5 Ways to Whittle Faster - Whittling and Wood Carving Tips and Tricks for Beginners

If you are new to whittling and wood carving, you may feel like the entire process is slow and you are becoming impatient.

In this video you will learn some quick and handy tips and tricks to help speed up the carving process and make you a better carver!

00:18 - Use thinner knives
01:27 - Take advantage of the wood grain
02:28 - Smart planning
04:31 - Use pre cut wood blanks and roughouts
05:38 - Other wood carving tools
08:49 - Bonus tip!

If you want to send me an individual card I'm missing, check out this page to see what I'm missing:

[Baskl]

I think the tip of planning your drawings so you are cutting mostly the corners will be very helpful. I have been finding that the hardest parts for me are when i am struggling to cut a bigger portion out and the flat parts are extremely tough to get through.

[grayhatjen]

I was just talking to someone yesterday who was talking about trying their hand a woodworking. I mentioned that I randomly decided to start whittling a couple of months ago and how YouTube has a ton of great tutorials (you and Doug Linker were two of the first ones I thought of). This will be perfect to share with her!

[pokegirl]

I'm glad these videos exist, and I'll likely binge them over these next few days. I inherited all of my grandfather's woodcarving tools and want to make use of them but I had no idea where to start.

[bobski]

I have been gifted 3 basic carving tools from the year 1945 it is been made. Going to make a nice leather tool holder for these gems now I know how to use it😊.

[HandyHelons]

I really appreciate how carefully you explain things.
So easy to understand and follow.
Thank you!

[michaelbereny]

Thank you, that was some great information for a person like me who has been carving for a couple of months

[fngrusty]

Nice, took me a long time to learn those tricks. The thinner knife is one of the best things you can help with and OCC is making an inexpensive one. Thank well done

[uncleyetti]

Dang, the ease of each stroke, jealous. clearly I need some sharp knives, orrr maybe use something other than a couple of old pocket knives lol. Informative video, nice work!

[thomaschainey]

Great video, thanks.

Thanks for all the great tips.

In Boy Scouts and bushcraft skills, they have a thing call a try stick.

A stick that you whittle with all the different notches and cuts to practice and learn from.

Maybe this is done or could be done for practice and learning in woodcraft knife carving / chisel sculptures all cuts put on a big board. Call it a try board rather than a try stick.

Having a board like this to copy for practice wood carving and wood sculpting would be awesome or even just a video of a board to copy and start practicing making the different types of cuts.

The board in the video could have each of the names of the cuts, and possibly with the tool number that made the cut listed next to the cut would be awesome.

A reference of carving and sculpting cuts with name and tool used would speed up the learning and knowledge process.

I guess someone already has put this in a book, and I am going to check.

I may already have a book like this, but I have not finished reading them all and most my learning so far has been online, mostly just on YouTube.

Having all the cuts in one place in a row to compare to each other and then practicing in a row on my own boards seems like a fun way to practice. Knowing the cuts and tools needed to finish a project helps you when you may not know the right cuts available to complete the easiest, safest, and more ettecient way.

The same board is done with rope displaying knots. A knot board has a bunch of different types of knots tied from rope cut out and individually nailed on a board for examples to learn from.

Then, someone can look at a knot, learn name, and try to tie it with a rope to practice.

I would like to make a sculpture one day mounted on a chip carving board with every chip wood carving and chisel cut example and the sculpture rising up with every carving and chisel cut example with a few try sticks with all the notch and cut examples.

With all the cut examples having their individual names displayed on it. Maybe extra large sculpture so it is easy to see the details and differences in the cuts.

The sculpture could and / or would use different types of wood examples incorporated in the sculpture.

The pieces all carved separately then essembald together so its easy to carve and move.

This idea is for anyone who has a interest to make it.

[charlesstewart]

Thanks for the tips, whether I need to remove lots of wood or small amounts of wood, its always helpful to have advice from someone that knows thier subject. You obviously know yours, I'm listening to what you suggest and I'm feeling safe and more confident everytime I do another of the same carving, I will get better, maybe if I click my heels together it might work, eh🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿😂🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🧙‍♂️

[glensiu]

Thanks for the carving basic, I just getting into wood carving, I look forward to your other videos

[adammaxwell]

I just got my whittling set as thought it would be a really good hobby to learn however I have noticed I don’t have a clue what I am doing! If there is any tips that you have that could help me I would be much appreciated thanks very much and I find your videos very interesting and fun to watch so keep it up man!

[robertcutburth]

You can also precut on a band saw if one is available, I do that a lot, good video keep up the good work.

[dusty]

I was thinking "why the extra tape around the thumb?"
After roughly 20-30 mins of carving with a regular leatherman (i work with what i have on me most of the time) i had a open blister that covered a big part of my left thumb. Silly me, i'll be more careful next time.

[Lauren-ktsp]

may i ask where did you get the wood? basswood, right? some basswoods i bought from store are very hard to cut… i made sure to keep my knives sharpened but it’s incredibly frustrating to cut hardwood when it’s supposed to be softwood

[alex]

Great information and video. I'm shopping for a helvie knife and most of the online stores are out of stock. Do you know where can I get one and also for the woods. Thank you.

[cowboycody]

I like that tip that has to do with the bird.

[broken]

Great Video and excellent edit!
I'm out here whittling Mushrooms with my Victorinox.
🍄

[wolfbrother]

I'm trying to carve the comfort bird from beavercraft and I'm having issues with removing wood smoothly, I have to push very hard for veery little removal, my knife is sharp and I'm going with the grain, does anyone have any tips?

[michaelmajor]

Do you show how to sharpen your knife? I have a old timer pocket knife