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Folding Spydie for whittling?

R

rushane

Joined
Dec 31, 2006
Messages
131
I read another post about some Spydies not being great for wood whittling. I'm a terrible wood whittler, and have zero aspirations about making something worth taking a picture of. But, I do make little magic wands for my daughter all the time. She loves them, I love making them for her.

Anyways, the thread I read mentioned ffg blades as not being good for that type of work. I use my Delica 4 or my PM2 for this all the time, because that's what I generally have on me. Why would this mess the knife up? I'm not a hard core whittler making images of unicorns jumping rainbows or anything, but both knives are in great condition.

Second, is there a Spydie for this type of work that I should check out? Why would one blade type be better than another? Why are my FFG blades a bad choice?
 
Spyderco Bushcraft? Though a bit cumbersome.
Gayle Bradley would probably do wonderfully. M4 is no joke.
 
rushane said:
That looks cool. Think I will. Is it the blade shape that makes it better? The steel?
Click to expand...

If I'm not mistaken, the Puukko blade is a zero grind, which means there is no edge bevel. This should mean that even though the blade is quite thick there should be very little resistance at the edge. Wouldn't be my first pick for detail work, but for magic wand making it would probably work great. Somebody around here has done some pretty amazing carving with one...can't remember who. Maybe Yablanowitz?
 
rushane said:
That looks cool. Think I will. Is it the blade shape that makes it better? The steel?
Click to expand...

It is the Scandi grind that is often touted as a "bush" grind. Whittling is not quite the same thing I suppose, but it is a cool knife, and really any knife would do. I have seen a lot of guys that do whittling, using classic slipjoints. The Gayle Bradley would be a good choice with tough M4 and the hollow grind would do a good job.

I wish Spyderco used a tougher steel for that knife personally, so imo I wouldn't say the steel makes it better or unique.
 
Surfingringo said:
If I'm not mistaken, the Puukko blade is a zero grind, which means there is no edge bevel. This should mean that even though the blade is quite thick there should be very little resistance at the edge. Wouldn't be my first pick for detail work, but for magic wand making it would probably work great. Somebody around here has done some pretty amazing carving with one...can't remember who. Maybe Yablanowitz?
Click to expand...

nccole said:
It is the Scandi grind that is often touted as a "bush" grind. Whittling is not quite the same thing I suppose, but it is a cool knife, and really any knife would do. I have seen a lot of guys that do whittling, using classic slipjoints. The Gayle Bradley would be a good choice with tough M4 and the hollow grind would do a good job.

I wish Spyderco used a tougher steel for that knife personally, so imo I wouldn't say the steel makes it better or unique.
Click to expand...

Neither of these statements are correct for the nilakka. It USED to be zero ffg but now it has a secondary bevel if I'm not mistaken. It should have a grind similar to other spydies.

OP: use whatever works for you. I use a military for a bit of whittling. Works fine.
 
Honestly, I personally like Opinels far more than most other knives I have used for the low-quality amateur jobs I do. The characteristics I look for on a general usage folder I generally find to not work as well for finely carving wood, plus the price is right.
 
I carry a Spyderco knife pretty much all the time, but most have blades too large to be ideal for whittling. The best, most comfortable knives that I've carved with always had small blades with plenty of handle behind them.

I whittle with folders a lot, and while I own traditionals, I don't use them. I prefer these inexpensive little cold steel knives:

w0PhkOw.jpg


. . . so if it was me, I'd look for something similar in the Spyderco line. I don't have one, but how about something like this (Spyderco Equilibrium):

C166_M.jpg
 
I've whittled with both a Delica FFG and an Endrua sabre ground. The Delica was actually pretty good for the job, while the endura, due to it's blade size/grind, was a bit harder to use. An FFG Andura would probably do better.
 
The Nilakka originally shipped with a full flat zero grind which proved to be a bit too delicate to be useful on wood. They now ship with a secondary bevel, but at 0.010" thick at the back of that bevel, they are the only Spyderco I whittle with. Most the others I've tried (and I have over 200) have been either too thick at the edge or too wide for my taste, although the C25GP also worked quite well.

If all you are doing is shaping the outside of the wood, almost anything will work. If you want to get into small spaces and work the insides of pieces, you need something with a thin grind and narrow profile. I did this chain almost entirely with the Nilakka. I tried a few other blades along the way, but didn't use any of them for an entire link.

 
Maybe a Cat or Chicago. Nice thin grind with a very sharp tip.
Or an Urban with warncliffe blade.
 
I'm not sure how much of a sin it is to recommend a different brand in the Spydie section, so I figured I'd check first; does it have to be a Spydie? Because there might be better options out there if it has to be a folder.
 
GooberBoober said:
I'm not sure how much of a sin it is to recommend a different brand in the Spydie section, so I figured I'd check first; does it have to be a Spydie? Because there might be better options out there if it has to be a folder.
Click to expand...

The OP did ask for a folding "Spydie" for whittling so throwing another brand into the post probably wouldn't be received well in the Spyderco forum. If asked for another brand by the OP then by all means post it up. Always good to have options.
 
First off, Yab. Wow. I'm not doing anything like that. That's incredible. How long did something like that take? What type of wood? Do you have a before picture of the wood?

Second: no, doesn't have to be a Spydie, I'm just sort of on a Spydie kick right now. In all honesty, I'm not even looking for a new knife, I just don't want to abuse the ones I have if this is going to cause a problem. Mostly though, I read how someone chipped a massive section out of the blade of their knife because they were whittling with it. Didn't know that was possible.

The Delica has been great, I just don't want to wreck it and have people say "you were using it for that?! What'd you expect?" Sometimes I'm not entirely sure why different grinds are important for certain uses.

I have a large Grip that I use for anything and everything and it sharpens up great and acts like new. With my Delica and my PM2, they've never let me down, but I use them in a more acceptable way and they easily out cut the Grip, but I'm not nearly as hard on them either.
 
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