# Wood Carving Knives?



## zwwizard

I make carving knives for my carving club and other carvers in the area. 
( see http://lumberjocks.com/projects/93374) I was wondering just what type of knives other carver like to use.


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## Planeman40

Hello Richard,

I am in the middle of making my own carving chisels. For about a year now I have been looking at some hand-forged chisels in the "rough" offered on eBay that come from China. Over the years I have had excellent luck with CAREFULLY chosen Chinese products and have gotten some fantastic deals buying direct from China.

There is a Chinese supplier of luthier's tools and supplies that appear to me to be high quality but in the Chinese style. They have some carving tools that look to be excellent and considering what Chinese craftsman can do with a piece of rosewood they are master carvers.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-62pcs-ASSORTED-LOT-WOOD-CARVING-TOOLS-Wood-Chisel-/321247154070?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4acbd28f96

The description is as follows.

"The southern Chinese city of Donyang has been one of the major centers of wood carving in China since the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907AD). Our cutting tools come from the best blacksmith in Donyang. He still uses the centuries old traditional methods with these tools. The larger carving gauges have conical tangs to keep the handle from splitting when struck with the traditional iron mallet(socket chisel). The cutting edges are remarkably durable. The smaller detail carving tools are made of a single layer of carbon steel (C60) with the harness of (RC 58). The large carving gauges are made of double layered steel and have a cutting edge whose harness is over (RC 60). As with Chinese tradition, the blade is only coarsely finished by the blacksmith. Those willing to take the time to hone it to perfection, will be rewarded with extraordinary life-time carving tool at an unbeatable price."

There are 62 chisels at $127. That works out to around $2.00 per chisel plus a tad when the shipping ($20) is factored in.

The Chinese company that offers them is a luthier's supply that has a number of interesting woodworking tools available: http://stores.ebay.com/lanjianmin2012/_i.html?rt=nc&_sid=1115250316&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1581&_pgn=11

Here are some sets of fewer chisels that are offered:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sharped-8-pcs-ASSORTED-LOT-WOOD-CARVING-TOOLS-Chisel-guitar-make-tool-/281201263545?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4178e6c3b9

http://www.ebay.com/itm/30pcs-ASSORTED-LOT-WOOD-CARVING-TOOLS-Chisel-/271321121584?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f2bffc330

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12pcs-Wood-Carving-Chisels-Set-Woodworking-Tools-Kit-Wood-Handle-Chisel-98-/261330480058?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cd882abba

My 62 chisels have arrived and I am VERY satisfied with the quality. At the moment I am involved in polishing the ENTIRE chisel and sharpening them and have about ten of the socket-type chisels done so far. The edges hold a razor edge that will shave the hair off your arm with ease. I plan to make all of the handles from a supply of Purpleheart I have on hand that I know will slowly turn to a nice reddish brown. I will use 3/8" copper pipe caps for ferrules for the tang-type chisels. The socket-type chisels I plan to add a ring of 3/4" copper pipe to the mallet striking end to insure there will be no splitting of the wood. To make the handles, I will be making a duplicator for my wood lathe like the one in this month's issue of ShopNotes magazine.

Planeman


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## zwwizard

Hi Planeman, I have two set for Chinese chisels bought from Woodcravers Supply

http://www.woodcarverssupply.com/20-TOOL-SCULPTURE-SET-ROLL/productinfo/401002/
http://www.woodcarverssupply.com/20-TOOL-DETAIL-SET-ROLL/productinfo/401005/
I have found that they are very good.

All so if you what to make small chisels. use some masonry nails. Here a pic of some I have made.
http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/4235753
I wound like to see your chisels when you get them done.
Richard


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## Planeman40

Hello Richard,

Thanks for the reply. I'm taking the day off today from polishing and sharpening chisels as my finger tips are getting a little sore. But I am making good progress. I am polishing the *entire* forging. I find polishing the concave side of gouges takes the most time and is the most difficult. what works best so far is lightly grinding the forging marks down with a Dremel tool then using a 600 grit water stone to begin polishing and going to finer water stones until I can finish up with a hard buffing wheel. Fortunately I have a 1970's era Delta 1" x 36" belt sander and a lot of metal grinding belts from Klingspor Inc. in North Carolina. Without this I wouldn't want to tackle the job. My purchase includes a complete set of socket chisels and a complete set of tang-type chisels, about 31 chisels each set. Some of the tang-type chisels are pretty tiny. I am doing all of the socket chisels first as they require the most work. I figure I'll be tired of buffing and polishing by the time I get them done so the tang-type chisels will be less work.

Those Chinese chisels you bought from Woodcarver's Supply appear to be the EXACT socket chisels I am working on now! Interesting.

And the use of masonry nails for small chisels is interesting. I never thought of that. I notice you made some "adz-type" chisels. I can't judge the size very well, but they look pretty small. Can you really get a decent "swing" with them? How do you use them?

And one last thing. I plan to make a carver's vise from pipe fittings. I found some photos on the Internet and it looks pretty good. I really enjoy making my own tools and using them!

Planeman

P.S. You wouldn't just happen to live near Atlanta, GA where I live? Small chance I guess but its worth a try.

P.S P.S. After posting, I went back and looked at all of the chisels at Wood Carver's Supply. It appears my set of rough forgings IS the exact forgings used for this company's "Mastercarver" chisels and that my set includes ALL of the chisels offered by Wood Carver's Supply's "Mastercarver" sets. But I notice Wood Carver's Supply doesn't offer the tang-type chisels that I have which go down to very small sizes.


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## zwwizard

The Adz's are full size. copied from Kestrel tools.
http://kestreltool.com/adze.html

I bought my chisels about 15 years ago. Here is how I got mine set up.










I see I am going to round up some of them. They sneak out and hide themselves in the shop.
I pick up these old silver ware chests and re do them to hold small tools around the shop.










No I don't live anywhere close to you, just about as far away as you can get. Springfield, Oregon.
Richard


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## Planeman40

Oregon huh! Well Richard, I'll use the punch line of a joke I heard on the Johnny Carson Show years ago, "Everybody's gotta a be somewhere", said with a shrug when the husband found a naked man hiding in his wife's closet and demanded "What are you doing in there!"

And "I pick up these old silver ware chests and re do them to hold small tools around the shop." A wonderful idea! I think I'll rumble around on eBay to what they have for my chisels. I was contemplating a roll, but I kinda like this better. Thanks!

One other thing. Those smaller tang-type chisels I see in the lid of your box appear to be the very same ones as the "tang-type" Chinese chisels of my rough forgings set. I wonder . . .

Planeman


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## murch

A stanley knife gets a lot of carving done


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