Wood Carving Tools in Springfield, MA

Chisels and Gouges

• The tools used most often for carving wood are chisels and gouges made with various shaped tips. High-speed steel grinds easily by hand or on a bench grinder. Woodworkers often shape these tools by hand to custom desired shapes. When the tool becomes dull from use, gouges and chisels are easy to sharpen back to a fine cutting edge. Chisels and gouges are used to carve by hand, or as the cutter for a lathe. These tools are shaped into points, flat-edge chisels, square and half-round gouges. Each shape creates a distinctive reveal into a wood project.

Power Tools

• Modern woodcarvers' shops perform much of the detail work by hand. However stock wood pieces are still cut, milled and shaped by modern power tools before they are detailed by hand. For the woodcarver, the most valuable tools in the shop are a lathe, router and all-purpose 10-inch table saw. In the hands of a skilled woodcarver, these tools can perform almost any task. The table saw cuts wood pieces to the specified sizes and creates intricate wood joints. A router cuts decorative edges onto square wood boards, and a lathe turns square wood stock into rounded pillars, bowls or columns used as furniture legs on colonial and Victorian furniture.

Draw Knives

• A draw knife is an antique tool still used by modern woodcarving craftsmen. A long metal knife, similar to a barber's flat razor, is made with handles on both sides. The knives are 6 to 8 inches long, constructed from heavy, unbending steel and sharpened to a razor's fine edge. The draw knife is used to remove imperfections from the flat surface of a board. Unlike sandpaper, it leaves a smooth, almost polished surface.

Block Planes

• A Massachusetts woodcarver's shop is not complete without an adjustable block plane. Colonial settlers hand carved these tools from a solid block of wood. Today, block planes are usually made from metal so the blade can be adjusted at various angles and depths. Block planes are used to shape the edges of wood boards, and to shave off small amounts of wood to make pieces of a project fit together. If a wood cabinet door doesn't fit perfectly into the cabinet door opening, a plane is used to reshape the door and remove a little width or height.