May 17th, 2018 by Chris Chapman

Woodworking is an ancient hobby that you can practice all year round. Whittling, carving, and building wooden objects is a great stress reliever and it gives you an incredible sense of pride as you slowly chip away at a shapeless piece of wood until it’s a work of art or a useful tool. If you like the sound of getting crafty with some woodworking but have no idea what to start with, there’s no need to be intimidated! There are plenty of really simple woodworking ideas that are great starting points for beginners. If you’re looking to get started with woodworking, you might want to read our guide to ethically sourcing wood so you can get your hands on some cheap – or even free – wood so you can whittle and carve away to your heart’s content to make one of these simple woodworking projects a reality!

Before You Start

Mylek Oscillating Multi-Tool Before you get started carving anything, it’s important to make sure you have the right tools. The right tools are not always the most expensive ones! In fact, we’d recommend you start with some cheaper hatchets, woodworking chisel sets, and carving knives until you get a feel for the craft. They’re not expensive and once you start to expand your knowledge and your skills, you can then upgrade as you’ll know what you’re looking for. You don’t need a garage full of expensive woodworking machinery to get started, either. In fact, we’d recommend doing everything as manually as possible to really hone your craft. If you do want a power tool to make things a little easier, this Mylek Oscillating Multi-Tool will be able to do pretty much anything, from cutting wood down to sanding and scraping it. This one tool will save you a lot of space in the garage, as well as a small fortune in costs as you won’t need to buy a whole range of power tools!

Chopping Boards

You can even scoop out a portion of your chopping board to stop round foods from rolling around Chopping boards are the best place to start for any woodworking beginner because they’re really simple but they give you so much room to experiment and get creative! All you need is a thick, sturdy plank or block of wood that you can cut to any size you want. Plane or sand both sides of what will be your chopping board to make sure it’s nice and flat, and sand down any rough edges (the Mylek multi-tool is great for this). If you’re happy with it, you can just seal it and you’ll have a brilliant chopping board that’ll add a rustic touch to your kitchen! Use a natural mineral oil, tung oil, or walnut oil, all of which are safe to use around food. You can also use beeswax or a mix of oil and beeswax. Under no circumstances should you use a vegetable or olive oil – these can go rancid fairly quickly, which will cause your chopping board to smell! If you’re a bit more confident, you can alter the colour of the wood by staining it with some wood oils. You could also carve a border around the edge using a woodworking chisel, and sand it out so it’s nice and even. You can get as ornate as you like with it! If you want to be able to hang your chopping board up, you can just drill a hole in it. The possibilities are pretty much endless! Always remember to seal your wood once you’ve done with it. This protects your wood and gives it a glossy finish. If you don’t want that shine on your chopping board, you can use a fine sandpaper on it once the oil is dry, and scuff it using a fine steel wool (4/0 steel wool is the best grade for this) until it looks just right.

Trays

Give trays a lip around the edge so they're a bit more practical The process for trays is very similar to chopping boards, except instead of sanding the entire surface, you’ll want to chisel it out, leaving a lip around the edge (see the photo). You’ll want to make sure the wood you use is a little thicker than you need as it leaves you with plenty of wiggle room when you’re sanding and chiselling your tray shape. Once you’ve chiselled out your tray area, thoroughly sand it so it’s completely flat. You can also sand off any rough edges around the lip of your tray while you’re doing this. Once you’re happy with your tray design, you can seal it. You can use a tough natural finish like beeswax, or you can use varnish. Polycrylic varnish is good, and it dries clear so you’ll get that natural wood colour on your tray. However, we’d recommend using polyurethane varnish. It takes much longer to dry and will colour your wood with a rich orange tint, but it’s much more durable and waterproof, so it won’t scratch as easily as you use your tray. Again, you can scuff or sand your varnish to get rid of some of the gloss if you want.

Coasters

Coasters are simple but allow a lot of room for experimentation Coasters are dead easy woodworking projects, and again, you’ve got lots of room to get creative. Cut a plank of wood into thin squares and sand it down so all the edges are flat and smooth. Varnish it, and you’ve got a coaster! If you like, you can even cut a small log into discs about 30-50mm thick (make sure the log is clean first with some Simply Spray and Walk Away though!). Sand both faces of the disc so it’s flat but leave the bark around the edge, like you see in the image here. Varnish this with a clear varnish for an amazing, natural coaster. The one in our image (left) has been patterned with a woodburning tool, but you can also try carving some simple shapes into yours. Coasters give you plenty of opportunities to practice different designs!

Baby Mobiles

Baby mobiles are the perfect gift for any parents-to-be If you want a bigger project, and you or someone you know is expecting, a handmade baby mobile is a really thoughtful gift! They can also be really simple to make. Get a nice, light piece of wood (standard pine wood is always a good choice) and cut it down into a chunky block or cylinder shape. This will be the centre of your mobile. If you’re confident in your carving skills, carve some patterns in the wood. Depending on how confident you are, you can just carve patterns on the wood surface, or you can whittle the wood into a more unusual shape. You can then varnish it and think about what you want to hang from it. If you aren’t that confident in your carving, you can always just pin some nice, plush fabric to the wood instead! You will need to screw in a hook to the top of it so the mobile can hang from the ceiling. Drill some holes into the side of your mobile centrepiece and glue some dowel rods into each hole. You can hang plastic toys from these rods, or if you’re feeling brave, you can carve some toys yourself! Rings, balls, and stars are simple shapes that you can easily carve with a bit of practice. Just make sure you sand down any edges that are even remotely rough or sharp, and when you seal the wood, use a non-toxic, natural product like tung oil or beeswax. Babies love putting anything they shouldn’t in their mouths, remember!

Spoons

Spoons come in all shapes and sizes You might not think it, but spoons are the trickiest thing to make on this list. That’s because how you craft your spoon depends greatly on the type and the shape of the wood that you start with. Generally, you’ll need quite a thick piece of wood to begin with. Plane a flat surface onto your wood and draw the shape of your spoon onto it. This will give you an outline to work towards. Use a hatchet to cut roughly around your outline, and when you’re happy you’re close, you can make use of your carving knife to gradually carve the wood away to match your outline. The handle shouldn’t be too difficult, and you can easily whittle down a nice, chunky handle that you can sand into a comfortable round shape. The tricky part is leaving enough depth in your wood to actually create a spoon shape. If you’re just doing a simple wooden spoon for cooking and stirring, you can get away with a shallow spoon. If you want to make a ladle, remember to leave plenty of depth so that you can chisel a nice, deep ladle shape into your wood. As always, go over your spoon with sandpaper to get rid of any rough edges and finish with a natural oil or beeswax. Once it’s all finished, don’t start using it right away – wrap it in a cotton cloth for a day or so. As time goes on, keep unwrapping your cloth for a few hours a day, and gradually increase the amount of time you leave it uncovered. This will help all the water that’s in your wood evaporate slowly. This will help reduce the risk of splits or warping, which can happen when water evaporates from wood too quickly.

Celebrity Woodworkers

Getting started with woodworking puts you in some illustrious company. A lot of surprising celebrities are actually keen woodworkers themselves! Nick Offerman – the Parks and Recreation actor and comedian is an incredibly talented woodworker, who actually owns his own woodworking shop! He’s also written several books on woodworking which we’d highly recommend if you’re a beginner. Harrison Ford – Indiana Jones himself actually got into acting through carpentry. He was a full-time carpenter who would often be tasked with creating film sets and props. This led him to meet a young filmmaker called George Lucas, who asked him to read for a part in a sci-fi film called Star Wars. The rest is history! Daniel Day-Lewis – Widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time, Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis started out as a cabinet maker. While shooting Last of the Mohicans, he got into his Native American character by building his own canoe. Courteney Cox – Best known as Monica from Friends, the actor spends her spare time buying houses before redesigning and renovating them. Brent Hinds – The mad genius guitarist in the Grammy-award winning band Mastodon, Brent Hinds is a man of many talents. One of them is woodworking! He spends some of his downtime carving various pieces of art and wooden sculptures.