Let’s Create a Practice Stick
Learning the 5 Basic Cuts of Wood Carving is essential to every carving you’ll make from day one. When you first set out to start wood carving you’ll need to learn a few skills with your knife. Today, we are going to discuss the 5 Basic Cuts of Wood Carving you need to master to create your first carving. Remember to always practice safety when wood carving and wear your safety glove. To learn more about wood carving safety check out our post on wood carving safety here.
We’re going to start with a Practice stick. A practice stick can be any size of basswood or even a scrap that you have left over. The practice stick will also be something you can use when learning how to do different variations of eyes, ears, nose or mouth. Grab your practice stick and let’s learn the 5 basic cuts of wood carving.
The 5 Basic Cuts of Wood Carving
The Push Cut
This cut will be one of the most used cuts in carving. Place your thumb from the opposite side hand on the back of the blade or thumb from your hand holding the knife. Using your wrist gently push the knife through the wood. Start on one of the corners on your practice stick. If your knife is sharp you should slide right through the wood like butter.
If a chunk of the wood breaks of before you reach the end, turn your practice stick around and cut through in the opposite direction.
The Stop Cut
This cut is used in conjunction with the push cut and is also one of the most widely used cuts in wood carving. Start by laying the blade edge of the knife on the corner of your practice stick and rock the knife back and forth while using the thumb from your opposite hand to sink the blade down into the wood. Now using the push cut slice in towards the bottom of the stop cut until a little piece pops out.
This will be the cut you use when creating a nose. To make the cut deeper push the knife deeper in and repeat the push cut until you achieve your desired depth. Repeat this process all the way down your practice stick. You should now have a series of stop cuts all the way down your practice stick.
The V-Cut
Make a stop cut as you did previously by rocking the blade into the corner of your practice stick. Now continue with the push cut to the bottom of your stop cut and chip out the slice. Turn your wood around make another push cut to the bottom of your stop cut and chip out the slice.
Now you just created the V-Cut, continue to make V-Cuts down your whole practice stick. Try to space them evenly all the way down.
The Pairing Cut
The pairing cut is similar to peeling an apple as you are pulling the knife towards your thumb. Start on the last clean corner of your practice stick. Place your thumb on the end of your wood and gently pull the edge of the knife towards your thumb. The pairing cut used in conjunction with your push cut is how you will create a roundness to your carving.
The Chip or Triangle Cut
The chip cut is used to create depth and shadows in your carving and is another important cut. Start by drawing some different size triangles on the smooth side of your practice stick. Now stick the tip of your knife in at the corner of one of the triangles and cut down to the other corner. Repeat this on the opposite side of the triangle. Starting at the bottom of your triangle, take the tip of your knife and use a push cut at an angle to the point where the previous two cuts were made and a chip should pop out.
This is probably the most complicated cuts to master but keep practicing on the rest of the triangles you made. You may have to slice in again to get the chip to pop out. You should have a three dimensional look in your chip cut with the bottom of the cut higher than the point of the triangle. I hope this makes sense this cut is a little hard to explain.
Practice, Practice, Practice Sticks
We’re glad you decided to take up the beautiful art of wood carving with us. Remember to practice safety when wood carving and always use a sharp knife. A sharp knife is actually safer than a dull knife.
Stay tuned as we have some GREAT things to come on this website. We have also created a Youtube channel called Basswood Carving to accompany all of the content we are adding, so be sure to subscribe to both our website and the Basswood Carving Youtube channel. Checkout the 5 Basic Cuts of Wood Carving video.
Happy Carving
Carver Guy