What kind of stuff can be made with just a common buck knife?

[fordman]

Can you make them old man face staffs with a normal knife and a bight stick in the woods?

Also any tips for stuff that can be whittled out of a 2x4 or anything like that?

[JimODea]

Fordman,

I teach a class called "carving your own human face study stick" at many of the woodcarvers roudups in eastern USA. It is intened to all be done with a knife but I show people with gouges where and when they work better or faster. but you don't HAVE to have then to make a face, a knife is all that is required. So give it a try.

send me an off line email and I will reply with some pics and notes from the class, it is not a book but may help you a little. jeodea@aol'com

I don't know what a "buck" or "normal" knife may be to you, but to do detail work a folding pocket knife (must have a lock to be safe) with both a long and short blade can be used although some shaping of blade by grinding off the back may be warrented.

For faces of a walking stick size, I like a 1.5 inch long blade that tapers from about 1/4 to 3/8 wide at handle to a sharp point at the tip, perhaps a slight curve along the back to keep the tip from gettig too thin, see picture of such a blade at Woodcarving Knife

as to use of 2 x 4 - I have seen many fine carvings from "good" eastern white pine 2x4's includig large stylized eagles that have been glued up. finding decent 2 x4 s today with straight close grain takes a lot of looking.

There is a guy that carvers real small figures 1-2 inches tall from construction grade 2x4s - ballerina;s flowers, great stuff. He cuts a small blank of project, soaks it with MARINE grade varnish, when it dries he carves it until varinish disappears, soaks it again, lets it dry and keeps repeatig this process until done. the MARINE grade varnish acts as a stabliszer to keep the pine flexable and strong enough to do such small scale carvings, and he does it all with a pen knife. When done you can take the flower stems and gently sway them with your finger without breaking it. slow process but it produces uique carvings.

[fordman]

buck is a brand and normal is just like a normal pocket knife, and im more interested in whittleing then making it perfect i guess, something like a 2,4 or a small maple in the woods

[Claude]

Hi, Fordman - welcome to the forum.

To answer your basic question: yes, you can use a common pocketknife to carve a stick in the woods. Those faces, by the way, are usually called "wood spirits" If you look up on the green bar above, click on Search, then type in wood spirit, you'll find a whole lot of posts on here about carving wood spirits, including lots of photographs that you can use for patterns.

Maple is a very hard wood, even when green, so you'll need to make sure your knife is very sharp. One of the forums here is all about tools and sharpening. Woodcarving Tools, Technology & Sharpening - Woodcarving Illustrated Message Board Read through some of these to see what we all consider to be good methods for sharpening. Especially read about "scary sharp". Also, this forum http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/forum/f69/ is all about carving sticks and canes and has a lot of info and photographs...

Here are some links to instructions on how to carve wood spirits. Most of these use gouges as well as knives, but can be done with a knife only - just takes a bit longer to do.
Claude

Video: Carved Wood-Spirit
http://carverscompanion.com/Ezine/Vo...ngPencils.html
SD_Wood_Carvers (on this one, move your computer cursor over top of the little gouges.)
Woodcarving, Carving Wood Spirits 1, Instruction and Patterns
TIPS ON BARK CARVING

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

I have a reshaped Buck knife (20-30 years old), it works fine for carving and detail work. It has a nice point at the end which alows me to get into tight areas.

Dave

[Buffalo Bif]

There is another forum here, Flat Plane carving, by definition the only tool used is a knife (I'm sure some people occassionally bring other tools to the table) Take a look, there's a wide variety of pics there. My blog is all whittled- knife & wood and nothing else: bflobif.blogspot.com

BfloBif

[Donsexton]

I don't use a knife much but yes you can carve anything you want with a knife.

[northwood bob]

That is quite the question. In all honesty, you can carve almost anything with a pocket knife. Over teh years, I've used a Buck Stockman to whittle and carve when I'm not in my shop. I've created X-mas ornaments from green birch as well as alder during time spent on a deer stand. I know of intricate stock carvings made simply with a pocket knife. The sky is the limit. Correctly sharpened and maybe modified, the three blade system gives you many carving options. Buck makes a very good knife with nice steel in the blades. Be careful with the blades, although they hold an edge very nicely, the hardness of the steel makes it a bit difficult to sharpen. Above all else, ensure the blades are extremely sharp. No matter the situation, a dull blade will create a safety hazard and will get you into trouble fast.

Have fun
Bob