Wrapping up my Whittling!

December 10, 2024 0 By Peter Shoobert

As this semester comes to a close it is time that I wrap up my Learning Project that I have been working on for the past few months. If you are not aware I was learning how to whittle/carve. I ordered a small carving kit of BeaverCraft tools and wood blocks to get my journey started. I began this journey with no prior experience or knowledge, just a big interest in the craft because of YouTube videos that had been recommended to me. With this assignment I had the perfect reason to order this kit and learn this skill. At first I was just interested and probably would have never seriously learned how, but this assignment pushed me to learn how to carve which I am super grateful for.

As I talk about each week I will include the link for each original post. If you think you might find it interesting, go check it out!

Week 1 – Whittle Me This!

The first week I shared why I wanted to learn carving. All my life I have been a builder. As I grew up I went through phases of Lego to figurines to bigger projects as I got older. For the last few years, my friends and I have been building many things together like tables, chairs, and a shed that we all share and use together. Since I have been watching many woodworking videos to help with construction of some of these projects I was often recommended carving and whittling videos. This inspired me to give it a try. I always found it interesting and finally had a reason to seriously dive into it with this Learning Project!

Week 2 – First Whittling Project

This week I tried my very first project! SPOILER: It was not very good. Of course, I did not expect a masterpiece, but I did not expect it to be so difficult. I tried to carve a simple garden gnome which now I am confident I could do a much better job, but for a first time project it was very humbling. Since it was my first attempt at anything I was bound to run into plenty of issues and mistakes. My biggest issue for this one was cutting too much wood off. This led to a disproportionate shape and scraggly attempts to even out other sides, leading to more wacky shapes. By the end of everything I had carved too much wood off each section that you could not see much detail, just a very rough shape. All in all, it was not horrible for a very first attempt. It showed me humility and that the learning journey ahead would not be an easy one. I also carved a tiny little heart for my girlfriend which she loved, so this week was still a huge success!

           

Key Takeaways:

  • Carving is much harder than I thought
  • Don’t carve too much wood off; You can’t get it back

Week 3 – Wood Fox

On the third week I learned from a new source on YouTube which I found to be very easy to learn from. The creator was Carving is Fun. Their entire channel is directed to helping beginners get into carving. They have many videos about where to start, how to use certain tools, how to maintain tools, and tips/tricks of making wood carving easier. The video I watched demonstrated how to whittle a simple fox. This video was very clear in how to make each cut and in what order. Having a set system and plan makes the carve so much easier. This project went much smoother than week 2 and I am certain that is because of the design of the video I learned from. It over explained everything to make sure the viewer understood what was trying to be said. It also helped that this week I was very careful to not carve too much wood off. This made the project take much longer than it probably needed to, but it turned out very nice in the end so I have no complaints. I learned to be patient and trust the process. I should not be in a rush to get the final product but rather enjoy each cut along the way to get there.

   

Key Takeaways:

  • Be patient!!
  • Plan ahead and draw out what cut you will be making

Week 4 – Carving a Wooden Flower and the Struggles of Video Editing

On week 4  I learned how to carve a wooden flower and also learned to use the video editing app WeVideo. This week was a frustrating one for all the wrong reasons I feel. It was difficult because of technical difficulties with using the WeVideo app. Carving the flower pot was very enjoyable. The video was easy to follow and it helped me learn new skills. It was my first time working on something that had many curves to it. The petals of the flower were difficult to start, but not as frightening at the end. The project had me better equipped to deal with curved edges when carving with wood. All of the projects I had done up to this point were not curved, or at least not so curved in a tiny space. I had to make small sharp curved cuts to get the proper look I was going for. This took a while, but I loved the challenge as I could feel myself getting better A bonus, my girlfriend loved the flower, I gifted it to her for her birthday. The frustrating part about this week was creating the video. Using the WeVideo program seems easy enough until you actually get to using the tools. The cropping and clipping of clips is easy, but the audio and saving of the video was terrible. The voiceover tool – the main reason I wanted to use this app – bugged out so much that half of my voice recording disappeared. After countless retakes they still would not stay. I tried retaking the audio, shortening the clips, you name it, and it still did not work. Finally, I went to save the video and was hit with a paywall. To save the video in a resolution higher than 480p I had to subscribe to their premium plan. There were no free trials so I was stuck with a pixelated, bad audio version of what should have been a good video.

Key Takeaways:

  • Making small, curved cuts on wood
  • Do NOT use WeVideo

Week 5 – Whittling Wizard

On week 5 I learned how to carve a wizard. This was sort of a redemption project from the very first gnome I did. It was not the exact same, but the hat and face of this wizard reminded me of that first gnome. I really wanted to tackle this one as I thought it would be a good way to measure my progress after a month. The video this week was great to learn from. I learned many new skills and strengthened skills I had already. The wizard challenged me to work on carving a face, something I had lots of difficulty with before. As I carved with this video I found the explanations to be so much better. I started to understand how to carve faces and what is important about detailing them. I learned that I needed to start cutting more wood off at a time. This was conflicting with how I had been carving before. I was carving in a way of not taking much off to make sure I did not mess up. This way led to a lack of definition in different sections. By having harsher cuts you are able to see the difference in sections, giving it the appearance I was looking for. This week I tried to find the balance in between doing too much and too little. Mastering that would be the key to increasing my carving ability. At the end, the wizard looked so much better than the first gnome I did in week 2. Already I can feel that I have gotten better. I was more comfortable working with faces and pieces with smaller details. The wizard did not look as good as the one in the video, but I am okay with that! I am more focused on comparing myself to myself and making sure I am personally getting better. I do not care if I am at someone else’s level.

Key Takeaways:

  • Carving cheeks and chin of a face
  • Carving in noses and eyes
  • Find the balance between taking too much and too little wood off

Week 6 – En Garde! – Wooden Sword

On week 6 I learned how to carve a sword. I had the urge to make one, so I was set on that being my project for this week. For all of the projects I had completed thus far I used small wood blocks or sticks. Unfortunately all of the sources online about making a wood sword are all about making a life-size wooden sword. This was not what I was looking for so I had to freestyle here a bit. What I did find was a video on making a big sword out of a plank so I followed this video as a guideline of which part of the sword to do first. I found this to be super helpful actually as I was not just mimicking what someone else was doing, but applying what I have learned so far to complete this project. Once I thought I was finished I was not very happy with how it looked. This was because the blade of the sword was round and dull. All of the past projects I had tried to make everything as smooth as can be so it looks ‘the nicest’. That Ideology ruined this project, so I had to change that. I went back into the sword and attacked the blade with long, intense cuts. This made it looks a million times better. The blade looked sharp and pointy. This helped me understand the balance between too smooth and too sharp, too little and too much. Its not that there is a sweet spot in the middle where you need to be all the time. You need to be able to go between all points of the spectrum to get the design you imagine. This sword helped me access smooth carving and sharp carving. I smoothed carved the handle and sharp carved the blade. This boosted my super journey.

Key Takeaways:

  • It’s okay to take off too much sometimes
  • there is no balance between too much and too little. All points within this need to be accessible

Week 7 – Wooden Unilateral Bear

On week 7 I decided to carve a bear out of a stick I gathered from my backyard. This project was  fun one and introduced me to a new concept: Blending the natural wood and sections that are carved to compliment each other. What I really liked about this project is the way the stick I had became a big part of the carve. Before, I would use a stick, peel the bark and get the wood inside. I always took the bark off, thinking it was just getting in the way This project taught me that I can incorporate the stick and its bark into complimenting the project. To complete this project I carved out the top half of the stick to transform it into a bear. Leaving the bottom half untouched, I could make it so the bear was sitting on top of a wood log. It was difficult to blend these together, but eventually I got it so the bear had its paws on top of the log. It may not seem significant, but this changed how I started to look at my carving projects. Also while doing this project, I snapped off one of the bear’s ears, hence the unilateral bear. As I was shaping the top of the head, I caught into the wood grain and chipped off part of the ear. I tried to salvage it, but it was too far gone so I had to take it all off.

Key Takeaways:

  • Stop carving into the wood grain – this avoids chipping
  • Incorporating the natural form of wood to enhance the project

Week 8 –  Winter Whittling

On week 8 I decided to carve an evergreen tree. As snow was falling I was getting into the Christmas spirit and when I think of Christmas I think of big evergreen trees with fluffy snow pillows on them. I wanted to create this, but was running real low on wood, so I went to Rona and bought a 4 foot long wooden dowel that I could section off for a bunch of projects. This evergreen tree proved to be the hardest carve I had done so far because of two things: The wood was super hard and my knives were super dull. I managed to get a very rough shape of the evergreen tree and had to stop there. I had blisters on my thumbs from over exerting my knife into the wood and I had cuts on my fingers from ejecting the knife out of the super hard wood. It felt more dangerous than beneficial to continue with this project so I got it to a point where I seriously could not go on and stopped. I understood that I needed some sharper knives so that I could make cuts without straining myself so much. I really like what the project can be and I will for sure revisit it at another time.

Key Takeaways:

  • Softness of the wood makes a huge difference
  • Sharpness of your knives must be sharp

Week 9 – Sharper is Safer!

On week 9 I decided to sharpen my knives. In response to last weeks fail I knew I had to sharpen my knives and use softer wood. This week wasn’t as entertaining or satisfying as prior ones simply because it was lots of grunt work. I had bought a sharpening stone from Canadian tire and ordered a leather strop to get my knives razor sharp. After wetting the stone I was able to sharpen both of my blades. This was an easy process, but one I had to stay focused on or I else I risked ruining the edge of the blade. From the videos I watched the most important thing to focus on while sharpening was control over the angle of the blade. If I had lots of pressure with a bad angle it would dull the blade! It took lots of focus and strokes on the sharpening stone, but it was worth it as you could visually see it get sharper. I also tested them on some scrap wood which it went through like butter. Unfortunately, the leather strop did not come in the mail in time for this week so I was unable to use that. Good news is it came in time for next week, so I still got to use it before the next project.

Key Takeaways:

  • Sharper is Safer!
  • Control of the blade is more important than pressure while sharpening

Week 10 – Stick to Sculpture – Wooden Tiki

On week 10 I decided carve a tiki out of a stick. As this was the last project I wanted to make it include all of the things that I had learned this far. Honestly, I am so happy with how this one turned out. I think its the perfect one to end on as it showcases improvement in lots of the things I struggled with. First of all, the tiki is a face sculpture and those have shown to be very difficult to me. Second, it has curved cuts, straight cuts, deep cuts, and shallow cuts. Third, It is made out of a stick so I was able to incorporate the bark into this project. The face features were the biggest worry for me going into this project. As I had previously messed them up twice before, I figured third times the charm…and it was! It was easy for me to separate the mouth from the eyes and nose. Part of this is because the face is more abstract, but nonetheless still a face. The curved cuts at the top of the forehead were not as big of a challenge because of the flower pot from week 4. the shallow, definition cuts, were not as big of a challenge because of the wizard project from week 5. The deep cuts were not as big of a challenge because of the wood fox from week 3. Finally I was really able to incorporate the bark of the stick to amplify the appeal of the project, thanks to the bear from week 7. All of the things I had learned through the semester had let to this point and the individual skills allowed me to complete this final carve to the best of  my ability. It showcases how much I have improved from those very first projects.

Key Takeaways:

  • I have improved since we started at the beginning of the semester
  • I won’t stop carving now that this class is over!

 

I wish that there were more sources to learn from than just YouTube but all online sources involving carving that I found went this route. Even If I found a blog it would have a link to a YouTube video that explains how to do the carve. I did learn from different channels and that was for sure a different experience. Some channels just wanted you to watch them do it and some wanted to teach you how to do it. It was very apparent which was which. Although all of the videos I watch were labelled as tutorials, some of them did not explain any of the process at all. Some of them didn’t even speak! They just recorded the carve so you can see and nothing more. I see this only being helpful to people with experience already. People with experience would be able to pick up on things that non-experienced people could not. For the sake of learning, the channels that discussed every motion they were doing were so much more helpful. The way I would put it is like this: The videos that had no audio were good for practice – strengthening already known skills – and the videos with audio were great for developing new skills and becoming a better carver.

Overall I feel much more confident in my abilities as a carver. The progression of skill is apparent if you look at the first project I did to the last. They are two different projects yet they are very similar in ways. They both have defined features of a face even if the styles are slightly different. You can see in the first project how I barely managed to get a nose onto the face of the gnome. On the Tiki you can clearly see where the nose, eyes, mouth, teeth, and forehead are. Not only that, but it looks much cleaner too! The cuts are clean and purposeful. I am nowhere near the skill on an expert, however it is clear to me that I have gotten better at carving throughout the semester. I do not plan to stop now. If you recall from my very first learning project post I said that I love to build and I have for my entire life. With this new skill I feel that I have found a more creative way to work with wood and enhance big projects I make in the future. What I envision is combining this new skill of carving with wood working that I have already been doing to create items – like chairs or tables – and carve immersive and funky designs into them.

Thank you all for tuning into my learning project!!