Wood Carving for Beginners: Bird of Paradise- Kitchen Cutting Board

A cutting board is the first thing most people carve that somebody else actually picks up. It sits on a kitchen counter. Your family sees it every day, and one day one of them keeps it.

The board here is basswood, about 10 inches by 13, and a full two inches thick. Yours does not have to be that heavy. 20mm is plenty, though a thicker board stays flatter over the years and warps less.

What is curly wood carving

Curly carving is an ancient European style built almost entirely out of curls, and different nations gave it different names that all translate to the same word. Carvings like it survive from the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries all across Europe.

I carved a piece in this exact style about 20 years ago, a shallow dish, and it still looks right. The style has not moved in a thousand years because it does not need to.

Almost all of it comes off one knife. A gouge joins in on this project, the first time it appears in the beginner path, but 99 percent of the work is still the knife.

What wood do you use for a carved cutting board

Basswood. Europe sells the same tree as limewood or linden, and it is the wood the old masters carved. Riemenschneider worked limewood in Germany in the Middle Ages, and his pieces still carry their color.

Thickness matters more than people expect. My block is two inches, which is more than anybody needs, and it will never move. A thinner board carves the same but is likelier to cup on you after a season in a kitchen.

What tools do you need for this project

One number 12 chip carving knife and one gouge. Any knife of that shape you already own does the same work.

Everything you learned about the three angles carries into this board. Straight down at 90 degrees, angled from the right, angled from the left. The bird gets outlined with the upright one.

Hold the handle tight and keep your supporting hand out of the blade's path. I have carved myself before, so I say it every time. Better still, turn the board instead of reaching around it. Rotating gives a cleaner line than stretching does, and you can see the waviness in mine where I did not bother.

Where do the border lines go on a carved board

Three lines, drawn in from the edge. About a quarter inch, another quarter inch, then one eighth of an inch. The third one earns its keep later, when the border pattern needs something to stop against.

A ruler is fine. I use a scale. But 2,000 years ago nobody had one, so here is the other way: lay your middle finger flat against the side of the board, rest the pencil on the wood, and run your hand down the edge. Your finger is the fence. The line comes out straight enough, and your hand learns something a ruler never teaches it.

Do you have to be able to draw to carve a design

No. I design these straight onto the wood with a pencil and an eraser, changing my mind on camera. You watch the whole thing happen, including the parts I do not like and rub out.

Start with the main movement, not the details. One long line that says where the body of the bird goes. Then the tail. Wings after that, and the eye last of all. When the bird reads as a bird, fill the space around it with curls, a few leaves, a flower where a hole opens up.

Everything has to flow. No T stops, nothing that runs into a wall and quits. Ancient carvers stylized every living thing they drew, so follow that same habit and let the shapes curl rather than copy a photograph.

I'm not sure if you're able to catch that on the camera or not, all those moves, but once it's done, it's going to look really, really nice.

I photograph the finished drawing and post it, so you can scale it up or down to whatever board you have. Take the idea of filling the space rather than the exact bird.

What is the first pass on a carved design

Straight down at 90 degrees, following the outline of the body, going slowly and never forcing the blade. A slight angle will not ruin it, but the upright pass looks better.

Depth is your choice. Deeper reads stronger from across a room. Start the pass wherever the wood lets your hand sit comfortably, even if that is not where the shape starts.

Then rotate. Rotate again. On a curl you will turn that board a dozen times, and each turn buys you a line you would not have got by twisting your wrist.

Where does the curl shape come from

People call it a volute now. The older name, and I mean much older, is Solomon's cucumber. One look tells you why the name stuck.

That element was already old when the temple in Jerusalem went up. Greek carvers knew the word volute. A carver in Germany or Scandinavia in the 9th century did not, and called it what it looked like, which was a curl.

How do you carve the curls without breaking them

Cut the first line straight down, then add a second line beside it about 3/32 of an inch away, angled in to meet it. Only one side is beveled, so it is not a true V groove, and it looks cleaner that way.

Between two details, start the pass with a slight bevel to match the one next door, then finish it upright. Ease off at the very end. The wood between two passes is thin and it snaps if you lean on it, which I have done and which you will do once.

Keep going back with the cleaning pass until every chip flies out on its own. A chip you have to pick out means the two passes never met.

How did carvers sand wood before sandpaper

Dutch reed does it, a plant that grows by rivers and swamps and is abrasive enough to take wood off. Nothing like 180 grit. Much finer than that, and slower.

Cut a section about an inch and three quarters long, or use the whole tube for tight spots. It works either way, and it gets into a corner no sanding block will reach.

Grinling Gibbons finished his work this way. The man who restored those carvings in England found the same marks on them, left by the same plant I am holding.

Can you stain wood without chemicals

Boil what your kitchen throws away. Onion husk makes a dark stain with a red cherry cast. Walnut shells make the one I like best, the true walnut color, and that is what went on this board.

My wife saves the onion husk for me whenever she cooks. It goes in a pan with water and about a teaspoon of baking soda. After ten minutes you have a yellow brown. Keep it going and the red comes up, and four hours gives you the color you saw.

The shells take the same treatment and the same four hours, and you do not need many. Both are safe on a board that will hold food, which is the whole reason for using them.

When I was in a Russian jail, I had to make some furniture and some marquetry and so on. But sometimes I didn't have any veneers to do real marquetry.

Birch plywood and homemade stains are what I had then. That is where I learned what boiled husk can do, so this is not a craft trick I read about somewhere.

Work fast on an open area. The stuff behaves like a dye, so if you stop halfway across the bird you get a hard line that will not come out. Applying a second coat over the first only deepens it.

What finish is food safe for a cutting board

Food-grade mineral oil, sold as butcher block finish. Mine cost about 8 dollars in the United States and will outlast the board.

Pour it on. Do not be careful with it. A two-inch board drinks the first coat and asks for more, and four coats is usually what gets the sheen even. Wipe the surplus off after 20 minutes, then leave it about a week.

Wax is food safe too, and it is not water resistant, so a waxed board cannot go near the sink. That is why the oil wins here.

Want it to look old? Iron soaked in vinegar, brushed into the hollows over the natural stain, turns them nearly black. On bare wood it does almost nothing, which tells you it is reacting with the stain rather than the wood.

Can you really cut food on a carved board

You use the other side. Somebody asked me this online and it is a fair question. The carved face is the decorative one, and the plain back is where the food goes.

Stain both faces if you want the piece to work for real. Mine stays decorative, so I left the sides bare, and I made it for the class rather than for my kitchen.

How long does a carving like this take

There is no end to it, and that is the honest answer. I can find a thousand more ways to refine this board, add detail, and make it more mine.

A thousand years ago people carved in this style without piling on detail, and their work holds up fine. So stop when the piece looks right to you, not when you run out of ideas.

What to remember before you start

• One knife carries this whole board, and a single gouge joins it.
• Basswood, sold as limewood or linden. Thicker stays flatter.
• Lay the three border lines down before anything else happens.
• Main movement first, details last, and rub out whatever you dislike.
• Outline upright, and turn the board instead of your wrist.
• Boil walnut shells or onion husk and you have color with nothing chemical in it.
• Three or four coats of the butcher block oil, then a week of patience.

Find a wide board and one knife. Shall we carve?