Carving Knives?

[stuckinthemud]

One more thing, if you cut yourself you're doing it wrong - blood is nature's way of asking you to use correct technique best way is a short cut executed by levering the knife around the tip of the thumb of the hand holding the timber, you pull the handle toward you. This fulcrum effect exerts massive force and makes a tiny cut, but because you can do this cut very quickly, you can waste away a large amount of timber with perfect control and very quickly. Couple this with a stop-cut (vertical push-cut) and you're away.

 

Do not use gloves - they weaken your hold, make you put in more effort, make you tire more quickly, make the work more likely to slip

[Woodcrafter]

Thanks for the info mate I'll try not to make a mess on my 1st piece lol.

I think I'm getting a set of new palm chisels. But I'll certainly look for some old Skool as well.

[stuckinthemud]

Palm chisel set is a great way in to carving, heck, its the way I started! Make sure you get a good quality set, sorby, Ashley Isles,Henry Taylor, Flexcut, other English makers are available - personally I'm not so fond of Two Cherries, or Pfeil (Pfeil make excellent gouges though) - you do get what you pay for, so no cheap Asian stuff... When whittling with chisels three points of contact is still essential - hold the chisel like a pen and use the thumb from the hand holding the timber as well - its impossible to slip and impossible to cut yourself.

[Woodcrafter]

Love my little carving jack had a quick go with it Christmas morning with a rubbish bit of regularised building timber that I had lying around. Took me about 45mins but it was just a play time to get searching for some nice bits of wood.

[2414Gingerboy]

Doesn't matter what brand you get as long as the hard steely bit was, MADE IN SHEFFIELD

[stuckinthemud]

Nice work. Flexcut's big plus is the quality of the edge they come with, you just need to keep it that way! Little leather strop and some chrome polishing paste is the best - strop the edge every time you pick it up and you wont go far wrong