Beginning
Woodcarving - DVD
with Everett Ellenwood
Published
by Everett Ellenwood, USA
R.R.P.$44.90
As reviewed in The Australian Woodworker Issue 126
First of all, this is a long DVD - 3 1/2 hours - so find a comfy seat before watching it for the first time.
Everett Ellingwood has been a carver for more than 30 years and a woodcarving teacher for more than 20. His dvd Beginning Woodcarving is a comprehensive introduction to carving as a hobby or craft. He assumes the viewer knows nothing about carving, so he explains everything as he goes, from grain structure and tool sharpening to how carving tools are numbered and where to change direction when cutting.
The DVD begins with a discussion of the different forms of woodcarving - over a dozen are briefly discussed - followed by the importance of grain structure in the selection of timber and cutting technique.
Most of the DVD can be split into two parts related to the projects - a stylised or free-form bird shaped with a carving knife and a low relief flower formed with knives, gouges and V-tools. The first project is relatively simple and the chapters leading up to it cover the basics. The flower is a lot more complex and the chapters preceding it cover more advanced tools and techniques.
The early chapters look at carving knives, safety gloves and tapes, push and pull cuts, transition points for swapping direction so as to avoid cutting along the grain and hand sharpening.
Everett recommends that beginners use a knife with a blade no longer than 38mm for the simple reason that the longer the blade the more there is sticking out to cut something that shouldn’t be there.
In the sharpening section as in many other areas of the DVD, he discusses low-cost alternatives as well as proprietary products to enable viewers to start carving with a minimum of outlay.
Having covered the various aspects of knife work, he then proceeds to carve the bird. This is done mostly in real time, ie. there are no dramatic jumps from one stage to the next. Everett talks as he carves, discussing what he is doing and why, and adding general information as he works. Like most stylised carvings, the bird is sanded smooth when finished, a task that he describes in detail.
The second 'part' of the DVD begins with a look at chisels, gouges, veiners (ie. U-tools) and V-tools, as well as special items such as spoon gouges, fishtail gouges and back-bent tools. Having covered most of the tools available, he recommends those required for a basic starter set as well as the more useful tools to add when building your collection.
After hand sharpening the different tool shapes, there is a lengthy section on the importance of stop cuts, where to use them and how to perform them successfully without damaging the wood you want to save. This is followed by a discourse on cutting with the various shaped tools and how to improve your control of the line and depth of cut.
The low-relief flower is then carved. As before this is done in real time with Everett commenting on everything he does. The main tools used are gouges, knives and V-tools and the design requires undercutting as well as stop cuts. This carving is not sanded smooth like the bird but some cleaning up is done with a motor tool.
In the final chapters Everett discusses suitable timbers for carving (little relevance for our timbers), preparation and drying of blanks (good general information), clamping devices and methods, and finishing.
The finishes are mostly colours such as acrylics and pencils, but there is some guidance on the use of polyurethane and Danish Oil.
While the DVD appears to have been self-published, the picture and sound quality and overall presentation are very professional. Beginning Woodcarving is an excellent introduction to the basics of woodcarving and even carvers with some experience are likely to pick up handy tips from Everett's discourse.
Duration: 210min
DVD - English - NTSC