My 8 Yr Old son wants ot learn Carving
Cincinnati
| Posted in Turning and Carving on
All you experienced carvers: My son wants to learn carving. I have never done any carving. Could someone recommend how to help him get started.
I went to a local Woodcraft store, and the manager recommended the protective glove and thumb protector and suggested using an X-Acto knife as a starter knife and boxwood. He also said there is a local carver’s group that meets there twice per month.
Replies
If he has no sculpting experience, might I suggest using clay. Clay is safer and offers the opportunity to work with many kinds of hand tools while he determines his likes/dislikes, frustrations, aptitude, etc.
What does he want to carve? A jack knife can be fun and relatively safe with some pointers about never cutting toward yourself etc.
A few gouges and mallet can be fun too and reasonably safe.
8 sounds just a bit young, but I suppose it depends on the particular kid.
It's great he's interested.
my grandpa started me with a bar of soap and a butter knife...
use that to teach proper technique and then move on to wood....
That's a great idea. What a good grandpa.
Box wood is very hard, not a good choice for a beginner. Look up soap carving on Google, it was very big during the depression, Ivory sponsored contests at one point. As to tools, look for these sets by Warren:
http://www.warrencutlery.com/indexb.htm
When I was 8 I was running my father's wood lathe with no problems, but then, my dad had taught me how to do it, and how to be safe, and was there watching me. My point - a boy of 8 is capable of the technical skills, but needs his dad's oversight.
I have gone to classes held by carvers groups and they are golden - you learn really fast. But as the dad of an 8 year old, I'd go, too, just to be sure of the safety factor that you, as his dad, can provide. Take the class with him - you might just love it as well - and you'll have something to talk about with your 8 year old.
Mike D - now a granddad.
P.S. - I'm sure that you know this already, but don't out do him at the carving.
Edited 3/8/2007 9:20 pm ET by Mike_D
I also started carving with soap, but bass wood isn't bad either if he wants to use wood. i would be really leary of using an exacto knife, especially for a beginner. carving puts a lot of odd stresses on a blade and an exacto blade is pretty brittle and could snap off. I would get him either a pocket knife or a chip style carving knife with a short stout blade, i had one of these when i was about 10 yrs old and still use it. they are pretty inexpensive too about 15 bucks, good luck, Dan.
I took my 9 year old boy to our local carving club's semi-annual carving day on Saturday. We both did the same project. It was a relief carving of a couple bear claws on a slab (1-1/2") of cottonwood bark. He did very well and he thoroughly enjoyed himself. I would recommend getting involved with your local carving club. They may have tools you can try to see if it is something he really wants to continue with.
He did a soap carving project for Cub Scouts and I thought that was a dangerous operation. Stop cuts were made, but did not stop the blade as intended because the soap was so soft. Also the knife blade got gummed up with soap goo.
See if you can find a copy of Swedish Carving Techniques by Wille Sundqvist. It's out of print but you may find remaindered, used or at the library. It will teach you more than you thought possible about techniques and tools. And you will make useful things like spoons and ladles for mom instead of boots and bears.My only regret is I didn't buy all 12 copies that Woodcraft had for $2 each so I could sell them now for $75.
I'm sure the fellow at Woodcraft meant to say Basswood rather than boxwood. Boxwood is hard as H&!!. Basswood is a good wood for beginning carvers (I say that being a beginner myself). I'm currently teaching my 5 year old some basic woodworking skills. The first lesson is always safety and if I see him doing something he's been instructed not to do, it's time to put the tools away. One thing to remember is that youngsters can get quite enthusiastic when they're building things and, in their excitement, tend to forget the lessons we've taught them. Especially where safety is concerned.
Thanks bignat. I have never used boxwood, but when I picked up a piece, I knew it was definitely not the next step above balsa wood in density. I will look for basswood.
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