Everything You Need To Know About Woodcarving Tools
Jessica Cortez 3/7
Carving Gouge Set
Carving gouges are chisels with curved blades, good for carving concave shapes or removing slivers without creating raised “shelves” on either side of each stroke. This is a common problem for beginners while whittling or using straight chisels.
Carving gouges can be used with hands only, or with a mallet for more aggressive, less detailed work. At $120, this 12-piece set is fantastic for beginner woodcarvers. It comes with nine gouges of various widths and curvatures, plus a flat chisel, skew chisel and V-tool. (More on those later.)
4/7
Straight Chisel Set
Straight chisels are a woodcarving mainstay. In my experience, it pays to own a large set.
Straight chisels of various widths and bevel angles are good for shaving off thin slivers, defining straight rectangular parts and carving pockets and openings for interlocking components. I rarely tackle a carving project without reaching for my straight chisel set at some point.
This versatile, well-made 10-piece set comes with a nice box. It contains chisels of various widths, ranging from two inches down to 1/4-inch.
5/7
Skew Chisel
Skew chisels are similar to straight chisels, only with slanted blades. They’re usually beveled from both sides rather than just one.
Most often used for woodturning on a lathe, skew chisels are handy for delicately “planing” bits of wood off your project, and can double as an effective chip carving knife.
As a beginner woodcarver, you probably won’t need skew chisels often, which is why the gouge set mentioned above makes sense. It comes with one medium width (8-mm) skew chisel, so when you need one, you have it!