(Part 3) Top products from r/Woodcarving

A strop is only for honing (the final step to achieving a razor-sharp edge), while a whetstone could be used for anything from shaping the initial bevel to honing, depending on the grit.

If you do buy some Flexcut knives, which I highly recommend, you will probably only need a strop if you properly maintain them. In fact, they recommend you never use a whetstone and only opt for a Powerstrop if you neglect them for too long.

Many sites will recommend you buy tools one by one so you can get what you need, but as another beginner, I was extremely happy I purchased the Flexcut Deluxe Set. It was probably one more knife and one more palm tool than I needed, but it helped me understand what was out there and how to use them. A good, cheaper alternative might be this set.

No matter what you buy, one of the most important things to do from both a safety and usability (and enjoyment!) factor is to keep your tools as sharp as possible. That way it requires less force to move the tool through the wood, which is a common injury mechanism, and it makes it easier to create fun things. For the weird angles with V and gouge tools, I use another Flexcut invention. It works okay, but you can get the same results with folded sandpaper or other methods. I also bought a fullsize knife strop because it really does make a difference and you can get some with a lot more surface area. I haven't needed to buy a whetstone yet.

Also, I've since supplemented my starter set with Dockyard tools, which also come very sharp and keep their edge well. So far I've only used their micro tools, but I understand they have decent sets as well.

Speaking from unfortunate experience, you should definitely pick up a pair of kevlar gloves. I had a pretty serious hand injury (partially severed tendon) because I was just doing some touchups and wasn't using my gloves and got a bit sloppy. It only takes one single wrong stroke, and I had gotten complacent since I'd been so careful in the past. The gloves let me be more reckless and have definitely saved me from cuts, although they wouldn't protect against a stabbing cut. Thumb guards are also popular, but I don't actually like them very much. The gloves are nice because you can get a great grip on the tools.

When you have a knife or a set, you'll need some wood to practice on. I found ebay to be a great resource...just search for "basswood" and pick a few different sizes. 2x2x6 seems to be a good starting point to me. Make sure it is kiln-dried as well. Here is a good assortment that is pretty cheap. Butternut is another good choice, but for a beginner, I'd stick with basswood from personal experience.

Finally, if you are wanting a good book to introduce you to the subject, I'd recommend the Complete Book of Woodcarving. I've bought a number of books on the subject, but it is definitely the best if you are only buying one and need an overview to the entire craft. Old Time Whittling is only 30 pages, but gave some great examples and was very useful to me as well.

Lots of different kinds of carving:

• Carving with knives (not just whittling), usually small things like figurines / characters or wildlife
  
• Carving "in the round" 3D sculptures like the masks you're talking about (done with gouges)
  
• Relief carving, where you carve scenes and whatnot into a flat surface (also done with gouges)
  
• Chip carving, where you carve geometric patterns into surfaces (done with gouges and special chip carving knives)
  
• Power carving, carving 3D stuff with power tools like a dremel, foredom or other micro motor. Good for bird carving.
  
• Chainsaw carving!
  
  If you want to carve in the round (things like those masks) then you'd be best served trying to find some good books to read. I recommend Chris Pye's books, just search on Amazon. This can be expensive to get into as good gouges aren't cheap, but you can start with a few and work your collection up.
  
  If you want to carve with knives a good way to learn is to just go on youtube and there's tons and tons of videos of people carving various things and you can follow along. Look up Gene Messer, he does all kinds of little figures. This is cheap to get into, just need a good knife and a strop with some compound to look after it.
  
  If you want to power carve birds I recommend Lori Corbett's book "Carving Award Winning Songbirds"
  
  I don't know much about relief carving or chip carving so can't help ya there. Chainsaw carving I know absolutely nothing. Don't do that one unless you have a teacher nearby hah!
  
  

Awesome job, really excellent for the first couple. My first couple were dreadfully unbalanced and unequal. I personally like a spokeshave to do handles, as you can control depth of cut very easily so you don't accidentally gouge too deep or start getting too thin. It also allows you to get very even and symmetrical contours on the handle and outside bowl. This Stanley one works well but you can get cheaper version on Amazon and eBay. I started out with a cheaper one but the steel isn't great quality and the mouth is a bit too big, but it will work well enough just starting out and investing in tools. If you have any antique shops or flea markets around, check those for old antique spokeshaves. Some may need refinishing but that is a fun hobby in and of itself. It you can find an old Stanley #53 adjustable mouth spokeshave, they work the best in my opinion because you can tune them to take extremely thin shavings and the surface is left finish ready. It is just my preference, it can all be done with carving knives with enough practice. I prefer the bench vise and bench tools method more than carving knives, mostly because I work in seasoned hardwoods instead of greenwood.

I got this diamond stone relatively early on and I don't know why anyone would want to bother anything else. Most of the time I use it dry and I've never had issues with it clogging up on me. Every once in a while I'll rinse it off in the sink and scrub it with a toothbrush but that's mostly so it looks shiny and purty again. You never have to flatten it or soak it like you do water stones, and you never have to deal with making a mess with oils like you do oil stones. I linked the 6"x2" one cause it's cheaper and comes as a combo stone. The 8"x3" I don't think comes as a combo and is a bit more expensive to get two separate stones, but the extra room might be nice when sharpening gouges depending on your technique.

After that I go to a strop with some green compound and I'm done.

I do have an extra course diamond stone as well but I almost never use it. You can easily make do with some sandpaper on glass on the occasions where you'd need something coarser like when you ding the edge.

I think I should have mentioned that I'm in the UK, so quite a few of those links might not work for me.

I did some more searching since when I posted and I found a few things on the UK amazon website that I thought looked good. Mainly the Opinel No.8 as a straight knife and this Kirschen gouge set. The Kirschen set is kind of expensive but it's the only set I could find on Amazon UK that had a few good reviews.
I also found another Kirschen set but this one has two gouges and a straight knife for £10 cheaper than if I got the Opinel and the other Kirschen set.

I'm not sure about the quality of the Kirschen straight knife so I'm considering getting the Opinel No.8 and the first Kirschen set. But if you know that the Kirschen straight knife is of a good quality, then I'll go for that one. Thoughts?

I started with this then got one of these for removing larger chunks.
*note the irwin one comes with a factory edge meaning it will need to be sharpened...so you'll need one of these and this to get that baby super sharp. then run it over the flat part of this and you'll be in like Flynn.

Also the flexcut slip strop if used every 20 minutes of carving (with any tool) will keep the edges super sharp for longer, meaning you dont have to go to the harsh stone right away. Also, note, when using the stone, to soak for at least 20 minutes before using. There are plenty of great youtube videos out there teaching proper sharpening technique for all sorts of tools with Water stones.

I'd also suggest a wooden mallet and a larger heavier one, or I just use a rubber mallet. Also while you're at it, grab a coping saw to remove large areas of unwanted wood. Make sure you have a vice to hold your wood or some sort of block device.

I'm still waiting on my carving knives from Here. They have a back order of 6-8 weeks! I got a straight (sloyd) knife and a hook knife for spoon carving and such.

So far that's where I'm at. Hope that helps.

I'm a massive fan of Opinel knives. They're cheap but great quality with good steel I would also say that a big mistake when carving when starting out is to take too deep a cut. With softer wood this can work ok but with harder wood can bury the blade. The process should be slow and considered, at least for a beginner.

As to sharpening; I use emery paper and finish off with a:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000Z0RW1A

It's an expensive stone but tbh the level of sharpness I get is unprecedented. Sure there may be other cheaper alternatives but I see it as a good investment. My knives and chisels are now ridiculously sharp.

Thanks! I think I will try the wood burning. I'll try it out on a scrap piece first just to check.

I haven't bought a leather strop but I cut up and glued a piece of my old jeans onto a 8" block of wood and bought this:
(https://www.amazon.com/Woodstock-D2902-1-Pound-Buffing-Compound/dp/B0000DD35C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468086393&sr=8-1&keywords=green+sharpening+compound)

So far it seems to be working well. My knife still can pass the paper test. I have had a few nicks in the knife after dropping it once but I used a Accusharp Knife and Tool Sharpener we had at home:

(https://www.amazon.com/AccuSharp-1-001-Knife-Sharpener/dp/B00004VWKQ)

It made it nice and sharp again without the nicks but I don't know if it's good to use for the knife. I'd like to learn how to use a wetstone eventually to sharpen my knife but will probably practice on my Leatherman's knife before I try it on the Mora just so I don't mess it up.

Thanks! The two things I tried to improve for #2 were handle and bowl width. The first spoon was very unbalanced (the bowl was too heavy) and I was afraid the handle would snap with just a little torque.

I started the first handle by cutting the very end down to what I thought would be the proper width, and then I started working my way up the handle, trying to match that width. But as I tried evening out each section, the whole thing kept getting thinner and thinner, until it became way thinner than I had originally planned. So with the second handle, I basically worked my way up and down the length of the handle as I went (taking off an 1/8 inch or so at a time). I left it thicker intentionally until the "end" of the project, so that any evening out I did wouldn't cause it to become too thin again.

For the bowl, I just cut closer to the edge on the second try. As u/Ddosvulcan suggested, I tried pushing the limits to see how thin I could get it.

For tools, I got this knife set on Amazon and these wood blocks. I did not have gloves for the first spoon. I picked up a pair of those and really like them (link here). I also sanded and oiled the second one, and that made a big difference aesthetically.

Edit: I almost forgot, this video helped a lot with learning the basic cuts!

Depending on the size a small v-gouge could be the tool you're looking for. Random example: https://www.amazon.com/Flexcut-Tool-DEGREE-V-TOOL-PALM/dp/B000ZRT6UI
They come in different sizes so you can get one that will fit. And they are hand for making lines and cutting clean edges even if you don't want a full set of gouges.

I currently own these two sets: Flexcut and Dockyard.

Mostly I used the KN12, although the KN13 got a fair amount of use. The V-tool from the Flexcut set was pretty useful, and I used the smallest gouge from the Dockyard set a lot, with the remaining assortment from both used for bits here and there. I was wishing I had a smaller V-tool, and not for the first time...that will probably be my next purchase. In my experience, if I had to buy only one micro tool, it would definitely be the smallest from the Dockyard set.

Also, it seems like no one does this, but doing stop cuts with a cheapo Xacto saw is amazing. You get a consistent line that doesn't need much cleanup, and you can easily lop off chunks that would normally take awhile to cut through properly with a knife multiple times. The kerf is quite minimal so it yields a very fine cut.

It's a buck nobleman titanium. I love it's dark color and simplistic design. I have the stainless one too but that's used strictly for work so I don't mess up my nice one.

https://www.amazon.com/Buck-Knives-0327TTS-Nobel-Titanium/dp/B000EHUYRS/ref=mp_s_a_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1541551918&sr=8-16&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=buck+knife&dpPl=1&dpID=412dkYBK1PL&ref=plSrch

As for tools: I was thinking a cheap chisel set off amazon (poor-isn college student, so recommendations on this would be nice). I was also looking into a router plane in order to make a flat, recessed surface for the tiles.

I used a starter set of carving chisels [like these] (http://www.amazon.com/Starter-Set-of-5-Tools/dp/B001UYQPNG/ref=sr_1_cc_3?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1411898341&sr=1-3-catcorr&keywords=starter+carving+chisel+blades) but not those exact ones, and then this [Xacto carving set] (http://www.amazon.com/Xacto-X5175-Deluxe-Woodcarving-Set/dp/B00004Z2UD) when I got to the finer details.