Folding Spydie for whittling?

[SolidState]

Original Kiwi is unstoppable.

 

[yablanowitz]

First off, Yab. Wow. I'm not doing anything like that. That's incredible. How long did something like that take?

It took up most of my whittling time for about a year.

What type of wood?

It was an extension handle from the paint section of our local Ace hardware, marked "Made in Indonesia".

Do you have a before picture of the wood?

Nope. It just looked like a six foot broom handle, but a little thicker.

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.

It's not that hard to do. Force the edge in deep, then twist the handle trying to break the wood away. Knife blades aren't really made for lateral loading, in spite of what people think. I know a guy that broke an anvil. That doesn't mean there was anything wrong with the anvil, it only means that nothing is stupid proof.

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?"

As long as you're smarter than the wood you're cutting, it shouldn't be a problem.

Sometimes I'm not entirely sure why different grinds are important for certain uses.

I'm not sure "important" is the right word. Different grinds behave differently. Which one will do a given task with the least effort and the lowest probability of damage to the tool is largely a function of your own skill and experience.

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.

I've found that the better a knife cuts, the worse it performs as a crowbar.

 

[uofaengr]

I've used the Gayle Bradley for whittling, and it performs wonderfully at 15 dps.

 

[GooberBoober]

Well in that case I was going to recommend the Enzo Birk as well, but Cairndude already beat me to it

 

[outdooredge]

You can conwex any knife and it will cut much better.

 

[rushane]

Well in that case I was going to recommend the Enzo Birk as well, but Cairndude already beat me to it

The Enzo is nice. it's on my short list.

 

[Barman1]

The Enzo is nice. it's on my short list.

It is nice but comparing specs with the Nilakka, being a Spyderco fan of course, it would be a tough decision that would most likely put the Spydie in my pocket. I've never compared D2 against S30v for wood working though. That might be a variable worth considering.

 

[mnblade]

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.

Agreed. FFG is the way to go.

 

[GooberBoober]

The Enzo is nice. it's on my short list.

You might want to try a cheap Mora first to see what the scandi-grind is all about before you decide on a pricier folding-carver. I seriously doubt you want to go back to a different grind after trying one out.

It is nice but comparing specs with the Nilakka, being a Spyderco fan of course, it would be a tough decision that would most likely put the Spydie in my pocket. I've never compared D2 against S30v for wood working though. That might be a variable worth considering.

The Enzo comes in D2 as well as S30V so you do have a choice there. I never tried that particular Spydie, but I'll always prefer a true scandi over anything else for wood-carving personally.

 

[JacksonKnives]

I've been doing some heavy carpentry "whittling" (cutting replacement tenons on a chair stretcher dowel, basically just reducing the ends of a square stick of oak to round) and I can report that an CPM-M4 Military blade stands up to oak better than the super blue Caly 3.5; both have been *heavily* re-profiled (not zero-edge, also a bit convex and finished with a micro-bevel; certainly the Caly saw too much twisting to be considered normal whittling but I was surprised and how badly it chipped.) They were both beautiful for planing-type cuts where slow removal off the top, and I think the super blue held up fairly well in cross-grain cuts, just not in 'gouging' motions.

The thing I like about smaller blades for whittling is the room you get behind the blade for maneuverability in those 'gouging' cuts without putting as much lateral strain on the edge. A small, narrow blade is pretty much a must-have for doing detail work inside curves with hardwood. That said, the long, narrow tip of Spyderco's Millie/Caly or most of the wharncliffe shapes do give you a nice narrow profile if you choke up on the blade and only use the tip. (Moreso than a drop-point profile would, anyway.)