If by "basic" carving you mean something like this:
Then you certainly don't need much in the way of tooling. I have a couple of dozen carving tools collected over the years, but I did those Eucalypt leaves with a skew, a small flat chisel (with a bent end, but an ordinary small flat chisel will do), and a couple of small gouges, one in-cannel (to make the insect bites) & one out-cannel ( preferably a bent one, for rapid stock removal where possible), and a small veining tool (which wasn't strictly necessary for that particular design). My initial 'set' for doing similar work was a cheap set of lino-cutting tools, which happily turned out to be of excellent steel, and which still serve me well for small stuff, though I gradually replaced them with more "full-sized" tools as opportunity or need arose.
My carving is very, very basic & my skills in that area vanishingly small, but I've managed to do what I needed, so far. What got me started was trying to match simple carving on old furniture I was repairing or on pieces made to fill out a set, etc. If you read about carving by a 'real' carver, you will be promptly put-off by the number of tools they use to do just about any job, but you can make-do with a vastly more limited number of tools at a pinch. It will take you longer, and the results may not be quite as slick as the pro's effort, but you can get very close. Matching old, worn carving is both easier (the cuts don't have to be as sharp) & harder (doing a bit of light distressing to try to match the wear & tear on the originals, & perhaps cover one's incompetence a little).
Johhnyb's suggestion of a small set has merit, the tools chosen are usually pretty universal & likely to be of use to you in the future, whatever direction you take. Used tools can be a pig in a poke for a novice; you can end up with gold or garbage & everything in between, but as for all tools, once you get a vague idea of brands & know where you are going with your hobby it's probably the best way to acquire a working set of tools, imo (& you have the thrill of the chase)...
Whatever tools you buy lessons number one to three are
learn to sharpen them well. When it comes to carving, sharp, & I mean
really sharp tools are a joy, while even slightly un-sharp carving tools are frustration writ large and a greater danger to your person. Of course with any cutting tool, the sharper the better, but I think it's most important when carving because if you are struggling to make a tool cut, you can't concentrate on guiding & controlling it (damhik!).
That's 2c worth from someone with very limited carving experience...
Cheers,
Ian
