Tried Again and Still Not Impressed 

Thanks for the information and the close up photos.

OCC Tools all the way! I’ve tried so many different kinds with high and low price points. So this is not a fan boy shout out but personal experience ESPECIALLY for the quality for the price.

5:30 My Moraknivs all came ready out of the box as well. The 120 is my favorite so far.

I'll second this. I have a set of Pfeil gouges and they're amazing so when I saw Pfeil carving knives I thought I'd give one a go. I bought the Schnitzmesser as it looked like a decent carving knife. It's advertised by Pfeil as a chip knife but it clearly isn't (that should have sounded alarms in itself) and the UK supplier stated that on their site - they said it was too thick to chip carve but an ideal size for whittling. It arrived less than sharp with an edge that while it wasn't as uneven as the ones you reviewed, was still less than satisfactory. I had to work on it to sort that out and even then it still doesn't cut as nicely or as keenly as the Mora 120 I have. I use scary sharp as a sharpening method for all my tools and it usually produces a surgically sharp edge that's easily maintained on a strop. However, the Pfeil just didn't cut well even though it feels sharp to a thumb and can shave arm hair easily. It's just not a good knife which is disappointing given Pfeil's reputation for quality. Maybe they should back out of the knife market or employ someone who actually knows what they're doing. A beginner buying these could be put off of taking carving up for a hobby IMO. Edited to add: It'll be Flexcut from here on in.

Not all Chip Crvers like the same edge profile ones that are pre-sharpened need to be resharpened by many chip carvers. Other manufacturers not just Pfeil. For other manufacturers of chip knives (like OCC for example) whose chip carving knife blades have a bit of a belly to them which causes split out and tear out on detailed work, also the handle was too big for my hand and had to be carved down (yes this is why knife handles are made of wood so you can shape them to fit your hand). I would however recommend Flex Cut for beginners, "sharp right out of the package " and very reliable (please if you are new to the craft learn how to sharpen your knives or you will learn to hate carving).

100% agree on Helvie and Drake, I have a Deep Holler that I love also. I started with the three pack from Flexcut (not all that inexpensive), my experience was very different from yours, butter knife dull when delivered and I was never happy with them, fortunately bought through Amazon so after a few weeks I was still able to send them back.

Hi there. Thank you very much for your reviews. I find them very useful, mostly for us, European beginners, that find quite difficult to put our hands in some USA manufactured quality knives as OCC Tools, Helvie or Drake. I don't know if I have missed some of your reviews, hence my question to you: have you found any European manufactured knife with the same shape than those OCC Tools "flat grind" ones? I have tried to found something similar to no avail. But I'm sure you have done a deeper research than me. I will be very grateful if you let me know if you have found something similar in the European made knives that you bought. Thank you so much. Keep up the good work with your channel. It's pretty interesting and useful.

I'm glad I found your channel before I bought my supplies. Where I live in Europe, the knives they seem to sell in most shops for woodcarving (both whittling and chipping) are the Pfeil knives. If I hadn't seen people talk about the Pfeil knives online, I probably would have gotten that one and I might have ended up dissapointed. After some looking around I did manage to find one selller that sells BeaverCraft and one that sells Flexcut. The Pfeil and the Bevercraft are priced the same (about 15 euro) and the Flexcut is about 5-6 euro more expensive. Not a lot of price difference imo so I feel like I'm better off investing a bit more and getting a Flexcut. Pfeil doesn't seem worth it.

There is one more issue I got faced with these Pfeil knives. After a while of usage, the blades became loose The rivets are still fixed in the handle but the blade is rattling. I guess the rivets are too soft and got worn by the blade holes. I think this can't be repaired. This means after 4h the set is scrap. Unfortunately, I can't get OCC knives in the EU.

So many options. Too many for me being a beginner. Beaver craft and flex cut are my two choices. Thanks for the info though.

Sharp edge on handle? Try to remove a little wood off the the part that you don’t like. Find someone that whittles…while you are there have them restore the edge.

Timely thank you. I was looking at the canard set with interest as I have some of their gouges which are great. However maybe not any more. As for the likes of Helvy, well, here in the UK we’d have to pay import duty and shipping so are mega expensive

I will bet you the chisels and gouges are made by another division. Good video, thanks.

i got a set of Kirchen and they have the same issue with the knives, the edge is actually wavy on the detail knife and have to reprofile. im a beginner so this has been stressing and i have put it off for months. Honestly, the beavercraft set i got for like 30$ are so much better, and came sharp, ready to use. i was pretty disappointed, but again, the chisels are very nice. at the end you bring out the same set as i bought. perhaps i got a bad set, as mone are all messed up, like, even worse than the worst one youve shown here.

Beaver craft is a really good nice for a good price and great for beginners I carve canes with logs and beavercraft is my favourite for that I also have flex cut to there really good to there just for on the pricy side

I'm new to carving, but absolutely not new to knives. That said, I feel like adding something. I don't know the knives you're showing very well, so I'm not defending them. I'm just going to make a general point about knife manufacturing philosophy. Often, the finest knives come kinda "unfinished". They do this, because their market is very discerning, and wouldn't need the knife finished out of the box. They're also so discerning that they'll customise the edge themselves anyway. For that reason, the manufacturer will set the profile, but not the edge. Knowing their customers have a variety of preferences when they're at that level, they just leave the edge ready for the customer to finish to their standards. Maybe that's what's going on with the knives in this video.

mmmh this is interesting. Its a bit dissapointing but as a european they are very convenient to get compared to many american brands!

Cool

Wont go wrong with Drake knives

Occ is never in stock anywhere

Yea this video tells me all I need to know about their company and they will never receive a dollar from me. Thank you for this. I'm of the mindset that if you can't offer consistency and quality products then you have no business selling those products. The president of that company needs to be dismissed from his position like yesterday. If I'm running a company and I see a product like that going out to be sold I would immediately shut down the line and it would stay halted until the issue was found and fixed. I just can't understand why anybody would allow that garbage. Idk why this has me so heated but it truly irks me to the point that I might actually lose sleep over this 😂 Dang it, where's my good fountain pen? I gotta write a letter before bed

Pfiel makes professional grade tools. Period. If you are new to carving buy a Pfiel #1 knife and a palm #12 4mm V-tool and learn how to keep them sharp. I understand the reviewer has his own personal preferences and that is fine but people should buy confidentiality knowing that pfiel is a professional grade tool. If you’re not satisfied with your work, you can’t blame it on these tools.

Do you use these knives? You sound like a collector. -if you use the knife you will to learn to sharpen them, or you will give up on the hobby.