How to price craft work is probably the single hardest issue for anyone in the craft business whether just starting out and selling the first few pieces or having been running a business for many years it is something we all struggle with. How should you put a price on your work? I hope this advice will help you through…
I have posted before about the best axe and straight knife for carving and the third tool that is needed is the spoon knife or hook knife. Opinions vary enormously as to which is the best spoon carving knife, if you search the web you will find lots of folk vehemently arguing that this or that knife is the best,…
A new film from Artisan Media hope you like it [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLpNNf4V5lU?rel=0]
In 1903 a Norwegian farmer dug into a mound in one of his fields and made a discovery which archaeologists rate as comparable in importance to the grave of Tutankhamun. The Oseberg farm is 60 miles south of Oslo outside the town of Tonsberg and for years Oscar Rom had wondered what lay under the mound in his field, people…
I love Welsh spoons, whilst the tradition of spooncarving died out in England it continued to be strong in Wales with many folk still alive that ate all the time with wooden bowls and spoons in their youth. This was particularly the case for the Welsh national dish a traditional broth called cawl (recipe below). Then there is the strong…
I wrote this article a few years ago before I was blogging and thought it might be of interest to have here. Fitting an axe handle in this blog post. First wood selection. The perfect wood is nice straight grain ash fairly fast grown, if it gets more than 6-8 rings per inch it is much more brittle, 4-6 rings…
Woodcarving is so much easier if you have the right tools for the job and thankfully in this case the right tools need not cost a fortune. So what makes the best knife for wood carving and whittling and what should you look for when buying one? It should be made of a good quality steel, reasonably hard and take…
I get asked which is the best axe for carving a lot so thought it would be good to make a blog post which I can refer folk back to. In the world of Bushcraft most folk go for the Gransfors Bruks small forest axe, it is recommended by Ray Mears which no doubt helps it’s popularity. It is like…
Carving wooden bowls is a wonderful thing to do. It is a bit harder physically than spooncarving and requires a few more dedicated tools but the results are wonderful. Here are a couple of bowls carved by students on our first bowlcarving course. I have been carving bowls for some time and before starting to teach I tried out all…
I thought it might be an idea to put a few blog posts which answer frequently asked questions and what is the best oil for treating wood? has to be one of the most frequent. Dry wood is like blotting paper and would soak up whatever you put on or in it. A breakfast bowl would soak up the milk which…
