Ahhh, the "profound" question.... The definition of "NEED"! I find this definition in in a constant state of change depending on... The proximity of my Wife, the Money in my bank account and my ability to convince myself that it is ACTULLY a NEED and not just a "WANT" - LOL As a general rule, you can always apply the following formula: If ANY other person is about to buy it is a WANT; if YOU are about to buy it, it is ONLY because you NEED IT!
I got all my Dad’s carving tools, about 10 different types. He got them from other guys who gave them to him. So nice that I have the same tools he used. I also bought the Flexcut carving jack from Rockler when they were affordable $65. My new strop comes today and I can start carving again, so fun.
I’ve found that one doesn’t need a lot of tools but, sometimes I go through a few different kinds/brands to find the one that feels just right and so, I end up with more than I need or actually use. If I find a knife I like on a handle I don’t, I’ll whittle or mod the handle or just whittle a new one. Flexcut blades are pretty easy to split out of the handle and install in a different one (i like flexcut blades). there are also makers who sale just the blade without handles to place in your own. These might be more “advanced” options but, making or modding your own handle goes a long way toward having a knife you love to use. And it is not difficult to do if you are already inclined to carving
If you have too many tools, mind sending a v-tool my way? Every time I try looking online for one, I do t know what to get because the name of the tool is some combo of numbers and letters. Or ones I do find are like 45 degrees and 2 mm. I want I think a 60 degree one and idk what size but definitely bigger that 2mm. I’m having trouble finding what I’m looking for
I really miss a good oil in your listing.... like Ballistol or sinensis camellia oil, for rusting blades and handles. Both are food safe. Impressive bunch of knifes and tools. A good tool is part of the fun at carving. Good one! 👍
That is a hand made knife made by Helvie Knives, which are one the best you can get your hands on. The knives are in high demand and there is a substantial wait list that may take several months to get to your order if you place one.
Yep, I have a new rotary tool coming in which is what I like to use for carving stone as I burned out my last 4. But it may take some time to make as these carvings take much longer to make and will be 9n my stone carving channel
Somehow strange why you never explain which exact size knife best to use.. When I read comments I see every time different sizes.. Very confusing. So from multiple videos my setup: OCC 1 3/8" Detail Knife OCC 1 3/4" Carving Knife OCC 2 1/4" Roughing Knife #3 15mm ~ 5/8" Gauge #9 10mm ~ 3/8" Gauge #11 5-6mm ~ 3/16" Gauge/Veiner #9 10mm ~ 3/8" 60degree V-tool
The exact size is dependent on the work yoy wish to do. I usually tell people beween 1.5 and 2 inches on the blade for a dedicated whittling knife bet even I use my 1.25 inch and 2.5 inch knives in addition to my 1.75 inch knife. Your spread that you shownis perfect and you did a great job collecting the tools :)
The ONLY correct answer to this question is... ALL THE TOOLS!!!!!! It doesn't matter what projects you are undertaking. Thank you for your attention...
Я из России Сибирь у нас вообще нет такого инструмента в интернете из вашей страны не получается выписать . У нас не развито такая резьба , а мне очень нравится делать и смотреть ваши видео , я конечно не понимаю о чём вы говорите , смотрю просто , очень хотелось бы хоть немного такого инструмента
@@ХозяинРеки-к9х если что, татьянка - это сайт инструментов для резьбы по дереву. У них есть своя собственная линейка, которую они аж на озоне продают, по вполне приемлимым ценам, сам свой первый нож вчера заказал. Насчет биверкрафта на озоне не знаю, но с сайта должно заказываться спокойно.
The Flexcut beginner kit will handle the vast majority of your carving needs. If you carve really big figures, a set of gouges with a mallet would be useful. Micre gouges for very small pie es. Of course you need a strop and at some point, some type of stones for sharpening.
If you just want to whittle small projects, a good pocketknive and a pocketstrop is enough. The hard part is, figuring out what kind of pocketknive works for you. But that is half of the fun also.
When someone asks me if they really need a gouge or V tool I ask them if you can drive a nail with a wrench. Yes, you can, but a hammer works much better. Having the right tool for the job makes it much easier.
in my home im gonna be making a little working corner for all kinds of stuff like carving, but also just general woodwork. im gonna take over my grandpa's electronic jigsaw and probably also get a good whittling kit from beavercraft or flexcut. thanks for the education on what kind of kit i need with the basic tools and the very many tutorials on the channel to help me get started.
Nice one, after lockdown hit the warmer months, me and the wife started hiking and taking on more challenging trails. I decided to make us walking sticks. My first knife to use was my everyday carry - a Benchmade folder that was a trooper (Yoda I love this knife) as I sliced and shaved off layers of bark and knots. I found wood files at my local dollar store, and also sandpaper to smooth it down. Finally, some water-based weather stain and finally Paracord for the handles and some more used at the end of the walking stick to make sure the wood wouldn't split - and I had two new hobbies. Hiking, and wood carving/whittling. The carving part came when I started to add runes and designs to the sticks. Later I started to make ornate pieces and magic wands. It all started with one knife. I got a few more - including a hunting/bushcraft knife I use for harvesting found wood (I only take wood I find on the ground, never living trees) and a Beavercraft set my wife got me. But one good knife is really all you need. (and the gloves - people please stay safe - you cut yourself so easily).
Carving in the round is so much fun. It seems to me that relief carving is where the other tools are needed. I’m sticking with my flex cut for now. The artistic ability required for relief carving is beyond my scope right now
Is that the Beavercraft kit in the shoulder bag in the background? I saw it on Amazon and it looked really cool but dunno if it’s worth $250. I’d love to see a review of it!!
@@CarvingisFun I’ll keep an eye out! I was also looking at the leather tool roll kit from Beavercraft for about $160 as well which appears to be the same kit with a tool roll instead and no draw knife.
Why doesn't flexcut offer bent gouges in their line of mallet tools? I want a one tool option for quick removal of wood for cereal sized bowls. Do you think the no.3 two inch wide straight chisel they offer will let me swoop into a cereal size bowl all the way to the bottom? I just bought the carving jack and standard size sloyd knife after watching your content. Love it
Flexcuts chisel design may not be ideal for bent gouges as the way they are currently designed have a bit too much flex in them. I've been chatting with a few companies that offer good and affordable bent tools, one is Mastercarver and can be picked up here: www.woodcarverssupply.com/Hand-Forged-Spoon-Bits/products/172/ Another one is in China who is making their own version of a bowl gouge. They sent me a video of the current progress and it is looking really nice! Their website is focusercarving.com/ but it isn't ready yet.
I bought a flexcut whittling set (two whittling knives in a plastic packaging) And later on i added the flexcut micro palm set, and even that was because i wanted to be able to refine details with a tiny gouge and make small lines for beards and hairs etc, just couldn't find one sold on its own so had to buy a set of 4. but other than that, i really don't see any reason i would ever need more tools... The only reason i can think of is if i want to increase the size of the workpieces i work on, as long as they are these palm size blocks i am fine with 2 knives and a small gouge \ V shape
A more interesting question is - since stropping seems to be such a good thing to do even while you work every now and then, when you go out traveling and you say you throw into the car that folded knives set, what do you do for stropping?
I've designed my own personal folding strop that fits in a knife sheath with my whittling pocket knife, so I always have one on me. Im also still designing a half length travel strop that Im planning on selling sometime in the future.
@@CarvingisFun Ha! I figured you had something planned for it, I was about to suggest you sell it then i read your second paragraph :) Consider me your first customer
I would only add that you do need more than the knife. Especially if you want to give yourself the best chance of falling in love with whittling. For that you want your tools to be sharp, and for THAT you need various blocks to sharpen and hone them. You'll at least need one "sanding" block and one leather strop. If you want to make those yourself, you can do it for about $12. Then you'll need the polishing compound for the strop, which will be another $5 on the low end. Still, if you start with a FlexCut (you can go about $9 cheaper with a BeaverCraft, but there is a strong likelihood you'll end up upgrading anyway, so why spend twice?) and are willing to do the shopping and put in the work, you can have the knife and two blocks for about $45, and if you want two sanding blocks (about 400-600 grit on one, and 800-1000 for the second), that's only about an extra $5. That said, I do get the feeling that whittling knives are kind of like ukuleles and guitars. If you buy one, you'll likely buy at least three. And those knives with the colored wood handles in the vid are damn sexy. I started with a FlexCut carving knife, so maybe I'll look at those for roughing knife. 🤣
A sloid knife is typically a longer wood carving blade (between 1.5 and 3 inches in length) has a curved blade, and is typically thicker and more robust. They also have a Scandinavian flat grind on the cutting edge that is easy to hone and maintain. If you want to learn more, I wrote an article about them: carvingisfun.com/sloyd/
Thanks for sharing your knowledge! I got the beavercraft hook knife featured, and find it has a very square shape, and chatters when scooping the bottom of a spoon. And advice for how to change the profile? I've only got wet dry sandpaper and a simple file
From what I have seen, using a hook knife and cutting against the grain will still cause some chatter. What I try to do is go across the grain whenever possible. So if the wood grain is running from the tip of the spoon to the handle, I cut from side to side. This typically results in smooth cut.
@@RexMcTavish The beavercraft hook knive can do clean cuts though. But you have to keep it really sharp and actually cut instead of pushing it straight through. I do find the Mora hook knives way smoother. Just for deep spoons I use the beavercraft.
@@teunlll thanks for the input! By cut, do you mean to rotate the blade along the blade as you pull it across the grain? It's tapered shape seems to lend itself to that kind of movement, not like the straight movements I see people do with more shallow hook knives.
@@RexMcTavish @Rex McTavish exactly. You will also feel it when you are cutting it the right way. The smooth sound and feeling tells it all. As long as you don't go up against the grain you should be all right. Even cutting along the grain works if you go down in the wood and not back up. Just like with regular carving
The OCC tool kit I showed was purchased individually from several online shops like Treeline USA, Mountain Woodcarvers, and Bigfoot Carving Tools. The rolling bag itself was from Beavercraft.
Are there any good quality tools I can get on amazon, like a set of carving knives, wood gouger, leather strop and sharpening stone in one kit, im having trouble finding anything that I trust Please link me to anything good, thank you!
Ive actually been collecting some of my favorite sets on amazon here on my amazon page: www.amazon.com/shop/CarvingisFun As to gouges, pfeil and two cherries makes some outstanding gouge, chisel, and v-gouge kits, but Im not exactly happy with their knives.
Kirchen (aka Two Cherries here in the US) are wonderful tools!! The set in the wooden box on the right is reall nice. Only issue I have with them is similar to almost every other wood carving company, their chip carving knives need to be honed better. The chisels, gouges, and v-gouges are similar to Pfeil, but the Kirchen chip carving toola are have a superior finish than that of Pfeil.
True. I did have about $2,000 worth of tools on the table from at least a dozen different companies. The video would have been a heck of a lot longer if I were to bring out every tool I have and discribe each one. I at the time I thought about it shiwing and naming the knives, but felt that would distract from the original intention of the video.
I have a question for you. I’m just getting started with wood carving for Christmas my wife has bought a set from Olerqzer have you heard of this brand of carving tool.
@@CarvingisFun can't wait for my beavercraft set to arrive and finally start carving some figures. I now only have a big mora knife which I used for spoons and spatula's but it is less then ideal for little figures XD. I also gathered quite alot of carving videos that I want to try, among some of your amazing toturials :)
Thanks for the advice! I've gotten myself one of the BeaverCraft knife sets and they're working well for me. Good place to start so I can figure out what I like. The hardest part is resisting the urge to buy more knives until I feel more comfortable in my skill set hahaha