@malte279  
Thanks for the tip. I happen to have some wood oil coating laying around,I think I might try a coat or too when I’m done.

@swordcat9  
I recommend getting a flat slate of wood for it (like the type sometimes used as cutting boards). It should be untreated (you can treat it with linseed oil after you did the pyrography if you want to) and have a very smooth surface. I use wood much denser than the kind I would consider using for carving, but indeed I think the two could easily be combined for great effect. Just make sure you practice on a spare piece of wood before setting your soldering iron to a carved master piece :)

@malte279  
Twilight looks like an Egyptian sphinx. Nice work!
 
Hmmm… This pyrography thing looks harder than I thought. I think I’ve already spotted a pitfall for myself-the way the wood is uneven as a line is burned in. I think what I’ll do is create a mixed art project. I’ll carve in my lines with a knife, then burn them over to create smooth bold lines. That’s the ticket!
 
Thanks, I’ve learned something useful already!

@swordcat9  
Sure thing, here is a Soapstone Twilight Sparkle I made last summer and here is a Soapstone Octavia I did earlier that year. There should be a few more soapstone figures of mine if you search for  
artist:malte279, soapstone  
here on derpibooru.  
As for rock hunting, there is another type of rock I found to be an interesting material to work with (using the dremel or liquid chalk), namely pieces of slate.

@malte279  
I was thinking of doing some stone carving myself. But I have to go rock hunting lol. A dremel is really good for shaping them. Unfortunately all I have are on me are chisels. I’d like see some of your soap stone work. Snap a pic some time.

@swordcat9  
Don’t worry, I’m not intimidated ;)  
I got plenty of suitable chisels and actual carving knives which I’ve been using mostly on soapstone so far. I got a little practice with carving wood too (though nothing spectacular). One needs to keep the fibres and their directions in mind especially while working with the tools that aren’t sandpaper ;)

@malte279  
Thank you. Wood is a very difficult artistic medium to work with. Unlike clay or drawing or painting you can’t correct your mistakes easily.
 
But that doesn’t mean you should be intimidated by it all. Skill is acquired through practice. The more you carve the better you get.
 
Try doing a tiki sometime. Just make sure you have the right tools. Small files and a carving knife are best.
 
P.S. WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT USE A KITCHEN KNIFE!! I did that once and stabbed myself in the hand, it was awful! Blood everywhere. Always hold the edge of a blade or point if a chisel away from you! Never get clever by pointing it towards yourself.

@swordcat9  
Really beautiful carvings, swordcat9 :)  
It is very inspiring to see what can be achieved even with simple tools and sandpaper.

This one is also unfinished. And here’s an important word of advice when carving a face. Always be careful about the nose and nostrils!!!
 
Because if you mess up the nose -its all over! You’ll have to start over or try to glue it up using bits of wood.
 
Trust me, the nose is always the biggest problem!
 

And here we have an unfinished sculpture. This was the first real sculpture of a face I ever did.
 

 
The trick is to start carving the corner of block of wood. That way it’s way less work. The face also looks like its elongated rather than flat. If you carve on a flat surface, you get a flat face, then you have to go to extra lengths to dig it out of the wood to look round and more pointed.

This was a very old tool with a beaten old handle that I bought for a discount price.
 
All I did was sandpaper it and carve out a pattern,then paint it over with varnish.
 
It still looks old and weather beaten, but it’s better than what it looked like, by far.
 

This is a simple band pattern on a mallet. Surprisingly it also gives you better grip on your tool.
 

Here’s what you can do if you decide to decorate you tools.
 

Geez, the link to deviantart isn’t working
 

 
Oops my bad. There we go!

Here, take a look at some of my carvings.
 
https://www.deviantart.com/swordcat9/art/The-god-of-grins-3-780281224
 
This ones a Tiki, they’re very simple and very fun. You can go wild with Tiki’s and still gain skill in art as you do it!
 
All you need is a wooden cylinder and an imagination.

@malte279  
Yeah. Oak is too tough to work easily, one annoying thing about woodwork is you have to be patient with it.
 
I had a dremel a while back, but oddly enough I couldn’t do much with it and went back to my chisels 😁! It turns out that you need to develope skills with dremels to use them well, takes many months. I find hand tools way easier, annoying because you have to work hard, but still.
 
Sand paper is very useful for making grooves or embossing your work. It’s also perfect for adding a smooth finishing touch to your finished work. There’s different grains of sandpaper that are rougher or smoother. If you put a piece of thin wood or a pencil in between a folded piece of sandpaper, you can use the edge of the wood/pencil to create interesting grooves on wooden surface.

@swordcat9  
Indeed, sandpaper is extremely usefull. As I said, my experience with actual wood carving is rather limited, but during the work I did sandpaper was absolutely indispensable to smoothen things out. I also always use a very fine sand paper to smoothen the surface of wood before doing any pyrography on it.  
As for tools, I did get a battery powered dremel last year with the main purpose of engraving glass with it, but I have used it on slate and soapstone too and when I carved that wooden cutie mark badge for a friend of mine that dremel too was very helping. But even with it I probably won’t go for any really hard types of wood like oak or so.

@malte279
 
‘‘You made some really very beautiful drawings which you posted here and on Deviantart.’’
 
Thank you. It means a lot to me that someone likes what I draw. I’ve been trying to improve my art skills lately. I’m trying to find my own comic book style. I still have a long to go before I reach the level I want in art,but I’ve made progress.
 
I do have some carvings, I’ll upload a few pictures in a bit, but unfortunately I gave away some of my better work to my relatives lol. I really love drawing and carving faces,like tree spirits and tiki’s. It’s fun,improves your woodwork and chiseling skills. Its also great practice and you can sell them.
 
I use mostly soft woods but also chestnut and pine. Hard woods are too much for me since I don’t have power tools. I mostly work using chisels,files and lots of sandpaper (which I cannot recommend enough, if you fold and apply it correctly you can do some pretty amazing stuff).
 
Recently I’m working on a wooden house sign for a relative. You can actually make surprisingly accurate letters using just a chisel. There’s money in it too especially if you use calligraphy.
 
One of my favorite things to do when it comes to woodwork is decorate the handles if my tools. 😁 It enhances their look and inspires me as I work.

@swordcat9  
Hello swordcat9 :)  
Actually it isn’t wood but cork in this case ;)  
Painting it would be technically possible, but I’m afraid the color would come of very quickly because of the flexibility and the somewhat fractured nature of the surface.  
I used cork rather than wood for these coasters mostly because it was easier available and cheaper than wood.  
I must confess that I made these glasses and coasters mostly for an auction at a brony meetup next Saturday where I hope to make some bits for new working materials.
 
But I am happy to meet another artist who also works with wood. So far I have used wood mostly for pyrographies like this one  
When it comes to carving I think the most I did so far was carving the cutie mark of a friend’s OC out of wood which I then painted.  
You made some really very beautiful drawings which you posted here and on Deviantart. Do you have any images of your wood carvings as well? Do you have a favorite type of wood? I use mostly beech wood for my pyrographies. These days I am experimenting a little to seal some untreated wood with linseed oil to make it more resistant against liquid or spots.

If I were you I’d paint the wood over, looks better that way and hides the roughness.
 
You can also emboss this kind of wood, but its difficult. You try carving out the design then using sandpaper.
 
The glasses look good though. Well done.

I’m a woodcarver myself, are you doing this for practice before moving on to a good piece of wood?
 
This kind of wood is less appealing than natural wood (no offense intended).  
Just curious.