Tooling?

[Rook]

Ok folks, time for a confession; I've been seeing some chip carving, and truly, I'm considering it. Yeah yeah, I know I'm not even starting to get good enough to be called 'lousy' at in the round carving, but it looks too good to avoid.

What sort of tooling will I need? I have a Flexcut knife, this one; Amazon.com: FLEX-CUT DETAIL KNIFE: Home Improvement

I also have a couple Victorinox pocket knives (Swiss Army Tinker and the Classic SD). I keep both shaving sharp. Obviously the detail knife is a little sharper, but all can fly through most wood I address them to. And my carving glove is scared of both of 'em.

Essentially, what else do I need to have to dig in? Any tips?

The only question I have involves angles and making sure that on the sides of a triangle, how do I keep the angles the same. For example, if I'm cutting a triangle with 45 degree angle sides, how do I keep the second cut from being shallower or steeper than the first cut?

Thanks in advance. I'm loving this group. It's a great group of people who can make a total nobody feel welcome. Lots of places, if you've never been on TV or youtube doing your stuff, or sold a book on it, you stay out in the cold with Herbert the Hound Dog.
TJ.

[papasar]

TJ,
Not as hard as you think.
Get a chip carving knife. The blade is made for chipping.
Brands - Wayne Barton, Denny, Chipping Away, - stay away form the foreign made blades cuz the blade is shaped differently.
Look at this site to see how to hold the knife to get a consistent angle, meet your cuts etc.

My Chip Carving

Practice, practice, practice.
Let the blade do the cutting. Not much muscle needed. Keep elbow against your body
Strop often..
IMHO
Bill K.

[ghaugen]

Like anything today, there's more than one method. In Chip Carving there is three basic categories. There's beveled knives, knives that are sharpened slightly tilted on a stone creating a "bevel" different from the rest of the plane of the knife. These include the majority of "traditional" knives; Barton, Moore (Chipping Away), and Lamp (mychipcarving.com). These knives are sharpened on stones, usually ceramic of differing grit levels. The advantage to these knives is that they're a thicker, beefer blade-very durable. The disadvantage is the same, some times they can be more like a "splitting" maul or wedge-it's a lot of steel for some delicate applications. The second category is "non-bevel" knives. These knives are sharpened laying flat on a strop. There's no sharpened "bevel" as in the first category. These would be knives like the Dunkle knife and Drake knife. The advantage to these are that they cut like a hot knife in butter. They don't have the mass the other knives do. The disadvantage, they can be a little more delicate-they're not a knife for prying. The third category, even though it doesn't apply traditionally but since it's related, I'll include it is Gouge Chip Carving. Using traditional gouges for chip carving.

Maintenance.

For beveled knives I'd recommend a set of ceramic stones (2) for chip carving, even possibly the set of three that's available now from mychipcarving.com that gets finer than the set of two.

For Non-Beveled Knives, a good strop and compound for the maintenance of the edge (Dunkle and Drake both carry a strop and their preferred compound) but also possibly a set of ceramic stones for repairing a damaged edge in the event you drop one.

Depending on who you talk to, it will depend on which one is recommended. Personally, I like "non-bevel" knives.

For Dunkle Knives
STADTLANDER WOODCARVING SUPPLIES

For Drake Knives
Drake Knives.com

For Barton and Lamp Knives
www.mychipcarving.com

For Moore Knives
Chipping Away Dedicated to Wood Carvers

For reference, I'd strongly recommend WCI/Fox Chapel's "Chip Carving" book.




Hope that helps.

[minowevie]

Hi TJ. for me, I use a WB chip carving knife. there are many others like said. but this knife ,does it for me. the one question you ask was how do you keep the bevel the same on both sides. well that just takes practice. the tip of your knife plunges in to a serten debt. and then turn the knife around use your thump. and plunge from the other. keep a eye on the knife end. and visualize where it is going. and same debt. practice practice practice.
Evie