Tried the "one hour a day" wood carving thing and my thumb still hates me

I saw this guy on YouTube say carve for just 60 minutes daily to get good fast. So I grabbed a basswood block and a cheap knife last Tuesday and went at it for like 70 minutes straight. By Thursday my thumb joint was swollen and I couldn't grip a coffee mug without wincing. Turns out I was holding the knife way too tight and not taking breaks every 15 minutes. Now I'm stuck with a half-finished owl that looks more like a potato and a thumb that clicks when I move it. Has anyone else had to stop mid-project because your hands just gave up on you?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_wren17d ago

dude I did the exact same thing with my first spoon. white knuckled that knife for two hours straight cause I wanted to get it done fast. thumb was wrecked for a week. what finally helped me was using a cheap pencil grip foam thing on the knife handle. made me loosen my grip without even thinking about it. also setting a timer for 20 minutes and forcing myself to put the knife down and shake out my hands. once I stopped death gripping everything my thumb stopped clicking and I actually finished something. that potato owl might be salvageable if you let your hand heal first and then go back at it lighter.

wells.karen17d ago

Yeah that grip foam trick is genius, wish I'd heard that earlier.

bennett.vera16d ago

My buddy Mike did this with a whittling project last winter... he gripped his knife so hard his fingers actually went numb after an hour. He had to take three weeks off from carving because the tendons in his wrist got all inflamed. Now he wears one of those cheap compression gloves and says it keeps him from squeezing too tight without even noticing.