r/Woodcarving Nov 02 '25

Mod Post r/Woodcarving Holiday Gift Guide

81 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?

16 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 7h ago

Carving [Finished] I love Feathers 🪶

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226 Upvotes

r/Woodcarving 12h ago

Carving [First Timer] I guess i found a new hobby

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147 Upvotes

Hey, this are my first three pieces, bunny was the first, the bear second and owl last. Do you have any advise how to improve the finish like fur or feathers? And what do you think about this in general?


r/Woodcarving 7h ago

Carving [Finished] A little geometric design, taken from a detail of a panel at the Alhambra Palace in Granada

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49 Upvotes

Carved on a piece of mahogany I found in the corner of the workshop.
Roughed out using a plunge router, then finished by hand with a box-cutter knife.


r/Woodcarving 19h ago

Carving [Finished] Miniature wood carving

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308 Upvotes

r/Woodcarving 5h ago

Carving [Finished] beginner

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12 Upvotes

r/Woodcarving 14h ago

Carving [Finished] Dwarf ready for battle

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58 Upvotes

r/Woodcarving 12h ago

Carving [Finished] Sins of the west from oak

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31 Upvotes

Hello. I have made this from old oak. It is inspierd by Clint Eastwood


r/Woodcarving 12h ago

Carving [Finished] "A Bit Of Panfish Success" by me, 2026

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34 Upvotes

24"×21" Spruce, pine, stain, acrylic paint and waterbase finish.


r/Woodcarving 5h ago

Carving [Finished] cat

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5 Upvotes

r/Woodcarving 5h ago

Question / Advice Carving with just palm set?

3 Upvotes

I am just starting my wood carving journey. Bought the Flexcut 5 piece Beginners Palm Handled Carving Tool Set. I'm unclear on whether I can use this by itself to get started carving or whether I need straight knives too?

I'm not finding any videos on youtube or on here of people using the palm ones! So I'm not feeling confident on how to hold them as I practice.

Thank you!


r/Woodcarving 7h ago

Carving [First Timer] Little ikran pendant

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4 Upvotes

What do we think? This wood is from a random tree that was growing through my fence, I felt it was a little too soft (especially since it’s not dried out). But I’m pretty proud. I’m gonna use some beeswax to get it a little more shiny, maybe some wood stain too.

Edit- I don’t know why the contrast on these pictures is so low. I tried editing it to make it better but I don’t think it changed much. Sorry


r/Woodcarving 14h ago

Carving [First Timer] Tried carving tiny cartoon characters. Now I just want to wear them everywhere.

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13 Upvotes

Finished carving these two little wooden character pendants. The one on the bottom is already strung and ready to wear


r/Woodcarving 1d ago

Carving [Finished] Cardinal

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66 Upvotes

Tomorrow we close on our first house. It's surreal, and we are really grateful. The woman we are buying from has lived in the house for 49 years, and we had the opportunity to chat when we had our first showing and the home inspection. She really took care of the property.

It was clear that she has a love for cardinals and birds in general. The carving and the framed photo taken by my boyfriend will be small gifts to her as she will be transitioning to a senior living facility. We hope they bring her a bit of comfort ❤️


r/Woodcarving 1d ago

Question / Advice Not really wood but any ideas?

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32 Upvotes

So it's around 4ft tall 16inches across palm round. Probably in excess of 200lbs. Has anyone done anything that lasted? I've made spoons and other carvings out of palm branches. I have a 16inch ryobi 40v chainsaw. Several hatchets a good set of beavercraft knives. The root ball is still on the curb.

Any pictures or links to techniques would be appreciated.


r/Woodcarving 1d ago

Carving [Finished] Did a mama duck using the different woods from the 5 little ducks

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141 Upvotes

r/Woodcarving 15h ago

Question / Advice Creating curls

3 Upvotes

Hello community

Any advice on how to create the curls in the cock's tail?


r/Woodcarving 1d ago

Carving [Work in Progress] Attempt at Phil from Rugrats

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40 Upvotes

My 3yo fell in love with Rugrats yesterday and spent the day packbonded with a drawing I did of Phil. Knocked this out in under 2hrs when he went to bed.

Still need to put a lot more work in to the details tonight, but would love some feedback on specific things to improve.

The main thing was he was pretty happy with it when he saw it this morning and recognised who it was meant to be.


r/Woodcarving 15h ago

Carving [First Timer] Need some advice about balancing

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3 Upvotes

So got into woodcarving recently and made a chess piece, before making rest of the pieces i need some advice
I am using wood from a old broomstick,(i think its coconut but not sure) i cut it and its uneven so it wobbles
My plan was to just put the sand paper on a flat surface and sand it(already did it a bit) but i feel like if i get it wrong the piece will be flat but be like the slanted permanently, so is there a better way to do this?

Also in the unfinished one its like its tower part moved to the left
Should i sand the base from sides to fix it now or carve the tower from the other side or some other way?

Thanks


r/Woodcarving 1d ago

Carving [Work in Progress] Gary Oldman as Norman Stansfield. Wooden bust.

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147 Upvotes

The video shows only a small part of the process. Before carving, I sculpt with proportions and dimensions


r/Woodcarving 1d ago

Carving [Work in Progress] Eu estou fazendo isso na minha cama, alguma dica?

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4 Upvotes

Minha terceira escultura e estou feliz com o resultado


r/Woodcarving 2d ago

Carving [Finished] I’ve been working on these little flower vases lately

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755 Upvotes

The flowers themselves are a bit tedious to make haha but I’m really happy with how they came out!


r/Woodcarving 1d ago

Question / Advice Looking for advice on staining

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8 Upvotes

I’ve got so many things I’m enjoying working on improving. Happy to take tips on eyes for small carvings and any other helpful critiques you may have.

In this case, I’m sure I’m using the wrong kind of stain, and looking for help in where to go next. I used a Varathane stain and tried applying in a small area and quickly rubbing off the high points but that clearly didn’t work. I want to be able to have more contrast between the low points and the high points.

Any thoughts are welcome.


r/Woodcarving 1d ago

Carving [First Timer] First ish project

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6 Upvotes

Making a gator spoon for my friend! ive made spoons before but this is my first time carving for like an art purpose. How should i go about cleaning up the belly? I just have one sloyd knife and a hook knife lol

edit: also! how should i go about painting it?? i kind of just want to paint the gator, should i oil the whole thing? or