Woodcarving is the act of creating figures or designs in wood by cutting or chiseling. Woodcarving is both a hobby and an art form. Some carving is performed on machines with cutters mounted on high-speed spindles. This article describes woodcarving by hand.
Most woodcarving is done with chisels of various sizes and shapes. Chisels have flat cutting edges. Other tools called gouges, have cutting edges that vary in shape from almost flat to deeply U-shaped. Parting tools have V-shaped cutting edges.
Woodcarvers can use a variety of methods. In chip carving, they cut patterns or designs into a wooden surface by removing small triangular slices of wood with a chisel or a knife or both. In line or scratch carving, carvers cut lines into the wood with a U-shaped gouge or a V-shaped parting tool. In relief carving, woodcarvers cut background wood away, leaving designs that project from the surface, which looks three-dimensional. Another woodcarving technique, carving in the round, involves making a free-standing object that can be viewed from any side, such as a statue or a bowl.
A number of woodcarvers have gained fame as artists. One of the best known was Grinling Gibbons, who worked in England during the late 1600’s and early 1700’s. Gibbons carved many beautiful interior decorations for chapels and libraries. Wilhelm Schimmel was a noted American woodcarver of the 1800’s. Schimmel, a wandering folk artist, became especially famous for his crudely carved figures of eagles.
