One can use and buy a lot of fancy, costly tools to do wood sculpture, but, really, you can start very easily with a bastard type rasp, some files and sandpaper, and a log of wood stolen from the fire wood pile. I like to work in walnut, oak, fruit wood, and aromatic cedar. If you want to try a piece, I'd suggest a soft wood like cedar or pine. It's nice to have something to hold the piece...a vise or clamps will work. Starting with the very rough bastard rasp, start shaping the log. Try just doing an abstract form to begin. Once you get the initial form done, you simply move from rough to smoother and smoother files; then to rough sandpaper, then smoother and finer sandpapers. At each step, before moving to a smoother file or sandpaper, make sure you have all the scratches and nicks out for that grade of file or sandpaper. I go down to at least 600 grid in sandpaper.. The last step for me is to take lemon oil and smooth the entire piece in the oil. This preserves the wood, and can be reapplied form time to time to keep a nice glow to the sculpture.
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