WOOD CARVING WORKSHOPS AND CARVING TOOLS

School Registration Fee for 2, 3 and 5 Day Classes

(CLICK) David Calvo has been enthusiastically teaching woodcarving to adults for over 30 years. He was fortunate to be trained by professional European woodcarvers and sculptors. He has been a featured master woodcarver at many International Woodworking Trade Shows where he has given workshops on woodcarving technique and designing skills. David has also been a featured TV guest on the PBS Television shows: "The Woodwright's Shop" with Roy Underhill and "The American Woodshop" with Scott Phillips. He writes articles for national publications to promote and share his skill. He is a sought-after teacher because his unique training is a rarity and he is a natural speaker who has the ability to articulate the mechanics of the skill of wood carving in an easily understood fashion. This price does not include registration fee and material costs. For more information check the school website: http://www.davidcalvo.com/wood_carving_classes.html

Here is an opportunity in a two or three-day workshop format for the interested student to learn the fundamentals of woodcarving. These classes are a edited version of my five-day Bare Bone classes. If you have had an interest in trying wood carving and are in Gloucester for the day, weekend or vacationing then this might be just for you.

(click) Here is an opportunity in two days to get grounded in techniques of wood carving. We will learn about tools, grain direction and tool sharpening.

(Click) Here is an opportunity to develop your woodcarving skills by becoming more aware of technique and design through progressively more challenging skills. Here we will work around your interests regarding a project. It could be a mirror design, a ball and claw foot or a more complicated ornamental design.

(Click) Here is an opportunity to learn letter carving and design that lends itself to creative sign making. I first started out in woodcarving in 1979 as a sign carver and have done many signs for commercial and residental settings. That said, you can also do lettering work on furniture projects such as Hope Chests or anything you might want to personalize to add to the overall design. http://www.davidcalvo.com/wood_carving_classes.html

(CLICK) Here is an opportunity for the beginner woodworker to make a beautiful decorative box with hand cut dovetail joints, brass hinges and maybe a little carved decoration on the surface. It will be a learning project for the techniques but it will also become a little showpiece for your home.

(Click) Learning how to forge your own wood carving tools will complete your skill set as a woodcarver. You will learn metal forging techniques, methods in how to shape the tool steel using heat. We will go over the hardening and heat treating process. You will learn how to refine the tool steel design and tempering. This is a excellent forum for the study and understanding of good tool design necessary for the control needed in wood carving. Finally, you will learn how to put handles on you new carving tools and sharpening techniques. Once you experience the joy of forging your own tools, you will never go back to a store bought tools again. I can honestly say that you will treasure your hand forged tools and they will become the favorites of your collection. Guaranteed.

(Click) Here is a wonderful opportunity for you as an interested student to get the basic understanding of all aspects involved in learning the wood carving skill. This is a fun class to make a wooden spoon that you will be able to take home and use that night. This full day class includes your tools for use in class. Wood is extra depending on what you choose. All you need to do is show up with your enthusiasm

(click for info) Here is a great opportunity to make a hand carved bowl in an unusal shape with decorative details. Its an opportunity to learn wood carving and go home with something that you can put on your dining room table. It's a rewarding class

(CLICK) Calvo Studio offers the highest quality German wood carving tools with a Rockwell hardness test of 61. I had been looking for a tool manufacturer for a long time that represents the quality of my inherited professional tools from long ago. They have the two most important qualites that define a great tool. The first is a good tool design; important in how the wood carving tool moves and controls through the wood. I always tell my wood carving students that a razor blade is the "definition of sharpness" but it is completely useless in wood carving. The second characteristic these tools deliver is a good sustaining keen edge that can make that perfect thin wood curl. Most tools on the market use an inferior tool steel to lower production costs; however, great tool steel is of absolute importance to create the best quality for a wood carving tool edge. You will be extremely happy with the quality of these wood carving tools. These wood carving chisels and gouges I personally hand picked from European tool manufacturing and are the most frequently used in my thirty-five years of professional carving. They are on my bench all the time so you cannot go wrong. This set comes with the ten wood carving tools, Brass Calvo Woodcarving Mallet, two water slipstones (1000 & 4000), a twenty pouch zippable tool roll and burnishing brush. For custom tool orders please call me to place your order and we can talk further.

(CLICK) This twenty-four piece fishtail wood carving set is good for the hobbyist student. Generally the fishtail design is the best for woodcarving because the tool steel is always behind the carving edge as you move through the wood. In addition, I also look for the tool steel quality and temper of the carving tool. For the money the tool steel in these tools is pretty good and they will hold the edge. The set includes twenty carving tools,aa brass wood carving mallet, two water slipstones (1000 and 4000), a tool roll and a burnishing brush. An assortment of individual carving tools as well. Please call for more info.

(CLICK) The Calvo Mallet. When using a chisel, technique and tool design are very important. A good woodcarver's mallet can be a part of that successful equation too. There are two types: wood, the more common, and brass mallets which were favored by Europeans. Although sometimes effective, wooden mallets have certain drawbacks. First, when wood strikes against wood, it bounces. There is contact, but the force moves in two directions, forward as well as backward. When we cut a mortise or carve wood we want to concentrate the force forward. The mallets I have designed have a weighted, balanced bronze head. When the bronze strikes the wood handle of the chisel, it strikes dead and accurately. There is little bounce between mallet and chisel; the chisel yields to the higher density and weight of the mallet. This allows the woodworker to feel the activity at the tool edge. In addition, wooden mallets tend to be oversized and consequently, awkward to handle. With the wooden mallets, momentum is the driving force. With the bronze mallet all that is needed is a light controlled tap. My wood carver's mallets are compact and delicate in the hand. They are modeled after those used by my teachers in their apprenticeship training in Europe. THIS MALLET IS UNSURPASSED because it offers a strike that will give you accuracy, control, and enhanced woodworking skills.

NOT FOR SALE YET- STILL IN POST PRODUCTION Here is a comprehensive hour and a half woodcarving DVD which covers all aspects of sharpening your wood carving tools; from redesigning the edges on electric grinders, to using hand water slipstones to sharpen the variety of gouges in your tool collection. Learn how to establish inside bevels on your tools so that you have the ability to use the concave and convex edge within the same tool. In addition, to get better hand-carving technique and control, learn sharpening methods that will help you get your tool to bite instead of skating as you move through the grain of your woodcarving project. As you will see, sharpening your tools correctly for wood carving is absolutely critical for tool control. I can't emphasis this enough.

NOT FOR SALE YET- STILL IN POST PRODUCTION. Understanding the grain of the wood is important for carving because the woodcarver is constantly addressing the grain in the wood from different angles. As a reference, the grain direction for carving wood changes as much as the minute hand changes on your wall clock. In woodcarving the grain is like a dance partner, hence you always need to be sensitive to your approach and carve accordingly. Here is a unique exercise I call the grain wheel that familiarizes you with all aspects of dealing with the grain. It also becomes “a grain compass” that is valuable to carving the Fleur-di-les as well as any other projects.

NOT FOR SALE YET- STILL IN POST PRODUCTION. Hand techniques are an essential part of the learning curve in wood carving. Here is a step by step tutorial on hand techniques using the fleur-di-les as a carving project. This project encompasses all aspects of your hand technique in wood carving. I can easily say that every thing I do on my largest projects in terms of technique approach, I do on the fleur as well so this makes it an excellent starting project. In addition to hand techniques, learn the visual mechanical steps to moving through a project and also the concave convex road map.

NOT FOR SALE YET- STILL IN POST PRODUCTION