How to make sure I'm not injuring my hands while wood-carving
July 7, 2020 2:20 PM Subscribe
New lockdown hobby: whittling. I'm not worried about cutting myself (yay kevlar gloves) but I'm worried I am damaging my wrists. A few details below.
I've taken up whittling and I find I'm doing far more push cuts than paring cuts. My hands and wrists often hurt afterward but I'm not sure if it's the "that sure is a muscle I haven't used" hurt like when you go to the gym for the first time in a year or "I'm gonna get carpal tunnel." A little extra interference: the first day I was CLUTCHING a wooden blank to saw away the big extraneous parts because I don't have a view, so that was an unnatural posture plus a wood corner poking into the muscle at the base of my thumb, which was particularly tender the next day.
Is there an easy way to know? Should I just take a day or two off from it*? Also, while I'm at it, if anyone has ergonomic tips for making sure I don't mess up my hands, that'd be good, too. I asked on a hobbyist forum and people crankily suggested googling, which I had obviously done but without finding anything specific to what I was asking.
*even though it is very fun and hard to stop doing. This is all starting to feel like an extended masturbation metaphor but is not.
I've taken up whittling and I find I'm doing far more push cuts than paring cuts. My hands and wrists often hurt afterward but I'm not sure if it's the "that sure is a muscle I haven't used" hurt like when you go to the gym for the first time in a year or "I'm gonna get carpal tunnel." A little extra interference: the first day I was CLUTCHING a wooden blank to saw away the big extraneous parts because I don't have a view, so that was an unnatural posture plus a wood corner poking into the muscle at the base of my thumb, which was particularly tender the next day.
Is there an easy way to know? Should I just take a day or two off from it*? Also, while I'm at it, if anyone has ergonomic tips for making sure I don't mess up my hands, that'd be good, too. I asked on a hobbyist forum and people crankily suggested googling, which I had obviously done but without finding anything specific to what I was asking.
*even though it is very fun and hard to stop doing. This is all starting to feel like an extended masturbation metaphor but is not.
The only thing I have to offer is a suggestion that you avoid anti-inflammatories at first, because inflammation is an essential component of strengthening and reinforcing connective tissue especially — macrophages will show up at sites of inflammation and lay down collagen, for example.
posted by jamjam at 2:53 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by jamjam at 2:53 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: VICE. I don't have a vice. Jeez. I don't think I even typed this on my phone so I can't blame autocorrect.
posted by less of course at 3:12 PM on July 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by less of course at 3:12 PM on July 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
If you don't have a place to bolt down a vise, a bench hook could still give you some options for changing up your grip and position. Simple bench hook, fancy bench hook.
posted by yeahlikethat at 3:41 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by yeahlikethat at 3:41 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
When people run for an hour a day daily after never running before, they mess up their knees or hips or ankles or all.
Likewise if you whittle intensively for an hour a day with no prior similar manual labor exercise, you’ll hurt your wrists or thumbs or forearms, and possibly take a long time to recover from repetitive strain injury. Ymmv, it’s probably safer to dive in if you’re under 30, but my advice is yes take that day off before you regret it.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:31 PM on July 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
Likewise if you whittle intensively for an hour a day with no prior similar manual labor exercise, you’ll hurt your wrists or thumbs or forearms, and possibly take a long time to recover from repetitive strain injury. Ymmv, it’s probably safer to dive in if you’re under 30, but my advice is yes take that day off before you regret it.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:31 PM on July 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
Make sure your knives are actually sharp. Dull tools suuuuck, and also are harder to work with.
And if you're hand-carving, green wood is easier to carve than rock-hard dry wood. (At all costs avoid dry cherry. Ask Me How I Know.)
posted by wenestvedt at 7:38 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
And if you're hand-carving, green wood is easier to carve than rock-hard dry wood. (At all costs avoid dry cherry. Ask Me How I Know.)
posted by wenestvedt at 7:38 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
When I was a kid, my dad was keeping an eye on my brother instead of the stick he was whittling, and he did in fact cut his wrist and we went to the ER and he was fine, but I think rather embarrassed.
Make sure the only thing you're doing while carving wood is wood-carving.
posted by aniola at 8:27 PM on July 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
Make sure the only thing you're doing while carving wood is wood-carving.
posted by aniola at 8:27 PM on July 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
Along with the bench hook or other work-holding setup, palm chisels, maybe.
Also, you should be probably caving boxwood or something.
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:16 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
Also, you should be probably caving boxwood or something.
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:16 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
I had an economist once sit me down and tell me in very small words something that should have been obvious: There is no motion you can do a hundred thousand times in a row without injury.
People always want ergonomics to be a solution, like, if I hold my mouse like this then I can keep playing this hundred-clicks-a-minute game (or job). But what the actual ergonomists and orthopedists and physical therapists have always told me is that you need to take breaks, you need to listen to your body and stop to heal if it starts to hurt, you need to have variety (so, stretching and changing up positions), and you need to have strength work so the big muscles can do the work to support your activities and you don't end up putting a ton of strain on your ligaments and tendons instead.
posted by Lady Li at 11:54 PM on July 7, 2020 [5 favorites]
People always want ergonomics to be a solution, like, if I hold my mouse like this then I can keep playing this hundred-clicks-a-minute game (or job). But what the actual ergonomists and orthopedists and physical therapists have always told me is that you need to take breaks, you need to listen to your body and stop to heal if it starts to hurt, you need to have variety (so, stretching and changing up positions), and you need to have strength work so the big muscles can do the work to support your activities and you don't end up putting a ton of strain on your ligaments and tendons instead.
posted by Lady Li at 11:54 PM on July 7, 2020 [5 favorites]
Whittling is sort of like trying to peel or quarter an absurdly hard apple with a knife in a death grip, squeezing hard and grinding your hand around at an angle to your forearm, activating the carpal tunnel under load, putting pressure on the joints of the fingers and hand.
Now if you look at these luthiery gouges and chisels, there's a lot of rounded bulbs that sit in your palm. Moving the tool forward along the line of your forearm. Not activating the carpal tunnel under load. Generally less pressure on the joints of the fingers and hand.
I'm not saying rush out and buy expensive bulb-handled chisels before it make sense, but you can use veterinary self-adhesive elastic bandages to soften pressure points and fatten out handles to do something similar.
It'd be forever to find a link, but I spotted a larger Japanese carving chisel with a long handle with a bulb that sat up near where your collarbone enters your shoulder. So you were pushing with body-weight, orienting the tip of the tool with your hand, completely unlike whittling. Also, the carver would have done the necessary work to set up their workpiece and workholding so that this is possible. So that's overkill for what you're doing, but the general principles would be 1) modify your workholding setup, 2) less pressure on the joints of the fingers and hand 3) not activating the carpal tunnel under load.
-------------------------------------------------
If you look at the smaller carving chisels here, you make push cuts with them, while holding the tool in both hands. These are delicate enough you might not be shoving hard with your palm.
Even a short, fat, wide-bladed carpentry chisel will give you a few ways to do push cuts while holding it with two hands. I'd tape up a few of the corners so you can move it around more comfortably even.
Plus, where you can, you may want to use a small flexible saw or keyhole saw to remove chunks of wood.
Along with using a mallet to drive a chisel. (Where the chisel is made for it.)
I'd guess in traditional usage, sawing and mallet-driven chisels would come before push chisels. Because it's sensible and ergonomic and so on.
-------------------------------------------------
> Simple bench hook, fancy bench hook.
These are good. When it is necessary, look at lee valley's carver's bench and carver's vise and then feel inspired to shrug and hack up something with 2x4's so you can rotate and orient the work at the right height and angle to make it easiest on your back and forearms.
-------------------------------------------------
If it is all still too hard on your hands, (and assuming it's all in line with your artistic idea) try a good grade of oilclay or air-dry clay. Even jewelers wax.
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:09 AM on July 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
Now if you look at these luthiery gouges and chisels, there's a lot of rounded bulbs that sit in your palm. Moving the tool forward along the line of your forearm. Not activating the carpal tunnel under load. Generally less pressure on the joints of the fingers and hand.
I'm not saying rush out and buy expensive bulb-handled chisels before it make sense, but you can use veterinary self-adhesive elastic bandages to soften pressure points and fatten out handles to do something similar.
It'd be forever to find a link, but I spotted a larger Japanese carving chisel with a long handle with a bulb that sat up near where your collarbone enters your shoulder. So you were pushing with body-weight, orienting the tip of the tool with your hand, completely unlike whittling. Also, the carver would have done the necessary work to set up their workpiece and workholding so that this is possible. So that's overkill for what you're doing, but the general principles would be 1) modify your workholding setup, 2) less pressure on the joints of the fingers and hand 3) not activating the carpal tunnel under load.
-------------------------------------------------
If you look at the smaller carving chisels here, you make push cuts with them, while holding the tool in both hands. These are delicate enough you might not be shoving hard with your palm.
Even a short, fat, wide-bladed carpentry chisel will give you a few ways to do push cuts while holding it with two hands. I'd tape up a few of the corners so you can move it around more comfortably even.
Plus, where you can, you may want to use a small flexible saw or keyhole saw to remove chunks of wood.
Along with using a mallet to drive a chisel. (Where the chisel is made for it.)
I'd guess in traditional usage, sawing and mallet-driven chisels would come before push chisels. Because it's sensible and ergonomic and so on.
-------------------------------------------------
> Simple bench hook, fancy bench hook.
These are good. When it is necessary, look at lee valley's carver's bench and carver's vise and then feel inspired to shrug and hack up something with 2x4's so you can rotate and orient the work at the right height and angle to make it easiest on your back and forearms.
-------------------------------------------------
If it is all still too hard on your hands, (and assuming it's all in line with your artistic idea) try a good grade of oilclay or air-dry clay. Even jewelers wax.
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:09 AM on July 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
Lastly, there's various flavours of indigenous northwest carver's knife/crooked-knife/farrier's hoof knife, odd japanese carving bent knife where the tool is often held with the blade coming out down past the pinkie, and the hand isn't always pronating necessarily, and there may be less pressure on many of the joints of the hand, what with the pulling motion and so on.
A user can make powerful cuts, 2 doing so.
Longer northwest carving example, 2.
posted by sebastienbailard at 6:02 AM on July 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
A user can make powerful cuts, 2 doing so.
Longer northwest carving example, 2.
posted by sebastienbailard at 6:02 AM on July 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
...where the tool is often held with the blade coming out down past the pinkie, and the hand isn't always pronating ...
I have a straight Mora carving knife and also a Mora hook knife. Just to change things up, sometimes I will switch the hook knife blade from coming out of my fist by my thumb, and sometimes by my pinkie. It makes me perform different motions, and the change is a relief.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:18 AM on July 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
I have a straight Mora carving knife and also a Mora hook knife. Just to change things up, sometimes I will switch the hook knife blade from coming out of my fist by my thumb, and sometimes by my pinkie. It makes me perform different motions, and the change is a relief.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:18 AM on July 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: Oh shit. Also it is spelled VISE when it's a tool, and yes I have plenty of VICES. I am really sounding like a buffoon in this thread.
Anyway lots to read here and figure out what to do. The "you can't do anything 1,000 times" advice is well taken, and I'm letting my poor hands take a few days off.
posted by less of course at 11:10 AM on July 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
Anyway lots to read here and figure out what to do. The "you can't do anything 1,000 times" advice is well taken, and I'm letting my poor hands take a few days off.
posted by less of course at 11:10 AM on July 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
In the last few years, a ton of people have started carving wooden spoons: it's fun, and a project that doesn't take weeks. As a result, there are plenty of online resources that can help explain how to hold your knife, how to sharpen it, what good technique looks like, and more.
I would search Google, and possibly also add the terms "bushcraft," "kuksa," and "beginner." :7)
posted by wenestvedt at 11:11 AM on July 8, 2020
I would search Google, and possibly also add the terms "bushcraft," "kuksa," and "beginner." :7)
posted by wenestvedt at 11:11 AM on July 8, 2020
There's also a movement called "bushcraft" where folks are sharing traditional outdoors skills, and many of them have created and shared videos showing how to handle tools. Go to YouTube and look for "bushcraft" and "sharpen," or maybe "sharpening."
posted by wenestvedt at 11:13 AM on July 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by wenestvedt at 11:13 AM on July 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
I knit, and gave myself tendonitis from too much squeezing (squirty bottles in a lab) about 10 years ago, which sounds like it might be similar to what you're doing. Pretty much I was told to rest for a few days, which fixed it. Now I try to recognise the strain, and rest more when I feel it hurting again - generally only happens when I'm knitting on a deadline.
I'd take a couple of days off, then when you start up again, rest as soon as it hurts.
posted by kjs4 at 10:02 PM on July 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
I'd take a couple of days off, then when you start up again, rest as soon as it hurts.
posted by kjs4 at 10:02 PM on July 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
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For some tools you'll need your work clamped down somehow.
Much like hiking where you have to stop the second you feel something off in your socks, you want to change it up right away if you feel something rubbing while you're carving. Any friction or rubbing is not going to get better the more you do it. Move the work in your hand, or maybe tape up the sharp corner while you're working.
Good on you for the Kevlar gloves!
posted by bondcliff at 2:36 PM on July 7, 2020 [2 favorites]