Complete Guide to Wood Carving

Rating:
Summary: Not at all what I expected. I'm disappointed.
Review: I feel this is an excellent book for both beginning and experienced woodcarvers. Tangerman, being an excellent teacher and carver, begins with a short introduction on woodcarving and moves right into discussions on the tools, sharpening and different woods. The discussions are basic enough for a beginner to understand but complete with enough detail to make them useful to even an experienced carver. Unlike a lot of other carving books which tell you about every single tool, brand and method to the point of confusion, Tangerman introduces the basic tools and shows how to use them, discusses when to use them and how to keep them sharp. The remainder of the book discusses the different types of carving as well as carving within different cultures and over time. Along with numerous examples and patterns, he includes instructions on how to carve and what to watch for in the process. As a beginner I used this book as a simple way to start carving, as an experienced carver I now use this book for reference. This is a book that should be in the shop of every woodcarver.

Rating:
Summary: Woodcarving introductions and reference....
Review: I feel this is an excellent book for both beginning and experienced woodcarvers. Tangerman, being an excellent teacher and carver, begins with a short introduction on woodcarving and moves right into discussions on the tools, sharpening and different woods. The discussions are basic enough for a beginner to understand but complete with enough detail to make them useful to even an experienced carver. Unlike a lot of other carving books which tell you about every single tool, brand and method to the point of confusion, Tangerman introduces the basic tools and shows how to use them, discusses when to use them and how to keep them sharp. The remainder of the book discusses the different types of carving as well as carving within different cultures and over time. Along with numerous examples and patterns, he includes instructions on how to carve and what to watch for in the process. As a beginner I used this book as a simple way to start carving, as an experienced carver I now use this book for reference. This is a book that should be in the shop of every woodcarver.

Rating:
Summary: A collection of international carving examples
Review: There are a few helpful drawings and remarks - as can be gleaned from most text on the subject but overall I was somewhat disappointed. Primarily the book is a showcase of small touristy type carvings from the author's travels - chili, alaska, etc.
There is a wide variety of such material covered but it's presented in more of example format - rather than how to carve.

It reminds of some old library book from the 60's. Interesting, informative, but not very current or helpful.

Rating:
Summary: Not at all what I expected. I'm disappointed.
Review: What I was hoping for was a book that would be a complete guide to wood carving. This is somewhat of a history book. It is written in a plain text, and black and white photos that makes it a boring read. You know the feeling of picking up a book, and it feels right. It's an easy read, logical, concise, and the concepts jump out at you, resulting in some WoWs! Well this book is none of that. Although the beginning covers some different woods that are good for carving, additionally he covers the basic wood carving tools, but not how to use them. It would be like, here is a picture of a table saw, but let's not go into how to use it. He goes into the neccessity of the tools having to be sharp, that's good. 90% of this book exhibits black and white pictures of finished wood carvings, and where they originated from. I know what carved wood looks like, I want to know how to do it, and if I can enjoy the instruction, all the better. Reading this book is a lot of work. The front cover gives me the impression that I am going to get instruction on wood carving. As absurd as this may seem, I learned little from browsing the book, other than that you need to draw an outline on the wood of what you plan on carving. I have tons of books on woodworking, and all but one are keepers. This one is going back.
My Dad was a wood carver, and I proudly display his works. I did a wood carving project in a college art class. I just bought a matched set of Freud Hand Carving Chisels, and plan on keeping Dads antique set sharpened and oiled for antiquity. What I need now is someone to emulate with clear concise instruction on the ins and outs of carving, to create mind blowing pieces, of gorgeous wood, and finished to please the eye as well as the best interests of preserving the wood.
This book is written for the experienced wood carver, who has a lifetime of projects under his belt, and wants to sit around and talk about wood carving styles, and history.
I have a book that explains how to lathe turn a flaming finial out of walnut, then hand carve the cone shaped dome into a flame that resembles a torch. Attached to a bandsawn, curly back piece of fine furniture. He shows you how to form the lines, reduce it to the first layer of petals, then doing the next level of the flame lines. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was a must do. Simple, well explained, and color photographed explanation of what to do. I was hoping that this book would do the same thing. Complete guide to wood carving? Great if I was taking a history course, but for someone who needs to carve claw feet for your hand carved furniture, this is not the one. I have a living room full of 17th Century French Provincial hand carved furniture, and learned something from it. Pick out the correct proportional design, lay it out, draw it in, then begin. I'm going to look into buying another book.