Learn to carve—or improve your wood carving skills—
with step-by-step tutorials
We remove the guesswork so you can focus
on perfecting your carving.
Whether you’re new to wood carving—or you’ve been carving for a while—we know how important it is to “get a project right” and complete a job “well done” that you can be proud of.
When we started carving, we noticed that many tutorials require the use of a band saw, a gazillion gouges (or other tools), and are missing crucial steps. Our tutorials feature free, full-color patterns that give you the option of creating a carving with—or without—a band saw.
The majority of our tutorials are created with just a knife or two, but we often also mention where other tools can be used. This makes our wood carving tutorials perfect for both beginners and more advanced wood carvers.
Say goodbye to guessing
Trying to figure a project out without clear directions is downright frustrating. Another let down is the lack of pictures of a work-in-progress from all angles.
Our step-by-step tutorials provide tons of pictures from many angles so you never have to guess what your carving should look like from beginning to end.
Free painting guides too
Our handy painting guides include specific acrylic paint colors and whether we use a wash (diluted with water) or not.
This allows you to easily replicate any colors that you like with any of our carving and whittling projects.
Also, check out our comprehensive page on painting a wood carving.
Helping you improve your carving
The best way to improve your carving is to practice, practice, and practice!
Every time you carve you will learn something new about the ways you can manipulate wood to get the shapes you desire.
Our fun things to carve page is a great place to get started.
Also check out our sections on wood carving caricatures and flat plane carving for helpful tips, new techniques, and easy-to-follow tutorials.
While you're here, join our free Covered in Chips Club to receive a free gift and to get tips that are exclusive to our club members.
Tools we use and love”Thank you for your newsletter and website. I do the newsletter for Montana State Woodcarvers and am always looking for information to put in the newsletter.” EM
Why do many of our tutorials use small wood carving blocks?
- We want to be able to design, carve, and create new tutorials for you as fast as we can.
- We love the simplicity of using a small block and a knife or two.
- Carving small blocks makes it easy to carve on the go where you work or where you travel.
- Practicing on small blocks can help you enhance your wood carving skills for much larger projects.
- You can get a lot more carvings for the money that you spend on wood.
- There is less wood to remove, which preserves the health (and comfort) of your hands.
- Small blocks don’t take up too much room, giving you more room to display your carvings.
- It’s super fun to see how much detail you can pack into a small carving ( a lot!).
- It is a great starting point if you want to eventually design your own wood carving projects.
Of course, you can always easily double (or triple) the dimensions of any of our patterns to create a larger carving.
Making wood carving addictively fun
There are so many benefits of wood carving that we want to help you experience, including:
- Relaxing, unwinding, and getting away from daily stresses
- Unleashing your creativity
- Learning new skills that will help make you a better carver
- Challenging yourself to work on more advanced projects, or perhaps designing your own
- Making one-of-a-kind gifts that will be treasured by everyone
- Sharing this amazing hobby with your children, other family members, or friends
- Showing off your wonderful creations to others. Please send us your pictures!
Stick with it
Persistence is just as important as practicing.
If your mindset is to become a great carver you will be!
If you are new to carving, check out our how to hand carve wood section that includes a beginner's guide to wood carving, the basic wood carving cuts that you will need, and much more.
Helping you enjoy the process
It’s easy to get lost in a wood carving and drive yourself to finish quickly.
Try to get in the habit of slowing the process down and taking frequent breaks.
Your hands will stay fresh and you may come back with a different point of view.
Our goal is to teach you to trust the process. When you do, everything will fall into place.
Encouraging you to learn from mistakes
We will help you see that every mistake is a learning opportunity.
Never give up!
Simply look at your creation and see what new direction you can take.
You may end up with an even better carving.
We will also help you learn how to think a carving through, which will help you come up with cool designs on your own.
Avoid common mistakesCelebrating your progress
We strongly suggest that you hold on to all your carvings.
It will help you see where you started and how far you have progressed.
In a short time, you will be amazed at the improvement.
Some of our early carvingsIndulging your obsession
We love collecting great knives and other carving tools and we’re happy to share our honest opinions with you.
What you will not find on our website is lots of spammy product suggestions.
We endorse something because we have used it ourselves—and absolutely love it—or we know someone we respect who loves It.
Just to let you know… We do participate in the Amazon affiliates program. We make a few pennies if you purchase products we recommend—at no cost to you.
Thanks for your support!
We love our portable lapshop!Let’s get carving together
Grab some wood, a sharp knife, and let those chips fly!
We hope you will share your creations with us. We really want to see your successes.
Most recent articles:
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Cute Caveman Caricature Carving
This caveman caricature carving is super fun to carve with this step by step tutorial with tons of progress photos. -
Simple Wood Whittling Tutorial
Simple wood whittling project to carve a fun crooked little house from a block of wood with just a knife. -
Simple Seal Wood Carving Tutorial With Just A Knife
This seal wood carving tutorial is fun and easy to carve with our step by step tutorial.
Some terrific knives I love!
The knives pictured below are easy to use and hold an edge extremely well. They are also very sturdy, which is awesome for beginner wood carvers. The FC001 is a great all-around carving knife. The FC016 is my go-to for making clean pyramid cuts with ease. I use the FC015 when I need to remove a lot of wood without too much effort. Lots of great wood carvers on Instagram use them. They are also readily available, which is a plus these days. Check ‘em out! Every purchase you make via these affiliate links helps support this website. Thank you! 😀
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