Alistair Park Woodcarving, 2nd September 2018.

Having talked about doing it for quite some time, I recently visited Alistair Park at his studio at Bower Ashton in Bristol to make field recordings of some of the sounds that his tools make in use.

Alistair has been working with wood for over 20 years, and it was a great pleasure to see him practising his craft and to hear the sounds made by various wood carving techniques that he chose to demonstrate.

It’s clear that such craftsmanship relies on an intimate understanding of the associated tools and materials. It goes without saying that the appearance and feel of the wood are key when crafting the raw material into the end result, but I was interested to learn that also the smell of the wood and the sounds made when working it all feed into his creative process.

Alistair carved seasoned lime wood using a gouge, split a log using a froe and mallet, used a side axe, a drawknife and carved a design in oak.

You can learn more about Alistair’s work at his website www.carvings-with-stories.co.uk and his blog carvingswithstories.blogspot.co.uk

Gear:

Sony PCM-M10 built-in mics

Listen: