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How To Hold Your Work While Wood Carving


Recently I saw an old post from Wood Carving Illustrated titled "Shop-Made Holding Devices", written by Roger Schroeder, and was inspired by some of the inexpensive, creative solutions people come up with to hold their irregularly-shaped wood carvings while they work.

If you want to see the original article, you can find that here

I wanted to share some of my favorite solutions from the WCI article, and a few more that I've come across as well. What appealed to me, aside from the ingenuity, was that all of these can be made with commonly available materials. 

The Hand Vice For Whittling & Small Pieces

Just a large diameter dowel and screw is all you need for this one. Perfect for accommodating whittling and smaller wood carving projects for carving or painting. This is a picture of Elmer Jumper's hand vise.

From the article:

Elmer Jumper, of Philadelphia, PA, adapted a painting stick for his style of carving. Elmer inserted a drywall screw—which is threaded along its entire length—into a length of wood. He also drilled a hole in the other end to hold a separately carved head. If he is working on a project where a screw hole could be difficult to fill, he roughs out the carving so that it includes a tapered tenon to fit t the hole in the hand vise. When he finishes carving, he cuts away the tenon.

Peg Board Holding Device

How to hold your work while carving

For those familiar with our history at Schaaf Tools, you'll know master carver Joe Dillett played a role early on steering some of our carving tools related decisions. Joe helped us decide what profiles to include in each set, what accessories to come out with first, and more. He has a video on YouTube showing how to make a simple peg board holding device for relief carvings (I recently made one for less than $10 with a cheap piece of MDF board and a some dowels.) The cool thing about this, aside from it being cheap and easy to make, is it can hold a variety of different shaped pieces. The key is in the randomness of the holes - if you have enough of them, you're almost guaranteed to find a combo that works to secure your wood carving, no matter the size and shape. 

If you want to see Joe's video, you can check it out at the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-esk1eDZr2w

 

Carver's Frame

A carver's frame (also called a carving frame or bench screw) is a traditional woodcarving tool used to hold the workpiece securely while carving. It consists of a horizontal wooden frame with an adjustable screw mechanism that clamps the wood in place.

The typical setup includes:

  • A wooden frame - usually attached to the edge of a workbench or table
  • A large screw mechanism - that passes through the frame to apply clamping pressure
  • Adjustable jaws or pads - to accommodate different sizes of wood

The carver's frame allows you to position your workpiece at a comfortable height and angle, and it holds the wood firmly so both hands are free for carving. It's particularly useful for relief carving and when working on pieces that need to be rotated or repositioned frequently.

Sandbag + Web Clamp

This is a setup from Russ Robinson. The sandbag is on top of his workbench, with the web clamp wrapped around all three (work, sandbag, workbench). 

That's right, a sandbag and web clamp can make a handy holding device, especially when the carving you're working on has fragile areas that need extra support not provided by screws or vises. It's also a practical solution if you're working on a larger piece that needs to be rotated frequently (when you don't want to have to take off and reattach the piece from a vise or undo and redo a vise every time the piece needs to be moved). If you don't have a sandbag, a big bag of rice can be effective as well. 

Non-Slip Rubber Mat

The simplicity of this solution might surprise you: a non-slip rubber mat. That's it. Relief carver Randall 'Madcarver' Stoner swears by this method, and there are number of people across various wood carving forums who espouse this simple method. Perforated routing pads, certain anti-fatigue mats, or the rubber stuff people put under their rugs to keep them from slipping can all be made into effective holding surfaces for your relief carving. Just make sure you're not using something with harder plastic or rubber that gets slippery, and make small, controlled cuts while you're working. 

A Rope and a Slatted Table For Spoon Carving


I wanted to throw a fun one for the spoon carvers out there. I came across this on a wood carving forum at Lumberjocks.com. With the right table and some rope or twine, you can easily secure your wood on the go, or set up a simple holding device at home. This could also be fairly easily adapted to work with a lap board as well.

Paper and Glue

For small, delicate relief carving work, a clamp of any size will likely get in the way of your work. If you haven't had a change to make your peg board holding device, and you need a quick solution in a pinch, paper and glue can be used to make a super simple temporary joint. Newspaper is the perfect thickness. 

First, ensure the back of your carving piece is completely flat. Apply wood glue to both a piece of scrap plywood (or other warp-resistant board) and the back of your carving. Place a layer of newspaper between the two surfaces, then clamp the carving and backing board together. Allow the glue to dry overnight.

When you've finished your carving work, use a putty knife (or regular knife if you don't have a putty knife) to carefully pry the carving free from the backing board. Any newspaper residue left on the back of your carving can be easily removed by sanding or scraping.


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