Customer Reviews

How to Carve a Woodspirit in a Hiking Stick

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Every once in a while you find exactly what you're looking for, and this is one of those cases. This is a concise and inexpensive little booklet for the absolute beginner in woodcarving. There is no filler, whatsoever-no pretentious history of the art, no tedious treatise on dendrology or superfluous appendix of suppliers. He gives you a list of the few tools needed and proceeds with a series of black and white photographs accompanied by just enough text to describe each step. While a couple of these descriptions could use some very slight improvement in clarity, the bottom line is that I had no experience in woodcarving, started with a stick and an hour later had a credible woodspirit. It was fun and I definitely recommend this fine little book.

Great little instruction book about how to carve a woodspirit. I used it to carve one in my walking stick and was successful on the first try! Gives detailed step-by-step instructions that are very easy to understand. Once you carve a couple of woodspirits using the instructions you pretty much have it memorized and you can start to improvise and be creative and come up with your own designs! Just remember! Always carve away from yourself and you'll never cut yourself!

I found this book very informative and helpful as a beginner carver and I managed to pick up the technique quickly....Johnson has it down to a science and his explanations are very consise and easy to understand.

Got the book, gathered some tools--1/4" gouge, 1/8" gouge, 1/4" v tool, a kevlar glove, and a knife. Picked up a glue-lamed stick of pine 1x2's, rounded it off to about a 1 1/2" somewhat rounded stick, and then carved my first wood spirit according to the book. I've done another one as a pendant ornament in a 3/4" trianglular piece of basswood, and working on a second face in the pine stick. All in about a week or so--this from a guy who hates to carve faces! Good book!

Educational, complete; this novice was able to produce a presentable "spirit". My only anxiety came when I found some pages missing; they were stuck in the back of the booklet. I put in their respective place and went on with the project.

I was looking for a book about a single project...this is it. I liked the detail in the photos and the descriptions. The photos are excellent, with close ups of the tools doing their job in mid-cut, so you can see how the shavings should be forming! As the title says, this is a single project book, but I think I could tackle it after going over the steps several times. I am a beginner carver.

This book was very helpful. It walks you through from start to finish. Has alot of pictures which shows the steps. The tools used are not very well defined. The smaller are better.

just started carving. I've been woodworking for 6 years or so. This little book/pamplet is a step by step guide via pictures and explanations to make your garden variety woodspirit. Then it shows some variations and then your imagination can take over just by using the basics shown in this book. So far mine look like a pancake with a nose on it...but at least now it HAS a nose! Like any new skill, just takes a little time teamed up with this excellent guide.

I like this book, though the price seemed a little high for a leaflet with one project. I give the author kudos for extremely detailed step-by-step instructions and large pictures that do a great job of carefully guiding a beginner wood carver.

This is a wonderful little book to help you on your way to carving.
I recommend it to all beginners.