My name is Dean Ward, and wood carving is something I do every single Sunday.
I do my best to work it in throughout the week as well, but you know how life gets.
That’s actually one of the main reasons I made Carving Central—to find out how to optimize my time and get as much wood carving in as possible throughout my busy schedule.
Carving wasn’t something I got into until I was fourteen. It started out in wood shop (where I wasn’t particularly supposed to be carving). We were making chairs as a final project for the term, and I went overboard.
I spent ten hours on that chair. The construction was solid, sure, but I didn’t just want it to be functional—I wanted it to be extraordinary. I shaped the legs, engraved the backing, and even customized the seat.
I passed, my teacher loved it, and from there I’ve been incorporating it into my life. It’s extremely low cost to get into—you can carve lumber, driftwood, or pick up scrap pieces from the local thrift store.
It was cost-effective, fun, and gave me something to do with my hands. I had a great teacher, but the second I left high school and started looking up more carving ideas on my own, I came up short.
There just wasn’t enough information available. That’s the other reason I made Carving Central, to give other enthusiasts, like you, an opportunity to learn from my experience.
Here, I’m going to give you every tip, trick and piece of advice that I can offer, while differentiating the good wood carving tools from the bad.
