# Whittling tools/knives Recomendations Please



## Stephen (Mar 31, 2006)

My wife and I both have walking sticks (see "stupid stick" story below!) which have neat faces carved in them. We purchased them a few years ago from the Big Meadow gift shop/general store in the Shenandoah National Park. I'd like to try my hand at chip carving and see if I too can create such a spirit in a piece of wood.

I've browsed a number of websites that profess to have the best whittling/carving tools/knives, and the best prices, but this past weekend we visited the Sunset Mountain Craft Festival at the acclaimed Grovewood Gallery (Grove Park Inn - Asheville, NC) and talked to two (of many) carvers, that are clearly minimalists as far as tools for their craft go. One guy (literally) used a box cutter, and the other a pocketknife with a chip blade and a detail blade . . . 19 bucks from Woodcraft.com.

Value in all things is important . . . so . . . what does one "really" need in the way of tools/knives, how much should it cost, and are there brand names I should consider?

*Stupid Stick Story . . . *

My wife, Patrice, and I use to enjoy short vacations and long weekends away from our business and the hustle that is life around Washington DC. Our destination of choice were the Apalachian/Smoky Mountains of Virginia and North Carolina. Of course, now we live smack in the middle of them . . .

One of our favorite destinations was Shenandoah National Park with its plethora of waterfalls, and the night-time rhapsody of bears in the trash cans, and not to forget, the relative comfort of "gaget" camping.

One day we were going to hike to a remote, hard toget to waterfall, but before we left, much to her chagrin, I bought a walking stick with, why not, a face carved upon it. She instantly dubbed it a "stupid" stick, and berated it me for making the purchase, accusing me of being a wimp, etc. As I had walked what seemed at the time, the entire width and breadth of Southeast Asia in my youth, and understood the value of such things, I would not be deterred from my purchase, or it's use! Later in the day, about half way back to the trail head, all up hill, she tugged my sleeve and asked if she could use my walking stick. To which I replied with much ire, "You mean this old "stupid" stick?" We both laughed, and on the way back to our camp site, we stopped at Big Meadow where she bought her own "stupid" stick and we both shared an ice cream. The ice cream is gone, but for the "stupid" sticks, we still have and use them often . . .

Enjoy!


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## decoustudio (May 4, 2006)

Hey Stephen: I continue to love to read your writings. You show your heart and wear it on your sleeve, which I respect in other men. I think your wife and mine would get along great.

I enjoy walking sticks, especially carved ones. So much so, that if I could make a complete living with them alone, I would probably go that route and forget about all the large equipment I still need, to be efficient with furniture building.

I suggest you get any of Tom Wolfe's books on Wood Spirits. He'll show you how, cut by cut, with dozens and dozens of close up photos, demonstrating the tools to use. This is how I did my first carved cane which I sold the next morning after I finished it. I still wish I had it, but I needed something with the money at the time.

I have almost completely moved over to power carving the faces, both Indians and Wood Spirits, with a Dremel and several bits. I have found this to be sufficient for quality of what people have wanted to pay for carved canes/sticks. I try to spend a minimal amount of time per cane from start to putting a tag on it, to keep the prices down, so I have elected not to do all the work with a carving knife.

I did a Wizard Walking stick for my son's 4th birtday, you can see it on my project posting of the Walking Canes from my profile page, it is the third picture I posted on the cane page. Since it was made in Cottonwood, the rotary tools wouldn't do much but fuzz the wood, so it is done almost completely with a sharp pointed carving knife I paid $6.50 for at one of Rockler's sales.

I also use a sharp pointed knife around the eye sockets and eye lids, and the glint in the eye Tom Wolfe's book describes. But the rest I do with the Dremel. Sure there are better motorized carving tools, but the Dremel is cheap enough that I have two of them on my table and can switch back and forth between the two most often used bits while I'm working.

Here is the downside though, when sitting at a show, working with a Dremel tool is not near as "romantic" as carving with a knife, to those that pass by and stop and watch or ask questions. For shows, I like to do the work with the knife. I have at times worked up the cane blank close to what I wanted before the show, and then just did the knife work on each one at the show. But, invariably, someone asks every time if I have carved it all with the knife, to which I have to admit, "no." Then, they seem to lose interest. It is tempting to tell a lie in such cases, but anyone with a close eye and some carving skill could look at my work and see that it is done mostly with the Dremel tool.

I can send you some photos of the tools I use if that would be what you want. I think Tom Wolfe's book will do better than I can show you with photos.

My first carving I did in 1982. I carved a small duck with a dull retractable contractor style exacto knife on a scrap of 2"x4" stud wood. I did this one summer between college semesters while I was building a house with another guy. I would take my lunch time and carve while he ran into the restaraunt to eat in the a/c. I still have that silly little duck.

thanks for your posting.
Mark DeCou www.decoustudio.com


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## decoustudio (May 4, 2006)

Hey Stephen: can't believe I forgot it earlier, but a carving friend of mine, Bob Goad wrote an article for Woodcraft Magazine late last summer about how to carve a wood spirit walking stick, using only simple hand tools. I bought the magazine issue to read his article, and really enjoyed it. He is a great guy, a world champion bird carver, and a very respected author by several magazines. I would recommend you check the website:
http://www.woodcraftmagazine.com/Search/SearchResults.aspx?type=Keywords

for a chance to order the back issue.

Hope this helps,
Mark DeCou www.decoustudio.com


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## Stephen (Mar 31, 2006)

Well thanks Mark . . . . I appreciate your kudos, and I'm glad you find my muses to your liking . . .

I, on the other hand, am tickled putrid pink (that would be the shade of three day old roadkill) that your reply was so full of information! Outstanding! (That's how you can tell an excellent Kansas farmer from a mere mediocre Kansas farmer. The excellent Kansas farmer is o-u-t-s-t-a-n-d-i-n-g in his field . . . 

I'm going to subscribe to Woodcraft Magazine so I can purchase your friend's articleabout "wood spirits." as soon as my wife let's me have my credit card back.


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## decoustudio (May 4, 2006)

Hey Stephen:
Glad you can use the information. Bob Goad is the type of guy that if you call, or email him, he will try to help. I met him at a show, and fell in love with his bird carvings, later emailed him to ask about tools to buy, and he helped me, sold me some things, and provided some ongoing support when I showed him what I was doing with the tools I bought from him. If you email me off-forum, I'll forward your email to him, and then you guys can chat if you want to: [email protected]

I also posted on the Stickmakers International yahoo forum group that you had this question, and invited the members there to visit this forum, join lumberjocks, and see if they had some other ideas that might help you.

No credit card at your disposal. Huummmm. Your wife and mine might be sisters. What does that say about you and I?

Thanks for the farming note, I don't farm, but they live all around me, and my Grandfather was one. On the other hand maybe I should become one, then I would finally be "outstanding" in something. At least until the banker called in his note.

thanks for your note,
Mark DeCou www.decoustudio.com


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## OldJoe (Jun 6, 2006)

A box knife would work fine for wood spirit faces on a stick. Any good knife and a couple of basic carving tools will do the job a bit easier.

Check out: http://www.oldjoe.org/WoodSpirit1.html

Start with a softer wood like willow, linden or aspen. Hard woods like hickory, ash, oak, dogwood, etc will be tough at first.

Good luck. Old Joe


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## Stephen (Mar 31, 2006)

Hey Joe!

Thanks! Your website is VERY informative. When I have all of "she who must be obeyed" chores for the day finished. I'm gonna be all over your website like a cheap suit!


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## Stephen (Mar 31, 2006)

Mark . . .

I have subscribed to the magazine (won't get my first issue until end of july) and I have downloaded your friends' article! Pretty cool!

It's a truly beautiful day in the mountains!


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## Ron (Dec 7, 2006)

Stephen,

I just happened to to finally log on to the Stickmakers group after over a year absence and saw your posting which led to lumberjocks.

I started carving about 4 years ago with a wood spirit. A friend showed me how. Since then I have made a number of canes and designed a couple of faces for sticks. (You can see *A Mongol Warrior* on the Stickmakers World Wide site.)

At first, I too had a lot of questions about tools and knives. I have since found you can use anything that will remove wood. I now make most of my own knives using old files, saw blades, screwdrivers and even concrete nails, which I shape with a Dremel.

More important that the tools is to study the face that you want to carve and think about what cuts you want to make to remove the wood. I, too, use a Dremel tool to rough out my designs, but I also use gouges, knives and dental picks that I got from the flea market.

By the way, my wife says she'd like us to move to North Carolina when she retires.

Ron


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## Ron (Dec 7, 2006)

Stephen,

My photo is also in the StickmakersInternational gallery. Sorry!

Ron


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## TheKiltedWoodworker (Dec 21, 2006)

Stephen,
I'm not really too much into the face carving or the stick carving, but I do love my Wayne Barton chip carving and stabbing knives; they would certainly serve your purposes well. They're a little on the pricey side at Woodcraft ($29.99 each - oof!). You can get them cheaper through Amazon.com ($49.95), but if you decide to go that route, you should support a fellow woodworker and use The Wood Whisperer's Amazon store. Basically, you can get anything through Marc's store that you can buy on Amazon.com, but Marc gets a little percentage to help keep his website, www.thewoodwhisperer.com, up and running and surprising us with new woodworking podcasts every week or so! Just go to www.thewoodwhisperer.com and you should see the link to his store right on the main page.


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## TheKiltedWoodworker (Dec 21, 2006)

(That's $49.95 for the pair…)


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## Stephen (Mar 31, 2006)

Ron, Ethan, anyone else with interest . . .

I have collected a humble assortment of knives, scrapers, gouges, but I really want to learn how to make them for myself. I've collected some old saw blades, good steel, and a local welder has promised me all his old, used up files. Now comes the learning process; turning steel into tool. Any advice or resource information would be greatly appreciated!

Happy Holidays!

Stephen


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## TheKiltedWoodworker (Dec 21, 2006)

Another source for "steel" you should consider is old straight razors. I have several books on marquetry and inlay by Zachary Taylor, and that is what he uses for his veneering knives. It will take a bit of grinding, because you don't really want that super-thin edge the razor came with; you want to get to the thicker back part of the blade.

I don't think he goes into great detail about how to do the conversion, but he does discuss the shape of the blade and the angles at which your knives should be sharpend to quite some degree. If you can find any of his books in a library, it might be worth reading up on. I think he has the same "tools of the trade" section in all of his books, so any one of them should have the info you want.

If I come across any other resource, I'll make mention of it here.


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## Stephen (Mar 31, 2006)

Ron:

Your wife has good taste! After 9-11 we began looking for somewhere else to live. Being in the ten-ring so speak, just outside of Washington, DC, just wasn't working for us anymore. After endless hours on the Internet, a plague of unsolicited Real Estate agent emails, a finally re-defining our wants and needs, we ended up in Western North Carolina. Happily, there is a huge, I mean H-U-G-E, woodworking and craft community in the area.

We love our mountain, our trout stream out the back door (literally!) and we have made many new woodworking friends. Our one dog, a city dog, has adapted very well, and like true "mountian folk" that number has grown to three.

Sounds idyllic to be sure, but if you're coming, come soon. We have been "discovered". North Carolina is the new Florida!

Stephen
Mountains of Western North Carolina


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## Stephen (Mar 31, 2006)

Ethan:

Using old straight razors is an interesting and creative source of materials. I learned on a Woodwright's Workshop episode just yesterday, about tghe making and repairing of draw knives. Very interesting to be sure, but it included the discusion about the tempering of the steel once the metals, steel hammer welded to iron and shaped, were formed.

So . . . my question is: Where does one learn just enough of the blacksmith's art to accomplish what one needs to do?

Stephen
Mountains of Western North Carolina


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## TheKiltedWoodworker (Dec 21, 2006)

Give a man a fish…

A Fish
Here looks to be an interesting article on how to temper steel.

Teach a man to fish…

Fishing Pole
Net
Hooks
Lures
I've often thought if I couldn't find anything about a topic on the internet, then it didn't exist. This has rarely been proven wrong. Even some of my more obscure searches (how to include secret compartments in furniture, for example) have provided me the fruits of my labor; I just had to find the right combination or search technique. But it takes effort and determination to persevere. Try searching for:
How to temper steel
tempering steel at home
homemade knives
home made knife
homemade woodworking tools
home made tools

and different combinations of the above and so on and so forth. There have been a few occasions when I've come up short on info (how to incorporate hidden opening mechanisms into my smaller works, for example), but those occurrences are few and far between. I have a pretty good feeling you'd be able to find quite a bit of info on tempering steel and making your own woodworking tools.

But living near so many mountain men… you should first start asking around where you live. I bet some of them could point you in the right direction. Or maybe even try to locate a blacksmith in your area and see if they would be willing to give you a few tips or some advice…


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## decoustudio (May 4, 2006)

Stephen: I have an article in the shop on making a carving knife by a Mr. Chin I think his name is. I will get the article and post you the publisher and author. This author has taught knife making and hand plane making at Marc Adams School of Woodworking, a class that I would love to take some day. The class in Indianapolis. I will be back with more information. Good to have you back on line.

Mark


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## Obi (Oct 19, 2006)

Ethan, Great Article


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## Chipncut (Aug 18, 2006)

Whenever I see an old drill spade bits at a flea market, or garage sale I buy them. I've made quite a few gouges, & chisels out of them. You have to keep quenching them to prevent overheating. I polish them with various grits of emory, with the final polish on my leather strop. They hold their edge very well. I've also used old files.


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## Stephen (Mar 31, 2006)

Mark, Dick, Michael . . . others interested . . .

Hey Mark: Thanks for the article. I heard about a marketry class in, I think, Indianapolis. One of my new box maker friends took it and speaks of it highly. The guy is an acomplished box maker to begin with, but now he incorporates his new marketry skills onto his boxes . . . excellent work from an excellent talent. He's doing a series of boxes with the state birds on the top.

Hey Michael: Your website provides an excellent selection of links! Thanks!

Hey Dick: Sounds like you've mastered the tempering art . . .  I hadn't thought about using spade bits, but your point(s) are well taken! I am curious though, your technique for attaching your newly created blade to a handle. I assume you turn or carve your handle, drill and insert the mandrel of the old spade bit up as far as you are comfortable, but what then? Do you glue the two together, or do you have another method of joining them?

The Princess calls . . . enjoy your day!

Stephen
Mountains of Western North Carolina


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## Chipncut (Aug 18, 2006)

Hi Stephen,
One thing nice about using spade bits, is you don't have to temper them as long as you don't overheat them while grinding. To get different radius's on the gouges, you can use various size drum sanders mounted in your drill press or lathe. 
I have made all new handles on my chisels of my own design. My design is more comfortable in my hands. With my style grip I can exert more pressure with what I call an ergonomically tapered shape. I drill out the handle, use epoxy to hold the chisel shank. I use either bronze, or copper tubing for the handle ferrules.
Also with the flat side, the handle is always in the correct position when you pick it up, & it won't roll away when you set it down.

*1/2" fishtail gouge, made from Spade bit*









*Side view


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## Stephen (Mar 31, 2006)

WOW! Great work Dick! But I imagine you have plenty of time to hone your carving craft between snow shovelings, eh?

Thanks for the photos of your tools! A picture is worth more than a 1000 words . . . 

Gotta feed the beagles 'n haul in more wood . . . again . . . thanks!

Stephen
Mountains of Western North Carolina


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## icarve (Oct 21, 2007)

Personally I want something that feels comfortable in my hand. I've tried pocket knives and although convenient for carrying around, I just got a sore hand and frustration. There's a wide range of mediocre to good tools you could get, all with varying prices, but if you're just starting out on this journey, I wouldn't go for the "everything under the sun" tool package. Get only what you really need to get started…a decent straight blade and detail knife that is comfortable in your hand, then add to it as you need it. Regardless of what quality tool you purchase, make sure you also get a sharpening package. If your knife isn't sharpened properly, you could easily run into problems. There's an article on sharpening carving tools at http://www.whittlingandcarving.com/sharpening.php if you wish to view it.


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