and sharpening techniques are covered. Finally, suitable woods for carving are mentioned.

1. WOOD
MATERIALS TECHNOLOGY
4th Edition

2. Chapter 24
Carving and Shaping

3. WOODCARVING
Woodcarving can be defined as the craft
of shaping wood into a variety of shapes
Can be purely functional or decorative or
a combination of both.

4. Types of carving
 Incised carving:
 Cutting only the
outline of the design
with V gouge.
 Chip carving:
 Simple geometric
shapes repeated again
and again for desired
effect.

5. Types of carving
 Relief carving: this is when
the background is cut away
to raise the design and give
3d effect
 Sculpture – 3D carving

6. Transferring the design

7. Chip Carving

8. Relief carving:

10. WOODCARVING TOOLS
 Standard wood chisels and gouges can be used for
simple carvings, but special tools are used for more
complicated work.
 Different woodcarving tools are identified by
– Size in millimetres
– Cross section by number (known as sweep)
– Shape of blade (straight, curved, spoonbent,
backbent, fishtail)

11. Carving tools
 Gouges
− Making shallow
hollow cuts
− Grounding
− Cutting into outline
cuts

12. Carving tools
 Chisels
− Making precise cuts
− Outline cuts
− Creating detail

13. Carving tools
 Veiner
− Incised carving and
details
 Vee tool
− Incised carving and
details
− Deep vee-shaped cuts

14. Carving tools
 Carver’s mallet
− Tapping the
gouges and chisels
during carving
 Grounding punch
− Creating a textured
effect as background to
carvings

15. Sharpening
 The gouge is sharpened on
the sharpening stone with a
sweeping motion
 The burr inside the edge is
removed using a slipstone

16. Suitable woods
Light coloured wood
Dark coloured wood
Sycamore
Mahogany
Lime
Walnut
Pine

17. BASIC WOODCARVING
TECHNIQUES
When carving wood, it should be held
firmly in;
– A vice
– Secured to the bench with a g-clamp
– Held with a carver’s screw
– Held with a woodblock screwed or glued to
the workpiece

18. HOLDING WORK

19. Quiz

20.  Name the tool
− Carving gouge

21.  Name the type of carving
− Relief carving

22.  Name the type of carving
− Chip carving

23.  The top of this jewellery box has an incised carving of a ring.
Describe a tool used to carve the ring on the top of the box.
− Vee tool

24.  Describe how you would transfer the pattern onto the wood,
in preparation for carving
− The pattern is taped to
the wood
− A piece of carbon paper
is inserted underneath
the pattern
− Trace over the pattern
with a pencil
− Don’t miss any lines of
the pattern