First of all, wood carving requires holding wood relatively still. Just about everything I make begins with blocks that are neither big enough to hold still by their own mass, nor little enough to hold with one hand while I whittle on them with the other. The picture above shows the holding blocks I use for most of my wood carvings.
These holding blocks allow me to have both hands free to work on the wood and can be quickly adjusted to keep the wood positioned where I can work on it comfortably. The vise both rotates and swivels and the holding block can be rotated by loosening one tap. With two planes of rotation, carvings can be positioned any which way might be needed.
The head of the bolt fastening the two holding blocks together is sunk into the top holding block, as are the heads of the two unseen lag bolts fastening the top holding block to the wood carving.
This carving in progress will be a hawk. After I shape the head and wings, I will remove my holding blocks, glue the carving to a maple block, then fasten the maple block to my holding blocks while I shape the bottom half of the hawk and add a beak. The legs and feet come last.
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