The Complete Book of Woodcarving: Everything You Need to Know to Master the Craft (Fox Chapel Publishing) Comprehensive Guide with Expert Instruction, 8 Beginner-Friendly Projects, and Over 350 Photos

I wish I had ordered this book when I was starting. Still good and in my case also new information.

I got it as gift to my uncle, He loves the book, just I would preffer to have the hard cover as a gift, but I dont think its available...

Great book with lots of details and explanations. However, this is more for the adult rather than the teenager wanting to learn to carve. The wood suggested must be purchased special (and can get expensive) and the tools required can also run expensive. My son used the school woodworking shop to cut out his projects, but even still hasn't been able to finish the project yet. The book has great ideas if you want to be an expert carver, but if you are just learning - then look into something a little simpler.

"Everything you need to know" is about right. Wow. I bought this as a complete novice, and it's kind of like having an expert there to talk you through everything, down to how to choose your first knife and sand the handle to be a perfect fit for your hand. It's full of great pictures and just about everything you could hope to know getting started.

I love my wood carving book! I am an artist and want to carve some wood stumps on my property. Having this book as a reference has helped me to buy the right tools for the job.

This book I noticed that it to didtips.n't have a lot of carving

Great book!! Uses as a reference book and a guide

Large book, covers many topics, very thorough

This is very good book for beginners. Whereas many books give you a brief overview of the "behind the scenes" to the actual carving (they tell you what chisels to use for each job), this one takes you through it all step-by-step.It gives you a thorough grounding in the basics (that you do need to understand to be able to tackle the more complicated stuff). It tells you in detail about equipment, about the types of chisels used (and what techniques they are used for) as well as an excellent guide to sharpening (different techniques needed for different chisels--it is more complicated than you would think) and help on the various cuts to make. There is some info, also, on power carving, but this is primarily aimed at manual carvers.It really is a great book to build from and go back to. Whereas other carving books will lead you into more complicated projects, this is perfect to start off with. There are a couple of advanced designs in it, but the rest are very simple and at the perfect level for a beginner.Note: Be sure, also, to check out Chris Pye's videos on his website. For about a fiver a month you can access a very good range of HD content, which I have found as helpful as anything else.

I was disappointed. If it contains what you want to know then it is a nice book with many good quality photographs and probably warrants about four stars.However it seems to lack many of the topics that I had hoped to read about. I've not yet read every word but have scanned through it several times and studied the index and have been unable to find anything about the following : Carving musical instruments, bows or hollow objects. Working with ash or yew. Using an axe, crooked knife or stone tools.These are perhaps less commonly encountered than the decorative subjects that the book focuses on but it does claim to be "the complete book of..." If the information provided is transferable to these areas this is not made obvious.If you want to carve decorative objects and have quite a high level of artistic ability (or are willing to accept what you can achieve) this looks like it is probably a useful book. I don't know enough to confirm that what it contains is correct.However it is probably a book with a misleading title.

Great book. Very detailed about equipment and tecniques. I was looking for a guide how to carve on obejects as i have a particular idea in mind, I read the great reviews on Amazon and i decided to buy this copy. It has in introduction to carving and few project at the end, funny enuff one of the designs pictured is exactly what i was thinking for my project. So im absolutely super happy about this book.. Thanks Amazon :)))

Very helpful book, it's helped me a lot since I started reading it.

Excellent reading for anybody interested in carving with wood, great point of reference for learning the background and development of carving.