Woodwork Designs

Woodwork design can be classified as either decorative designs that are cut into the wood or piecing different pieces of wood together to form a decorative article. Designs cut into the wood are most often done with hand tools, but electric tools also exist for this purpose. For decorative articles, the rough pieces can be cut with saws and routers, but the finishing work is usually done by hand. Either way, a lot of the work is done with patience and hand tools.

Hand tools can include chisels, planes, hand saws, Microplanes, X-acto knives and any number of metal tools used for cutting or stamping designs into the wood. The first thing is to have a design in mind. If you want a headboard with a rose border or a vine border, you will want to draw the design onto the wood with a carpenter's pencil or some other soft pencil. Generally the outlines are carved the deepest, with the flowers and leaves the shallowest. But there are also designs cut the opposite. These are known as reliefs and are often stained darker than the rest of the piece.

Designs in wood can also be obtained by piecing together different types of wood in a mosaic pattern. This can be done by carving out a large area in the wood piece and then placing the mosaic pieces in like jigsaw puzzle pieces. That is, by far, the easiest method. For more advanced carvers, veneer pieces can be inlaid to make more complex designs.