The carving tools

My carving tools

It's about time I posted what I use

Three slightly different closed whittling knives sitting on a beige canvas tarp surrounded by wood shavings.

My very first carving knife was a gift from my dad, somewhere around when I was 12 years old. He got all of the kids a whittling knife, a three-bladed buck knife, and gave it to us as a gift when we were camping one year. We were taught safety as kids, and all was good, and it's what got me into carving as a whole! This may be posted somewhere on the site already, but every year we would go camping, and every year I would find a good looking hiking stick, use it for the trip, and then leave it at the campsite as a gift to the next person who camped there! Later on in life I would put carvings into the staves, and leave those at the campsite as an extra special present to the next camper. But back to the carving tools. My very first carving/whittling knife, I actually ended up breaking the large blade of! It was a year or so after getting it, and like a silly we were opening it up, and then throwing it into the dirt or a log or something, trying to get it to stick in. Well, the tip of the big blade broke off, and dad ground it down and made it pointy again. Many years after that, in my 20's and on my own, I ended up breaking the large blade entirely off, while using it to pry apart some wood (see picture 7 as my current solution to this needed requirement). Now, as life would have it, I ended up losing the original whittling knife entirely over the years, and sought to replace it after a time. I found one that is *virtually identical* to the original, see pic 1 to the right. Slight difference, the original side plate was a small oval, that I could almost spin around because it was kinda loose over time lol. And it seems in keeping with history, while I didn't break the large blade off on this replacement, I broke the small curved blade off of it, again while prying some wood apart, and which also led to my second whittling knife, and my now using a big ol' thick, cheap hunting knife for such things.

So the second carving knife was the black one, which I got after that small blade broke off from the original. I hunted around for what was the highest rated three-blade whittling knife, and ordered this guy. I discovered that it has thinner blades, that almost seem to vibrate when you tap them on something their temper is so hard, and though they are *incredibly* sharp, I worried about breaking them just due to normal use, not even in trying to pop out a bit of wood. So I hunted for a replacement, something like my original buck knife, but thicker. And somehow, I stumbled across a shop on Etsy that had a modified (I'm not even sure what's modified about it) three blade carving knife for sale, and so I ordered it. And it is glorious. Now, each of these have their own uses, each blade being a different thickness, and slightly different edge angles, so they all carve a little bit different, and I swap between all three when I'm making something. Also around this time, I made my thumb guard which protects me while carving, as well as a pair of leather gloves, depending on the project.

At some point after that, I decided to pick up mainly a scorp, that weird, spoon-looking blade, because I *really* needed something like that when carving the Staff of Souls and Spirit Staff. This tool is normally used when carving spoons, but I was looking for something that would let me carve out nice smooth grooves from wood. And either shortly after or possibly at the same time, I picked up a few carving chisels, as I was beginning to carve staves more often, and was beginning to need to carve them when they were dry (my preference is carving the bark while they're still fresh).

Added bonus: Instructions on how to preserve a sapling and keep the bark from cracking as it dries out:

1. Cut sapling down from your property or where you're allowed to take one (always respectfully ask the forest if you're allowed to take it as well)
2. Take a pipe clamp, and tightly screw it down as hard as you can into the bark at either end of the sapling where you cut it. This means, cut it several inches too long on either side of the section that you want so that you can cut the clamp marks off.
3. Leave it for 3 days, and then tighten the pipe clamps down as hard as you can again.
4. Leave it for 1 more day, and then you can begin working on your staff. You can cut off the clamped bits, and the wood or bark will no longer crack as it is drying.

Advice I was given from an old carver who saw me walking with a hiking staff, and I have confirmed many times now that it works. He also gave advice that, since it was the (original) creature with three faces and two brains that he saw, that if you carve a staff out of dogwood with a top like that (I would suspect willow as well), if you soak the top in water, you can bend it open and pop a golf ball into there (or d20 dice!), and then let it shrink and dry back to normal, and then the golf ball/d20 will be trapped inside! So that's a pretty cool trick.

But anyways, back to carving tools! So we picked up a few carving chisels, one of which I actually broke because I was (I think I've learned at this point) trying to pry wood out too much with it (it was a really deep slot in my defense). Basically the same as the smaller v-chisel, but curved like a u. So when I replace that or pick up any other carving tools, I'll post them on this page as well. As of present, the rest of my carving knives have been filling my needs as is right now ^_^

Also I guess just to add, when I bought the chisels, I got that sharpening block as well, which has a leather flat on the back of it, that curved leather portion, and curved u and v strips that match the angles/shape of the Pfeil brand chisels that I purchased. Works quite well too! The yellow crayon-looking piece is meant to be rubbed on the wood or leather before sharpening the blade on it.

Documented here on May 4 2024, and will safe to assume be added to.

A bark texture patterned whittling knife, folded and sitting on a bed of wood shavings. The word Zebeth is scratched into the inscription plate on the side of the knife.

Three whittling/carving knives laying on a bed of wood shavings, the original from picture 1, a smooth black folding knife that is slightly larger, and a smooth, shimmery veneer patterned knife that is slightly larger still below that.

The three carving knives in a row with their large blades opened up, laying on the canvas in a bed of wood shavings.

A long handled carving knife with the blade being very thick on one side coming down to a very thin, sharp edge, shaped like a spoon to be able to carve in that shape. Beside it is it's blue plastic sheath.

Two push carving chisels, one flipped over to show the swiss made stamp on the handle, one being a larger v shaped blade and the other being a smaller v, laying beside their blue plastic sheathes in a bed of shavings.

Kabutroid holding the tips of the chisels to face the camera, showing the uppercase and lowercase v shapes that makes the tip of the chisels.

A dark purplish square wooden block with six raised lines running along it, four different sizes of curved u shapes, and two different sizes of v shapes, and a stretch of curved leather on one side. Beside it is a wedge shaped yellow block that looks and feels like a cross between chalk and crayon, which you use to rub over the wood before sharpening.

A leather guard with added leather padding on the front, worn on Kabutroid's right thumb, held overtop of a wood chip covered canvas sheet.

A pair of heavily worn, tan leather gloves on a wood chip covered canvas sheet, with several patches sewn onto the upward facing left glove where the fingers had been worn through, and then patched with additional pieces of leather.