Two broken knife tips

[N9ID]

Hi all. I am still a newbie.. I have only been carving since April but I am having lots of fun and carving some fairly presentable things. However, I have broken the tips off two carving knives cutting curved stop cuts! The first one was lack of experience. I kept the knife handle low (close to the wood) to make the stop cut, like I had been shown. When I tried to cut a sharp curve, the tip snapped off. Chalked that one up to a learning experience. I bought myself a nice Helvey knife with the 1 3/4" blade to replace the other one. Again, cutting a curved stop cut, this time with the handle raised almost to vertical, and I broke the tip off. Not very much off of the tip, but you can see that the knife no longer goes to a nice point. What am I doing wrong? Any advice (short of saying I should give up carving) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike

[Tom Ellis]

Mike , This happens with the harder steel in the carving knives. Just use your sharpening stone, and grind down the spine, or backbone of the blade, back down to the cutting edge, and you should be good to go. Probably won't happen again on that knife.

Good luck, Tom

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

We have all done that Mike, don't feel bad. Tom's advice is right on, you just wind up with a blade a drop shorter. Best of luck to you.

Dave

[Colin-Partridge]

Hey we all been there and have the T shirt not one of us that havent broken a tip off by not paying attention. It usually comes from prying or with you when cutting on a curve. Because when you cut on a curve you put more torgue on the blade and the tip being the thinnest and weakest point will break. As said here gust grind it down on the back edge or spine and it will be good as new a little shorter but you probably wont feel the difference.
Colin

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

sounds like you are not pulling the knife straight through the cut but leaning to the side, snapping the tip....great opportunity to learn sharpening though! lol

[Curtscarving]

Mike
I have also broken to many but when I do and have done this to brand new knifes - I round off the tips and sharpen it all the way around. It will not dig into the wood as bad when making cuts on wider wood and will not break as easy as a pointed blade.

A tip from LYNN D.

[Tom-H]

Mike, Everything that has been posted to your question is right on. I might add that if you are making a very small/tight arc stop cut you try to use a series of small stab cuts around the tight arc. I have also found that it helps to slow the cut way down and try to keep the blade angled toward the direction of the cut. All this while trying not to twist the blade in the cut. But your knives with the broken tips can easily be salvaged. And as a bonus, the reshaped tip should be stronger since you'll be into a wee bit thicker part of the blade.

Tom H

[Sam]

The breaks happen when you pry or twist the tip. This is happening to you because the blade shape is probably not the best choice for a curve cut. Try using a curved blade (upsweep type). They move through the curve with little resistance.

[Steve Reed]

Agree with all the above. Something to think about is you need to "slice". This may sound dumb, but most newbies tend to forget slicing versus "cutting". Most tend to put the knife into the wood and try to cut. As stated above, regrind and continue on.
Happy Carving!

[Irish]

I also, as everyone else, snapped the tip off a bench knife. For my carvings I have gone with a large chip carving knife for my stop cuts. The blade is only about 1" long but its about 3/4" wide from blade edge to the back or top edge of the knife. So it does not have that long narrow tip, instead its a blunt stubby tip ... works great for me.

Susan