[Eddy Smiles]

I suffer from a severe case of CRS so I still refer to my copy of Skylar Johnson's "How To Carver a Woodspirit in a Hiking Stick" when ever I'm carving one of my canes. He uses knives, gouges and v-tools. One of these days or perhaps in my next life I'll get good enough to do it with out looking at the pictures and figure out how to carve a complete woodspirit with only a knife! In the meantime, I'll second what the rest of the gang has already said.... I've carved woodspirits in cedar, poplar, sweetgum, maple and elm and in my humble opinion the chances of ruining a tool are slight if properly used and maintained. Keep them sharp and strop often!

[justanick]

Like many others here I use mostly a three bladed knife and a skew chisel. I find that I can get a lot done with just these two tools.