I need another Knife

[Marci MN]

After working with these small charicatures I figured out I need a smaller detail type knife.

I think long and skinny to get in between the leg gaps is what I'm looking for.

And does long and skinny in a knife make them weaker? Or more apt to bend?

All I've ever used was the beginners knife from Ricks.. now I think I need to move on to another knife to help me out on these small carvings.

Anyone have any suggestions?

[wade clark]

Marci,
My suggestion would be ask Rick what he'd recommend. He not only makes the best in all shapes and sizes, he also carries lots of other makers' knives.
Wade

[Thomp]

lots of ways of dealing with tight spots,

you can open them up so your tools fit.

i was carving lots of little people and it was driving me crazy i couldnt stop the feather thin wafer chips from popping up while painting, the multitude of cuts in places like under arms crotches and under hat brims required numerious attempts to pull the chips out, and really popped out when color was added

finely i decided to buy some dockyard micro minature gouges from rick,
they are 5mm to 1mm 5 gouges in all about $40.00 but im not chasing them tight spots any longer,

rick at www.littleshavers.com has lots of different remidys
recently i bought 2 sub minature v tools less than $8.00 each they work miricals on hair and details on small guys, ill never be without them again...

lynn droughty got me to using the non retractable stanley box knife and im hooked on it, the thin blade gets into very tight spots, but your limited to blade reach.

a good hard thin chip knife wont be as flexable as a box cutter or exacto blade and if you do too much twisting on the blade pulling the chips it might break,

[rick-in-seattle]

Marci,
You are an honest to goodness woodcarver!

You figured out the secret to buying knives.

A carver will never have enough knives.

[whitecree]

^^^ What Rick says. I have 14 so far.

Keep in mind a knife doesn't have to be all working edge. Now how do I explain this?

One knife I have has a blade about 1/4 inch in length, but the shank is 3" long before it mounts on the handle. The shank is thicker than the knife blade itself, so remains strong and won't flex or twist as you work with the blade.

Does that help?

[Marci MN]

FOURTEEN????? seriously??

I'm still working with the one that came with Ricks beginners kit...

But I think I did something bad to it .. I lost my tips edge on it or something. All of the sudden I cant get those teeny tiny lil cuts around the eyeballs. *sigh*

[whitecree]

Seriously. Some get used more than others, such as a wedge shaped, dual edged bent-tip that I use for hogging and general duty. I also have 4 bent knives of different sizes, 3 leaf shaped slightly curved, 2 detail knives, a 'straight' knife that isn't really straight, but thats what it is called, a couple of smaller bent-tip blades for texturing as well as a couple of x-acto types.

Now I've been intorduced to the wonderful world of gouges, I imagine I'll soon have a similar collection.

Too bad about your knife. Sounds like you may have snapped the tip off, which is easy enough to do. All it takes is just one tiny thought of "if I twist just a teeny bit..."

Maybe take a picture of the blade and post it, maybe we can figure out what happened and make suggestions on how to fix it.

[Bartster]

marci,

rick is right you will never have enough you will always find one that just has to be in your arsenal. i have so many that i have to rotate them in and out every so often. that is one of the joys of carving you always need a knife.


bart

[AlArchie]

Well, Marci, congratulations! sounds like you have graduated from "stropper" to "sharpener"! Now all you have to do is get the hang of that. It's really not all that hard or challenging. If that tip is not broken off, it may be that it HAS become dulled past the point of stropping.

I'd suggest you get yourself to the nearest WallMart, K-Mart or other sporting goods supplier and look for 1"x 4" (or thereabouts) diamond sharpening stone. It's actually steel with a diamond impregnated surface on one side. Set ya back about 6 or 8 bucks.

Once you get that, first thing is don't worry about using any water or lubricant on it. Lay the blade flat on the stone and raise the back of the blade about 1/16". Then push the blade foreward like you were trying to slice a thin piece off the stone. Ten times on the first side, then flip the blade over and do the same for nine slices; flip again for 8, flip again for 7, and down to one slice on either side of the blade.

After screwing up a few times (we all have, by the way, and don't let anybody tell ya that they haven't) you will get to feel, see, and hear when the sharpening process is going exactly right. Only experience will tell you.

"Good sharpening procedure is the result of sharpening experience; sharpening experience is the result of bad sharpening procedure"! and that's the truth!

After the ten flip process, you'll have to strop again to get rid of the burr, or wire edge, and polish that new edge up to a fine finish!

You shouldn't have to use that stone again for a LONG time.

Al

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Well you might want to practice on an old knife first...before tackling a good carving knife....imhoSmile