New knife for whittling

[willythekid]

Hey guys... I was hoping for some input or opinions on what kind of edges I should put on my new 61 congress. I have always loved whittling simple spear points and such while out camping but recently I have become interested in trying more complex projects. Of course this was a great excuse to look for a new dedicated whittling knife... I will be using a king stone 1000/6000 and a strop. Should I leave the bevels stock? Should I thin them out? This newbie in the world of whittling would love opinions on anything else I should be thing about... (books, youtube tutorials, etc.)
thanks much and here's a pic of the new 61 for the collection...

View attachment 651395

Oh, as a side note, I would love to see pics of other peoples dedicated whittling knives.... Cheers!

 

[pmew]

Hey Willy,

I often whittle with my #61. I would say definitely change the edge bevel, needs to be far thinner to be an effective whittler.





I love this knife


- Paul

 

[irona]

In terms of knives - for me, personally - any kind of jackknife works, especially if it has a pen blade or (preferably) a coping. Good beginner projects are (to learn about the wood you're using) carving out letters (ABC...) out of blocks of wood, owls, which can be simplified significantly and are still pretty fun to carve, and turtles - more advanced than owls but are a lot of fun and have a lot of variety in the species, plus knife marks make the shells look great.


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[D.B Cooper]

On a whittling knife, I thin the shoulders with sandpaper to convex them, then put a 30 degree inclusive edge with my sharpmaker. Seems to work well and requires minimal equipment.


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[WhittlinAway]

Hi Willy,

Congrats on the #61. A lot of people advise sharpening whittling blades at about 10 DPS and easing the shoulders. I've found this to make a huge improvement both to the performance of the knife and to my whittling enjoyment. You may find trying to reset the bevel with a 1000 grit stone to be extremely time consuming and frustrating. An inexpensive coarse stone like the Norton Crystolon coarse/fine combo oil stone will make it much easier and faster.

By the way, in case you haven't come across them yet, there are a couple of recent whittling threads that have a lot of good information:

whittlin' with your edc
Cavalcade of Carvers (preferably folders)

Be safe and have fun!