Thinking of getting into wood carving? Aldi offer!

[Paul_B]

Last week I saw a £12.95 wood carving kit in aldi. It's a corded dremel like tool with a wide range of heads. Not as satisfying as carving with hand blades / tools, but could be a cheapish way of removing wood in a new carving hobby.

What do you think?

 

[Stew]

Yeah, get on it….

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[Pattree]

Wow! Is that what you’re going to try? All power to you. I’ve never been very successful at sculpture carving. I use a flex drive from a fixed power drill for the grunt work and a Dremel to finish but I only cut patterns.

Fitting a chuck to the Dremel was definitely a good move in my case. Collets are good for heavier work in told.

Very best of luck.

 

[Glass-Wood-Steel]

There is no less skill and artistry required for power carving. Just different tools with different capabilites. Good hand to eye coordination and a sense of proportion is needed. There is more feedback from the wood with bladed tools with grain etc, although this can be frustrating. I would give it a shot Paul, not a big investment. If you find you become more interested you could invest in better burrs and build up from there.

 

[SoldierPalmer]

I’ve done both and to be honest I find that I intermix both disciplines on one project. You will get the feel where a chisel or knife will be better than a bur head. It does save a hell of a lot of time though.

 

[Kadushu]

I made this matching pair, one on a lathe and the other by power carving. Interestingly they took about the same amount of time. I keep meaning to do a third all with hand tools.

 

[Paul_B]

There is no less skill and artistry required for power carving. Just different tools with different capabilites. Good hand to eye coordination and a sense of proportion is needed. There is more feedback from the wood with bladed tools with grain etc, although this can be frustrating. I would give it a shot Paul, not a big investment. If you find you become more interested you could invest in better burrs and build up from there.

Then I'm stuffed before I've started!

Still, I'm hoping they've not sold out. I think 13 quid is not exactly going to hurt if I don't take to it. Although with my coordination it could hurt! Lol!

Think I'll get one at my next Aldi shop. I was thinking of just playing around with any wood I have lying around. We actually had a big leylandii cut down some time ago. Still got a fair amount of good wood left over. Might not be the best wood for carving but i reckon I've got too much to learn to begin on good wood.

 

[Paul_B]

View attachment 86338

I made this matching pair, one on a lathe and the other by power carving. Interestingly they took about the same amount of time. I keep meaning to do a third all with hand tools.

Hey, I could make a bowl out of a few blocks of wood I have. Any tips? I guess there's a lot of wood removal in the middle which takes the time.

One question, do you use a clamp to hold the wood? Not got anywhere or anything to clamp the wood to.

 

[Mesquite]

Hey, I could make a bowl out of a few blocks of wood I have. Any tips? I guess there's a lot of wood removal in the middle which takes the time.

One question, do you use a clamp to hold the wood? Not got anywhere or anything to clamp the wood to.

Using a drill with a fostner bit to hog out the middle will cut down on the time there.

As for something to clamp whilst carving have a look on FB marketplace for a B&D workmate.

 

[Glass-Wood-Steel]

Then I'm stuffed before I've started!

Still, I'm hoping they've not sold out. I think 13 quid is not exactly going to hurt if I don't take to it. Although with my coordination it could hurt! Lol!

Think I'll get one at my next Aldi shop. I was thinking of just playing around with any wood I have lying around. We actually had a big leylandii cut down some time ago. Still got a fair amount of good wood left over. Might not be the best wood for carving but i reckon I've got too much to learn to begin on good wood.

Skills are aquired by practice, like you say no big price to pay. Have a play and enjoy for less than the price of most places

 

[Kadushu]

Hey, I could make a bowl out of a few blocks of wood I have. Any tips? I guess there's a lot of wood removal in the middle which takes the time.

One question, do you use a clamp to hold the wood? Not got anywhere or anything to clamp the wood to.

I just used a metal vice on that occasion. I carved the bottom of the bowl first but left an extra tall 'foot' on the base which the vice could grip when it came to the hollowing out. There are other ways such as making a bodger's vice with some wood offcuts and a couple of wedges. A workmate is good. I have an old one with a special cutout for curved pieces. I LOVE the Triton Superjaws.

For hollowing out a forstner bit is a good, cheap way of removing a fair bit of wood. If you have an angle grinder then an Arbortech ball gouge is the dog's danglies, and what I used for that bowl.

 

[Paul_B]

I got the tool from aldi and what was called wood carving kit is actually a pyrography kit. Not what I wanted but I guess I didn't pay attention prior to buying. Unless the one I picked up to wasn't the same as the original one I saw then it's a wasted item for what I want to try.

So now I'm wondering whether to take back or to keep and give pyrography a try. Anyone do pyrography? Do you have some examples to show for inspiration?

 

[Glass-Wood-Steel]

I don't do pyrography but I have a burning ambition to try it.

 

[Pattree]

Nothing inspirational but my pyrography kit is useful. I can put my name on wooden kit, I make wooden “Christmas Cards” out of slices of birch branch. I made all the place markers for my daughter’s wedding out of branch slices. They can work as labels too if I drill a hole for some thong. Better than a plastic labelling machine.

 

[Paul_B]

Agree that it could be useful. We've already started thinking of signs for the family. Also, decent sized branch cut into discs. Then write to each family member non one side and from us on the other. Drill a small hole at the top then coat with a clear varnish and string up for gift tags at Xmas. We can keep using them. Currently we use old Xmas cards but since we stopped sending them we started to get less ourself. I don't agree with cards as it's not something needed making it a pointless expense for the planet. I mean it might be from sustainable wood but paper industry is a big water user and that's without considering any of the other issues with paper production. Whilst I use paper I use it when I have a good use for it.

Anyway, I'm not creative as in cannot draw and have a very poor level of coordination. So nothing will be looking good. It's this reason that I might take it back. They're good at accepting returns. It'll only go back on sale anyway. Unless I find inspiration. Does anyone have his ideas for pyrography projects?

Also, not sure where to get the wood from, we have a few branches and stumps from a few trees felled, leylandii not a good wood but there's branches from a copper beech who's crown got lifted, a Holly and a few Hazel sticks about wrist diameter. Beech and Hazel might be decent but they're not really big enough for sign I reckon.