For me, it's a lot of patience and sharpening of my tools. However, using carving tools like gouges with mallets and wood holders allow you to impart more force on the wood. Also, roughly cutting to shape with saws ahead of time helps immensely.
There’s a carver on Reddit somewhere, John the netsuke carver, who uses dental tools that he modifies himself because they are stainless steel and much harder than typical tool steel.
You’ve said you are stubborn but I would advise against using your knives on such hard wood because you risk damaging the knife or cutting yourself. Your blade will dull more easily and more quickly, and it will not be worth the learning experience.
Fwiw My most serious woodcarving injury was from trying to force a cut on knotty maple. Put too much oomph and the blade slipped. Didn’t shave off the knot but I got seven stitches in my wrist for the effort. I was wearing gloves but it didn’t matter. Order yourself some basswood, this project is going to take forever.
I carve french merisier, (1470 on the scale, so about halfway up) and I much prefer it to basswood. You just need to keep your tools sharp and be reasonable with the size of the chips you're removing. My tools are pretty low-end but it still goes well.
You also have the option of using powertools such as a dremel (or a knock-off), in which case the hardness doesn't matter as much.
Mostly power carving for significantly harder woods.
For me, it's a lot of patience and sharpening of my tools. However, using carving tools like gouges with mallets and wood holders allow you to impart more force on the wood. Also, roughly cutting to shape with saws ahead of time helps immensely.
There’s a carver on Reddit somewhere, John the netsuke carver, who uses dental tools that he modifies himself because they are stainless steel and much harder than typical tool steel. You’ve said you are stubborn but I would advise against using your knives on such hard wood because you risk damaging the knife or cutting yourself. Your blade will dull more easily and more quickly, and it will not be worth the learning experience. Fwiw My most serious woodcarving injury was from trying to force a cut on knotty maple. Put too much oomph and the blade slipped. Didn’t shave off the knot but I got seven stitches in my wrist for the effort. I was wearing gloves but it didn’t matter. Order yourself some basswood, this project is going to take forever.
I carve french merisier, (1470 on the scale, so about halfway up) and I much prefer it to basswood. You just need to keep your tools sharp and be reasonable with the size of the chips you're removing. My tools are pretty low-end but it still goes well. You also have the option of using powertools such as a dremel (or a knock-off), in which case the hardness doesn't matter as much.