What Is the Difference Between Carving & Whittling?

The Wood

• There are only two requirements when it comes to wood for whittling: it must be soft enough to slice pieces off with a knife, and it must be small enough to fit in one hand. Wood for carving can be hard, such as elm, or it can be soft, such as pine. It can be large, such as a ten foot tall trunk of a redwood tree, or it can be small, such as a branch to make a cane.

The Tools

• There is one tool for whittling: a knife. Whittlers of yore used pocketknives because most men had a pocketknife. Any knife can be used for whittling, as long as it is small enough to be held comfortably in the hand that is not holding the wood, and sharp enough to slice through the wood as though it were butter. The list of tools used for carving is endless. Chisels, mallets, files, rasps, rifflers, chainsaws, and sandpaper are a few of the tools that can shape and smooth wood.

The Processes

• Whittlers generally sit with their elbows on their legs, the knife in their dominant hand, and slice off pieces of wood in a sweeping motion away from the body. The carver's wood and vision for the final product dictates the process used to carve. The carver may use a chainsaw to roughly shape a larger piece of wood and then use a chisel to further define the shape, and finally move to smaller tools to cut in fine details.

The Products

• The final product from whittlers are small because the wood is small. Some whittlers produce figurines which can be finely detailed or roughly hewn. Carvings can be rough like totem poles or intricately detailed like fine furniture. They can be enormous or miniscule. Some carvings are done on flat surfaces. Unlike whittling, there are no limitations when it comes to carving.