Hand carving tools and draws

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I have a few trees that I'd like to try my hand at carving on this year. I have watched some of the bonsai empire courses on carving - looks like using dremels and rotary tools is the popular option. However, I see a lot of hand carving tools out there such as these: https://www.americanbonsai.com/American-Bonsai-Carving-Scoop-p/ab271.htm

Does anyone know of a resource out there that details the use of the hand carvers and draw tools? Does anybody out there do a lot of carving by hand? I'd be interested in reading more about it and any suggestions as to what might be needed to get started. Most of the trees I would like to carve on would be chumono or smaller. Thanks!
 

sorce

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Most of the trees I would like to carve on would be chumono or smaller.

It's almost impossible to keep a thing sharp enough to not jostle roots working by hand.
It's a romantic idea, been there, but not very practical.

Especially for small things.

Sorce
 

TomB

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It's almost impossible to keep a thing sharp enough to not jostle roots working by hand.
It's a romantic idea, been there, but not very practical.


Hmm, thats too bad. Maybe time to look into bits for the ol' dremel instead.
 

MrWunderful

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I have carved by hand, with electric gouge and with dremmel. Dremmel/ rotary tools is fastest and easiest for big stuff. For Anything small, cleaning up chops or underside of a deciduous I prefer the electric gouge. Its has most of the control of a hand gouge but is way way faster (expensive though).
 

David wv

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I have not done much carving and I am a total amateur and have not done any major carving yet, just small stuff and cleaning up cuts and stuff. I use a small hand gouge that I made, flat chisel and a double edge or loop hoof knife used for trimming horses hooves and make sure you sharpen and polish them. A razor sharp tool makes everything so much easier. But I am sure a dermal or die grinder is the best for removing a lot of wood on big jobs though.
 
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