cutting board

[minowevie]

masso. thank you so much. I so admire your talent. I will show you what I have tried. and I am not happy with it . but
I have to show you so maybe you can tell me what I am doing rouge. these are the knifes I am using. maybe not sharp enough. but trying. I got up last night around 1pm. and had to give it a try again. I am embarrass that I did so bad, but just had to give it a try. and had to show you, so maybe you could tell me what I am doing round. I also try practicing with another practice board. and my cuts are just not clean. thanks so much for replying to me. I just love chip carving, and maybe I try to do things that are just not my ability yet.
I practice for hours every day. and also try to sharpen my knifes more. I try stabbing, and slicing, but all fail. what can I do better. Evie
my humble pictures. not proud of them, but trying.
gosh these are so horrible. but had to show you.

[CarverRog]

Minowevie, it looks to me that either your knives are very dull or a combination of dull knives and your wood is to dry. Let me make a suggestion, send your knives to me or someone else to sharpen them for you. Once they are chip carving sharp then you only need to touchup once in a while. Unfortutionally factory sharp knives aren't good enough for us chip carvers, we need to go the extra mile to get them where we need them. The green handled one looks like a Dunkle and if so it should be leather stroped only no stone. Good Luck!

[minowevie]

Originally Posted by CarverRog

Minowevie, it looks to me that either your knives are very dull or a combination of dull knives and your wood is to dry. Let me make a suggestion, send your knives to me or someone else to sharpen them for you. Once they are chip carving sharp then you only need to touchup once in a while. Unfortutionally factory sharp knives aren't good enough for us chip carvers, we need to go the extra mile to get them where we need them. The green handled one looks like a Dunkle and if so it should be leather stroped only no stone. Good Luck!

gosh, I am sure your right. just when I think my knifes are so sharp, I take them to my carving group and they say no way. I try to listen to them, only strop my chip carving knifes on a cardboard strop. and the others on a leather strop.
i have tried all the above. I guess the carving knife I use most is the WB knife, and I thought, I hate that little angle at the bottom, so proseded to grind her down. only to find out it was hollow ground, and the tip bent. so then proseded to make the micro bevale again. I thought I did a good job, only to find that maybe I rounded off the end. this is the one thing I have the most problems with. sharpening. I buy tons of books, read till my eyes bleed, not really but tons. of reading. and try all this stuff.my knifes are sharp, but still lacking something, I think it is the rounding off thing. my hand and sight is off somewhere. I have practiced till I am getting discouraged, but wont stop. I could send my knifes to you. but then how will I learn from that. maybe seeing what a good sharp knife can do. that might be what I kneed. your right, the green one is a drake knife, that I made the handle to fit my hand. I just have so much to learn. don't wont to get discouraged. it just wont beet me. Evie

[doris]

yes, evie, from the way your cuts look, i also believe the problem is your knifes are dull, they might feel sharp to the touch, but they tear the wood strongly. i had same problem when i started carving, and when i realised the sharpness (or rather dullness) of my tools is the problem i did one or two complete days nothing else than trying to make one (!) single tool so sharp that it leaves in a wooden board a nice cut. it was boring, admittedly, but very satisfying when the first clean cut apeared... so, please try that too, don´t practice cutting with dull tools, its doomed to fail and suck out your inspiration.

[masso]

Ciao Evie
I agree with Doris, you should stop carving for 2 days and try to improve you ability to sharpen the knives. From the images you posted I can see all the errors I made when I started to carve 7 years ago:
1) never start to practice with square chip. You must start with triangle chips (the 99% of you board is made of square chips!)
2) never use the paper, especially if your knife is not well sharpened, because the paper create problems to the blade, and you must sharpen many times you knife.
This is only my experience, i am autodidact and i have not attended school of carving, so i could also be wrong!

[minowevie]

thanks so much, and I believe your right. I have how ever spent many days, and hours trying to sharpen my knifes. I even got myself a black Arkansas stone, and it has done more in one day then in all the hours I spent with my old stones. but I am still doing something wrong. I also have a stick of pine, to see how sharp I am getting. I slice up the sides, and across the grain. my knifes will cut it , but not slice across the grain. they well shave very thin slices, like paper. but on the grain. they still just crush. and cut not slice. so gosh , how sharp can I get. and what am I doing wrong? I pay lots of attention to how I hold the knife, and how I end my sharpening. I stop. pick it up. and then turn. then try to keep the same angle. and then pull again. I have tried push pull. then pull only. and dang this is the hardest thing. I am sure if I can just get this sharpening thing down, I could learn to carve nice.
I do still glue my patterns on. and will stop doing this. I have how ever did some practice boards with out paper. and still not so good, better but not good.I wont give up. there just has to be a better way to learn, normal y, I can figure out a tool, and use it, at its best, but this little knife has me baffled. I guess I thought this would be a easy thing for me. one tool, and a piece of wood. but I have found it is the hardest thing I ever did . drats and dang.
sorry to take up so much time on the forum. but just wont to learn. hear is some pictures of my practice so far. Evie

[Merle Rice]

Hi Evie, I think you are to hard on yourself. From what I see your practice boards are Great. Your cuts look fine. If they don't look that good to you, then PRACTICE is the solution. Merle

[minowevie]

Originally Posted by Merle Rice

Hi Evie, I think you are to hard on yourself. From what I see your practice boards are Great. Your cuts look fine. If they don't look that good to you, then PRACTICE is the solution. Merle

thanks Merle. I believe your right. practice is always a good thing for sure. but in chip carving, I think I kneed a sharper knife. I did a spoon, and in walnut. seemed pretty easy actually.but I had space to make mistakes. in chip carving, I don't have that liberty. I can cut out the middle. and then shave down to the end result. but having clean clear cuts is what I am after.
not having my knife as sharp as I kneed it to be. well it still just leaves things jagged. or split. or with bumps. but thanks for your confedense. I don't wont to just cut things. I wont to be good at it. chip carving is not as easy as folks says it is. but that is what I need to accomplish. Evie

[masso]

I've found other images of the "work in progress" on my Pc