Introduce children to a hobby that lasts a lifetime - woodcarving. With just a few basic tools, scrap wood, and the safe techniques outlined in this fun project book, any child between the ages of 9-12 will be on their way to creating keepsakes or crafting hand-carved gifts for their family.

First, children learn all about wood. They learn about the anatomy of a tree, how to choose the best wood for carving, defects commonly found in wood, and where to find "free" wood in nature. Next, safety is stressed. Kids learn how to correctly-size a protective glove, and how to make their own thumb guard. They also learn how to properly handle tools, and the best way to safely use wood finishing supplies.

Woodcarving tools and supplies are covered in great depth, with each tool's use explained and illustrated with a step-by-step practice exercise, that builds skill and confidence in young readers. Carving techniques start with the safest and most basic tools and work up to more advanced tools, like a pocketknife, chisel and gouge. In fact, the first practice project ensures a safe experience, as it shows kids how to carve a boat out of a bar of soap, using just a plastic disposable knife!

They'll learn how to properly open and close a pocket knife, and how to make basic woodcarving cuts, like the push cut, stop cut, incised cut, score cut and chip cut. And kids will learn when they need to use other tools, like a coping saw for curved cuts, or a clamp for attaching wood to a table. Another skill put to practice is sanding and finishing wood, and includes how and when to best use water paints, acrylic paints, colored pencil and varnish.

Especially important in building good habits that can be applied to all aspects of life, is the chapter on care and maintenance of tools. Children will learn how to store tools and how to keep them in tip-top shape.

Once you've mastered the tool exercises, you'll confidently put your newly formed skills to practice with 7 projects for carving a fun wooden whistle, a croaking musical frog, a relief-carved eagle head, a snowman ornament, and more!

Everett Ellenwood has been a carving instructor for more than 25 years. He has made two best-selling videos, Beginning Woodcarving and Sharpening Simplified.

Get a bunch of woodcarvers sitting around with a cup of coffee in hand, and one of the issues that often arises is the future of woodcarving, particularly with regard to the number of young carvers (or lack thereof.) Go to almost any club meeting or caving show, and likely you'll find the vast majority of people are baby boomers or older, with sprinkling of 20- and 30-somethings, and relatively few young carvers. Largely gone are the days when a youngster sat on the back step, pocket knife in hand, learning the first steps in carving from Grandfather. The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) does have a woodcarving merit badge, but from my days as a merit badge counselor, I can tell you that badge is not one of the more popular ones.

We're fighting a battle for attention against organized sports, computer games, and the like. One aspect of this problem is the relative dearth of carving books aimed specifically at young people. The folks at Fox Chapel Publishing, fortunately, have put into our hands a new book that might help turn the tide.

Fox Chapel has launched a new Kid Crafts series, and one of the first volumes is Woodcarving, written by Ev Ellenwood. This is not an adult book dumbed down, but rather built from the ground up for young people. There is, of course, the expectation that the book will be used under adult supervision, at least with preteen and younger children.

At a 128 pages, this book is as thick as your average carving book, but at 8” x 8” is a size better suited to young hands.

Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: All About Wood
Chapter 2: Woodcarving Supplies
Chapter 3: Tools Chapter 4: Projects
The Introduction starts out with Look What You Can Carve, a page of project photos designed to catch the attention of the youngster. Also included is a How to Use This Book page and a Note to Adults.

Chapter 1 presents a good overview about wood – the anatomy of a tree, vessels and grain, and the best woods to carve.

Chapter 2 begins a discussion about woodcarving supplies and presents the first of many skill building exercises scattered throughout the book. The concept here is good - it breaks a particular skill down into a step-by-step process that the young carver can practice. The first of the Skills is Gluing Wood Together, something we take for granted but which may be an unknown skill for a young person. The chapter goes on to review sandpaper and sanding, pattern transfer, and finishing supplies and skills.

Chapter 3 is about Tools. As is most appropriate, Safety is the first article of discussion in the chapter, with a good discussion about gloves and thumb guards. The chapter continues with information about caring for tools, measuring and marking tools, clamping tools and a carver's hook, saws and drills, and carving knives. Included here are an important series of skill builders about various types of knife cuts. The chapter then turns to a discussion of gouges and gouge cuts and ends with an excellent section on sharpening (as you might expect from an Ellenwood book.)

Chapter 4 begins the projects. The first is a soap boat carving project using handmade wooden tools. This project serves as a good reality check for an adult to determine if a young person has the dexterity and maturity to move on to sharp carving tools and wood carvings.

The wood carving projects begin with a simple relief snowman ornament, then a carved wooden whistle, arrowhead, name plaque, a relief eagle head and an in-the-round musical frog. Each has good detailed directions with quality step-by-step photos.

The book concludes with a glossary page and a resource page, which includes three of our WOM sponsors.



In Conclusion

There is a lot to like about this book, and very few nits to pick. I could only really find one - the pages on that nasty 'S” word. (That would be sanding.)

Other than that, I found the book to be well written and well designed. If you have a child or grandchild whom you'd like to interest in woodcarving, than this book may be the perfect Christmas or birthday present. If you have no young children or grands, but would like to help spread the art and craft, consider becoming a BSA woodcarving Merit Badge councilor; this publication would be an excellent adjunct to the merit badge handbook.

Part of a new series targeted to teach
children traditional crafts, this 122-page
softcover book (ISBN: 978-1-56523-366-9,
$14.95), written by award-winning carver
Everett Ellenwood, includes diagrams, patterns
and step-by-step photos for projects
such as a croaking frog, snowman ornament
and wooden train whistle.

Everett Ellenwood's Kid Crafts: Woodcarving teaches more than just how to carve a block of wood. It instills confidence, develops a can-do attitude, and establishes problem-solving skills that will last a lifetime.

Part of a new series targeted to teach children traditional crafts, including leather crafting and basic woodworking, Kid Crafts: Woodcarving helps kids ages 9 and older discover the fun they can have creating with their hands. Among the affordable, easy-to-follow projects which require only a simple set of tools and basic skills, new carvers will find everything they need to create some fun projects, including a croaking frog, a snowman ornament, a wooden train whistle, arrowheads, name plaques, and more.

Author Everett Ellenwood is an award-winning carver and nationally recognized instructor for more than 30 years. He has written Complete Book of Woodcarving and produced two best-selling videos, Beginning Woodcarving and Sharpening Simplified.

They are fabulous!

What I really like about these 3 Kid Crafts titles:
· Starting with basics… how to use the book, the note to adults from each author, the origins of leather/wood
· The half-tone subject headings at the top of the left-hand pages for easy navigation
· Complete introductions for each craft: types of each material, processing, how to select, supplies needed, skills to master, what specific tools are and how they are used to create a particular effect, SAFETY guidelines!... esp. good in the woodworking books where they're really needed and they are repeated in each step where needed
· Each book takes the readers from beginner to advanced skill level and projects
· And these are real projects… not just cutesy kid crafts… these are items that will be of interest to the intended audience
· The layouts on each project are very clear: supplies, tools, skills, patterns, step-by-step photos to refer to
· Glossary and resources… librarians love backmatter like this… websites and suppliers are valuable for rural crafters
· The Woodcarving title starts off well, with the 2 page spread of colored photos of 'look what you can carve” and 'here's all you need to get started”… who can resisit? This one also includes great tips on skill building to keep beginners encouraged.

Excellent job