You can do it. Get a saw. Bass wood is pretty soft so it will be annoying but 100% doable. I do it all the time as I also have wrong sized wood and no power tools. Coping saw is good or I also got a Japanese style saw that works pretty well too

HACHIEMON Japanese Saw RYOBA MINI 180mm for DIY and Hobby https://a.co/d/7DkeL0R

Good call on the gloves. I should have said that first.

Glad i could help. It’s an awesome hobby that take very little to start but is pretty rewarding. Check out some videos on YouTube by a guy Doug Linker. He gives tutorials for a lot of great beginner projects. That’s where I started.

Also, shameless plug. Check out this community

https://sh.itjust.works/c/whittling

It small and just getting started but so far, everyone is super chill

Sorry for not seeing this sooner. I haven’t gotten a hang of the best way to check if anyone replies to comments in Lemmy yet. Your post is the perfect starting wood. Basswood is soft and cheap so you can make cool things and practice pretty easily. I wouldn’t use a pairing knife though. Not to say you can’t but u might wreck that pairingknife. You can get cheap semi decent knives from companies like flexcut or morakniv and then move from there. My first couple knives specifically for wood were a whittlin jack (I think this is by flexcut) and a morakniv 120. Both about 40$ and still hold up great. The first knife I actually used was a Victorinox Swiss Army knife and was just something I had around the house. I think it was 20$. Not built for whittling but will work fine. Honestly use whatever your comfortable with. Once you get into it you will get a better idea of what you want in a knife and n apiece of wood. Happy to help with any advice if u need any. Not an expert but can give you any tips I’ve picked up since I’ve started.

Pick up whittling. This what I did when I was struggling in early covid. The start up cost is low and u can get as creative as u want. Im not very creative so make spoons and give them to family and friends but also make little figures like gnomes, wizards, rabbits, fish.

If u got wood and a semi decent knife, u can start right now