Crafting Secrets

Get a Step-by-Step Guide for Craft Projects For Any Age And Ability, Made EASY 101 Easy Craft Project Ideas.. -Let me know how you like it.

Alvin Starkman  M.A., LL.B.  

 

Try searching the Americas to find creators of folk art with more form, symbolism and importance to the development and sustenance of their culture, than those of indigenous ancestry in Oaxaca (wa–HAW–ka), one of the southernmost Mexican states.

 

Many so-called experts in folk art have mistakenly written that the origins of Oaxaca’s wood carving tradition date back fifty or sixty years, to a small number of carvers residing in one of the central valleys of Oaxaca, a few miles from the state capital of the same name.  The error has consistently been equating the recent commercialization of the art-form with its origins, and ignoring its pre-Hispanic roots and subsequent development.

 

Jacobo Ángeles lives with his wife María and two children in San Martín Tilcajete, one of three main native Zapotec villages, where most residents earn a living from carving and painting colorful figures, often generically referred to as alebrijes.  The others are Arrazola and La Unión Tejalapan.

 

At age 12 Jacobo began learning to carve from his father.  Later on he was mentored by village elders.  “Over the past few decades our craft has without a doubt changed dramatically,” Jacobo explains, “with the use of more synthetic paints, a tremendous increase in the range of figures being carved, and with domestic and international demand for our carvings growing exponentially and affecting how and what we produce.  But remember, my ancestors were carving animals right here in this region before the Spanish arrived in the 1500’s.  And we were using only natural paint colors which we derived from fruits and vegetables, plants and tree bark, clay, and even insects.  In my family we still use what we find around us to make paint for our figures, and our wood of choice continues to be the branches of the copal tree.”

 

San Martín Tilcajete is located about a 40 minute drive from the city of Oaxaca, along a highway leading to the state’s Pacific resort towns, including one of the oldest ports, Puerto Escondido.  Puerto Escondido was a hub for the export of coffee and other cash crops during colonial times, but is now a popular beach destination for Mexican and international vacationers alike.  Many travelers combine their sun and sand vacation with a visit to Oaxaca, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, searching out unique pieces of folk art including dance masks, pottery and clay figures, rugs and tapestries, and antiques from the colonial period forward.  And of course there are the pre-Hispanic ruins, galleries, impressive Dominican churches, museums, and renowned Oaxacan cuisine.

 

“My ancestors used a 20-day calendar,” Jacobo continues, “and each day was represented by a different creature.  So every Zapotec person had an animal with whom he had a connection, and each animal had certain characteristics which carried over to the individual.  For example, the jaguar represents power and ultimate strength, the frog is characterized by honesty and openness, the coyote watchful observation, the turtle always a troublemaker prone to breaking the rules, the eagle technical and strategic power, and so on.  My people used to carve figures of just these 20 animals.  They started out as small whittlings for good luck that people would keep in a revered niche in the home, or wear around the neck as amulets.  They also carved larger figures for their children to use as toys.”

 

After much probing, an almost forgotten story emerges of the use of decoys of wood and other materials.   Jacobo reveals:  “My people used a variety of methods to attract different kinds of game, but for hunting birds of prey, rabbits, and deer, yes they at times used decoys.  A painted wooden snake would be placed on the ground in an area where ants had trampled the grasses so the snake decoy would easily be seen by eagles.  To hunt rabbit, my ancestors would attach a rabbit tail to one end of a straw hat, and at the other end another tail with a face painted on it.  For deer, a crude wooden deer torso with real antlers would be placed in the tall brush.  So carving was historically important to our people for not only totemic and related reasons, but it was directly related to our subsistence.  All the written records from the period of the conquest, and not just local legend, confirm the importance of woodcarving.”

 

“But look at what we now carve.  While in my family we still use natural paints, and still carve our totems, we’ve transformed a simple yet important and symbolic tradition into something very different.  In our villages we now carve many more than those 20 animals because of collector demand.  More importantly, we’re able to make our heritage better understood and appreciated by the world.  In our own workshop, our painting depicts designs and representations of our culture … friezes from the ancient ruin at Mitla, symbols representing waves, mountains and fertility, the totems, and other metaphors for our culture, past and present.”

 

Indeed the world has taken notice.   Jacobo’s work is prominently displayed in The Smithsonian Institute, Chicago’s National Museum of Mexican Art, and elsewhere throughout the continent and further abroad, in museums, art colleges and galleries.  Jacobo regularly traverses the U.S. promoting Oaxacan folk art and his Zapotec heritage, teaching in a diversity of educational venues ranging from junior schools to university departments of fine art, and as honored speaker at art exhibition openings.

 

                                      ********************

 

A visit to the Ángeles workshop, accessed by a heavily pot-holed narrow dirt road towards one end of the village, affords an opportunity to learn about this extraordinary skill-set, from Jacobo, Maria — an excellent painter in her own right — and some two dozen other members of their family who produce some of the finest quality carvings found anywhere on the continent.

 

The men do most of the carving, while women do most of the painting, but the tasks are definitely not exclusively based on gender lines. Carving is done with non – mechanical hand-tools such as machetes, chisels and knives.  The only time a more sophisticated tool is used is when a chain saw is employed to cut off a branch and level a base for a proposed figure.

 

Except when a special order is received, the woodworkers in the family are given artistic license to carve whatever figure they wish.  A piece of tree trunk will “speak” to one of these specialists, and be the inspiration for creating a particular animal: the shape, thickness, and bends and twists in the piece come alive.  After the bark is removed, a detailed outline is drawn, defining the image with greater clarity and detail.  The sculpting in earnest then begins.   

 

“From the female copal tree we are able to make figures out of one piece of wood, often very large and intricate.  This wood is soft and easy to work with.  The male tree is harder, and branches tend to be smaller and somewhat delicate, so we use it to make animals which we assemble in the process.”

 

The carving alone takes up to a month, at times longer.  The figure is then left to dry for up to 10 months, depending on its overall size and thickness.  Because of the properties of copal, and Oaxaca’s semi-tropical climate, the wood is susceptible to termite infestation.  Accordingly, during the drying process the piece is soaked in a gasoline / insecticide mixture for several hours.  As an added assurance, it’s then placed in an oven, just in case eggs have evaded extermination.  “All of our pieces are guaranteed to never have a termite problem,” Jacobo assures.

 

Since the figures are fashioned while the wood is green and more easily workable, the wood separates while drying. “There are a couple of members of my family whose main job is to fill the cracks before the painting begins.”  For this remedial work they use wood shims as well as a sawdust-glue mixture.  But even these slivers of wood and the sawdust have been cured.  “We’re proud of our work, and never want to have any problems with any of our buyers, whether someone is spending $20 or $2,000.”

 

In almost all cases in the Ángeles workshop, one person carves and another paints.  Once a figure has left the hands of the carver, all proprietary rights are released, and another member of the family is entrusted with the painting.  Nephew Magdaleno explains:  “Occasionally one of my cousins will come up to me and say ‘what do you think about these colors or this kind of design concept for this coyote,’ and I’ll give my feedback, but it doesn’t happen very often, and I’m invariably pleased with the result.  For me it’s the form that’s most important, and for whoever’s painting, it’s the imagery it captures.”

 

One cannot help but gasp at the sculpting genius which goes into each piece:  A starving dog scratching fleas, a bear with its paw in a honey pot, a snake constricting a wincing jaguar, a winged horse on its hinds, a woman with long braided locks and the body of an armadillo, or a deer, life-size by Mexican standards.  There’s something particularly arresting about each creation: the ever-so-flowing and realistic movement, a fanciful stance, or a familiar pose striking a chord with our popular characterization.  However the painting is anything but familiar.  No color goes untested and the intricacy of and variation in design is remarkable.

 

Theories abound regarding the beginning of the modern-day manifestation of the tradition.  Some say that because hallucinogenic mushrooms are native to this part of Mexico, drug induced revelations caused the imaginations of some to wander, ultimately becoming expressed in their carvings.  The better explanation is that knowledge of colorful, large, papier maché alebrijes or dragon-like forms which originated in the State of Mexico, eventually filtered down to Oaxaca, and were the inspiration for the fathers of contemporary painted wooden carvings.  “You know, it’s not accurate to refer to what we create as alebrijes, because to the older generation of Mexicans, and to true folk art collectors, alebrijes were developed near D.F. (Distrito Federal, or Mexico City, the nation’s capital), and what we do is completely different.”

 

Jacobo demonstrates how his ancestors created natural paints, historically utilized for dying clothing, painting buildings, and ceremonially as face and body decoration used for rites of passage, fiestas, prayer and other important occasions.  Today their primary use, at least in Jacobo’s family, is for painting the carvings.  He explains with the assistance of his machete and a tree trunk how he cuts away the reddish inside part of the bark of the male copal, allows it to dry, then toasts and grinds it:  “This is a primary base that we use, which allows us to create a range of colors, tones and shades. Just watch.”

 

Using his hands as palettes, Jacobo begins by placing a small amount of the powdered bark in one hand, squeezes juice from a lime, creating a brown, which he then places on an unpainted wooden owl.  “Yes the owl is also one of our sacred creatures, the great healer, quiet and humble.”  He reveals:  “Now over time, and in the sun, this color will change or fade and be absorbed into the wood.  So what our ancestors learned to do was take the dried sap from the copal tree and heat it up with honey.  The resulting liquid is then mixed with the paint, changing the color a little; see, it becomes a deep orange … but most importantly it acts as a mordent making the color permanent, and a little shiny.” He adds powdered limestone, and the color changes to black.  With the addition of baking soda and more lime juice it becomes a deep yellow, and with more chemical it miraculously becomes magenta.  A new base is then started, with crushed pomegranate seeds.  Magically the pulverized pink is transformed into green with the addition of limestone powder. Mixed with the magenta, it becomes navy blue. With the addition of zinc it becomes grey, and with more zinc, white.  Blue from the añil tree, indigo, is altered with the addition of bicarbonate, zinc, lime juice or the powdered lime mineral.  Corn mold, a black gooey culinary delicacy known as huitlacoche, when fermented and then powdered, yields ochre.  The red of the dried and then crushed minute insect, the cochineal, which feeds off its host nopal cactus, becomes orange with the addition of the juice of any of a number of acidic fruits. 

 

The demonstration terminates with Jacobo asking, “what´s your favorite animal,” following which he finger paints a rabbit from the rainbow of colors on his palms, as only Alice could have imagined. 

 

                                      ******************

 

With approximately 150 families now producing painted wooden figures in these and a couple of other smaller villages, the questions left unanswered remain:  What facilitated and drove more carvers to adopt the papier maché style of using brilliant color combinations, and how can everyone in these villages make a living from this solitary art-form?

 

As with other crafts in the central valleys of Oaxaca, their production wasn’t always the primary means of sustenance for the populace.  Traditionally, handicrafts were a hobby or part-time trade, beginning with very few items being sold to the odd passerby, adventurer or traveler.  In the case of rugs from nearby Teotitlán del Valle, there were trade routes that producers followed in order to effect more sales in other regions of the state, and in some cases beyond.  But the primary means of family survival was working the land and small-scale ranching.  And in the case of the carving villages, there never was a broader market, although in San Martín Tilcajete embroidered shirts, blouses and dresses were an extremely well-received craft throughout the 1960’s and into the 80’s.  

 

Dramatic change in production and marketing of wooden carvings had its genesis in the 1940’s.  The pan-American highway cut through the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains, reaching Oaxaca, opening up the region to the north, in particular Mexico City and the border states.  Until then Oaxaca was relatively isolated notwithstanding a rail connection. By the 1950’s and early 60’s Americans and Canadians were prospering from the post-war boom, credit cards had been mailed to virtually everyone, and word spread of a new kind of vacation, in a third world country, Mexico.  Jet air travel facilitated the transformation.  The women’s movement meant more two income families, resulting in more disposable income for traveling.  Mexicana Airlines and Oaxacan travel agents partnered to begin offering tour packages, which further facilitated tourism to the region.

 

The hippie movement of the 1960’s and early 70’s brought Oaxaca to the forefront of the alternative lifestyle, with throngs of youth and their pop idols traveling to Huautla de Jiménez, then a tiny Oaxacan village, to eat hallucinogenic mushrooms with the now infamous healer María Sabina.  North American youth saw and purchased the first generation of contemporary wood carvings. 

 

By the 1980’s, as a consequence of multiple factors, Oaxacan alebrijes had become well-established as folk art, with the market continuing to grow. The economic implication was that farmers and ranchers were able to spend more time carving and painting, and less time in the countryside and in marketplaces vending their produce and animals.   With a new toll-road opening from Mexico City to Oaxaca in 1995, access to the southern state became even quicker and easier, and safe. In good conscience, travel writers were no longer able to warn tourists about driving the switchbacks, back-road banditos, or cars overheating on secondary roads without service stations.

 

The future market for the artistry?   While the odd visitor to a Oaxacan coastal resort such as Puerto Escondido, or the more popular Huatulco, does visit the state capital and the workshops of carvers like Jacobo, most do not.  Within the next four years a new highway to the coast will open, cutting road travel time by at least a third.  Even more sun worshipers will visit Oaxaca, and marvel at the art of Jacobo and María Ángeles. 

 

Since opening their family workshop in 1996, without a doubt Jacobo and María have singularly raised the quality bar for other villagers who aspire to mirror their success.  With Oaxacan wood carvings of superior quality now well established on the world stage, and access no longer an impediment, the challenge for others in San Martín Tilcajete will be to achieve the success of the Ángeles family through production of like quality, until now eluding most.

 

A challenge for all carvers in the region is to ensure a continuous supply of copal to meet demand.  A reforestation project spear-headed about 15 years ago by the late master of contemporary Mexican art, Rodolfo Morales, continues through his Foundation.  The Ángeles family with friends and other villagers spend the last Sunday of each July, in the midst of the rainy season, planting, a part of their sustainable living effort:  ensuring an ongoing supply of raw product, cutting only branches for making figures so that the tree continues to grow, reducing waste by utilizing the slivers and sawdust in repair work and any remaining twigs and branches as firewood for cooking, and using the sap and bark in paint production.  “And you know,” Jacobo reminds, “for generations we’ve been using the hardened sap as incense, mainly at religious cememonies.  There are even knifemakers down the road in Ocotlán, who engrave their hand-forged blades using a special ink made with the sap.  Have you visited the cuchillería of Ángel Aguilar?”

 

For high end collectors, we can only encourage the success of all efforts aimed at maintaining the growth and development of the Oaxacan woodcarving tradition, since it satisfies and advances our penchant for and obsession with quality hand-fashioned craftsmanship.  For the artisans in the region, aside from the obvious economic importance, it’s part of maintaining their Zapotec heritage and illustrating the richness of the culture to the broader world.  

 

The workshop of Jacobo and María Ángeles is located at Calle Olvido #9, San Martín Tilcajete, Ocotlán, Oaxaca  ( t:   951-524-9047 ;  w:  http://www.tilcajete.org  ;  e:  angeles@tilcajete.org ).

 

Originally Khokhloma wood tableware were produced in monasteries and for the czar court only. At that time Khokhloma tableware production was not large scale. It was because of expensive imported tin. In 1720s after the end of the North War tin flow to Russian increased. The price went down and the material came within reach of many masters. The production and the sales of brightly painted hand made art works expanded.

Thus in the XIX century items with khokhloma painting were famous not only in Russia but in Persia, India, Middle East, the USA and Australia as well. The export of khokhloma items grew after the worldwide exhibition in 1889 in Paris.

In 1916 Nizhegorodskoye Zemstvo established the first School for Wood-Working Arts and Crafts in Semyonov. The folk arts and folklore flourished in Volga region near Nizhny Novgorod province. No other territory in Russia could equal it in the number and originality of the folk arts and crafts that had sprang to life and were developed in the local communities. The Khokhloma art painting on wooden tableware is the type of Nizhny Novgorod folk art craft that became most popular in Russia and foreign countries.

The “grass-leaves” decorative ornaments and their peculiar color scheme suggest that the Khokhloma art is rooted in the ancient Russian decorative culture while the imitation of gilt ornaments on wood dates back to the medieval Russian handicraft skills. The painting technique has been somewhat upgraded but remains essentially the same as in the ancient time.
Khokhloma russian painting amazes you with its delicate grass pattern and festive coloring, which is based on combination of scarlet cinnabar and flittering gold against the black lacquer background. This is Khokhloma specific feature. Masters used tin powder and lacquer to obtain such gold color. Now they use aluminum powder.

First, the art tableware are shaped on a lathe from the dried lime wood, which are turned into bowls, vases, mugs, dishes and spoons.

They are dried and covered with red and brown primer, so that they start looking like earthen. The unpainted articles are now coated with drying oil. Next they are polished with powdered aluminium. They become dull shining, like silver, and go to the painting division. Painted articles are then varnished and hardened in ovens at the temperature of 120-130 degrees. The heat turns the varnish yellow, the “silver” into “gold” and mellows the vivid design with an even, golden tone.

The Khokhloma dishes, cups and wooden drink pots were used for serving food at holiday feasts. The wooden tableware using at the Moscow house of an important statesman had to look valuable; accordingly, they were modeled on the rich painted plates decorated with real golden fabricated by the jewelers for the luxurious homes of the Russian nobility. Thanks to the special varnish and high-temperature processing they are quite practical and safe in use. You can drink and eat using these Khokhloma tableware, because such wares not sensitive to cold and hot, salty and sour food.

Apart from Khokhloma wood presents of tableware most visitors to Russia will have at least one set of Matrioshka dolls in their luggage. These dolls within dolls have long been a source of fascination. The undoing of the main doll to reveal others almost ad-in-finitem has always produced wonderment and appreciation for the woodcrafts art.

Examples of beautiful Khokhloma wood art presents, Paleh and Mstera lacquered miniatures you can look at art store online site. It is amazing that what started out as a true folk tradition over 300 years ago is still thriving and remains basically true to it’s roots, albeit on a more organized scale.

Do you want to work on a woodworking project? Introducing – Teds Woodworking package! This package includes over sixteen thousand woodworking plans with step by step and easy to follow instructions. With this package, you will get 16,000 step by step woodworking plans, blueprints, and materials list. This package will make woodworking seem like a breeze. The plans are so easy to follow that it doesn’t matter what your skill level is. They are designed to get the job done quickly, inexpensively, and with professional results every time. You will even get three time-limited bonuses for free!

Click Here For Teds Woodworking Instant Access Now!

The first bonus is a DWG/CAD Plan Viewer software, which is useful as it allows you to edit, modify, or even create your own woodworking plans. With this software, you can view and measure DWG, DXF, and DWF. It is simple to use, and it lets you create your own custom woodworking projects. The plans and the software will save you hundreds of dollars on advice that ends up not helping you at all.

The second bonus is a series of 150 Premium Woodworking Videos, which you will get a lifetime membership access to. These videos cover a wide array of woodworking topics hosted by veteran woodworkers. From these videos, you will learn how to build a bird feeder with step by step instructions. You will learn how to build a gazebo, lean-to sheds, and outdoor furniture. You will find a six-day outdoor shed complete video guide, as well as videos on building custom furniture, chairs, and tables for your home.

Finally, the last bonus is a number of Complete Woodworking Carpentry Guides that include over 200 pages of woodworking tips and tricks with detailed drawings, diagrams, and photos. The guides cover all the bases, from working with hand tools to cutting dovetails.

Teds Woodworking: Your number one woodworking resource.

Click Here For Teds Woodworking Instant Access Now!

Do you want to work on a woodworking project? Introducing – Teds Woodworking package! This package includes over sixteen thousand woodworking plans with step by step and easy to follow instructions. With this package, you will get 16,000 step by step woodworking plans, blueprints, and materials list. This package will make woodworking seem like a breeze. The plans are so easy to follow that it doesn’t matter what your skill level is. They are designed to get the job done quickly, inexpensively, and with professional results every time. You will even get three time-limited bonuses for free!

Click Here For Teds Woodworking Instant Access Now!

The first bonus is a DWG/CAD Plan Viewer software, which is useful as it allows you to edit, modify, or even create your own woodworking plans. With this software, you can view and measure DWG, DXF, and DWF. It is simple to use, and it lets you create your own custom woodworking projects. The plans and the software will save you hundreds of dollars on advice that ends up not helping you at all.

The second bonus is a series of 150 Premium Woodworking Videos, which you will get a lifetime membership access to. These videos cover a wide array of woodworking topics hosted by veteran woodworkers. From these videos, you will learn how to build a bird feeder with step by step instructions. You will learn how to build a gazebo, lean-to sheds, and outdoor furniture. You will find a six-day outdoor shed complete video guide, as well as videos on building custom furniture, chairs, and tables for your home.

Finally, the last bonus is a number of Complete Woodworking Carpentry Guides that include over 200 pages of woodworking tips and tricks with detailed drawings, diagrams, and photos. The guides cover all the bases, from working with hand tools to cutting dovetails.

Teds Woodworking: Your number one woodworking resource.

Click Here For Teds Woodworking Instant Access Now!

Custom is linked to the words convention, aid, legacy and system. In the world of custom wood parts, this purely means that these items complete the make-up of a specific furniture or fixture in the home. These are essential in industries tailoring these essential pieces of the home. The greatest fans of custom wood parts are producers concentrating on the furniture business, displays, crafts, store fixtures, military parts, gifts and educational testing gadgets.

Elaborating on purposes of custom wood pieces

People presently on home expansion projects see the real significance of custom wood parts. Custom wood suppliers assist these persons in the purchase. Looking into the numerous purposes of this company, one will gain the following:

Learning about the column. A column is an vertical support to the abode and is compared to the shape of a elongated cylinder. Some of the largely well-known ones are Corinthian columns and Mount Vernon white colums. More individuals have also recognized the essence of bamboo columns.

A Focus on block tops. These custom wood parts application provide a lot of application. Famous additions on the catalog are kitchen counter tops and study tables.

Corbels. These are supporting brackets typically seen on walls. They sustain a structure found above them.

Knobs. These are very famous components of a door. But of course, drawers and even appliances get help from these components as well. They usually as a handle, a dial or even a switch.

On-lays. These are special custom wood parts used to embellish a surface to add beauty and use to the object.

Apart from these examples, there are more than hundreds of products making use of custom wood parts. If you are a client looking for these products, you basically have to detail what you want from the product. It is best that if you are searching for one, chat with your provider about it.

If you’re going to be a wood carver and not just a whittler, you’ll need to select a number of tools. There’s just no way around it. So what are the right tools for wood carving?

Tools for Sharpening. Before the carving tools, it seems appropriate that tools for sharpening them should come first. After all, if they aren’t sharp, what’s the use? You’ll drive yourself mad.

At the very minimum, you should have a sharpening stone and a strop. The sharpening stone is used to get your edges to sharpness. Many sharpening stones come in different shapes and in different sizes. Some are very accommodating to the typically short blade lengths of wood carving blade edges. There are diamond coated slipstones that work very well to sharpen an edge. Some sharpening stones can even be found on a key chain or as small as a credit card. So very convenient.

A well-sharpened edge will have a burr and micro-bits of metal still clinging to it. A strop can easily remove all of these. This is very important in wood carving. Anything added to the edge will only slow your progress. You’ve got to get everything off. If you prefer, you could use a honing compound or a honing board to smooth out your edges.

If you’re really serious about becoming a wood carver, it is highly recommended that you learn how to sharpen and strop a knife. Once you’ve learned that, you’ll also be able to sharpen most other carving edges. When it comes to wood carving, you always want smooth sharp edges. They determine your efficiency. When you can achieve them, you’ll be worlds ahead of the rest. No kidding.

Tools for Shaping. Each type of carving tool that is meant to shape wood has a specific function. At the very minimum, you should have carving knives, wood chisels, wood gouges, wood rasps and rifflers, a mallet and maybe even a power drill.

?Carving knives. This is your most basic of all carving tools and there are many kinds. There are straight-edged knives, skewed knives, bent knives, chip knives, detail knives, special pocket knives modified for carving and folding knives with lockable blades. And these aren’t all of them. There are even micro-knives or micro-tool kits, if you’d like.

It’s a matter of functionality. Each edge is target specific. When you’ve learned what each type of knife can do, and you’ve considered the carving project ahead of you, then you’ll know which knives are best for that job. The best knives used for one specific task may not be the same knives that are best for another. That’s why you’ve got choices.

?Wood chisels. Chisels can be found with a bevel on only one side of the edge or they can be found with a double-sided beveled edge. The head may be slanted or square in shape. They may even be bent forward or backward. You’ll have quite a selection.

?Wood gouges. You’ll find yourself using these tools all the time in wood carving. There are many shapes and sizes. Some are very short and stout while others extend for a few inches with an extended blade edge. You’ll probably end up with several kinds. That’s not a problem. Surely, you’ll use each one at some time or another.

?Wood Rasps or Riffler files. It’s easy to get confused when you’re shopping around for these tools. Not all merchants agree. Really. Some stores call it a rasp, others will call it a riffler. And yet another will call it a rasp riffler. How to know, how to know. Well, the majority of merchants appear to agree that a rasp is a very coarse, straight file. The tool itself may be thick and rectangular like a sharpening file but don’t be surprised to find those that are slender with a curving head, looking just like a riffler.

Rifflers, on the other hand, are usually slender with a curved head. Many times these curved heads can be found on both ends of the riffler. You can even find kits that offer you different shaped heads and at different sizes.

?Mallets. These little hammers are invaluable in the right circumstance. They are a must for chip carving, relief carving and intaglio carving. (What am I saying?) Mallets are a must for all wood carving. You may need just a few millimeters off of here and no more, maybe add a little notch there, an indent over here, maybe create a shadow. It really is such a valuable tool.

?Power tools. There are some pretty nice power tools for wood carving. There are power drills, rotor saw burrs, power chisels and mini grinders. You can even find power carving kits. There’s even a wood carver’s kit that offers its own selection of power grinders.

These tools are quite extraordinary in how much time and labor they can save wood carvers. Many consider them only for life-size or extremely large carvings. It’s all up to the carver. Hey, how about a carving created entirely by power tools? (… Wonder how big that’d be.)

Tools for Sanding and Smoothing. When all the wood carving and shaping is done, you’ll want to sand and smooth all surfaces. This is an important step that precedes any painting or varnishing. In doing so, you’ll remove any remains from any previous finishing process and you’ll also prepare the wood to bond with any non-penetrating chemicals. Sanding can be done using sand paper, sanding clothes or sanding sticks.

?Sanding is often accomplished using sand paper. There are many grades, from very, very coarse to very, very fine. There’s quite a selection. Something very similar to this is the defuzzing pad. It does as it sounds. It removes all fuzz still clinging to the wood surface.

?There are sanding clothes that come in a roll and are available in varying grit sizes. Sections may be cut from the roll and rolled or folded as you wish. Best thing is, you don’t have to worry about it cracking or falling apart on you.

?Sanding sticks may also be found in varying grit sizes. You can also find sanding stick kits or sanding detail kits that can remove glue or minute remains of your finishing products. Mini-belt sanding sticks or sanding belts may be used for large sanding jobs.

Wood carving is an amazing craft to develop. You could use just a handful of tools and work with small projects. Or you could use a bunch of tools, including power tools, to work on really large projects. Either way, it’s very relaxing, oftentimes exhilarating and extremely satisfying. Have fun!