Whittling may refer either to the art of

carving Carving is the act of using tools to shape something from a material by scraping away portions of that material. The technique can be applied to any material that is solid enough to hold a form even when pieces have been removed from it, and ...

shapes out of raw

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

using a

knife A knife ( : knives; from Old Norse 'knife, dirk') is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evidenced ...

or a time-occupying, non-artistic (contrast

wood carving Wood carving is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation ...

for artistic process) process of repeatedly shaving slivers from a piece of wood. It is used by many as a pastime, or as a way to make artistic creations.

Background of whittling

Casual whittling is typically performed with a light, small-bladed knife, usually a

pocket knife A pocketknife is a knife with one or more blades that fold into the handle. They are also known as jackknives (jack-knife), folding knives, or may be referred to as a penknife, though a penknife may also be a specific kind of pocketknife. A typ ...

. Specialized whittling knives, with fixed single blades, are preferred for sculpting artistic work. They have thick handles which are easier to grip for long periods and have better leverage, allowing more precise control and pressure. Occasionally the terms "whittling" and "carving" are used interchangeably, but they are different arts. Carving employs the use of

chisel A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge (such that wood chisels have lent part of their name to a particular grind) of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal by hand, stru ...

s, gouges, with or without a

mallet A mallet is a tool used for imparting force on another object, often made of rubber or sometimes wood, that is smaller than a maul or beetle, and usually has a relatively large head. The term is descriptive of the overall size and proport ...

, and often powered equipment such as

lathes A lathe () is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, and turning, with tools that are applied to the workpiece to cr ...

. Whittling, however, involves only the use of a knife. In industrialized areas of the world, whittling is mainly a hobby and not an occupational activity as it was before powered wood working equipment enabled modern production. "Splash whittling" is a historical, decorative technique in Norway using an ax to create a

herringbone pattern The herringbone pattern is an arrangement of rectangles used for floor tilings and road pavement, so named for a fancied resemblance to the bones of a fish such as a herring. The blocks can be rectangles or parallelograms. The block edge length ...

Safety

Safety precautions include the wearing of a

thimble A thimble is a small pitted cup worn on the finger that protects it from being pricked or poked by a needle while sewing. The Old English word , the ancestor of thimble, is derived from Old English , the ancestor of the English word ''thumb''. ...

on one's thumb and a cut-resistant glove on one's holding hand.

Wood types

While any type of wood can be used for whittling, there are woods which are easier to work with and whittle better than others. Soft woods with a small grain, such as

basswood ''Tilia americana'' is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae, native to eastern North America, from southeast Manitoba east to New Brunswick, southwest to northeast Oklahoma, southeast to South Carolina, and west along the Niobrara River to ...

, are easier to whittle and are relatively inexpensive. Hardwoods are more difficult to whittle.

References

External links

Sculpture techniques Woodcarving Artistic techniques {{decorative-art-stub

Background of whittling

Safety

Wood types

See also

References

External links