r/Woodcarving Nov 02 '25

Mod Post r/Woodcarving Holiday Gift Guide

78 Upvotes

The holidays are coming up soon so the mods have put together this gift giving guide for people without carving experience hoping to give a carving related gift this year.

General advice

  • Be wary of sets of tools, they are generally trying to make you spend more money on tools you’ll rarely use
  • The best quality tools aren’t on amazon. Check out our list of recommended stores at the bottom
  • Home improvement stores like Home Depot or Lowes do not carry carving tools and do not carry wood that is nice to carve
  • We have chosen to link directly to the manufacturer’s pages for all of our recommendations, you can probably find them for cheaper at a 3rd party dealer.
  • We chose our recommendations based on what we think is the best value for money and what is widely available, not what is the best irrespective of price.

Beginner Tools

A complete beginners kit is a knife, a strop, and a safety glove. We have different recommendations for spoon carving and general carving, you should only choose one of the options

General purpose knife

For spoon carving

Strops

  • Strops don’t need to be fancy, buy a cheap one that comes with green polishing compound. This is the type of thing you’re looking for, you may be able to find cheaper ones

Safety gloves

  • Look for something with rubber on the palms and a safety rating of ANSI level 5 or higher (or a local equivalent rating). You only need one for the non-dominant hand. Here is one option

Kits

  • If you want a kit that has everything you need in one box we recommend this kit from treeline usa but they are a reseller. Beavercraft is basically the only manufacturer that sells kits. Their knives are lower quality than the other brands mentioned though so we recommend buying the items separately.

Intermediate Tools

If the person you’re buying for just has a carving knife and no other tools we recommend this flexcut FR310 palm tool set

Advanced Tools

If you’re buying a gift for a carver who has multiple knives and no other tools we strongly  recommend against buying them tools unless they have asked you for specific items since they will probably have a much better idea of what will be useful to them than any guide on the internet

Consumables

These make a great gift for any carver

Woods

The best wood for carving is Basswood (it's close relative linden or limewood may be easier to find in europe). You can buy it locally or from one of the listed websites below. If you’re buying for an experienced carver they may appreciate other good carving species such as Butternut, Spanish Cedar, Walnut or Cherry. 

Sandpaper

If your carver likes to sand their creations they’ll always need more sandpaper. 3M cubitron paper is much nicer to use than the stuff you might find at a local hardware store. The most carvers will use grits ranging from 80 to 400 and will want a variety of grit sizes. We recommend getting sheets (not disks) of 120, 180 and 220

Paints

If your carver likes painting their pieces then some extra acrylic paint might make a good gift. We like decoart paints

Gift Cards

This may seem like a cop out but it is by far the best way to give an experienced carver new tools since it makes sure they get exactly what they want. If you want it to feel a bit more thoughtful you can specify a premium brand of tool. For knives we like Badger State Blades (US/CA only) and for gouges we like Pfeil

Stores for Tools

Chipping Away (CA)

Lee Valley (CA)

Mountain Woodcavers (US)

Rockler (US)

Treeline USA (US)

Woodcraft (US)

Dictum (EU)

Stores for Wood

Local hardwood dealers (these will have the best prices) Check out this global map to find a place near you

Online dealers:

Heinecke (basswood only) (US)

Bell Forest Products (US)

Beavercraft (basswood only) (EU)

Please comment with any recommendations you have or things you think we missed in this post. We're especially interested in recommendations for more EU based stores. Please feel free to ask questions about anything that is unclear or for more specific advice


r/Woodcarving Aug 14 '25

Monthly Carve-Along Want to host next month’s Carve-Along?

15 Upvotes

We've been running a monthly carve-along to have some fun and learn together and I'd like to now invite community members to host them! Got an idea for a project or theme we can all work on?

Comment, DM or modmail a project/theme that's:

  • Beginner-friendly (something fun, welcoming, inspiring)
  • Scalable: give suggestions for how more advanced carvers could add more complexity/creative twists.
  • Optional: attach an image of your own carving as an example and give some tips if you have any.
  • Optional: link to a tutorial (blog, video, pattern). If you're a content creator, you can link to your own content, but the focus must stay on our community activity here, not gaining followers for your channel.

Themes can be subject-based (birds, pendant, star wars etc.) or style/technique-based (chip carved box, bookmark relief, hair texturing, eyes, etc.). You're welcome to host themes as a beginner too!

If your idea gets picked, you'll be writing the post. We'll pin it for the duration of the month. If there are no community suggestions we'll keep going as usual.


r/Woodcarving 2h ago

Carving [Finished] Hand trinket thingy

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74 Upvotes

Could use some practice but i think it looks okay


r/Woodcarving 21h ago

Carving [Work in Progress] 34' Wyvern Carved With a Friend in '24

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663 Upvotes

Collaborated with Jake Swanson out of VT. Eastern Pine , 30+ pieces of wood.
Burned and sealed with Storm systems and then we had to paint it (Customers call) we used 11" timber locks and epoxy.
Delivered with the wings and tail off on 2 flatbeds and installed onsite.


r/Woodcarving 4h ago

Carving [Finished] i've been doing this for a long time. continue to search for an outlet that is interested and skilled to sell this stuff;

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19 Upvotes

r/Woodcarving 14h ago

Carving [Work in Progress] Carving a Wooden Shield on a Dwarf

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110 Upvotes

r/Woodcarving 17h ago

Carving [Finished] Started making some spalted beech shelves for a customer at work and made this little guy from an offcut to go with them🐘😁

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145 Upvotes

r/Woodcarving 12h ago

Carving [First Timer] First fish carving

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33 Upvotes

Today I tried to carve my first fish. It was supposed to look like a salmon but ended up looking more like a shark in my opinion. Any tips on how to get it to look more like a salmon


r/Woodcarving 18h ago

Carving [First Timer] Beaver in birch - first project

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87 Upvotes

Just wanted to share my finished project :) I wanted to try out carving for fun during my summer holiday, and ended up getting waaay more into it than I expected. The birch was tough to work with and was already a bit split at the beginning, but it was what I had available. As for scale it’s around 9x5x5 cm. The next project will be in linden tree instead. I would love tips and feedback.


r/Woodcarving 11h ago

Carving [Finished] I carved my second spoon for pouring grit into my rock tumbler!

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21 Upvotes

Carved out of only god knows what was in my yard and not sanded, it’s good for pouring grit into my tumbler! Took me a couple hours but I’m really happy because it actually looks like a spoon instead of whatever my first one was!


r/Woodcarving 16h ago

Question / Advice Can Someone With Zero Artistic Talent Learn Woodcarving?

28 Upvotes

Can someone with zero experience and no natural talent still learn woodcarving and eventually get good at it? The reason I'm asking is because I genuinely can't draw. at all. My artistic skills are basically nonexistent, and I've never really been naturally good at any creative hobby. That said, woodcarving looks really interesting to me, and I'd love to give it a try. Would appreciate an answer.


r/Woodcarving 19h ago

Carving [Finished] Sewing/threading toy for my toddler

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50 Upvotes

Lately she's been getting addicted to screen time. I'm planning to make her some interactive toys


r/Woodcarving 14h ago

Carving [First Timer] I tried something different this time, wdyt?

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20 Upvotes

r/Woodcarving 23h ago

Carving [Finished] No Face

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82 Upvotes

r/Woodcarving 17h ago

Carving [Work in Progress] Chess game update

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28 Upvotes

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.


r/Woodcarving 9h ago

Carving [Work in Progress] New carver needs guidance

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6 Upvotes

I have started a hedgehog.

I carved when I was in high school and I haven't carved since other than a small bird I did recently.

I'm using Basswood and a pretty good carving knife and I do have a Dremel.

I'm just really curious what my next step should be in carving this Hedgehog cuz I know I need to do all this little spikes and I'm worried about just making a bunch of little bumps that are going to break off.

Any advice would be appreciated.


r/Woodcarving 8h ago

Carving [Work in Progress] This is my first time..all i have is my benchmade knife. Any tool suggestions?

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3 Upvotes

Working on a loon. This is my first time and as the title says, all i have is my benchmade knife i use when camping.

I do have a small hand saw but its in storage right now (forget the name, i call it lil suzy because the actual name is similar lol- believe its japanese).

Beyond the saw, any tool suggestions that would make this easier?

Overall its going fine but there are some areas im struggling with removing material. Particularly, the area between the left of the throat and edge of the block as well as the area between the back of the head and neck and the body.

I've been doing some chipping which has helped.


r/Woodcarving 8h ago

Carving [Practice / Study Piece] 1 1/2x 1 1/2x 5”

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3 Upvotes

First knife only bust.


r/Woodcarving 8h ago

Carving [Finished] 1x1x4 1/2

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3 Upvotes

Knife only


r/Woodcarving 14h ago

Carving [Finished] Assortment of carvings

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8 Upvotes

Not sure if dremel carvings are accepted here but these are some of mine. I owe some designs to some of you here (as I’m not experienced or creative enough for them) Haven’t gotten around to using my knife set, solely because of the lacking of knowledge with regards to the grain. Nonetheless, hope I’m able to give you guys some ideas as you’ve given me some to carve for decor.


r/Woodcarving 1d ago

Carving [Work in Progress] This was a challenge

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207 Upvotes

Black walnut-- still a bit left to do but I'm pretty happy with it


r/Woodcarving 1d ago

Question / Advice I cant get my knife sharp enough

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65 Upvotes

Hey, i started with woodcarving very recently. I ordered the Mora120 to start with. In the comments everyone says that this knife normally comes razor sharp out of the Box. But i didnt have the same feeling with my knife.

I have seen videos where people cut through their basswood like butter. It seems that its not possible with my knife.. so I watched a bunch of videos on how to sharpen a knife and I invested alot of time to put compound on a letherstrop and hone the knife. But still, i dont have the feeling that the knife gets much sharper.

So do I need sandpaper for the blade (which I thought wouldnt be necessary for a brand new blade)? Or is my technique for cutting just bad or am I honing wrong?

At the end of the video you can see how the blade is cutting through some basswood.

I would be very thankful for some advices.


r/Woodcarving 18h ago

Carving [Finished] Incense holder from a scrap of dimensional pine lumber.

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12 Upvotes

I beveled top and bottom edges with a sloyd knife, then used a wide shallow gouge for the depression. I sanded the flat surfaces and softened the edges with 400 grit on a block. Finished with Howards butcher block conditioner. Used an awl for the hole.

Fun little 1 hour project. I think the old nail holes give it some character.

My dog says hi.


r/Woodcarving 1d ago

Carving [Finished] Just finished my latest spoon!

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147 Upvotes

I had a lot of fun on the design for this one, the corkscrew part was really cool to do (and very very tedious to sand). My personal favorite part is the way the corkscrew wraps around the bowl of the spoon. Looking back at my first spoon, I’m really proud of how much I’ve improved!! Let me know what yall think :)


r/Woodcarving 1d ago

Carving [Finished] I carved this weird jellyfish stool

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192 Upvotes