Carving tools questions...????

C

charlie foulds

Well-known member
Since we have so many carvers on DHBP I figured this was a great place to get some answers. With soooo many different types and manufacture's of carving tools, I need some help on what to buy. I am a believer in quality tools, symply because they last and make the task at hand easier. I will be carving my decoys out of cedar and they will be hollowed and oversize. With that said, what would you guys recommend for me to buy?? I need the type of tool and the mfg, Knives-how many and what style....Drawknifes-sizes and types....Spokeshaves-sizes and styles.....Gouges...measuring tools......etc. etc. etc. and of course I need a supplier for all of these tools. Thanks in advance for taking the time to help a very excited newcomer to the carving community. Ps. if you have an approximate price that would be great as well. I hope this isn't asking too much
 
Charlie, I am watching this one close too. I just chunked up a bunch of cedar and am working on one of the homebrewed carving vises. Will post a pic if it works out. Thanks to Huntin Dave for the inspiration.
 
Last edited:
all those tools mentioned are much too quiet and clean. you need a good foredom and some saburr-tooth bits from willy at the duckblind ... rrgh rrgh rrgh.. (in my best tim allen).
 
I love my flexcut tools, super sharp right out of the box and seem to hold an edge very well. The 5"drawknife is my favorite tool to work with. Big enough to do anything I have asked it to do, but small enough to do the finer detailing work too. I'm sure there are higher quality tools out there but I like the feel of the flexcut.

Stay away from tool sets when you are buying. Most people buy a complete set of chisels or gouges and only use two or three of them, Figure out which tools you want to use and buy a few higher quality tools. For the most part I use a drawknife, a 5/8" gouge, and about a 1/2" v shaped gouge for 95% of my carving.
 
A good set of dividers and a flexible ruler are two other things I couldn't live without. You can get ddividers just about anywhere and there is not much difference in quality. Flexible rulers can be bought at Staples pretty cheap but they are a great thing to have around.
 
Start with a good warren handle and an assortment of replacement blades. You will find that you like one or 2 styles of blades better then the rest. From there you can just buy those blades. Also a gouge or 2. Having been in the place you seem to be in now I found that there is no one perfect shopping list as so many people go about it in a different way. A draw knife also makes faster work out of roughing the bodies. Sandpaper and a few rasps will help clean things up from there.

Now with that I will tell you I quickly moved to a flex shaft tool. Foredom is very popular, however, WeCheer also makes a sturdy tool. I still like to do the bill and some head work with a knife, but from there most of it is done with my flexshaft.

Access to a bandsaw is KEY. While there are a few old school hack up a block guys out there, most carvers rough out a body on the bandsaw. When you start with a 14x7 block of wood and take it down to a finished decoy you will remove 1/2 the wood. Do you want to do that by hand or with poer tools?

Best of luck, its a lot of fun
~Dave
 
Since we have so many carvers on DHBP I figured this was a great place to get some answers. With soooo many different types and manufacture's of carving tools, I need some help on what to buy. I am a believer in quality tools, symply because they last and make the task at hand easier. I will be carving my decoys out of cedar and they will be hollowed and oversize. With that said, what would you guys recommend for me to buy?? I need the type of tool and the mfg, Knives-how many and what style....Drawknifes-sizes and types....Spokeshaves-sizes and styles.....Gouges...measuring tools......etc. etc. etc. and of course I need a supplier for all of these tools. Thanks in advance for taking the time to help a very excited newcomer to the carving community. Ps. if you have an approximate price that would be great as well. I hope this isn't asking too much
Click to expand...


I can't remember if you have a band saw. If you want to come up and cut a few, you have an open offer here (Newtown, CT).

For tools I use power, plus a couple little knives, a sureform, a drawknife.
 
Last edited:
Charley
I'm going to second the WeCheer from the Duck Blind. I like a Sureform on cork but
Willy has a Microfile that is great on wood. If you go with power DO NOT get the most
agressive bits. They remove wood very quickly and eat flex-shafts!!
Caution- This is a VERY adictive hobby. John
 
I buy stuff from MDI woodcarvers, Knotts knives and shop around on the net for best prices.

hand carving no idea, didn't enjoy it a whole lot.

Power, band saw is a must have, drill press is nice but not a neccasity. For carving you want the best, go with a foredom 1/3hp, I have a harbor frieght and it great for the price, weecher and grizzly and harbor freight last I looked were probably made by the same company, just weecher was much more expensive. For bits I now want the most agrressive bit I can find, Kutzall used to make some, but now it seems saburr is the only brand available and I don't like them as much. Don't start with an agressive bit work into it. I also use a sanding drum for the foredom. For hollowing, dont mess with spade bits get a good forstner bit.

just my opinion
 
I like Swiss Made chisels from woodcraft and I bought my draw knifes of ebay all were older ones. Start slow and buy here and there. If You go out and buy a shopping list you may end up with a bunch of tools you don't use or like.
 
Last edited:
A better question about what to buy would be, "How many tools do you own but seldom/never use, but your purchased because you thought it would make carving easier/faster/more fun?" For my shop, all that's needed is my Foredom, the bandsaw and my planer. After that, we're just talking little stuff like a rafter square, pencils, and glue.
 
Chad is right. I use my bandsaw, Drawknife, spokeshave, a single knife 90% of the time and another one the rest. For chisels I use 4 and own around 12. For me its two scoop gouges a small round and a single flat. I do use rasps from time to time but that is mostly after the spokeshave and before sandpaper. The rasp I use most was bought at a antique store ( think flee market) for 5$ and I had to dig around in the basement to find it.
 
Charlie,

I am a firm believer in the KISS principal. I use a mix of power and hand tools, but I have the impression you are going the hand tool route (correct me if I am wrong) For me:

4 way Rasp (from the hardware store...too long ago to remember what I paid):

mallard025-2.jpg


Although, I am thinking of upgrading, and would recomend getting Nicholson #49 and 50 rasps, Jamestown Dist has them on sale right now for $33 and $39 each.

Riffler (Woodcraft ~$20):

mallard025-1.jpg


A couple of cheap Hobby Lobby knives ($10 each, plus blades concave and convex):

knife003.jpg


When the blade gets dull, toss it and get out a new edge...

Reciently I have upgraded to a set of custom made knives (priceless):

knives004.jpg


knives009.jpg


I don't have a drawknife, and wouldn't recomend the spokeshave I have (it does okay for what I paid...which wasn't much) Get ahold of Rutgers, he is sonmetimes selling reconditioned spokeshaves, or can give you pointers on what to look for and how to tune them. There was an interesting thread a couple of days ago on drawknives: http://www.duckboats.net/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=116396#116396

Hope this helps

Chuck
 
Here is what I am looking at some I have some still to get:

Either Swiss Made from Woodcraft or Two Cherries
Straight chisels all full size not intermediate size
1/4", 1/2", 3/4", 1", 2"

Gouges:
#8, 7mm
#9, 10 mm
#11, 1.5 mm & 12 mm
#13, 10 mm & 20 mm (90 degree)
#16, 3 or 6mm
 
Charlie,

Machines I want to buy 1) bandsaw, joiner and drill press.

The other posts above reminded me the I have used 1) rasp and 2) sureform.

Carvingtools.jpg


I got the knives from Paul Rutgers on this site along with five mallard head blanks last year.

Kevin Wharton showed me how to use the gouge. I got it at a high quality wood working shop.

I bought the draw knife on ebay.

I found the spoke shave in the bottom drawer of my father in law's tool chest.

In my case, I nearly cut the end of my finger off with the knife and could show anyone the shape of the gouge when I touched the blade.

I recommend also getting a new box of band aids.

Can't wait to see you work.

John
 
Dave, I literally dusted off the cut outs last night...I didn't work on them, just cleaning up. Don't worry, you'll have her in time for Jeff to pepper her with shot this fall...although he'd tell me he was dispatching one of your cripples. I sold off my caller hen a couple of weeks ago, glad I started three callers.

2010-03-30204122.jpg


Tell me you carved that owl...you going crow hunting? Heck, you making drawknives? You'd be the one stop shopping for Charlie.

Chuck


With all the new carvers...I think I will invest in stock in Johnson and Johnson
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top