Basic Wood Carving Cuts

Almost everything you carve comes from a handful of cuts. You don't need to know a hundred — you need to master five. Once you learn these basic wood carving moves, you stop pushing at random and start making decisions. Here they are, in the order I teach them in the workshop.

One rule for all of them: always cut away from your body, with shallow cuts first. You can always go deeper; what you take off doesn't come back.

1. The V-cut (the outline)

With the V-gouge, you follow a line and a groove with two walls appears. It's the drawing cut: it defines edges, separates a shape from the background, marks the crests of a wave or the feathers of a bird. Push gently and let the tip do the work.

2. The stop cut

A vertical cut, straight down, that creates a "wall" where the material stops. When you then push toward that wall, the chip pops out clean and doesn't carry away more than it should. It's the trick that separates a messy cut from a professional one: stop cut first, then clear into it.

3. Hollowing (with the U-gouge)

With the U-gouge you remove material and sink an area: the trough between two waves, the inside of a bowl, the background of a relief. Short cuts, going with the grain. This is where depth is born: what stays high is the form; what you sink is the background.

4. The sweep (the long curve)

A continuous, shallow cut that follows a smooth curve, leaving a clean surface with no steps. It's the one that gives flow: the back of a wave, the cheek of a figure, the flank of an ovoid. Less force, more wrist.

5. Paring (control and finish)

Small, controlled, almost peeling cuts to clean up what the gouges roughed out and refine the detail. With the knife or chisel, just enough pressure and your free hand behind the edge. This is where the piece goes from "made" to "finished."

How to practice them

Don't study them in the abstract: practice on a sheet of foam, making lines, troughs and curves until your hand knows them on its own. Then apply them on a real piece — the wave relief uses all five. Don't have the gouges yet? They're in the Shop.

¡Agarra tu gubia que nos vamos a trabajarrr!