Chip carving

Chip carving or chip-carving, kerbschnitt in German, is a style of carving in which knives or chisels are used to remove small chips of the material from a flat surface in a single piece.

Famous Anglo-Saxon examples include the jewellery from Sutton Hoo and the Tassilo Chalice, although the style originated in mainland Europe.

In later British and Irish metalwork, the same style was imitated using casting, which is often called imitation chip-carving, or sometimes just chip carving (authors are not always careful to distinguish the two), a term also sometimes applied to pottery decorated in a similar way.

Patterns can be free form style or based on geometric figures.

Chip carving knives can also be used for whittling, cabinet making, and general workbench purposes.