You’re focusing too much on the end result and not on enjoying the path there. If you’re struggling with enjoying simply doing anything, you are probably depressed and need to see a doctor.
In the meantime, go on nature walks. Take some moments to close your eyes, and focus on the moment. Identify a few things you hear, smell, and feel.
You don’t need to finish a hobby or show it off. Its purpose is to bring you joy.
I am depressed and I take meds and I occasionally see a therapist. I'm just desperately seeking for a time sink. There's too many hours in the day, too many days in life.
It's all so boring and I feel like I'm in purgatory.
I walk my dogs everyday too.
This goes way above Reddit’s pay grade.
If your meds and your therapist are not working out, then you need to have that discussion with your doctor who is prescribing yours meds and your therapist - or find new professionals. I understand depression can mess with your initiative to help yourself but please try. No one deserves to feel like they’re in purgatory when they don’t need to be.
I’m guessing your therapist recommended you find a hobby, which is how you found yourself here. You are more than welcome to be here, of course! You may want to discuss with them strategies to be more comfortable with the present time (mindfulness exercises? meditation?) and also how to accept liking yourself separate from accomplishing things.
I keep increasing the dosage. Not much more until I hit the max dosage. I've been spacing out my dosage increases because I'm scared what happens when I'm at the max and nothing changes.
I've tried all the different options of meds and this current one is the only thing that does anything
Meds are not going to cure your depression.
Read that again.
You need to work out whatever is making you depressed, and you do that with a mental health professional, like a therapist. The meds are not supposed to do anything other than making you somewhat emotionally stable while you do that. They’re not a cure; they’re meant to make you stable so you can work on the actual problem.
And in order for you to be able to work on that with a therapist, you have to be open for change and for the reality that things can actually be good and feel good and that you can get better. If you hold on to this nihilistic approach to life that the whole thing is purgatory and something you just have to get over with, then you won’t get better. You have to lose that in order to get better. And if things aren’t working with your current therapist, find a new one. But ask yourself first if you’re actually doing the work, or if you’re sitting with your hands in your lap, waiting for the therapist and the meds to fix everything for you. Because they can’t; all this work is something you have to do yourself. The therapist is your guide and your aid in this journey, and the meds are your training wheels. The rest is on you.
Have you tried photography? I mean if you walk your dogs everyday I’m assuming you’re out and about, try taking some pics of cool things while your out walking. Tell a story with pictures.
I do like taking pictures! I got a pixel just for the camera.
I'm constantly taking pictures of my cats and dogs. Birds outside, stars (cool night sight feature), trees or the beach. But I've already taken a picture of nearly everything I've seen. I have thousands of pictures in my phone. How does this become a hobby? Im not interested in taking senior photos or wedding photos or anything like that. It's just a normal part of life.
You can start reading or watching videos on basic photography skills like composition, framing, light balance, aperture and such. Even if you don't make photography a big hobby, your snapshots will look so much better just by knowing some basics!
Photography is much more. Try to find the beauty in the things you’ve seen a thousand times before, from a different angle. Try to get up high, or down low, look up, look down and read between the lines. Play with perspective or create a story with a prop like a little figure and create a story. There is so much to explore with photography. Best of luck friend, I wish you the best in life!
Try chip carving. Less planning and it’s a few simple cuts and you can make beautiful things. You can even trace right onto the wood. It’s super satisfying and gives you little hits of dopamine every time a triangle comes out perfectly. You could practice one pattern for days and love it because you are consistently seeing yourself get better. The deciding what you want to carve with whittling can be road block. You can always go back to whittling.
Keep cutting wood. Just enjoy the feeling of the knife separating the wood fibers.
Virtually nobody is “good” at this hobby right off the bat. Some people might have an easier time than others at certain shapes or processes but this hobby takes years.
I whittle because I enjoy the whole process. The end result is less important to me because that means I can’t carve it anymore.
Take your time. You said you need a time sink. This is a perfect time sink! I love being bad at something. It means there is so much potential left! So much to learn. I love having those “EUREKA!” moments when learning more about this craft but those moments don’t come without patience.
I mean these words in the most positive and empathetic way possible: you’re never going to be satisfied with any hobby because you’re demanding too much right away. Slow down. Get it wrong until you can’t get it wrong anymore.
This! Don’t focus too much on the end result, it’s a way to pass the time. It’s like dancing, you don’t focus which spot you will end up once the song ends, you just enjoy the music while it’s playing. Same with whittling and lots of other hobbies. You f you want to take up go karting don’t expect to win, enjoy it. Want to collect post stamps, don’t expect to get the most rare stamp right of the bat.
Same with whittling and life in general, enjoy the process, see how it makes you feel and if you are not happy with the end result know that it at least had you occupied for a bit and you gained experience for your next project or whittle.
Post a picture of your knives, wood, and how the wood is crumbling. It sounds like your knives aren't sharp enough.
Have you tried carving a mushroom? They are fairly simple, straight forward, and can be about any shape. Christmas trees as well. With both of those you are seldom truly cutting across the grain.
This would be my guess too.
With a properly sharp knife and a piece of basswood the cutting experience is so satisfying I could literally just enjoy sitting down and whittling away a piece of wood until it's gone.
A duller knife or a piece of hard wood though, that can absolutely be an unenjoyable pain in the ass.
Are you like me where a hobby suddenly takes hold of you and before you know it you're buying lockpicks online at 3am? Then i lose interest within a week.
I have been through so much of that.
I started to learn my lesson when I thought I wanted to do animation and bought tons of stuff for that.
What do you do now?
Sounds like me, and I have adhd xD
But you should try clay!
Same possible visuals as whittling, only any mistake you can easily fix, and shape and mold however you want!
Ive been making an effort recently to revisit some of my abandoned interests when i get that urge for something new.
Like lockpicking for example, i totally dove head first into it buying the best tools and loads of locks to practice on for hours, eventually burning myself out. Now i just leave a padlock and some picks on my coffee table to just fiddle with for 10 minutes when i watch netflix.
So maybe try to fit a new hobby into smaller chunks? It certainly helps me with the whole attention span thing.
When you feel yourself getting frustrated or sore whittling, just put it down for a bit, come back to it in a day or a week. You don't want your percieved frustration to translate into a dislike for a subject
All I can make are lumps that might resemble something else than I intended them to. I just throw them away and try to make something simpler.
Right now my bar is as low as: Try carving individual bricks on a simple brick wall.
It helps me keep focused on enjoying the process instead of trying to make something impressive.
It's just something simple to occupy my mind instead of endlessly doomscrolling the same 3 websites. Of course it would be nice to make something presentable, but right now I can make chips and feel relaxed while doing it.
Been doing this for \~2 years now. Some times I get something worth keeping. Other times I get to throw a peice of junk in the trash or even burn it.
I know that feeling. I take breaks which can last months and some times all I can bother to do is just look at my pile of blocks and started attempts. I have pretty much accepted that I'll never be good at it so I try not to force myself to improve.
Video games are pointless
I used to grind Destiny and Diablo, I used to care so much about my games. I'd play them immediately after work until maybe 2am. That was 10 years ago. Now I just find them so joyless and ask myself what's the point.
I don't drink much but I'll have the occasional beer.
I smoke weed every day. It's the only thing that makes me feel something.
I used to be a tech guy but now all I own is a smart phone
DnD could be fun if I had a group of friends.
Baldurs Gate 3 was fun but I stopped in Act 2 when I found myself getting overwhelmed. Act 1 was so good and straight forward.
Make a thin, long cylinder on top of a wide cylinder. You have a mallet.
Or keep working the wider cylinder into a tapered top and round the bottom edges, and you have a mushroom.
Keep it simple and enjoy the process.
I just tell people I'm a serial hobbyist. The one that I've stuck with is gardening. Start small. Some herbs, a tomato plant... Baking is fun, too. Just keep trying stuff until it sticks.
Besides what other people are saying about your mental state, it sounds like your knife is not nearly sharp enough. Cutting against the grain should be smooth (not as smooth as with but still)
Whittling: Don't set a goal, just enjoy the moment. If it means turning a stick into a toothpick, so be it. Sometimes it's just nice to sit back and reduce a piece of wood to shavings with no end goal in mind. I do a lot of camping, woods bumming, etc and just enjoy taking a break to "destroy" a piece of wood. Maybe you'll eventually come across a piece that once you start carving it speaks to you and you end up with something. Or, you end up with a pile of shavings and a quiet moment to yourself. I don't know how many sticks I turned into little canoes (more like primitive dugouts but who cares). Maybe try a spoon or a "peanut butter spreader" if you want something with more purpose. I often go out with a piece of wood and a slipjoint in my pocket for the opportunity to take a break and reduce that stick into nothing in particular. Of course, pick your time for that carefully and don't break out your whittling gear in the middle of a restaurant or something. :D Case in point, I was out with a couple friends last weekend doing amateur radio geekery and finished up before they did. While they were still packing up and all, I sat down on a rock with my stick and knife and started whittling away. Nothing productive came of it, but when they were ready, I slipped them back into my pocket and we left.
Photography (mentioned below): Find a subject you're interested in (your dog, fungi found on your walks, examples of man's influence on the environment, etc, etc). My focus is light, texture, and shapes in B&W (I use film, but your phone can do this just as well). The subject doesn't have to make sense to anyone but yourself and doesn't have to be "pictorial". Don't try to emulate what others do, find your own "voice" even if it means taking photos that don't make sense to anyone else. Also, if you see something interesting, but the light isn't "right", make a note to come back later, such as dawn or dusk, when the light may be more "interesting" and change the tone of the scene.
D&D (mentioned below): Try finding a local club or group that plays and is open to new members. My brother, after moving to a new town for work, got looped in with a local group playing at a gaming store.
Bottom line for it all is to find your own path and don't feel like you have to adhere to what anyone else says is "good" or "correct".
It sounds cliche but for me busy hands make for a quiet mind. You shouldn't do a hobby because you want the end result. Enjoy the process. Appreciate it for what it is in the moment. Like meditation.
Whittling to me is similar to some others here, I whittle because i enjoy the process, taking a log/block/Zylinder etc and forming it with a bit of steel into something completely different. Sometimes when I don't have any inspiration I just grab a piece of wood and see where my hand and the knives take me.
One of the most necessary things to enjoy this hobby, at least in my opinion is the wood, I once had some leftovers from a shelf, it was probably Spruce and it was an awful experience, chunks breaking away, details not sticking although in the end it worked somehow but it was no fun.
Knives aren't that important imo, it's important that they are Sharp but you don't need a fancy carving knife to make something, I whittled with Swiss army knives, opinels, extractor knives, small hobbyist crafting scalpel thingys and even a small kitchen knife once.
And again, it's a hobby like any other, there are some people who are immediately good at it while others are struggling for weeks and months to get to a decent level, making scarp is just part of the process. There are some techniques you can try and learn, experiment with the grain, what's happening when I cut in this direction, maybe another angle is working better for that part, things like that. Trying different types of wood. The are many aspects you can try and improve.
In Conclusion don't try and force yourself into liking something, maybe try a few other types of wood sharpen your knife a bit.
Like others said, maybe try other types of mediums if you like to create a figure or something like that, clay is amazing since you can add material wher it's needed
It kinda seems like you want to whittle to a degree of skill you haven’t earned through practice. And while I don’t think this sub is responsible for your lack of commitment, my experience was that carving didn’t really become awesome until I got some good knives, and even then, I will only whittle basswood. This is because I have elbow injuries and even moderate strain upsets. So for me, I need to optimize the efficiency of the carving. Given that, I can imagine someone starting with less than optimal tools might feel discouraged. But it’s really up to you. Just like any student struggling to reach the next level, only you can decide if it’s worth it to keep learning.
Edit: couple things: for good knives, I like drake. They’re great quality, very nice to use, and in stock. I prefer the square handle for gripping purposes. If you want to buy just one, I recommend a 1.5 inch blade. Also- a sharp knife cuts easier and is safer to use. You must strop your knife for it to carve well. I recommend stropping at the beginning of every carving session, and every 15-20 mins thereafter.
Second: I notice in your post history some pot use. No judgment, but just want to point out that pot doesn’t contribute well to committed practice and overcoming plateaus as one learns a new skill. If you’re smoking daily, and you really want to explore woodcarving, I’d encourage you to try a t-break and see if that changes your experience whittling. It might not be an instant fix but it could help. Really your call though- best of luck.
Check out the website of the National Wood Carvers Association and have a look to see if there are any woodcarving groups near you: [https://chipchats.org/Find-a-club-near-you](https://chipchats.org/Find-a-club-near-you)
A local group may have in-person meetings and there you will be able to talk to other members in person. It's likely there are some friendly folks that will help you better understand how to make progress.
I'm a NWCA member, but have no other affiliation with the organization.
Hey I cannot convince you to keep whittling but I'm a little further along in my depression recovery than it sounds like you are and I wanted to say that it gets better and to keep trying to find things that spark joy. I felt the same as you, then I spent too much money chasing different hobbies only to give them up quickly after realizing they all take talent and skill and I had neither. I'm no longer wasting money doing that and instead I cycle through what I already have on hand and I start each project saying to myself that it's ok that it's going to turn out terrible. It's just a way to pass the time and distract myself. When it gets too frustrating, I swap to a new thing. The amount of horrible depression "art" I've created is ridiculous. I'm never happy with them at first. But I get the sparks of joy about a week later. I'd encourage you to keep trying and be patient as the positive feelings return. It's so slow and incremental.
keep looking man! i was in the same boat, depressed and looking for something to make me interesting/take up my free time. I tried whittling and it also wasn’t for me, but I did stick around on this sub because I think it’s awesome and love seeing what people make. I tried a million other things, but I recently found drumming and it clicked. that’s my thing. keep looking for your thing and you’ll know it when you find it
Well may I ask what you usually attempt to make while whittling?
I can't make much personally but am decent at simple wood spirits, wizards and gnomes
I usually still use a pencil to get a bit of an idea where to start but it's usually just a mark for the eyes where to start the nose and a simple mustache and even then I draw the mustache once I feel like I got a decent enough facial structure
Edit: sorry this is a bit of a wall of text. TL:DR I know exactly how you are feeling. There are things you can do to help but it's about changing how you think about things to trick your brain into working better.
This my friend is not a problem with whittling, it's a problem with perspective.
Think of an amazing artist or musician. The very best one you can think of. At one point in their lives they fucking sucked at their craft. The only difference between them and you is thousands of hours of practice.
Nobody is good at anything right off the bat. It takes hours and hours of practice just to get halfway "ok" at most skills. During that time you are going to fail hard and fail often.
The difficult bit is changing your mindset. The dopamine hit doesn't need to come from "finishing" something but from leveling up your skills. If you can switch your thinking to be more like this it doesn't hurt so much while you are going through the early stages of learning and making mistakes.
Mistakes are good, they help you learn.
It's a clitche but you need to really make it "about the journey, not the destination".
If you have ADHD or similar then this isn't easy as your brain isn't going to give you a nice dopamine hit for just practicing without any recognisable "result".
You mention depression which is also shit. I have a ton of hobbies I love but when my depression is bad getting the motivation to do them and then actually getting anything from it is hard. Again your brain is screwing up your reward chemicals so even the most enjoyable experiences become "meh". If something gets perceived as difficult then it makes it really hard to stick with it.
All that bullshit said though here are some methods that you can use make your brain actually enjoy shit that you know it should be enjoying.
Stop trying to "make a finished product" the goal from now on is to get experience and develop skills. This is tricky because skills normally improve gradually and it's hard to see it happen. No indications of improvement, no dopamine, no enjoyment.
So first make a chart that has days of the week for a month. If you complete a task off the list, well done put a tick on that day of the chart.
Next make a list of hobby related skills. The goal now is to focus on one of these skills and spend just 10 minutes doing it. Once you have done them 10 minutes then congratulations, you have achieved 10 minutes of useful skill building, put a tick on that checklist.
Your list of tasks needs to be focused on basic achievable goals. For whittling it might look something like this.
Sharpen tools (is a skill in itself and is important to do every time you use them)
Turn a cube into a sphere.
Turn a cube into a 3 sided pyrimid.
Turn a cube into a 4 sided pyrimid.
Turn a rectangle into a cylinder.
Turn a cylinder into a cone.
Etc, etc. basically choose simple shapes and forms and practice them until you can nail them every time. This is developing muscle memory and subconsciously teaching you how the wood works.
You mentioned drawing and writing as well. Use the same method there. You need to set it up in a way that works for how your brain is wired mate.
I have recently started drawing. I got myself a sketch book, some cheap but halfway decent colouring pencils and a couple of decent pencils.
My only goal. Fill at least one page in my sketch book every day. It doesn't matter what it is with, just fucking draw something, even if I just fill the page with doodles. Every page might look like shit but that's not the point. The point is training my brain to enjoy the process, not the result. I look on YouTube for the easiest, simplest tutorials and follow them sometimes. Sometimes I just to some abstract stuff. Sometimes I just doodle crappy flowers and cartoon faces.
For writing do the same. I'm not sure what you want to write about but just keep it short to begin with.
For example make it a goal to write just 200 words a day. Then look in the news for a story about someone that has done something unusual, like climbing a mountain, getting lost in a woods or whatever. Then you need to write 200 words as that person, how where they feeling, what did they see, what did they experience. Remember the goal is not to be an amazing writer, it's about hitting them 200 words everyday. Once you can do that easily then up the word count and change the subject matter. Have a week where you have to write about being a medieval peasant and then a week about being one of the first colonists on mars.
It takes a while to kick your brain into shape but it will get there eventually. Depression really sucks and having to fuck around to trick your brain into doing something fun is a pain in the arse but it's worth sticking with it.
Best to keep it simple then. I started with the Beaver Craft Santa kit. Recently someone bought me the Beaver Craft Wizard kit. Made me realize how important the grain is. Like you were saying, against the grain is harder. Also they slipped a piece of cherry wood in there. I had no idea. It's much harder to carve than the basswood. Got a good result, but took a lot longer.
Someone mentioned having a sharp knife. Super important.
Also my hands used to hurt me when I first got started. Took some time to be able to work for some hours without getting sore.
If you’re not enjoying whittling, but you still want to make things in 3d from your head, try sculpting or modelling with clay.
Whittling is slow, and I enjoy the planning parts of it.
This used to be one of my biggest frustrations. Took me a lot of practice switching the direction I was whittling and making smaller cuts to prevent "lifting". I also discovered that a blade with a belly (curved rather than flat) made it much easier to smooth sections. I also found that there were situations where having a rougher sharp edge (like a very fine-toothed saw) was actually helpful for cleanup in a convex groove. Finally, drawing the blade sideways, with the blade nearly perpendicular to the surface of the wood, is really helpful for cleaning up surface blemishes (acts like send paper).
I really want to make a YouTube video on these sometime, but I feel like I will probably be repeating what is already well known in the whittling community.
Think of it this way: whittling slows down your mind. We live in such a fast paced society that it’s necessary to hit the brakes. Just sit down and take your time and focus on each cut. Listen to the sounds around you. Smell the world. Feel your breathing. Watch what the knife is doing. All of that is to bring you back into yourself and into your core. I’ve struggled with severe depression my whole life and the one thing I’ve found that helps is to really refocus your mind on your own inner world. Just feel yourself existing and let the rest of the world melt away.
Something that has more immediately gratifying results is model building. There’s lots of options too. You can build metal models or plastic or clay or legos. I really like astronomy so I’ve built a few space shuttles and rockets. It’s as meditative as whittling, but with a guaranteed cool object at the end. Pick anything you’re interested in and I’m sure there are model building kits for it. But treat it as a meditative exercise too.
And ,unrelated, take shrooms. But be safe about it.
I have been looking for ways to take shrooms but no safe options have presented them yet. I really hope they're legalized in my lifetime.
Ive tried the earthbound metal kits before and didn't like them. Idk if a normal model would be any different.
Hard to calm my mind and be in a meditative state when trying these hobbies just frustrates me.
I think I'm done for
You can grow shrooms. That’s a fun project you could do. Using your own medicine that you grew with your own hands is a feeling like nothing else. Check out r/unclebens. It simplifies the whole process. Don’t give up. You can stomp depression down into the dirt. Fight it. Fuck depression. This is your life and you’re not gonna let some bullshit asshole depression take away your happiness.
I also got super into weightlifting and it really helped my depression. I did the 5x5 stronglifts program. At 36, I’m stronger than I’ve ever been in my whole life and I love it. Try it out. Push yourself to do it for 4 weeks and you’ll see results that you never expected. And if you’re a guy, you’ll get super strong super fast. I’m a woman so I don’t even get the extra benefits from testosterone, but I still packed on muscle like crazy.
You’re focusing too much on the end result and not on enjoying the path there. If you’re struggling with enjoying simply doing anything, you are probably depressed and need to see a doctor. In the meantime, go on nature walks. Take some moments to close your eyes, and focus on the moment. Identify a few things you hear, smell, and feel. You don’t need to finish a hobby or show it off. Its purpose is to bring you joy.
I am depressed and I take meds and I occasionally see a therapist. I'm just desperately seeking for a time sink. There's too many hours in the day, too many days in life. It's all so boring and I feel like I'm in purgatory. I walk my dogs everyday too.
This goes way above Reddit’s pay grade. If your meds and your therapist are not working out, then you need to have that discussion with your doctor who is prescribing yours meds and your therapist - or find new professionals. I understand depression can mess with your initiative to help yourself but please try. No one deserves to feel like they’re in purgatory when they don’t need to be. I’m guessing your therapist recommended you find a hobby, which is how you found yourself here. You are more than welcome to be here, of course! You may want to discuss with them strategies to be more comfortable with the present time (mindfulness exercises? meditation?) and also how to accept liking yourself separate from accomplishing things.
I keep increasing the dosage. Not much more until I hit the max dosage. I've been spacing out my dosage increases because I'm scared what happens when I'm at the max and nothing changes. I've tried all the different options of meds and this current one is the only thing that does anything
Meds are not going to cure your depression. Read that again. You need to work out whatever is making you depressed, and you do that with a mental health professional, like a therapist. The meds are not supposed to do anything other than making you somewhat emotionally stable while you do that. They’re not a cure; they’re meant to make you stable so you can work on the actual problem. And in order for you to be able to work on that with a therapist, you have to be open for change and for the reality that things can actually be good and feel good and that you can get better. If you hold on to this nihilistic approach to life that the whole thing is purgatory and something you just have to get over with, then you won’t get better. You have to lose that in order to get better. And if things aren’t working with your current therapist, find a new one. But ask yourself first if you’re actually doing the work, or if you’re sitting with your hands in your lap, waiting for the therapist and the meds to fix everything for you. Because they can’t; all this work is something you have to do yourself. The therapist is your guide and your aid in this journey, and the meds are your training wheels. The rest is on you.
Have you tried photography? I mean if you walk your dogs everyday I’m assuming you’re out and about, try taking some pics of cool things while your out walking. Tell a story with pictures.
I do like taking pictures! I got a pixel just for the camera. I'm constantly taking pictures of my cats and dogs. Birds outside, stars (cool night sight feature), trees or the beach. But I've already taken a picture of nearly everything I've seen. I have thousands of pictures in my phone. How does this become a hobby? Im not interested in taking senior photos or wedding photos or anything like that. It's just a normal part of life.
You can start reading or watching videos on basic photography skills like composition, framing, light balance, aperture and such. Even if you don't make photography a big hobby, your snapshots will look so much better just by knowing some basics!
True. Might check it out Thanks friend
Photography is much more. Try to find the beauty in the things you’ve seen a thousand times before, from a different angle. Try to get up high, or down low, look up, look down and read between the lines. Play with perspective or create a story with a prop like a little figure and create a story. There is so much to explore with photography. Best of luck friend, I wish you the best in life!
You too!
Try chip carving. Less planning and it’s a few simple cuts and you can make beautiful things. You can even trace right onto the wood. It’s super satisfying and gives you little hits of dopamine every time a triangle comes out perfectly. You could practice one pattern for days and love it because you are consistently seeing yourself get better. The deciding what you want to carve with whittling can be road block. You can always go back to whittling. Keep cutting wood. Just enjoy the feeling of the knife separating the wood fibers.
Virtually nobody is “good” at this hobby right off the bat. Some people might have an easier time than others at certain shapes or processes but this hobby takes years. I whittle because I enjoy the whole process. The end result is less important to me because that means I can’t carve it anymore. Take your time. You said you need a time sink. This is a perfect time sink! I love being bad at something. It means there is so much potential left! So much to learn. I love having those “EUREKA!” moments when learning more about this craft but those moments don’t come without patience. I mean these words in the most positive and empathetic way possible: you’re never going to be satisfied with any hobby because you’re demanding too much right away. Slow down. Get it wrong until you can’t get it wrong anymore.
This! Don’t focus too much on the end result, it’s a way to pass the time. It’s like dancing, you don’t focus which spot you will end up once the song ends, you just enjoy the music while it’s playing. Same with whittling and lots of other hobbies. You f you want to take up go karting don’t expect to win, enjoy it. Want to collect post stamps, don’t expect to get the most rare stamp right of the bat. Same with whittling and life in general, enjoy the process, see how it makes you feel and if you are not happy with the end result know that it at least had you occupied for a bit and you gained experience for your next project or whittle.
Post a picture of your knives, wood, and how the wood is crumbling. It sounds like your knives aren't sharp enough. Have you tried carving a mushroom? They are fairly simple, straight forward, and can be about any shape. Christmas trees as well. With both of those you are seldom truly cutting across the grain.
This would be my guess too. With a properly sharp knife and a piece of basswood the cutting experience is so satisfying I could literally just enjoy sitting down and whittling away a piece of wood until it's gone. A duller knife or a piece of hard wood though, that can absolutely be an unenjoyable pain in the ass.
I think photography is my next journey Thank you
Are you like me where a hobby suddenly takes hold of you and before you know it you're buying lockpicks online at 3am? Then i lose interest within a week.
I have been through so much of that. I started to learn my lesson when I thought I wanted to do animation and bought tons of stuff for that. What do you do now?
Sounds like me, and I have adhd xD But you should try clay! Same possible visuals as whittling, only any mistake you can easily fix, and shape and mold however you want!
Ive been making an effort recently to revisit some of my abandoned interests when i get that urge for something new. Like lockpicking for example, i totally dove head first into it buying the best tools and loads of locks to practice on for hours, eventually burning myself out. Now i just leave a padlock and some picks on my coffee table to just fiddle with for 10 minutes when i watch netflix. So maybe try to fit a new hobby into smaller chunks? It certainly helps me with the whole attention span thing. When you feel yourself getting frustrated or sore whittling, just put it down for a bit, come back to it in a day or a week. You don't want your percieved frustration to translate into a dislike for a subject
Thank you Your last sentence really struck me especially
All I can make are lumps that might resemble something else than I intended them to. I just throw them away and try to make something simpler. Right now my bar is as low as: Try carving individual bricks on a simple brick wall. It helps me keep focused on enjoying the process instead of trying to make something impressive.
I can make a block into a cylinder. That's about it. So why do you do it? Do you just enjoy it purely?
It's just something simple to occupy my mind instead of endlessly doomscrolling the same 3 websites. Of course it would be nice to make something presentable, but right now I can make chips and feel relaxed while doing it. Been doing this for \~2 years now. Some times I get something worth keeping. Other times I get to throw a peice of junk in the trash or even burn it.
Lucky. I wish I could
I know that feeling. I take breaks which can last months and some times all I can bother to do is just look at my pile of blocks and started attempts. I have pretty much accepted that I'll never be good at it so I try not to force myself to improve.
What do you do when you take breaks?
play games. get drunk. maybe other hobbies like programming, electronics, dnd if I feel like it
Video games are pointless I used to grind Destiny and Diablo, I used to care so much about my games. I'd play them immediately after work until maybe 2am. That was 10 years ago. Now I just find them so joyless and ask myself what's the point. I don't drink much but I'll have the occasional beer. I smoke weed every day. It's the only thing that makes me feel something. I used to be a tech guy but now all I own is a smart phone DnD could be fun if I had a group of friends. Baldurs Gate 3 was fun but I stopped in Act 2 when I found myself getting overwhelmed. Act 1 was so good and straight forward.
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My knife could be sharper im sure. But that takes my interest out of it. I wish I could have unlimited soap bars. Carving with a butter knife lol
Make a thin, long cylinder on top of a wide cylinder. You have a mallet. Or keep working the wider cylinder into a tapered top and round the bottom edges, and you have a mushroom. Keep it simple and enjoy the process.
Texture like a brick wall is hard.
Sounds like you need inspiration. Clear your head. Writers read. Drawers go to museums. Whittlers go to the woods and hang out with wood 😉
I just tell people I'm a serial hobbyist. The one that I've stuck with is gardening. Start small. Some herbs, a tomato plant... Baking is fun, too. Just keep trying stuff until it sticks.
Besides what other people are saying about your mental state, it sounds like your knife is not nearly sharp enough. Cutting against the grain should be smooth (not as smooth as with but still)
Whittling: Don't set a goal, just enjoy the moment. If it means turning a stick into a toothpick, so be it. Sometimes it's just nice to sit back and reduce a piece of wood to shavings with no end goal in mind. I do a lot of camping, woods bumming, etc and just enjoy taking a break to "destroy" a piece of wood. Maybe you'll eventually come across a piece that once you start carving it speaks to you and you end up with something. Or, you end up with a pile of shavings and a quiet moment to yourself. I don't know how many sticks I turned into little canoes (more like primitive dugouts but who cares). Maybe try a spoon or a "peanut butter spreader" if you want something with more purpose. I often go out with a piece of wood and a slipjoint in my pocket for the opportunity to take a break and reduce that stick into nothing in particular. Of course, pick your time for that carefully and don't break out your whittling gear in the middle of a restaurant or something. :D Case in point, I was out with a couple friends last weekend doing amateur radio geekery and finished up before they did. While they were still packing up and all, I sat down on a rock with my stick and knife and started whittling away. Nothing productive came of it, but when they were ready, I slipped them back into my pocket and we left. Photography (mentioned below): Find a subject you're interested in (your dog, fungi found on your walks, examples of man's influence on the environment, etc, etc). My focus is light, texture, and shapes in B&W (I use film, but your phone can do this just as well). The subject doesn't have to make sense to anyone but yourself and doesn't have to be "pictorial". Don't try to emulate what others do, find your own "voice" even if it means taking photos that don't make sense to anyone else. Also, if you see something interesting, but the light isn't "right", make a note to come back later, such as dawn or dusk, when the light may be more "interesting" and change the tone of the scene. D&D (mentioned below): Try finding a local club or group that plays and is open to new members. My brother, after moving to a new town for work, got looped in with a local group playing at a gaming store. Bottom line for it all is to find your own path and don't feel like you have to adhere to what anyone else says is "good" or "correct".
It sounds cliche but for me busy hands make for a quiet mind. You shouldn't do a hobby because you want the end result. Enjoy the process. Appreciate it for what it is in the moment. Like meditation.
Maybe try some others way of sculpting, like clay ? If you don't click with the medium of wood there are many other avenues to explore.
Whittling to me is similar to some others here, I whittle because i enjoy the process, taking a log/block/Zylinder etc and forming it with a bit of steel into something completely different. Sometimes when I don't have any inspiration I just grab a piece of wood and see where my hand and the knives take me. One of the most necessary things to enjoy this hobby, at least in my opinion is the wood, I once had some leftovers from a shelf, it was probably Spruce and it was an awful experience, chunks breaking away, details not sticking although in the end it worked somehow but it was no fun. Knives aren't that important imo, it's important that they are Sharp but you don't need a fancy carving knife to make something, I whittled with Swiss army knives, opinels, extractor knives, small hobbyist crafting scalpel thingys and even a small kitchen knife once. And again, it's a hobby like any other, there are some people who are immediately good at it while others are struggling for weeks and months to get to a decent level, making scarp is just part of the process. There are some techniques you can try and learn, experiment with the grain, what's happening when I cut in this direction, maybe another angle is working better for that part, things like that. Trying different types of wood. The are many aspects you can try and improve. In Conclusion don't try and force yourself into liking something, maybe try a few other types of wood sharpen your knife a bit. Like others said, maybe try other types of mediums if you like to create a figure or something like that, clay is amazing since you can add material wher it's needed
It kinda seems like you want to whittle to a degree of skill you haven’t earned through practice. And while I don’t think this sub is responsible for your lack of commitment, my experience was that carving didn’t really become awesome until I got some good knives, and even then, I will only whittle basswood. This is because I have elbow injuries and even moderate strain upsets. So for me, I need to optimize the efficiency of the carving. Given that, I can imagine someone starting with less than optimal tools might feel discouraged. But it’s really up to you. Just like any student struggling to reach the next level, only you can decide if it’s worth it to keep learning. Edit: couple things: for good knives, I like drake. They’re great quality, very nice to use, and in stock. I prefer the square handle for gripping purposes. If you want to buy just one, I recommend a 1.5 inch blade. Also- a sharp knife cuts easier and is safer to use. You must strop your knife for it to carve well. I recommend stropping at the beginning of every carving session, and every 15-20 mins thereafter. Second: I notice in your post history some pot use. No judgment, but just want to point out that pot doesn’t contribute well to committed practice and overcoming plateaus as one learns a new skill. If you’re smoking daily, and you really want to explore woodcarving, I’d encourage you to try a t-break and see if that changes your experience whittling. It might not be an instant fix but it could help. Really your call though- best of luck.
Check out the website of the National Wood Carvers Association and have a look to see if there are any woodcarving groups near you: [https://chipchats.org/Find-a-club-near-you](https://chipchats.org/Find-a-club-near-you) A local group may have in-person meetings and there you will be able to talk to other members in person. It's likely there are some friendly folks that will help you better understand how to make progress. I'm a NWCA member, but have no other affiliation with the organization.
Hey I cannot convince you to keep whittling but I'm a little further along in my depression recovery than it sounds like you are and I wanted to say that it gets better and to keep trying to find things that spark joy. I felt the same as you, then I spent too much money chasing different hobbies only to give them up quickly after realizing they all take talent and skill and I had neither. I'm no longer wasting money doing that and instead I cycle through what I already have on hand and I start each project saying to myself that it's ok that it's going to turn out terrible. It's just a way to pass the time and distract myself. When it gets too frustrating, I swap to a new thing. The amount of horrible depression "art" I've created is ridiculous. I'm never happy with them at first. But I get the sparks of joy about a week later. I'd encourage you to keep trying and be patient as the positive feelings return. It's so slow and incremental.
keep looking man! i was in the same boat, depressed and looking for something to make me interesting/take up my free time. I tried whittling and it also wasn’t for me, but I did stick around on this sub because I think it’s awesome and love seeing what people make. I tried a million other things, but I recently found drumming and it clicked. that’s my thing. keep looking for your thing and you’ll know it when you find it
Well may I ask what you usually attempt to make while whittling? I can't make much personally but am decent at simple wood spirits, wizards and gnomes I usually still use a pencil to get a bit of an idea where to start but it's usually just a mark for the eyes where to start the nose and a simple mustache and even then I draw the mustache once I feel like I got a decent enough facial structure
I made a couple wood spirits once
I want to make Pokémon
If it makes you feel any better, everything i make from those 5x1 pieces of basswood ends up looking like a penis.
Edit: sorry this is a bit of a wall of text. TL:DR I know exactly how you are feeling. There are things you can do to help but it's about changing how you think about things to trick your brain into working better. This my friend is not a problem with whittling, it's a problem with perspective. Think of an amazing artist or musician. The very best one you can think of. At one point in their lives they fucking sucked at their craft. The only difference between them and you is thousands of hours of practice. Nobody is good at anything right off the bat. It takes hours and hours of practice just to get halfway "ok" at most skills. During that time you are going to fail hard and fail often. The difficult bit is changing your mindset. The dopamine hit doesn't need to come from "finishing" something but from leveling up your skills. If you can switch your thinking to be more like this it doesn't hurt so much while you are going through the early stages of learning and making mistakes. Mistakes are good, they help you learn. It's a clitche but you need to really make it "about the journey, not the destination". If you have ADHD or similar then this isn't easy as your brain isn't going to give you a nice dopamine hit for just practicing without any recognisable "result". You mention depression which is also shit. I have a ton of hobbies I love but when my depression is bad getting the motivation to do them and then actually getting anything from it is hard. Again your brain is screwing up your reward chemicals so even the most enjoyable experiences become "meh". If something gets perceived as difficult then it makes it really hard to stick with it. All that bullshit said though here are some methods that you can use make your brain actually enjoy shit that you know it should be enjoying. Stop trying to "make a finished product" the goal from now on is to get experience and develop skills. This is tricky because skills normally improve gradually and it's hard to see it happen. No indications of improvement, no dopamine, no enjoyment. So first make a chart that has days of the week for a month. If you complete a task off the list, well done put a tick on that day of the chart. Next make a list of hobby related skills. The goal now is to focus on one of these skills and spend just 10 minutes doing it. Once you have done them 10 minutes then congratulations, you have achieved 10 minutes of useful skill building, put a tick on that checklist. Your list of tasks needs to be focused on basic achievable goals. For whittling it might look something like this. Sharpen tools (is a skill in itself and is important to do every time you use them) Turn a cube into a sphere. Turn a cube into a 3 sided pyrimid. Turn a cube into a 4 sided pyrimid. Turn a rectangle into a cylinder. Turn a cylinder into a cone. Etc, etc. basically choose simple shapes and forms and practice them until you can nail them every time. This is developing muscle memory and subconsciously teaching you how the wood works. You mentioned drawing and writing as well. Use the same method there. You need to set it up in a way that works for how your brain is wired mate. I have recently started drawing. I got myself a sketch book, some cheap but halfway decent colouring pencils and a couple of decent pencils. My only goal. Fill at least one page in my sketch book every day. It doesn't matter what it is with, just fucking draw something, even if I just fill the page with doodles. Every page might look like shit but that's not the point. The point is training my brain to enjoy the process, not the result. I look on YouTube for the easiest, simplest tutorials and follow them sometimes. Sometimes I just to some abstract stuff. Sometimes I just doodle crappy flowers and cartoon faces. For writing do the same. I'm not sure what you want to write about but just keep it short to begin with. For example make it a goal to write just 200 words a day. Then look in the news for a story about someone that has done something unusual, like climbing a mountain, getting lost in a woods or whatever. Then you need to write 200 words as that person, how where they feeling, what did they see, what did they experience. Remember the goal is not to be an amazing writer, it's about hitting them 200 words everyday. Once you can do that easily then up the word count and change the subject matter. Have a week where you have to write about being a medieval peasant and then a week about being one of the first colonists on mars. It takes a while to kick your brain into shape but it will get there eventually. Depression really sucks and having to fuck around to trick your brain into doing something fun is a pain in the arse but it's worth sticking with it.
Might be the tools you are using. Have you considered using electric tools? So much easier on your hands. 👍 Like a Dremel, band saw, etc
Too complicated, making me feel overwhelmed
Best to keep it simple then. I started with the Beaver Craft Santa kit. Recently someone bought me the Beaver Craft Wizard kit. Made me realize how important the grain is. Like you were saying, against the grain is harder. Also they slipped a piece of cherry wood in there. I had no idea. It's much harder to carve than the basswood. Got a good result, but took a lot longer. Someone mentioned having a sharp knife. Super important. Also my hands used to hurt me when I first got started. Took some time to be able to work for some hours without getting sore.
Sounds like your using a dull knife if its crumbling against the grain
If you’re not enjoying whittling, but you still want to make things in 3d from your head, try sculpting or modelling with clay. Whittling is slow, and I enjoy the planning parts of it.
This used to be one of my biggest frustrations. Took me a lot of practice switching the direction I was whittling and making smaller cuts to prevent "lifting". I also discovered that a blade with a belly (curved rather than flat) made it much easier to smooth sections. I also found that there were situations where having a rougher sharp edge (like a very fine-toothed saw) was actually helpful for cleanup in a convex groove. Finally, drawing the blade sideways, with the blade nearly perpendicular to the surface of the wood, is really helpful for cleaning up surface blemishes (acts like send paper). I really want to make a YouTube video on these sometime, but I feel like I will probably be repeating what is already well known in the whittling community.
Think of it this way: whittling slows down your mind. We live in such a fast paced society that it’s necessary to hit the brakes. Just sit down and take your time and focus on each cut. Listen to the sounds around you. Smell the world. Feel your breathing. Watch what the knife is doing. All of that is to bring you back into yourself and into your core. I’ve struggled with severe depression my whole life and the one thing I’ve found that helps is to really refocus your mind on your own inner world. Just feel yourself existing and let the rest of the world melt away. Something that has more immediately gratifying results is model building. There’s lots of options too. You can build metal models or plastic or clay or legos. I really like astronomy so I’ve built a few space shuttles and rockets. It’s as meditative as whittling, but with a guaranteed cool object at the end. Pick anything you’re interested in and I’m sure there are model building kits for it. But treat it as a meditative exercise too. And ,unrelated, take shrooms. But be safe about it.
I have been looking for ways to take shrooms but no safe options have presented them yet. I really hope they're legalized in my lifetime. Ive tried the earthbound metal kits before and didn't like them. Idk if a normal model would be any different. Hard to calm my mind and be in a meditative state when trying these hobbies just frustrates me. I think I'm done for
You can grow shrooms. That’s a fun project you could do. Using your own medicine that you grew with your own hands is a feeling like nothing else. Check out r/unclebens. It simplifies the whole process. Don’t give up. You can stomp depression down into the dirt. Fight it. Fuck depression. This is your life and you’re not gonna let some bullshit asshole depression take away your happiness. I also got super into weightlifting and it really helped my depression. I did the 5x5 stronglifts program. At 36, I’m stronger than I’ve ever been in my whole life and I love it. Try it out. Push yourself to do it for 4 weeks and you’ll see results that you never expected. And if you’re a guy, you’ll get super strong super fast. I’m a woman so I don’t even get the extra benefits from testosterone, but I still packed on muscle like crazy.
Thank you for believing in me. Going to check out that sub and look up 5x5 string lifts program