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Chip carving orchip-carving,kerbschnitt in German, is a style of carving in whichknives orchisels are used to remove small chips of the material from a flat surface in a single piece. The style became important inMigration Period metalwork, mainlyanimal style jewellery, where the faceted surfaces created caught the light to give a glinting appearance. This was very probably a transfer to metalworking of a technique already used inwoodcarving, but no wooden examples have survived. FamousAnglo-Saxon examples include the jewellery fromSutton Hoo and theTassilo Chalice, although the style originated in mainland Europe. In later British and Irish metalwork, the same style was imitated usingcasting, which is often calledimitation chip-carving, or sometimes just chip carving (authors are not always careful to distinguish the two), a term also sometimes applied topottery decorated in a similar way.
In modernwood carving, the style is also calledspoon carving. The style is traditional in thefolk art of many countries. Patterns can be free form style or based ongeometric figures. In America it is mostly used withbasswood,butternut,pine, ormahogany. Chip carving knives can also be used forwhittling,cabinet making, and generalworkbench purposes.
