Carving

Billing loves the process of working with a Japanese adze, and he says it produces “a texture you can’t get with any other tool.”

Peter Follansbee provided the perfect project for some precious lumber John Mahoney retrieved from his father.

Rob Spiece's entryway piece centers around easily repeatable and efficient techniques

Wharton Esherick was a genius steeped in the arts and he produced some of the most influential woodcuts and carved wooden sculptures.

In a certain medical clinic in Wisconsin, there’s a sliding door that features a marquetry mural by Spider Johnson and Cindy Goldman.

The art of carving incised lettering is both a valuable skill for a professional woodworker and an instructive practice for beginners.

When Justin Nelson started Fernweh Woodworking in Bend, Ore., in 2014, he was coming off four years in the Marine Corps and then a season on a Forest Service Hotshot crew fighting wildfires. A couple of years in, he was introduced to Sam Maloof’s work. “It boggled my mind,” he says. And it convinced him to turn his business toward furniture.

Yoav Liberman uses a distinctive font, Antropos, to make chip carving letters easier for his students.

John Makepeace's sculpted and sleek cabinet in scorched English oak and ripple sycamore

As if building the coffer weren’t fun enough, painting and carving it notch up the excitement. A choice of paints and colors and endless design possibilities for carving can change the look and feel of the piece.