Knife carving Walnut?

[Tom-H]

After using Basswood for the most part, I cut some blanks from Walnut. Made sure my knife was well sharpened and honed. Yikes! what's the secret to knife carving smaller objects from walnut? By small I mean 2 to three inches in height.

Tom H

[Tom Ellis]

Tom, I think the secret is a good grip. It sure is different than bass.

Tom

[carvingbarn]

Lots of small cuts with a thin blade, has been my experience.

[Bob K.]

Walnut is a much harder wood than basswood. When it comes to carving hardwood you need a steeper bevel on your knife blade. You should get another knife that has a steep bevel or regrind your current one to a sharper bevel.

[Robson Valley]

I wonder if the length of the knife edge isn't a part of the puzzle also. I have some mahogany blocks which are whispering: "Carve me! Carve me!"
Cutting into mahogany, I might be pushing 1/4" to 1/2" of knife blade, no matter how shallow I try to make the cuts. Can't be much different from using a carpenter's firmer chisel. I agree that the knife tip could gnaw out bits at a time. If I use a 3F/8 or a 8/7 gouge, maybe the middle 1/8" of the edge cuts the wood. The force I need to use to make the cut is really different.

Also I agree that there has to be enough steel behind the edge to support the bevel edge.
Bob K.: what would you suggest for an improved bevel angle on a knife? 20 degrees?
I have a few knives, they are all about 12 degrees. My Pfeil; tools are all 20 degrees. A couple of carpenter's chisels are 30 degrees and my "knot-busters" are 40 degrees.

[Claude]

Tom:
My experience has been the same as Randy's: small cuts, sharp knife. Most of the walnut I've done has been with gouges, but I have done some of the detail with my Flexcut detail knife. One other help is to make sure your knife is making a slicing cut, not just pushing straight into the wood.

Claude

[Ron T]

Hi Tom, I agree with Randy and Claude. When I was first introduced a carving, it was doing wood spirits on hardwood sticks. Later, I moved over to fruit woods and boxwood, all very hard woods. I learned to keep my knife sharp and to take very small cuts.

[Eddy-Smiles]

A Dremel...... Like my old martial arts Sensei used to tell me.... fight smarter!

[Buffalo Bif]

I've done a little walnut, it requires shavings, no chunks like I can in bass. I also have a knife with a secondary bevel just for hardwood- its one of my standard knives that start with a 19degree bevel, and I put an arbitrary second bevel on- prolly near to 25 degrees. (note standard hardwood plane and chisel irons run around 30 degrees)

[Tom-H]

Great ideas and help guys. I need to dig through my tool and see if I have a knife blade with the secondary bevel. I did try something else. I poured some rubbing alcohol into a glass and dropped the piece of Walnut in for one hour. It helped. Thanks again....

Tom H