Post #660482 by PockyTiki on Mon, Dec 3, 2012 3:50 PM

well....no blood yet, but it is my first foray into carving wood! Hopefully it's as easy as carving on a skateboard! After 6-ish years of drooling over beautiful carvings by various TC members, I said "what the hell...might as well!" So I picked up 2 different sets at Home Depot, 1 set w/ 3 chisels ranging from 1/2" to 1", the other set with smaller, more detailed-oriented gouges and such. Picked up a piece of scrap wood and started widdling away at it, and that's when I realized that I'm probably not using a good "beginners wood" (is there such a thing? From my small amount of research, I'm guessing I shoulda gone with basswood or pine since it's so abundant here!). Here's a pic of what I've been attempting to have a go at.

Be gentle, I'm a total newcomer to this glorious realm of wood. I decided a moai would be a step in the right direction, however I've been running into splintering and peeling. I found the easiest instruments to work with so far have been a hook knife (of all things) and a scoop chisel that came with one of the two sets.

Any tips/advice/slander that you deem relevant and helpful I welcome with open arms as I'd like to move to even bigger and better woods and carving styles. Also keep in mind that I'm used to 2D images. I'm an illustrator and designer by trade so these 3D objects are foreign to me.