It's been a realy long time since I last blogged on the subject of carving wood which is a shame because I've done quite a bit since then. Anyway, My first ever wood carving... in cheap kiln dried pine from B&Q. I didn't really start off with a plan, I wanted to do a celtic knot so I sketched one out in pencil and then drew around it. Next I gouged out the area's in between and then finally I did the little pattern on the top.

It's not much, but it's a learning experience and it gave me a feel for what it's like to plunge a chisel in to a piece of wood. It's not exactly a hot knife through butter but it's not too difficult either. Here's what I did learn though: direction matters.

If you cut against the grain of the wood (especially if you have not recently sharpened your chisel) you cause a horrible tearing as you can see on the left below:

If you cut with the grain (especially with a recently sharpened chisel) then you get a clean cut as you can see on the right above.

So there we are, a lesson learned. In future I must be careful to carve with the grain and to sharpen my chisel regularly.