Woodcarving Suppliers

Gladly we have had many new subscribers join our group over the past several weeks and to you I want to say thank you.  I am very grateful you have decided to join our Wood Chip Chatter family and hope you will find my blog informative and interesting.

About two months ago I posted a list of woodcarving suppliers  which you can find if you go back to my August 7, 2021 post.  However, for your convenience and for the benefit of others who might like to see it again I am going to re-post it here.   

This is by no means a complete list and I’m sure there are many other woodcarving suppliers that are not listed here.  If anyone knows of any other suppliers that are not on the list please send them in and I will add them.  They can even be knife makers or wood suppliers.   We would love to hear from you to make our list even longer.

In the near future I will be posting a list of all of my personal suppliers (woodcarving and otherwise).  This will be quite a comprehensive list which I’m sure everyone will find useful, so stay tuned.

Woodcarving Supplier List

Supplier	Website or Phone #	Products Supplied
Belcher Carving Supply	www.belchercarvingsupply.com	Tools, accessories,, turntables
Cascade Carvers Supply	cascadecarvers@msn.com	Tools, Accessories, Books
Chipping Away	www.chippingaway.com	Tools, supplies, roughouts, wood
Chris Hammack Roughouts	www.chrishammackart.com/roughouts	Barflys, Professiomal series, roughouts
Dale Green Woodcarving	www.dalegreenwoodcarving.com	Roughouts, Knives
Drake Knives	www.drake-knives.myshopify.com	Knives and Gouges
Dwayne Gosnell Woodcarving	www.dgosnellwoodcarving.com	Roughouts
Fantasy Carving	www.fantasycarving.com	Cutouts, roughouts
G. & B. Sears Woodcarving	www.gnbsearswoodcarving.com	Roughouts – Cowboys, Santas, Snowmen
Greg Dorrance Co.	www.gregdorrance.com	Bases, Supplies, Smoky Mt. roughouts
Heinecke Wood Products	(715) 822-3524	Northern Wisconsin Basswood
Helvie Knives	www.helvieknives.com	Helvie custom knives
Hillcrest Carving	(717) 285-7117	Anything you need for wood carving!
Hummul Carving Co.	www.hummul.com	Anything you need for wood carving!
Jon Nelson Woodcarving	www.jonnelsonwoodcarving.com	Roughouts-Santas,snowmen,gnomes
MDI Woodcarvers Supply	www.mdiwoodcarvers.com	Supplies of all kinds, walnut bases
Moore Roughouts	www.roughouts.com	Roughouts of all kinds, stopper corks
Mountain Woodcarvers	www.mountainwoodcarvers,com	Tools, supplies, roughouts, books, wood
Stadtlander Carvings	www.stadtlandercarvings.com	Supplies, turned wood products, Safety
Steve Brown Woodcarving	www.sbrownwoodcarving.com	Roughouts, pen blanks
Sugar Pine Woodcarving Supp	www.sugarpinewoodcarving.com	Safety, Pine knots, Dremel equip.
Treeline	www.treelineusa.com	Walking sticks, carving & cane supplies
Van Kellys Carving	www.vankellycarvings.com	Roughouts-hillbillies, Santas, snowman
Wetherbee Collection	www.wetherbeecollection.com	Roughouts – all kinds
Whittling Shack	www.whittlingshsck.com	Tools, spoon kits, cottonwood bark
Wood Carver’s Supply	www.woodcarverssupply.com	Tools, Safety, Books, Wood

Questions & Comments

I received a good number of questions and comments this time which I’m really pleased to see!  It’s your questions, comments and photos that make Wood Chip Chatter alive and interesting.  They are so important and I could not run this blog without them.  That said, I’m asking all of you to continue sending in your questions and comments and to also send in your requests for the kind of articles and information you would like to see in future posts of Wood Chip Chatter.  I try to make Wood Chip Chatter about you, my readers, so your input is very crucial in helping me continue to keep things going.  So let’s hear what you have to say!

 Our first question today comes from Rick Carver who has a question about using mineral oil on his carvings:

“Hi Bob,
I know that most carvers talk about using BLO or Walnut oil on their carvings before painting, but I’m wondering if you have any experience or comments about using mineral oil as an alternative. I don’t like BLO because of the yellowing issue that people talk about over time. I’ve heard mineral oil mentioned few times but that’s about it. I’ve tried mineral oil and the fact that it has no odor and is easy to clean up makes it a great option it seems. Are there any negatives to mineral oil or reasons not to use it?”

Thanks for writing in, Rick!  Very good question.  Although I do not have any personal experience with using mineral oil, I have also heard of more and more carvers using it on their carvings.  Because of the yellowing issue, as well as the odor and combustibility concern I stopped using boiled linseed oil (BLO) a couple of years ago, and have been encouraging my readers to do the same.

Unlike BLO, mineral oil is a colorless, almost tasteless, oily, water insoluble liquid used mainly as a lubricant, in the manufacture of cosmetics, and in medicine as a laxative.  By definition one would assume that mineral oil would not yellow the same way BLO does.  However, because it contains mixtures of hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum distillation I could not confidently say (although I doubt) it won’t yellow over time.

Our next comment comes from rricecarver who enjoyed reading my article on Tupelo:

“Bob,thanks again for what you do and thanks again for the free knowledge!! I liked the Tupelo article, while all this time I thought duck carvers used Tupelo.”

Thank you for your kind comment!  As you have read, although tupelo is a favorite wood of duck and bird carvers it also has many other uses.

Our next comment is actually a photo of some of John Tuttle’s fantastic Halloween carvings:

“Bob…..Wife just got all these out for the upcoming holiday so thought share”

Thanks so much for the great photo, John!  Those Halloween carvings are terrific!  The witch is especially “wicked” and the spools are cool!

Our next question comes from Liam Anon from Dublin, Ireland who is looking for a good wax to finish his carvings with. Liam has also send in two photos of a great looking little Gnome he recently carved. Liam writes:

“Hi Bob,

Thanks for creating and hosting the Wood Chip Chatter blog, I’m thoroughly enjoying and learning from the various posts I’ve read so far…keep them joke cartoons coming

My question for you, and/or the other subscribers relates to waxing and buffing.

I enjoy carving little guys and many of these have beards. I usually brush them with walnut oil which I think improves their look, and also helps display the grain in the wood which I really like to see. However, I would like if the finish had a waxed look and feel but don’t know how to achieve this. I’ve included an example of a little guy with a beard that I would like have a waxed look and finish.

Are there wax products that can be easily brushed onto carvings, and what might some of these be?

How should one go about buffing carvings that are not smooth, and preferably buffing by hand as opposed to using a buffing wheel? How does one get into the groves when buffing? 

Thanks in advance for your answer, and for those from other subscribers on the blog, they’ll be much appreciated.

Wishing you well, and looking forward to more new posts on your blog

Kind regards

Liam (from Dublin, Ireland)”

Thanks for writing in and for the carving photos, Liam!  That’s a great little carving you’ve done.  The cuts are very crisp and clean.  To answer your question, there is a wax that I use and highly recommend called Howard FEED N WAX.  It’s a soft wax made from a mixture of beeswax and orange oil.  I apply it with a tooth brush and scrub it into all the nooks and crannies, then let it sit for about 20 minutes.  After that I wipe it down with a soft cloth (like an old tee shirt) and finally buff it with a horsehair shoe brush.  It gives my carvings a nice soft luster which I really like. I don’t know if it’s available in Ireland so you may have to buy it online.  Most woodcarving suppliers carry it.

I’m sure some of you use other wax products on your carvings and we would love to hear from you with any suggestions you may have.

Our final comment today comes from Wayne Whiting in response to my remarks the other day about giving credit where credit is due. Wayne writes:

“While I agree that credit should be given where it’s due, I disagree that I was too ashamed to admit that I copied someone’s idea. As a new carver, I was simply unaware this should be done. When posting on social media to friends who have no idea who Doug Linker is, I gave no credit. When posting to the FB page Beginners Wood Carving, I gave credit as the majority of carvers there are familiar with his work. Not an excuse, just ignorance. Moving forward I will always give credit, so thanks for bringing it to my attention!”

Thank you for your response, Wayne, your point is very well taken and I actually think you hit the nail right on the head. I may have used the wrong word, “ashamed”, in my remark about carvers copying others’ work. However, at the time I was thinking of those carvers who really should know better…and there are a lot of them out there.

I completely overlooked the thousands of totally new beginners who still need to learn so much about what the carving world is all about. The way it should work is that it doesn’t matter whether it’s Doug Linker, myself, Gene Messer or any other wood carver you imitate, or whether or not your audience is familiar with that carver, the originator of the design should always be mentioned.

I’m glad we’re both on the same page now!

Let the chips fly!  Tell your wood carving friends and spread the word about Wood Chip Chatter, and don’t forget to click the ‘Comment’ button at the bottom of the page to send in your questions and comments so we can keep Wood Chip Chatter active and keep the conversations going! 

And remember, we need your photos!  I’m sure you all have some terrific carvings to share, and photos of your carvings will help to liven up the blog’s appearance and make it more interesting.  Perhaps we can start a carvers photo section!  Email your photos to carverbobk@woodchipchatter.com

Keep a sharp edge and keep on carvin’!