Cleaner Cuts?

[Whittling Librarian]

Not sure how to describe this problem, really, but I'll give it a shot. When I'm carving smaller caricatures (about 2-3 inches tall) using a sharp knife, I often get some really rough edges on some of the tighter angled cuts. Places like under chins and stomachs, the area between the top of the feet and the bottom/front of the legs, inside the mouth. The other cuts I make are pretty clean, but in these "tight spots" I end up with a lot of burrs and fuzzy-looking wood that's hard to clean up. Is this normal? Do people usually just sand this down before posting the pics? Any tips for changing up my technique and getting a cleaner look in these spots? Thanks!

-Rob

[brent]

Any time a cut "changes" direction on the wood, you will probably have roughness or fuzziness due to the grain changing. Sometimes if possible, a sharply angled cut will alleviate this. Skewing the blade is the correct term. Otherwise, if it is a spot that is to tight to get a blade into, you might try rolling up tightly or folding some sandpaper and cleaning it up also.

[Goody]

I have a couple of knives that i really dont call detail knives. They are ground narrow ( balde edge to Back of knife) and the back edge is ground round. This allows me to keep a low angle of attack and still roll the knife thru the cut.
Goody

[Whittled Thumb]

I use my soft brush wheel and a dremel to get rid of them. Still though you can't get them all

[Claude]

Another possibility is that your knife is being used similar to a straight chisel at those points, meaning the knife edge is at right angles to the direction of the cut; you're trying to push the knife edge into the wood. Try to do more of a slicing cut and see if that might help you - especially where the grain is changing a little. Think of cutting a bite of steak...do you press the steak knife straight down into the meat, or do you use it in a slicing movement? I'm probably one of the worst "offenders" about chisel cuts instead of slices on wood, but I'm aware of it and keep trying to correct myself.

Claude

[Mitchell]

Stop cut.

Place it where you want the 'detail' to end. I use a gouge to mark where I want deep details to go and then go back with the detail knife to clean it up with final details. By using the gouge first, it reduces the number of times you have to stick the knife into the area - reducing the chance for fuzzies.

PS - try searching as this is a topic that has come up a few times.... here's an example: Cleaner cut question Found using "cleaner"

and one found using "fuzzies": rough around the edges (and valleys)

[Steve Reed]

Sometime it also results from what I call "picking" at the wood vs slicing. One trick is to use a diamond file mounted in a pin vise. They come in all different shapes/sizes and come in handy in cleaning out this kind of stuff. Of course the best answer is not to create them in the first place, but if it happens. . . .see above :-)

[Anthony Filetti]

I agree with Mitchell on this, it is about committing to the cut with a stop cut to the correct depth. Stop cuts are key to clean carving.
Note: wood has 3 dimentions and the direction you carve in is critical to your result, this might require you to utilize different style cuts.

The second thought is ensuring your knife is as sharp as it can be, if it isn' you will get
the cuts you desire...a simple test of this is to take 2 long draws(1 for each side of knife) from a scrap block the resulting cuts should look and feel "click' without any scratching or tears. If not you need to go back to the strop.
Thirdly you have to consider the shape of the knife, the carvings you are specifying are made for small detail knives, they would work the best.

[Whittling Librarian]

Thanks so much everyone. I got a lot of good ideas from you all, and I can't wait to go through the list and give it all a try!

[Dileon]

Goody thanks for the tip.... I rounded two very small knife backs and really sharpen them ...they roll super nice....great idea!!!