Xacto knives???

[therenow]

is any using the exacto knives for detail craving; eyes, etc. I am having a difficult time with cutting across the eyeball to form the eyelids. The wood crumbles even though my knife (Mike Shipley) is really sharp.I use the paper razor wheel to hone, and a hard felt wheel to buff, then strop every 15 minutes or so. I am thinking maybe the Exacto may work???

[morganwoodcarver]

Have you tried the same cut on a different piece of wood, it may just be the piece that you are working on. I have run into the same thing with certain pieces of basswoood. I dont know if the xacto knife will give you a different result?

[morganwoodcarver]

The knives that I use are Helvie for detail and roughout.

[BobT]

Even though you may have a sharp knife, the blade may be crushing wood fibers if you are trying to make the cut in one pass. If that is the case, try making 2 or 3 light passes to get the depth you require.
BobT

[Ron T]

As BobT said, if you press the blade down on to the wood, it will crush the fibers and split. You need to have a sharp knife and slice through the wood slowly with shallow strokes until you get the depth you want. A thin blade like an Exacto will help or a scalpel, but if you press, the wood will split.

[therenow]

Yep. I thik i was pressing to hard with my knife because the thiness of the exacto does not take much pressure. I will try the muliple passes with a lighter pressure. Thanks to all

[therandallknight]

pete La clair says the same thing , multi passes . If you can ( if the piece is big enough) you can use a v tool

[Agoodknife]

...X-acto blades,I remember those days ! They can be stropped and greatly improve the edge, or "Bevel"". They are also great to learn to sharpen, get on a sharpening stone and lay the degree of the bevel down. Experiment with "edge geometry". It is what it is,cheap and a gateway for a lot of carvers to begin ! ...Slicing,... if we laid our carvin' knife, or sword on a 'mater,it wouldnt cut, but apply a "slicing" action"...Ahh...So, how I feel about Xacto..., remove extreme bevel,use to use for detail when i started. -my 2 cents. Allen