Carving

We had another day of lecture in Wood again. We learned about several different carving methods. There is the classic carving tools, adzes, and power tools as options.

Kestrel Adzes are made in Rock Island, Washington. They are an edge tool that is attached to a haft that places the edge of the tool at a 90 degree angle to the position of the hand. They are great at removing lots of material very quickly.

Pfeil chisels are the Ferrari of chisels. They are a high quality chisel that are worth every penny of their price. Not only will they last a life time if properly cared for, but they also can appreciate over the life of the tool.  Addis chisels are antique chisels that have lasted so long that you can basically classify them as indestructible when properly used. They however can only be found used from places like ebay or antique shops. Another antique in the same realm is Stanley everlasting chisels, which as described in their name are everlasting.

Power chisels such as the Automach chisel work like a traditional chisel mixed with a 10,000 oscillation per minute jack hammer that fits comfortable in the palm of your hand. They can accept a wide variety of chisel tips that eat away at the wood as if it was no more that butter. Although expensive they are not all that much more expensive than a full set of Pfeil chisels. There are also rotary tools like Dremels that can be used with a variety of bits at various speeds to produce all sorts of effects.

Stepping up to a more aggressive wood remover you have angle grinders. These are more often found in metal working sections but with the correct discs they can be used to remove large amounts of wood very fast. There are sanding discs that use very coarse sand paper to abrade the wood. There are carbide burs that remove even more material quickly. Arbortech makes a disc that has three very strong teeth that will remove even more material than the bur. Last of all there is a disc called Lancelot  that is basically a chainsaw on a grinding disc that removes as much wood as you want as fast as you want (sometimes a little too fast).

Then there is always the arena of just using a chainsaw by it self. Although this would be best left for very rough cuts or very large sculptures.

I may add more to the list of different wood removing tools as I start to learn how to carve. But for now I wanted to collect my thoughts and not forget any of the amazing tools that my professor presented to us today.