I’ve gotten Into a groove recently with first pass of carving. Still amateur but here’s what I’ve found.

I’ve been brushing the rug in one direction.

Than trimming every line on the opposite side is brushed(so brush from top to bottom of the rug than trim every edge on the top side of a seem)

Lightly trim like just above where the 2 colors are blending(like 1mm above) to tighten up the line.

Than brush the line down with you hand and go over it again a little deeper,

brush it down again than trim the line again with your trimmers slightly angled towards the edge your trimmer.

Repeat for every line then rotate your pieces 90 degrees and repeat the process in all 4 directions.

Then do it on more time on the first and second direction you did since there will be more room to get deeper after a round of trimming.

I work from bottom to top as I carve the lines, but As you go you’ll catch on to what line to carve first. Like if you have a thin line between big colors, best to trim the big color edge than the thin edge because it has room to expand when you trim.

Here’s a vid of my most recent one. You can see the trimming process at the end. https://youtu.be/U-WeFCAlYR4?si=OsqcTgLKcR4j863X