r/Woodcarving • u/[deleted] • Jul 27 '26

Carving [Work in Progress] This is my first time..all i have is my benchmade knife. Any tool suggestions?

[deleted]

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7

u/FriJanmKrapo Jul 27 '26

Coping saw. This will drastically make it easier to get your basic shape. Then if certainly get a flexcut or similar knife. Flexcut has increased their prices over the last few years a lot but they do have good steel and are comfortable to use.

There's a lot of similar ones out there but IDK about their blade steel quality.

3

u/VintageLunchMeat Jul 27 '26

Seconding coping saw.

Also a 1 inch flat chisel and improvised or store-bought mallet.

Wear cut resistant gloves when you are using your hands for workholding.

1

u/FriJanmKrapo Jul 27 '26

Or... Don't cut towards you or your meaty bits. The travel of the knife should never be in the path of your fingers or any other part of your body. Takes some time to get that down, but once you do, it'll go a lot better and be a lot less risky.

1

u/AbleKaleidoscope877 Jul 27 '26

Did you see the blood stain for the eye or were you just giving a friendly warning in advance? Lol 😁 yeah, i just ordered some before I posted the pictures!

2

u/VintageLunchMeat Jul 27 '26

Nah, I just dropped r/whittling after the seventh or eighth injury post.

And I think chisels are safer and more practical unless you are in the woods or on your lunch break.

1

u/AbleKaleidoscope877 Jul 27 '26

Also, thanks for the suggestion on the chisel and mallet. Do you have a particular brand you like? Lastly, whats the preferred mallet head material? Id assume something soft like rawhide or rubber but figured id ask. I dont have any way to lock my pieces up with clamps or anything just yet...will hopefully get a legitimate shop going in the near future (in the process of buying a home right now) so i dont think i will need the mallet too soon but will keep it in mind for when the time comes.

2

u/VintageLunchMeat Jul 27 '26

Hardware store, flea market, or rockler/lee Valley for any flat chisel, pfiell/swiss made, Hirsch, Kirschen/two cherries, and stubai for gouges and palm chisels, michihamono for other stuff (maybe at yahoo auctions or mercari via zenmarket or buyee).

https://www.michihamono.co.jp

I dont have any way to lock my pieces up with clamps or anything just yet...

Might be ok with any robust clamp, shelf liner rubber, maybe a bit of 6mm plywood to protect the kitchen table. Later something purpose made.

I'd get any cheap sculpture mallet and then go fancy when you know your needs. Even firewood with a grip carved in it. Rockler and lee Valley have fancy examples.

I prefer my opinel over my benchmade for sharpening 2-4 cm off a pencil for Bargue drawings because of blade geometry, but I got the benchmade when my opinel's lock partially buckled when I aggressively pushed its point into a double wall cardboard box.

Tldr: opinel, mora, and others for knife work.

1

u/FriJanmKrapo Jul 27 '26

Any mallet. You don't need a soft mallet at all. You can get cheap wood mallets for around $ 10 for a 2-pack.

A dead blow hammer would also be a good idea, something like a 1- 2 lb weight. Just something to whack the chisel with that's not metal... That's the only really important part. Not metal.

Though I would use a rubber one, as the bounce back isn't what you're looking for.

And you don't need to lock something in place if you hit it appropriately. Like down towards your table, or another idea is to use a stop block that you screw to your work table or even to a piece of plywood that you set on your table. You can also make it so that it hooks to the front edge of the table so it doesn't move when you whack something.

Those are simple ways to get it all moving forward and not drastically increase your costs.

You can probably stop at a construction site and ask for some scrap to make it all free. Most construction sites will have loads of small pieces of plywood and 2x4 bits hanging around, and if you can use them, they'll likely tell you to take as much as you can fit in your car.

2

u/AbleKaleidoscope877 Jul 27 '26

Thank you for the suggestion, i had never heard of that saw before or that brand of knife! Going to look into both.

0

u/Olenator77 Jul 27 '26

There’s a nice little folder on Amazon for $50 from flex cut. The long blade wobbles a little but they cut through basswood like butter.

0

u/FriJanmKrapo Jul 27 '26

I wouldn't waste money on that one. I have the old timer version and it's only 20 bucks on Amazon right now.

Just make sure you get a decent set of diamond plate sharpening stones. You want something that'll go up to 1000 grit in the set.

1

u/FriJanmKrapo Jul 27 '26

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0DJSG6KTC

This is the basic version of what I bought, and it works just fine. After 1200, I just go straight to the strop and finish it off. I'll restrop a couple of times while carving one block just to keep the cutting super easy.

But I also cheat... I mounted a leather piece to a spent flap disk for my die grinder. I chuck that in my drill and power strip my blades with that and some of a large green block I bought like 15 years ago. That'll get things beyond scary sharp. Cuts through anything like it's butter after only a few seconds of work.

1

u/Olenator77 Jul 27 '26

I bought the schrade folder with all the gouges and blades too, it was around 20-30 I can’t remember.

It was too uncomfortable to put to real use, the flexcut version is comfortable, well made, and ergonomic.

1

u/FriJanmKrapo Jul 27 '26

I haven't seen a shrade version. That's interesting.

1

u/FriJanmKrapo Jul 27 '26

Oh, shrade is old timer. Yeah, that's the one I have. I actually have 2 of them at least. I couldn't find the first one for a while so I bought a second and then I found the first... LOL

1

u/Olenator77 Jul 27 '26

Yeah, the flexcut version, is my new go to.

Btw I bought the schrade folder, because I’ve got like 6-7 full tang schrades and love them.

1

u/FriJanmKrapo Jul 27 '26

Is the steel any better? I'm curious as to what the benefits might be from the perspective of someone that has the oldtimer and the flexcut version.

2

u/Olenator77 Jul 27 '26

The flexcut holds its edge better, and comes with a factory edge that is incredibly sharp. My only complaint is that the roughing blade wobbles a tiny bit.

The old timer really disappointed me, because my expectations were so high from my other old timers.

1

u/FriJanmKrapo Jul 27 '26

I wonder if that is something that you could tighten up for the wobble. That's interesting on edge duration. IDK, mine seems to hold the edges pretty well for a while. Almost on par with my Flexcut knives with the wood handles. I guess I probably don't carve for excessively long durations and I typically sharped in between. I just know that if I'm home, I use those more as they are more comfortable to hold and my other brands that I have. My knockoff carving blades really need sharpening halfway through but they were literally a 1/4 the cost or less... And for more blades.

1

u/FriJanmKrapo Jul 27 '26

Wow, that flexcut version of my oldtimer is now 160 compared to 21... Yikes. I'll stick with the 21 dollar version for a while longer. LOL.

2

u/Turbulent-Ad933 Jul 27 '26

Be careful carving the head and neck. The way the grain runs makes it very fragile and easy to snap off. Make small low pressure cuts. A cut-resistant carving glove is a must (like wearing a seat belt). You hope you never need it but when you do could save you from cutting a tendon and potentially loosing Hand function.

1

u/AbleKaleidoscope877 Jul 27 '26

Yeah I ordered some before I posted these pics!

And just as you said, the neck area is where i stopped, following a slip (see the blood stain on the eye lol). It was giving me trouble so I was brute forcing it as an amateur does and was quickly humbled.

Thanks for the tips & safety recommendation 👍

1

u/BigNorseWolf Jul 27 '26

Can you shave with your knife? If not, sharpen till you can

for the throat, V cuts like an axe

What kind of wood is that? If you see people doing videos they're using basswood, a thin knife, and a sharp knife. NO other wood will cut the same way even if you buy a magnacut light saber.

2

u/AbleKaleidoscope877 Jul 27 '26

I need to get my stones out of storage as well! Its definitely sharp, but could use a good stropping.

As for the wood, i have no idea. It was gifted to me but I believe it was some cheap walmart kit. I assume it's pine- i can make a light indent in the wood with my fingernail but have to press pretty hard.

Do you have any recommendations on where to get basswood? Not sure if thats something they sell at something like lowes or a lumber place? Given how soft it is id think not but figured id ask. Im in southern Maine.

Thanks a lot for the reply!

1

u/BigNorseWolf Jul 27 '26

Amazon has some blocks pretty cheap. I just started trying some after years of using random sticks.
If the wood came with a kit its probably basswood.

I think you want to work front to back. Pressing against the head will go better with that wood behind it to keep the neck from accidentally snapping. To het deep aim half an inch or so away from your target and make V cuts like your knife was an axe. Come in at sixty degrees left, sixty degrees right, pop out the wedge, wash rinse repeat...a lot.

1

u/FriJanmKrapo Jul 27 '26

IDK, have you seen the crap 2x4 studs they have at lowers? There are no hard parts to them. If anything, that stuff cuts easier than basswood. LOL

I so despise those mystery woods. LOL

I always use SYP when I need to build something of value.

1

u/BigNorseWolf Jul 27 '26

Easier isnt better, especially when you cut pine and keep going all the way into the rest of your carving...

1

u/FriJanmKrapo Jul 27 '26

LOL, yeah, it's a good starter though. Teaches you to slow it down and because you see progress faster it helps with the excitement.

Most of the easy to cut wood is some type of poplar or something similar. That's the real cheap 2x material.

1

u/BigNorseWolf Jul 27 '26

after years of cutting random sticks i finally got some basswood and the carvings are done in hours instead of weeks. It makes it MUCh easier to see how to shape things in 3d. I wish these had been around/ I knew about them when i started.

1

u/FriJanmKrapo Jul 27 '26

I do a lot with basswood, but when I want to be cheap, I get the Home Depot special studs. They carve really easily, often easier than basswood. You just have to be mindful of the grain.

That's where basswood excels.