Chris Pye's Woodcarving Course & Reference Manual: A Beginner's Guide to Traditional Techniques (Woodcarving Illustrated) Kindle Edition

A very good beginners book. I decided a while back that I wanted to learn to hand carve. This book had great instructions and photos. My first piece turned out better than would have thought.

It's gotten a little dated. The extra that were downloadable are no longer available. It's not much good as a course guide if the patterns aren't available. You will probably will learn more by watching the numerous YouTube videos available for wood carving.

I liked this book, but learning by book is slower because you have to try to imagine what he's doing based on the words and pictures. I learned some things from this book, but later I discovered Chris Pye had a subscription-based website called "Woodcarving Workshops." It has hundreds of videos, which blows this book away in its depth and clarity. If I could do it all over again, I'd save my money and just watch the videos on his website.

This book is packed great information, pictures that do a good job of illustrating the topic at hand and examples of beautiful, inspiring work.My only complaint is that certain parts are a little too brief. I feel that the section on sharpening withholds too much information... and then encourages you to consult (i.e., buy) the author’s book on the topic to find out more. Instead, I would recommend checking out YouTube and his site. Although, when it comes to sharpening, I highly recommend Popular Woodworking’s The Perfect Edge. Carving tools are only one section in that book but there is so much great information that workworkers should know about.

Well written book by an expert carver. However, I am an old guy and my eyesight isn’t what it used to be. When I pick up this book I have evil thoughts about a publisher that uses such a small font, leaving so much white space, either in the margined or between the lines. A small increase in the size and boldness of the font would make the book much more enjoyable to read. The illustrations are excellent. The book layout is very beautiful, but very difficult for old eyes to read.

Chris Pye is one of the best-known teachers of modern woodcarving and in this book he shows you how -- more-or-less.Woodcarving in the classic manner is scary looking from the outside. In addition to the enormous number of tools, there is the matter of learning the many techniques. Pye doesn't so much de-mythologize all this as lead you through it by the hand.Take the tools, for example. Pye illustrates and explains a couple of hundred of the more common ones, but he also points out that the beginner doesn't need more than 6 or 8 basic tools and most woodcarvers will never touch most of that vast array in their careers.With the tools described, Pye moves to the heart of woodcarving, sharpening and preparing the tools for use. A serious carver will spend at least as much time sharpening and honing as she does using the tools. Properly sharpened tools make all the difference in the world and Pye devotes considerable space to showing you how it's done.Unfortunately sharpening is something that has to be learned by practice and most beginners end up working with improperly sharpened tools because they haven't mastered the art. This makes everything harder an seriously limits what you can do. BTW: woodcarving tools come with an edge on them, but they are not properly sharpened. Each tool has to be sharpened and honed before it can be used to do anything but hack and tear at wood.Pye is English and this shows in the selection of woods he discusses. Some of them are not common in the US.Then we get to the carving projects. Since Pye is a carver in the classical tradition the projects concentrate on relief and three-dimensional projects. They are definitely interesting -- I particularly liked the banana peel -- but they are probably a little much for beginners.All in all, a very good book to get you started.

It was a great Christmas Present for someone just starting out. He had taken a class and this helps to support that class information while he begins this new woodworking experience.

I consider myself an intermediate wood carver that wants to expand his skills into larger more interpretive pieces. I have found that Chris Pye has developed an entire line of books that take the beginning carver through the details needed to understand the mechanics of the tools, the complexity of the medium and development of the design to be a successful carver. This review is on one of the books I have purchased recently. I now own seven of Chris' books and have just about read them cover to cover. He has helped greatly in grounding my knowledge in time tested techniques and related it to historical pieces for both good examples and bad. If there is any fault to be found it is that Chris' style is that of a European carver and thus relies on chisels for most of his carving as compared to the American style that uses both knives and chisels to work the design. Book is very through and refers to sections in the other books that he has written for more detailed descriptions of branch areas of instruction.

Added as a useful addition to my carving library. Good section on tool sharpening, the most important aspect for anyone who wants to carve well.

Great book full of very useful guidance, hubby loves it and I am glad I got him it as its been useful to us both.

Best woodcarving book I have found which describes all stages required to produce the final piece.

Havnt has the chance to put some of the ideas listed to practice but exactly what I was after

Great for first time carver