Best Wood Carving Bits For The Dremel And Rotary Tools – Detailed Guide

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I remember watching videos of a guy wood carving with a Dremel on youtube. His Dremel seemed to remove wood a lot quicker than my Dremel could ever do. And I did not realize why. But after some time, I’ve realized that a key part of wood carving with a Dremel is choosing the right bits. So how do we choose the best bits for woodcarving, and which ones should you use?

The best bits for wood carving with a Dremel are sanding drums, diamonds bits, Kutzall burrs, Saburrtooth burrs, The EZ-Lock Wood Cutting Wheel, Routing Bits, and Tungsten Carbide Burrs.

These are the bits that I have found most useful for wood carving with a Dremel. Some of them might seem a little strange, like the sanding drum. But I will explain further in the article why I choose the bits mentioned above.

This article will not just be another affiliate article where I list the top 10 bits listed on a given website. These picks come from hundreds of hours of use and actual wood carving with a Dremel. And from my own experience.

Let’s get to know the best bits for wood carving with a Dremel, and why they are the best.

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The Best Wood Carving And Power Carving Bits For The Dremel

1. Drum Sanders

The drum sanders for the Dremel are surprisingly effective for removing large amounts of wood and shaping the wood. These are actually some of the wood carving bits I use the most for my wood carvings.

Sanding bands range from super fine grits used for smooth finishes to rough grits that will remove large amounts of wood effectively.

The drums are made in two main sizes, 1/2-inch and 1/4-inch in diameter.

Sanding bands are also really cheap and simple to obtain. You can buy a year’s worth of use for about 10-20 dollars. Sanding drums and bands are also included in the starter kit when buying the Dremel or rotary tool.

But, when using the drum sanders for wood carving you are bound to the shape of the drum. This can become an inconvenience, especially if you are doing detailed work.

Wood carving with a drum sander works best when you follow the shape of the drum.

You cannot use the top/head of the sanding drum for sanding, this is made of rubber and will leave a black mark on the wood.

Sanding also produces more sawdust than other wood carving bits, so be sure to use a mask.

But even though there are some disadvantages to using the sanding drums, I find myself using the sanding drums most of the time when wood carving.

Wanna Learn More About Sanding With The Dremel: Check Out This Article

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2. Kutzall Burrs

Using Kutzall Burrs is probably one of the most effective ways to remove large amounts of wood when wood carving with a Dremel and is great for doing some aggressive wood carving with the Dremel.

The Kutzall burr looks like a medieval weapon and is as effective as it looks. The Kutzall bits and burrs rip and tear the wood apart. Resulting in larger chips of wood being torn from the wood instead of small dust particles.

We want as little dust as possible when we are wood carving.

Kutzall burrs come in varying coarseness depending on what you are going to use them for. The most aggressive is the “Kutzall Extreme Burrs” that you can see on the image above, it is equipped with razor-sharp tungsten carbide teeth and it is designed to aggressively hog the wood away.

If you need to remove a lot of wood when wood carving, use Kutzall Burrs

Finer and smoother burrs are also available if you want to do more detailed and intricate work.

Kutzall Burrs come in several different shapes and sizes, and all of them have certain specialty uses. The best all-around burr for first-time buyers, and beginner woodcarvers, is the 1/8″ Flame Burr.

Kutzall burrs can seem expensive at first, but they should be seen as an investment. These burrs will last for a very long time, and you will probably never experience one of them wearing out. Mine has lasted for several years and is still going strong.

Now, it might seem that you absolutely need these burrs to do wood carving with a Dremel. They sure are nice to have, but if you do not want to invest in these kinds of burrs yet, you can manage by using more inexpensive bits like sanding drums, diamond bits, and bits made for cutting aluminum (Nr. 8 On The List).

Check Out The Selection Of Kutzall Burrs On Amazon

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3. Saburrtooth Burrs

Saburrtooth Burrs are very effective at removing large amounts of wood when wood carving and power carving. The burrs are made up of razor-sharp carbide cutting teeth that rip and tear off the wood. The wood is removed as small woodchips and produces less dust than using sanding bands.

The Saburrtoth Burrs are very similar to the Kutzall burrs. The main visible difference is the color of the bit. In action, the coarse burrs from Saburrtooth will cut the same and be as durable as the coarse burrs from Kutzall.

Saburrtooth burs can be found in all different shapes and coarseness. In this case, my favorite all-around burr, which is great for a beginner woodcarver and power carver, is the 1/8″ Extra Coarse Flame Burr.

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4. EZ-Lock Wood Cutting Wheel EZ544

The EZ lock wood cutting wheel is a great tool for wood carving with the Dremel. This is a cutting disc that is designed to make cuts in wood and is effective at removing small blocks of wood from a carving and is also useful for making textures in the wood.

The one main advantage of the wood cutting wheel is that you can cut off larger pieces of wood with it, compared to the other bit on this list which rips and sands the wood away.

This makes the tool very effective for the rough shaping of the carving, especially, when you need to remove larger pieces of wood. This wheel will give you the ability to carve faster.

The wheel is coated with carbide which cuts effectively and lasts for a long time. This is not a saw blade and does not have “teeth” as normal saw blades do.

Let’s say you are making a wood carving of a bird, then you could do all the rough shaping with the wood cutting wheel, after rough shaping you could do the rough detailing with Kutzall bits, and then smooth over with sanding bands, and do the final detail with a diamond bit which is the next bit on this list.

Now, if you are looking for your first few bits for wood carving. I would not go for the wood cutting wheel, it is a great addition to your toolkit for wood carving with a Dremel. But sanding bands, Kutzall, and Saburrtooth bits will be of higher priority in the beginning.

Check Out The EZ544 Wood Cutting Wheel On Amazon!

Here is a little Demo of the EZ544 wood cutting wheel in action:

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5. Diamond Bits

Diamond bits are essential for wood carving. These bits are coated with highly durable diamond powder with varying coarseness. Diamond bits are not designed to remove large amounts of wood but are rather used for smoothing out surfaces and for detailing.

The diamond bits work similarly to sandpaper in the way that it scrapes the wood away and leaves fine wooden particles. Dust mask and dust collection are important when using diamonds bits on wood.

The diamond bits come in all different shapes you can think of. You get flat shapes for smoothing flat surfaces, pointy shapes for doing tiny detail, and also shapes that are good for cutting straight lines.

The grits and coarseness of the diamond bits also vary depending on how aggressive you want the bit to act when carving and how much wood you need the bit to remove. Getting 60 grit for course diamond bits and 120 grit for fine diamond bits will work fine for the average power carver.

These diamond bits are also very inexpensive, so it is definitely worth getting a set of diamond bits. I find myself using them all the time for finishing wood carvings and doing final details.

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6. Routing Bits

Routing bits are very effective at removing large amounts of wood quickly. The main purpose of routing bits is to shape edges of wood into different patterns and to do plunge cuts in flat pieces of wood. Routing bits can be great to use for wood carving when the shape of the projects allows for it.

Now, for conventional woodcarving bits, routing bits are probably not the first type of bit people think of.

But routing bits are great to use if you are removing large sections of wood on a flat surface or maybe you have finished a carving on a flat surface and want to include a pattern to the edges instead of just having them square.

Dremel also has its own brand of routing bits and routing attachments. The Dremel Plunge Router #335-01, The Dremel Routing Table #231, The Cutting Guide #565, and Routing Bits are all great useful tools for routing with a Dremel and woodcarving with them.

Getting routing bits and routing attachments just for wood carving will probably not be necessary for most people reading this article. But routing with a Dremel can be effective if you carve a lot of edges or flat surfaces, so I just wanted you to know about it, so you can make a decision if they fit your type of carving.

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7.Tungsten Carbide Burrs

Tungsten Carbide Burrs are very effective for wood carving. The burrs chip away the wood easily and can be used for all types of wood carving. They come in all shapes and sizes and there is a burr for every situation.

These burrs are mainly used for metalworking but have been adopted to the wood carving world. And for good reason. The cut wood effectively does not leave deep stripes in the wood as you can experience with coarse bits from Kutzall or Saburrtooth.

They are very inexpensive and a great option if you do not want to use a lot of money when starting up with wood carving and power carving.

The shapes they come in will be pretty much the same shapes as the diamond bits. Some pointy, some flat, and some round. One for every occasion.

These bits are of medium coarseness, somewhere between diamond bits and extreme Kutzall Burrs. These bits will also leave a medium smooth surface.

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8. Aluminum Cutting Burrs

The Aluminum Cutting Burrs will cut through any type of wood. They are super sharp and cut away relatively large pieces of wood at the time. They are a must for wood carving with a Dremel, and fortunately also relatively cheap.

These burrs might seem very similar to the Tungsten Carbide Burrs above on this list. They are in the same category of burrs, but they are just way more aggressive.

These Aluminum Cutting Burrs should be in every wood carving and power carving toolkit.

These burrs have razor-sharp cutting edges that are all facing in the same direction, the result is that they slice through the wood, and remove larger chunks of wood.

Because these burrs cut the wood, they actually leave a fairly smooth surface. Even though they are so aggressive in their ways.

These Burrs also come in all different shapes and sizes. And there is a burr for every situation.