Favorite *EDC* knife for whittling?

[bflying]

Do you prefer the mini Tuff Lite to the full size Tuff lite? I haven't tried the mini b/c I thought the handle would be too small to be comfortable for whittling. I might have to check one out now...

I only have the Mini Tuff Lite right now. Will be picking up the regular soon. But I was really surprised how much control I felt I had with it. Maybe it was the leverage received from the blade to handle ratio. And being able to choke up so far.

I've included some pics of a Barlow and Toenail for size comparison. And a couple little fixed blades that have gotten a little whittlin' time. The Izula and Candiru.

 

[Bryson S]

thanks for the pics!

 

[BitingSarcasm]

Do you prefer the mini Tuff Lite to the full size Tuff lite? I haven't tried the mini b/c I thought the handle would be too small to be comfortable for whittling. I might have to check one out now...

What makes the Mini Tuff a good whittler is the large amount of grip you get on the handle. The deep choil puts your finger safely right next to the cutting edge while letting you get a 4 finger grip. It's good engineering when you consider that I can only get 3 fingers around it when it's closed. You won't be moving large amounts of wood with the mini, but what you do take out is done comfortably with precision. BHQ had them on sale, so I picked up 2 spares for dirt cheap and the sale is still going on.

 

[Getting older]

Another non traditional knife is the cables tripping knife.Plenty cheap at big box home improvement stores.One I bought even came with a plastic blade protector that stores in the handle

 

[91bravo]

BHK BTS

 

[uraninite]

Opinal No. 6 or 7 has a nice flat / thin blade and can reduce wood quite a bit, while still being controllable. I have used one for the roughing stage of spoon carving. The downfall is the sharp spine until a callus is built up and you are limited in some grips until you cut the "horn" off the handle. The thin blade seems to work well for green wood, but the thinness of the blade makes doing heavy reduction harder on dry wood. As the steel is a bit on the soft side, dry and hard woods (and bamboo, though not a wood) seems to blunt the edge quicker.

 

[CanadaKnifeGuy]

Opinal No. 6 or 7 has a nice flat / thin blade and can reduce wood quite a bit, while still being controllable. I have used one for the roughing stage of spoon carving. The downfall is the sharp spine until a callus is built up and you are limited in some grips until you cut the "horn" off the handle. The thin blade seems to work well for green wood, but the thinness of the blade makes doing heavy reduction harder on dry wood. As the steel is a bit on the soft side, dry and hard woods (and bamboo, though not a wood) seems to blunt the edge quicker.

These are also just about the BEST apple cutting knives, for work lunches or picnics.

 

[para7452]

Mine is a Bill Ruple Wharncliffe Whittler. Three blades. Three times the sharpness, and specific blades for different parts of the project.

 

[Pomsbz]

I enjoy the Victorinox Floral. Large handle (4") with 2" of edge in a chisel grind blade.

 

[uraninite]

These are also just about the BEST apple cutting knives, for work lunches or picnics.

No doubt about that. I use mine for cutting apple slices for making apple chips. You can get the slices so thin that they are translucent.

Another good whittling knife is the SAK Hiker. Got a saw to cut sticks to size, cut depth guides in, and do details like checkering, and has two different sized blades. Has a bottle opener to boot.

 

[eveled]

Sometimes it’s a broken blade that makes the best pocket Whittlers. Like these two small KaBar’s one had a broken master blade the other a worn secondary.

 

[eveled]

sometimes you need to unlock the hidden whittler and don’t give up on broken blades.

 

[DocJD]

The Cold Steel "Ultimate Hunter" , the one with the orange handle pictured below , is a nice big folder with an unusually comfortable handle . Not really a great one for intricate carving . But it won't hurt your hand to do some rough work whittling with the "hand filling" handle .

 

[Jiki]

This A Wright Ettrick is a wonderful little carver/edc.