Wood Carving Tools for Eye Punches
- Wood carvers take a raw block of wood and slowly remove material in order to create a beautiful sculpted piece of art. Whether making a two-dimensional carved plaque, a three-dimensional statue or hunting decoys, wood carving takes patience, skill and the right tools. Each tool is designed to create a specific effect on the wood. Some tools are designed to remove large amounts of raw material from the block during the early sculpting stages, while other tools are individually designed to create a specific, realistic detail.
- Wood carvers must carefully select the right wood for their project. The type of wood, hardness of the wood and the grain pattern all affect how the final object will appear, and how the wood will accept their design. Some woods are too hard, and will quickly dull sharp carving tools. Other woods are too soft, and splinter easily. Ideal wood species candidates feature a consistent, fine wood grain, and a medium harness. Woods such as popular, mahogany, cherry and walnut possess these traits and are ideal for wood carving.
- Round eye punches are designed to be lightly tapped into the wood surface to create a relief that looks like a realistic eye. Some round eye punches for smaller sculptures are simply blunt round points that create an indent that resembles an eye. Others feature a larger, hollow ground point that creates a recessed outline, while leaving a round "eyeball" that protrudes in the center of the indentation. Wood carvers usually use round punches for animals sculptures, to create a lifelike eyes like those in cats, dogs or birds.
- Oval eye punches are used to create the eye socket of humans and animals that feature an oval, almond-shaped eye rather than a round eye like a cat or dog. Oval eye punches are shaped like a miniature lathe turner's half-round chisel. The tool is use to cut away the material around the eye socket, to create an oval relief rather than punched into the surface to create the detail in a single motion.
