How do I do chip carving?

Two knives, one very sharp edge and a geometric pattern: the three-cut chip that produces the whole traditional vocabulary, and the layout that makes it look right.

Difficulty: intermediate
Time: 2 hr
Read: 3 min
Safety: caution

Short answer

Chip carving removes small three-sided chips with two or three angled knife cuts that meet at a point below the surface. Lay the pattern out accurately with compass and rule on flat close-grained wood. Hold the knife at a consistent angle, cut each side of the triangle in turn towards the deep centre, and the chip lifts out cleanly.

Chip carving is geometry executed with a knife. Every traditional pattern is built from a small number of repeated chips, and the effect depends almost entirely on consistency — the same angle, the same depth, the same crispness, repeated hundreds of times. It needs very little equipment and a great deal of accuracy.

Safety

Chip carving knives are extremely sharp and are used with the blade close to the supporting hand. Keep the fingers of the holding hand off the board in front of the blade, work with the board on a bench rather than in your lap, and stop when your hand tires — control fades before you notice.

What you'll need

A chip carving knife, and usually a stab knife
A strop and compound
Flat close-grained wood — lime, basswood or butternut
Compass, rule, pencil and eraser

Step by step

Choose flat, close-grained, knot-free wood.Lime or basswood is the standard. The pattern depends on crisp facets, and any grain contrast, knot or coarse texture destroys them.
Lay the pattern out accurately in pencil.Compass and rule, working from a grid or from circles. Chip carving patterns are geometric and any inaccuracy in the layout shows in the finished carving far more than a slightly wobbly cut does.
Set the knife angle and keep it.The knife is held at a consistent angle — commonly around 65 degrees to the surface — with the thumb of the knife hand braced on the wood. The angle decides the depth and the shadow, and consistency is what makes a panel look right.
Understand the three-cut chip.A triangular chip is removed with three cuts, each running from a corner down to the deepest point at the centre. The three cuts meet and the chip lifts out as one clean piece.
Make the first two cuts as plunge cuts.Enter at one corner, deepest at the centre point, out at the next corner. Then the same on the second side, the knife angled so the two cut faces converge below the surface.
Make the third cut to release the chip.Along the third side, meeting the other two at the bottom. The chip should come away cleanly. If it does not, one of the cuts has not reached the intersection.
Work with the grain where the design allows.The three sides of a chip cannot all run with the grain. Cut the cross-grain sides first while the wood is still supported, and take the along-grain cuts last.
Strop the knife constantly.Chip carving lives on a polished edge. A knife that leaves any fuzz at the bottom of a chip needs stropping, not more pressure.
Erase the pattern lines and finish.A soft eraser, gently, then a very light finish. Oil darkens the shadows in the chips and makes the pattern read; heavy film finishes fill the corners and flatten the effect.

Tips

Practise a single row of identical chips across a scrap board before starting a design. The skill being learned is repeatability, and it comes from repetition rather than from complexity.
Transfer a pattern by drawing it directly with compass and rule wherever possible. Tracing paper and carbon transfer work but leave a line that has to be erased and can smear into the cut faces.
Work in good raking light. The whole effect of chip carving is shadow, and you cannot judge a cut you cannot see.

Common mistakes

Varying the knife angle between chips — Different angles give different shadows, so an otherwise accurate panel looks uneven. A consistent angle matters more than a steep one.
Cutting too shallow and going back to deepen — The second cut rarely follows the first exactly, and the chip face ends up stepped. Commit to the full depth in one pass.
Working on coarse or figured wood — The pattern relies on clean facets and sharp arrises, which coarse grain will not hold. Lime or basswood exists for this.

Questions people ask

How do I transfer a pattern onto the wood?

Draw it directly with a compass and rule where the design is geometric, which most chip carving is. For irregular designs, carbon or graphite transfer paper under a printed pattern works; keep the lines light because you will need to erase them.

Why do my chips tear at the bottom instead of lifting out?

Either the three cuts are not meeting at a single point below the surface, or the knife is not sharp enough. Check the geometry first and strop second.