This is about as simple as a carved figure gets. One stick of basswood, one knife, no gouges, no power tools, no paint. The whole thing is stop cuts and V-cuts repeated at different angles.
Alec LaCasse set himself a five minute timer for it and went slightly over, which he takes some stick for in his own commentary. Take twenty if you need twenty. The point is that the technique list is short enough to learn in one sitting.
The Two Cuts That Build the Whole Gnome
A V-cut is two equal but opposite angles. You slice in one way, slice back the mirror image, and a V-shaped chip falls out. If it does not fall out, keep going back and forth over the same line rather than prying at it.
A stop cut is a straight vertical cut into the wood that gives other cuts somewhere to end. Every clean edge on this gnome is a cut running into a stop cut.
That is the entire technical vocabulary of the project. Everything else is where you put them.
Wear a Glove
Alec stops mid-project to say this and it is worth repeating. If you are starting out, wear a cut-resistant glove on the hand holding the wood at an absolute minimum, and ideally on both. The cuts in this project travel toward your holding hand.
Keep the Knife Sharp
Most beginner frustration is a dull edge rather than bad technique. Keep a leather strop loaded with honing compound next to you and drag the blade across it every few minutes, edge trailing, held flat to the leather.
New to knife work altogether? Our guide to the seven basic whittling cuts covers the grips and cuts this project assumes you already know.
