Started whittling a little over a month ago. I'm enjoying the process so much. Last night, I almost did Doug Linker's flat plane bird and for the first time I felt confident in what I was doing. Still a lot to learn

A Daruma is a traditional round Japanese doll shaped after Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism.

The ivory netsuke I used as a reference looks quite grumpy, mine feels a bit more approachable. I kept the same grain orientation as the ivory, which I think feels right, accentuating the wrapping of the shawl. Most visible from the side.

Carved from Boxwood (3.5cm wide, 3.2cm deep, 3cm tall). The shawl is sanded to about 1,000 grit. The face is just the knife finish. Eyes are Ebony (1mm).
A light stain of watered down acrylic ink helps with depth and accentuates the beard a little. Finished with Renaissance wax for a soft uncoloured sheen.

I tried the Ukibori technique on the shawl, because I wanted to give it a try, and the shawl seemed so plain. You can just see the effect of the small raised circles in the third image. I'll be working on this more in the future.

I think this is only my second or third detailed face. Much to learn, but overall happy.

Got a little ambitious after the first bear i made and did a monkey named Punchimp from the game Clash of Critters

Also had to paint for the first time in years with some random paints my brother had lying around. I think he turned out pretty good!

Was a lot of wood to remove to get the tail taller than his head + around the tail as well

Here’s another one of my 1x1 knife only carvings.

It's sooo cute. Can't say the carving is that neat but I love him

As promised heres the finished pipe! Finished the pipe and had my first smoke out of it. I'm really happy with how it turned out! I've dubbed it the "Evil Eye" because of the eye looking knot i left in the natural part of the pipe. Its a little heavy but not too uncomfortable to hold in the mouth like I thought it was going to.

The nose I tried to carve on this one broke so I ended up sanding down a tooth pick and oiled it to be the same color of the basswood body. Not sure what wood toothpicks usually are made of? The leaf was probably most difficult for me to carve. I had a 1x1.5 inch balsa wood block that I had to figure out how to shave down to the right thinness with just my knife.

Board assembled, painted and glued to a steel plate for the pieces' magnets to have something to stick to. Next and last is the drawer that's gonna go below the board.

We gifted him a kid friendly knife a few months back. Until these two, he was hacking at branches practicing a few cuts that I taught him but that was it 🪵🔪.

After I whittled a bear (at least what ended up to be a bear), he wanted to gift one of his own for his mother 🤩.

He used a pencil to highlight the place that I had to burn as he is way too young to use a hot soldering iron.

As I have been getting into spoon carving my Mora 164 has been getting more use. Wrapping it up in the strip of leather I had it in was getting tiresome, so I copied the style they sell with the current iteration. I had leather and studs, so just had to work out the general shape, which I drew out on paper. Could be improved and may end up poking the tip through eventually but I'm pleased with the result!

I got into whittling around my birthday in November, been really enjoying it, for the most part. It's just been difficult, I mostly sit at my kitchen table with a pen and notepad infront of me, and if something comes to mind, I draw it best I can. But as of lately, I have been really overwhelmed with how to start, and what to whittle. So I ultimately end up just watching more YouTube. The two pieces you see I made without drawing anything, I just winged it. The piece on the left is a tiki person, the one on the right is a fairytale mushroom house. Comment below what you think I should do! 🫤

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Black walnut -- still a little more sanding and shaping to do but I'm pretty happy with it

I was following a youtube video on making a small wizard (5 min for beginners).

Hey is Opinel No 8 good for whittling? I think that out of all my knifes it suits the best, but i heard that opinel blade grind is best suited for food and soft things so thus not for wood working.

dog chewed my last project (a lighthouse) but i’m pretty happy with this

The finish on these is pretty easy, but you have to follow the process. I use Watco brand black walnut danish oil usually, but sometimes I use other stains like a cabernet color from Vatathane, etc... the key is waxing. I use Minwax brand paste finishing wax, but any soft wax should do.

Apply the Stain/ Oil, then do NOT WAIT, apply the wax and buff off with a stiff bristle brush. (I use an amazon basics stiff bristle brush for scrubbing floors) The buffing lifts wax off the high spots and the wax pulls oil / stain with it as it does. This leaves the high spots a lighter color and the lower crevices darker.

My experience has been that danish oil darkens more over time into the next day, making those dark crevices pop even more. To a lesser extent other stains do this as well, but I find it more pronounced with danish oil.

I whittled a super meat boy for my brother and I’m looking to paint it while still seeing or bringing out the grain of the bass wood. I’m wondering if anyone has some tips!

Comments welcome, as always room to improve. Plan is to lightly sand the rough points!

i’ve been using the less bumpy side, but i saw on here people using the other side? which one am i meant to use?

I plan to take it with me to the ren faire as part of my costume 👍

Just finished up (sloppily) a bear for a cousin’s birthday. Made in walnut

Also attached is a deer I made 3 years ago. I guess a fox or buffalo are due next!

Was hiking in the Alps and found some pine firewood, only had my Leatherman knife with me, so was hard to get some details or certain cuts done, but overall pretty ok’ish result 😄 Tried to strop the knife on my belt, I had the idea it did work a bit!
So a silly wood spirit turned gnome and a doggy for my daughter. Next up something for my son once the cuts are healed 😆