How To Carve A Simple Woodspirit Face: Part 1

This woodspirit is a great first carving project for the beginning woodcarver and can be considered as an entry-level into faces. I've been using this simple and basic woodspirit face for many years as a teaching
tool for helping the students in my woodshop class learn the elements of carving their own.

After presenting some basic information on the different types of cuts most students can use one of my woodspirit learning sticks and do a fairly good job. If you decide to give it a try don't expect to have a masterpiece on the first few attempts. when I first started carving faces in wood I wasn't satisfied until about my 30th one!

Carving faces takes a lot of time, patience, and practice. Study peoples faces while you are at work, at home, or at play and try to understand how all the parts fit together. As I mentioned in the video first carve the nose and the eyes, then base everything else around that and you will be well on your way.

The woodspirit produced in this video was carved from a 1" X 1" piece of basswood. Perhaps in another video I will demonstrate how I carve a woodspirit with more detail such as raised eyebrows, eyes, teeth, tongues, and a variety of emotion and facial expressions. However it is
very important that you first become comfortable with carving this very basic face then you should challenge yourself to the next level. Learning how to finish the face with stain or paint washes is another skill to achieve that is equal by comparison to learning to carve.

In the video I used the "Carvin' Jack" knife made by Flexcut and I just can't say enough good things about it. I'm also planning to do a full review video on it in the near future so please stay tuned.

As always, never-ever compromise your safety. When carving always wear a glove on the non-carving hand and be sure that it's made from a high quality cut resistant material such as Kevlar. If your project is'nt clamped or held secure on a table with a vise then be sure to use a lap board to protect your legs. (A piece of 1/2" plyboard will work.) Above all be patient and never-ever force your knife. Learn to be safe and carve your project one thin slice at a time until you achieve the correct depth. If you've never had any carving experience then I would strongly suggest that you seek personal instruction from a professional carver
and/or study carving manuals such as the Boy Scout Woodcarving merit badge booklet.

Be safe and have fun!

This video is also being used as part of blog entry at my blog:
http://woodtrails.blogspot.com

Music "Double Blues" is royalty free and courtesy of Jason Shaw
http://www.youtube.com/user/audionautix#p/

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• woodcarving
• woodspirit
• greenman
• craft
• wood

[HillsnHollers446]

I'm using the Carvin' Jack made by Flexcut. It's a fairly complete carving set all in the form of a pocketknife making it very convenient to carve far back in the woods, like where I filmed this video.

[HillsnHollers446]

Good ole southern basswood.

[TheNightwolf741]

Awesome!!!!

[ShabahSaz02]

What is this multi-tool you have there? Where did you get it??

[cyclingbenjy1]

This is a top video! Very informative and helpful, could you tell me if you are using a right or left handed carving jack? I have been using only one knife and i think its time for an upgrade.

[jacks99ify]

what wood is that :)

[marioelectrico]

l like your tool, where did you get?

[NYmosVids]

lots of info, thank you. where can i get kits? if you could direct me somewhere, that wouldbe great, thanks

[TheQooper]

Thank you so much I originally carved soap because it is so soft but now that I carve wood it is a lot more interesting thank you for the great videos!

[deadhead1338]

Fantastic Video! I bought a decent set of tools and used this as my first project. I have a small camping group of friends and family. With the help of your video, and three of my nephews carved woodspirits. One of my nephews had some carving experience, the rest of us had none. I was astonished by how well they turned out. I will send you pictures if you are interested. Thank you very much for the video!

[leonardodalongisland]

Dave would you reccomend thi stool for sculpting a piece on a tree?

[turntup101]

what kinda wood do you use in this?