For those looking for a fascinating hobby or even an artistic career, woodcarving can be hypnotic — or frustrating if approached with the wrong equipment. Grinders and chainsaws work well on some materials and scales of work, but the simplest approach is still the mallet, chisel and gouge. Carving knives play only a small role in the trade, occasionally useful for cleanup and for folk art tricks like the wooden chain or ball-in-cage.
Relief carving once was a common skill among furniture makers and depends as much on patterns and matching tool shapes to known designs as it does on artistic ability. Complete sets of chisels and gouges in a wide range of sweeps and sizes make duplication of nearly any design a by-the-numbers project. Chip carving combines geometric patterns with simple knife and chisel blades, but even though the approach looks simple the best chip patterns are truly intricate and beautiful, challenging even for experts.
For sculpting the gouge and chisel provide nearly infinite control of angle and cutting depth. Heavy tools remove waste wood quickly, while smaller combinations handle fine detail. Tool sets are chosen to match the scale of the work, with most types intended to be driven by a mallet. The smallest combine with palm handles for working with hand pressure only.
Tye Two Cherries’ 5 Piece Carving Set with palm-sized handles — built for hand pressure detail work but also useful with a light mallet.
The Two Cherries’ 11 Piece Carving Set provides six full sized mallet driven tools, four chip carving knives and a whetstone.
The 20 piece Starter Set from FlexTool offers a broad range of tools in slim profile spring steel and interchangeable handles — a new and good idea.
Posted by JT Hats
Lighter than traditional drawknives, this curved drawknife with 5-inch cutting edge from Flexcut was designed for carvers rather than wheelwrights and coopers. Flexcut created this small drawknife from high carbon spring steel with shanks tempered for slight flexing under load. That extra movement allows the knife to follow complex ...
Posted by JT Hats
Although some very well-known carvers use pocketknives exclusively, a pocketknife was actually designed for occasional use. Where hours of work are involved, other styles work better. The carving set from Flexcut of Erie, Pennsylvania, offers four specialized carving knives meant for the long haul.
The problem with pocket knives ...
Posted by JT Hats
Obviously designed by a woodcarver, the Flexcut Carvin Jack packs a basic set of woodcarving knives and gouges into a multi-tool small enough to fit in a belt pouch. If you gave up whittling around the campfire because you couldn't bring your workshop with you, now's your chance to ...
Posted by JT Hats
The Folding Deluxe Whittler from Boker of Solingen, Germany, continues to be produced in what is now a somewhat rare metal -- plain-edged carbon steel. You'll notice the difference in the color of the blades right away, since they lack the mirror finish of high carbon stainless steel. If you ...
Posted by JT Hats
Classic pocket knives were nearly left behind when one-handed opening clip folders came along, even though modern clip folders lacked the grace of the old styles. Kershaw's Double Cross combines the best features of the modern pocket folders in a familiar, classic style. This traditional pocket knife with a ...
Posted by JT Hats
Being able to cut a 2x4 at a perfect right angle with a handsaw is always one of the marks of a skilled carpenter -- with the European style of saw most of us know, accurate cuts take years of practice. With Shark's 12-inch carpentry saw, an improved version of ...
Posted by JT Hats
Shark's flexible Fine Cut Saw gives us the traditional Ryoba joiner's saw with a modern improvement -- pushbutton blade replacement. This double-edged saw style has been standard in Japan for centuries but is relatively new to Western woodworkers. One side bears shark-tooth shaped teeth for crosscutting and the opposite ...
Posted by JT Hats
The Shark Dowel/Dovetail/Detail Saw cuts one of the thinnest kerfs possible, but even though it's a great crosscut saw for tenons and tricky detail work it isn't the only saw you'll need for dovetailing.
The Shark Detail Saw is so thin and flexible that it's a little tricky to use. ...
Posted by JT Hats
When craftsmen of today try to recreate the work of previous generations, there's a good chance they'll just end up wondering how those old-timers did that. Modern tools were designed for modern materials and often don't fare well on traditional challenges. The Gransfors Bruks Swedish Carving Axe is one ...
Posted by JT Hats
Shark's Trim/Detail Ryoba combines a thin double edged spring steel blade with an old handle design that's not so great. The 19 tpi ripping edge and the 24 tpi crosscut edge otherwise would be a perfect combination for dovetailing and other tricky feats of joinery.
With a finer tpi ...
Posted by JT Hats
Flexcut Tool Company's SK108 20-Piece Carving Starter Set gives artisans a selection of 17 blades, two interchangeable handles, and the basics of a sharpening system all in one compact case. This collection of good tools is not the traditional approach, using light spring steel blades instead of heavy forged patterns ...
Posted by JT Hats
The 11 Piece Carving Set from Two Cherries includes tools for both relief and chip carving. A good choice for beginners and for expert carvers who need to replace tools or expand collections, the Two Cherries set features forged blades of high carbon tool steel hardened to Rockwell 61 ...
Posted by JT Hats
The Two Cherries 5 Piece Palm-Handled Carving set includes five high quality tools for detailing and small scale relief carvings plus a five-pocket leather pouch for storage.
These small carving tools show some of the same features of full-sized gouges and chisels intended for heavier work. Forged bolsters and ferruled ...
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This set of tools will work well for someone looking to start a serious wood carving hobby. The tools are professional-quality and, while the set is not comprehensive, the tools provide a good range of the various tools of the trade needed to produce serious carvings.
The kit is intended for creating ...
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