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
