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I just want to whittle now and then

L

leroyak

Joined
Dec 24, 2002
Messages
7
My wife says I need a new hobby, so I've decided to try whittling.( What is a good choice for a whittling pocket knife. I get confused 'cause everything seems to be marketed as a "collector" piece. I want something I can use, sharpen, scratch, drop, carry and not give a damn because it will come back to life with a few strokes on a stone. It doesn't have to be pretty or shinney ... just sharp, easy to handle and durable.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
If you want a great user but nothing fancy, I don't think you could beat an Old Timer stockman.

If you want to spend a bit more, these fit the "collector" profile with their good looks, nice materials and fit & finish. But they have carbon steel blades and are made to really use.

Winchester makes some nice whittlers that would do the job very nicely. This is a beautiful Stockman/Whittler that I picked up last Christmas:
win5.gif

And here's another whittler (both of these are available from Ron Ryder at Cutters and Collectors )
win3.jpg

Also, Mooremaker makes some real nice ones:
spinebackwhittler.jpg
 
A properly heat treated 1095 steel is preferred over the stainless, high carbon stainless, Solingen steels which are softer and do not hold an edge very well. Most of the Case, Camillus, Queen and Buck are stainless steel, as well as the new Winchester line,,,,some specials are carbon steel made by Queen under small contract orders.

An exception to the poor edge holding of stainless is the Victorinox brand, they have a nice thin edge and good steel.

IMHO one of the best values is the Old Timer series by Schrade. They are plain vanilla with plastic handles, excellent 1095 heat treated blades and very inexpensive.

Also, good whittling knives are available from Queen with their new D2 steel blade series,

Sharpen the blade to full flat grind without secondary bevel edge and have fun.

Regards,
FK
 
Have you searched the whittler thread from a few months back? A lot of info and pictures too. I'm not sure which forum it was in but it was fun. Take care
 
Although you're focusing mainly on folders, small Scandinavian fixed blades are excellent for woodcarving -- good steel & reasonably priced. Here are some examples from http://www.ragweedforge.com (*):

KJ Eriksson Mora knives (esp. #1241 & #1260, $8 each with plastic sheath):
http://ragweedforge.com/mora.jpg

Iisakki Järvenpää woodcarver's knife ($21 with leather sheath):
http://ragweedforge.com/9221.jpg

Brusletto firmakniv (blackened blade $37, polished blade for $40, black leather sheath):
http://ragweedforge.com/firma.jpg

The combination of a small blade with larger wooden handles has ergonomic advantages, esp. if you're holding it over an extended period.

Andrew

(*) no commercial interest, just another one of Ragnar's many happy customers.
 
Leroyak, I can't claim any expertise in this area but we have a whittler's club that has done demos at some of our knife shows. I was surprised to see that they had special knives of different shapes and sizes, all fixed blade with simple wood handles. They were what I would call woodworking tools rather than a knife as we discuss on the forums. There wasn't a pocket knife in sight.
You might want to check around to see if there is a club in your area.
 
That's the difference between woodcarving and whittling. Woodcarving uses a number of very specialized tools. Whittling uses a simple pocket knife.

The Schrade Old Timer Middleman is one of my favorite whittling knives, and it’s dirt cheap. You can go to Wal-Mart and hand pick the one you like. All of the Old Timer 1095 steel slipjoints are a bargain and a half.

Whittling is lots of fun. :)
cage4.jpg
 
Cold Steel is discontinuing their stockman, and the price is down to around $25. That's only a little more than the Old Timer, and it's Carbon V blade holds it's edge quite a bit longer, at least that's what I'm finding out so far in my limited whittling/testing.

That's not a criticism of the Old Timer, which I still like a LOT. Like a lot of previous posters have said, 1095 is a very good steel.
 
a sak makes a good whittler, so does a seahorse whittler, case tent shield whittler, McGrew whittler, and most any stockman!!
 
"Cold Steel is discontinuing their stockman, and the price is down to around $25."


Anyone know where I can find the C/S stockman for $25. Is it on his site or at a dealer?
 
Thanks guys. Must be missing it, still looking.$54.00 on their site. probably go with the camillus.
 
Thank you, to all of you who took the time to reply to my question. YOur responses were very helpful. I've decided to start with a Schrade Stockman (flea market) and a Camillus congress (on-line purchase). After that, who knows???

I certainly agree with the comment about the Swiss Army Knife steel. How do they do that? My old Tinker has one of the sharpest blades in the house.

I'm especially indebted to Buzzbait for the photos of his whittling work. What an inspiration. I'm just doing fish and spoons right now, but he has certainly given me something to shoot for.

With appreciation ...

LeRoy
 
I hadn´t post because I saw you were getting good advice, however I just noticed that no one mentioned Opinel, a High Carbon #6 or #7 makes a great whittler and doesn´t cost much (and the blade locks).

I haven´t done much whittling since I was a teenager (I´m 51 now, guess I had more time then), I should add that I often used an x-acto for details and other tools for initial profiling, such as rasps, small saw and even a dremel, that gets more into carving but my old Schrade stockman did plenty of work.
 
Just got the new CS catalog, and their stockmans are being "officially" discontinued, and are now being offered in the mid-20's, in case anyone is still interested. Their web site should reflect this now also.
 
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