[Capt. Bandaid]

11 inches long with a 2 inch blade? Jan must have some very large hands!!!!!! I find a 5.5" handle just about right.

[dart]

Can anyone tell me what a good carving set consists of as far as what tools to buy , the sweeps and shapes that I would need say for carving caricatures and holiday santas, small things like that. I think I'd like to get the swiss Pfeil Woodcraft set but I don't know for sure what I'd need to order.

[heineda]

Dart,

If you want to buy a set at Woodcraft, I would suggest the 8 peice Pfeil palm set. Very nice tools for handheld carving. Another alternative would be to purchase the caricature carving palm set from Stubai Direct:
http://woodcarverswarehouse.com/cata...da038112edabbf

Caricature carvers swear by Stubai's veiners.

Good Luck,
Dan Heine

[mark yundt]

For me, if you haven't already guessed , my nod goes to the Swiss brand. I change the bevel regularly depending what I'm carving,,don't have to stay with what a factory sends you,,,That's why God invented stones.Stones and grinders are what chisel makers love most,,they make chisels dissappear the fastest!I do though in all honesty have a variety of OLD chisels in bizarre shapes that are not found today.Also the steel is different,as well as tempering,, I think the Rockwell hardness is different as opposed to the Swiss.Love the Swiss, but they seem "softer " and a bit more flexible.I would never consider buying a line of tools to carve particular woods and I carve everything from Bass.Mahogany, Maple,Pine,Cherry,Butternut,Oak,pretty much everything short of Rock Maple, and the Swiss got me through it all in fine style.

[BobD]

I've fallen in love with Ashley Iles...they are thicker than the Swiss chisels, which some people don't like, but I've found that I prefer the heft. And THE first tool I grab as of late is my Hooked Skew...it is probably the most useful tool in my kit!

I also love the Chris Pye #2 1/2 gouge...it's just curved enough to keep the corners from digging in and works wonders for smoothing!!!

Bob

[wade clark]

Bob,
Me too!
Wade

[slivers&dust]

I personally like the long handle of full size gouges over palm gouges and feel they can be used on just about every style of carving that I’ll do.

I’m not sure what a good selection would be specifically for caricatures and Santa carving but here is a list from Ian Norbury’s book "Fundamentals of figure carving" that he states "would make an excellent starting set" for figure carving.

#9 – 12mm, 8mm, 4mm
#7 – 12mm, 8mm, 4mm
#3 – 12mm, 8mm, 4mm
#11 – 2mm
#12 – 4mm

If you like palm tools that Stubai set that "heinda" suggested looks like it has good range of curves of course "Marv Kaisersatt" recommends it.

10mm Medium Gouge
20mm Medium Gouge
5mm Deep Gouge
2mm Deep Veiner
5mm Deep Veiner
7mm Deep Veiner
10mm 75 Degree V- Tool
2mm 45 Degree V- Tool

If you are not familiar with Ian or Marv, do a search for their web sites, they are two amazing artists worth
Studying.

[mark yundt]

Huh,how 'bout that?Ians set pretty closely mimics my suggestions.Skip the #1 or straight, then alternate 3,5,7,9,11 &12 ,though a 15 is a deeper "V" than the 12 and might be more versatile than the 12 if your're limited for $ and for caricatures stay to the narrower ones, In the range of 5-7 mm or approx.1/4 ".This in my experience will get you going quite well.Since no one chisel can make just one cut perfectly,multiple passes with a narrower one can remove the same wood a wider one can just as well,all cuts have to be gone over to clean them up anyhow.

[susieq]

Well, after all the posts on Pfeil gouges, I decided to get that #5 gouge I had been wanting for ever..... I ordered a 25mm or one inch wide #5 from Woodcraft and it came the other day. All I can say is "sweet"......
susieq