Basic Chip Carving with Pam Gresham
by Pam Gresham
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Book Reviews of Basic Chip Carving with Pam Gresham
Book Review: Best beginner and refresher publication printed ever.
Summary: 5 Stars
I'd give Pams book 6 stars but the selection box wouldn't let me. Pam's book is an excellent step by step, add on, and expand upon set of exercises. She goes into detail on explaining how to with everything, from layout, how to draw all of the designs in her book; how to hold your knife in the basic positions and each lesson builds upon the last. Every progression is done step by step. She is outstanding in holding your hand and guiding you through all of the steps of the exercises. Wayne Barton's books are excellent. Unfortunately, you have to have some basic knowledge on design and technique and carving expertise. For experienced chip carvers his books are really great source books. His video is excellent for seeing chip carving technique at it's very best. Worth the purchase. Most important of all is using razor sharp knives else you'll be very frustrated and disappointed in the results. Get Wayne Barton's ceramic stones and a good leather strop with some rouge to rub on. Your blade will have a mirror finish.I glued some old pieces of leather to both sides of a 10 inch by 2 inch wide by 1/4 inch thick piece of wood. One side for rouging, the other to polish. When I've layed off for quite a while, I always pick up Pam's book to get my hands and fingers in shape and go through the basics. At 75, my fingers tend to stiffen up a bit. She got me my first blue ribbon at a craft show for my chip carving designed tool box back in 1993. Pam is not very good with computers but she is in a class by herself when she designed this truly outstanding do it yourself chip carving text.
Grampa Joe
Book Review: Best book for beginners
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a newbie to chip carving - and have purchased 2 Wayne Barton books to get started. They had great pictures as inspiration - but do nothing for the beginner who has no technique to make these sophisticated cuts.
This book reminds me of learning to play the piano. You start with basics like chop sticks and gradually learn to add parts til you're playing beautiful music. It starts with basic exercises and real projects with basics and expands gradually with each chapter - expanding on the basic cut toward more difficult cuts. i.e. cutting simple triangle - to more complex straight patterns / to curves - and projects to tie them all together. It also covers basics like creating and laying out a pattern onto a piece of wood - which isn't mentioned in my Barton books.
I'd highly recommend this for the beginner or anyone who finds themselves questioning basics of technique for various cuts.
Jake
Book Review: Great Book for Beginning and as a Reference
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased several different chip carving books over the last couple of years when I stumbled into this hobby and was hooked after watching a 10 minute video clip. This was not the first book I bought, but when I did, I greatly appreciated the author's explanations that were straight-forward but also came from her unique viewpoint. Things I'd read in other books began to make sense and I realized there is some flexibility in areas. While I'm no expert, I caught my wife showing off pieces I'm working on to guests. My favorite part of the book is the approach to creating designs. I can always find helpful tidbits even now when I am working on a design and need something to round out a design. If you're really interested in this type of chip carving, buy a pile of good quality basswood boards (lots of places online) and practice doing the basic cuts and designs shown in the book. And keep those knives sharp!Book Review: excellent how to do
Summary: 5 Stars
Very good, easily understood "how to do." Good supporting photographs. Never a "what is the author trying to say?" moment. Author relates choice of tools, differences to other wood carving techigues, selection of woods, and projects. Excellent, and clear explanation of HOW to make the cut. Most of the book teaches the cuts, and design of the pattern. A section on honing, and discussion of the importance of high quality, super sharp tools (and the specialty of a chipping knife) to enhance carving enjoyment. A photo gallery and a few basic projects to inspire the reader to design an original.
Chip carving is much fun/rewarding, and compliments other carving types and projects. Chip carving METHODS are very handy to know when doing other carving.
Highly recommended.
Book Review: Absolutely magnificent
Summary: 5 Stars
I cannot give this book enough stars, and it is worth 5 times the price they are asking for.
This is a large book, A4 sized, it is packed with useful photos and diagrams, approx. half the photos are glorious colour, essential for carving (to get a good idea of the depth and form).
Chip carving has always been a bit of a mystery to me, within 2 minutes of opening this book it was completely clear what the diagrams meant (I did not realise they were indicating depth of cut) ... the book is a series of projects, each of which builds upon your skill and grows more complex, covering all aspects of chip carving.
I cannot imagine a book on chip carving being better than this. If you are looking for one, get this one, and good luck.