The Whittling Corner

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Yes, mine was very snug when I first started wearing it. As you can see it broken nicely.
 
Just messing around with my new 35's sheepsfoot blade. Looks like it will shape up to be a nice little carver. Always like to have a carving blade to go with a working blade.
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These are insane! I can’t believe the amount of skill some of the members here have. My jaw is to the floor on these things! Bravo fellas!
 
Really nice work Jiki Jiki !

And, I agree with you about the sheepsfoot on the 35. It's got a really nice nose angle for carving, in my opinion.
 
@kamagong made this comment a long time ago and it has stuck with me:

kamagong said:
I find that working wood helps me to relax, so I sometimes do it at the end of the day at home. I'm not degenerate enough (;))to whittle anywhere and everywhere, so I don't need the convenient portability of a pocketknife. It's fixed blades for me, I find them infinitely more comfortable to use.
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Not sure about degenerate (;)), but I do like to be able to whittle in any appropriate place. But, over the past year or so, I've found myself whittling with fixed blade knives more and more. I thought I'd share my favorites and ask y'all what you like to use. In alphabetical order:

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  • Deepwoods Ventures Upswept Slim Carver
  • Helvie Donald Mertz Signature Series #1 Universal Whittler
  • Helvie Donald Mertz Signature Series #8 Queen Bee
  • Mora 120
The Mertz #1 is the closest thing I've found to whittling with the small clip blade of my Camillus 72. The #8 is a smaller version that I reach for when working on small details. They both have a bit of convex to the edge, which I like for rolling in and out of concave surfaces.

The Deepwoods Ventures knife is flat ground and I reach for it when I'm doing work that benefits from that. It's also great and slicing through end grain.

The Mora 120 and its larger sibling the 106 are classics and incredible values, in my opinion. I use the 106 when spoon carving and the 120 for whittling. Their blades are thicker than the others I've mentioned, but they are still very capable whittlers. I started with using the 120 for bulk removal at the beginning of projects, but lately I've been seeing how far I can push myself with them to carve projects from start to finish. Here's a chain I just finished up today, using only the Mora 120:

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I know I've just scratched the surface of the fixed blade whittling knives that are out there. I'd love to hear what others have found to work well for them.

Happy whittling, everyone.
 
Hello Greg, nice seeing you around.
I think I’m one of the degenerates Christian talked about ;). Because I like to whittle everywhere, for me is an stress reliever, in fact when I’m calm projects get stuck hehe.
Here are my carving blades, the only fixed blade is the mora 106 for spoon carving. You can see a salad serving set on the making lately I’m trying to get the closest I can with the axe, the left one is straight off the axe
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Cheers
Edited to change image url
 
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lutejones said:
Hello Greg, nice seeing you around.
I think I’m one of the degenerates Christian talked about ;). Because I like to whittle everywhere, for me is an stress reliever, in fact when I’m calm projects get stuck hehe.
Here are my carving blades, the only fixed blade is the mora 106 for spoon carving. You can see a salad serving set on the making lately I’m trying to get the closest I can with the axe, the left one is straight off the axe
full

Cheers
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Thanks Mateo. It's nice seeing you around here, too!

Unfortunately I can't see your photo. When I try using the embedded image url it says I don't have permission to view the media album. :(
 
I started being interested in traditional slip joint knives about a year ago. That interest developed into a want to use my new knives. So I began some simple carvings. I found the bevel on most standard slip joints to be too steep to be good carving knives. Wanting to do more carving I purchased an inexpensive Mora 122 to see if this was something I wanted to pursue. I carved some 40 Santa ornaments and other things with the Mora.
o0PM5lr.jpg

My wife, being as wonderful as she is, saw my new interest and bought me this set of Helvie knives for Christmas.
nhTVUG4.jpg

Wow, right. So I do most of my carving at home. However I am always on the lookout for a slip joint that I can have with me on the go in case I want to waste some time and carve some stick while I'm hiking or whatever. So far I am really enjoying the 82's warncliff blade and the 35 and 66's sheepsfoot blade for this task.
QFMMaIM.jpg

ToRmyyY.jpg

I do prefer a straight edge to carve, but that may change as I learn more.

Jim
 
Jiki said:
I started being interested in traditional slip joint knives about a year ago. That interest developed into a want to use my new knives. So I began some simple carvings. I found the bevel on most standard slip joints to be too steep to be good carving knives. Wanting to do more carving I purchased an inexpensive Mora 122 to see if this was something I wanted to pursue. I carved some 40 Santa ornaments and other things with the Mora.
o0PM5lr.jpg

My wife, being as wonderful as she is, saw my new interest and bought me this set of Helvie knives for Christmas.
nhTVUG4.jpg

Wow, right. So I do most of my carving at home. However I am always on the lookout for a slip joint that I can have with me on the go in case I want to waste some time and carve some stick while I'm hiking or whatever. So far I am really enjoying the 82's warncliff blade and the 35 and 66's sheepsfoot blade for this task.
QFMMaIM.jpg

ToRmyyY.jpg

I do prefer a straight edge to carve, but that may change as I learn more.

Jim
Click to expand...

Lots of folks prefer straight edges. I think it's a matter of personal preference matched up with the types of things you like to whittle and the cutting techniques you prefer.

I do most of my whittling with curved edges, usually with a small clip blade on a pocket knife or a fixed blade that has a similar curve and pointy tip. But, I do still reach for a coping or sheepsfoot blade from time to time. It's nice to have both styles available. I should probably carve a project or two using just a straight edge to refine my technique.

Regarding pocket knife edges, I totally agree. I always reset the bevels of my whittling blades to around 10-12 DPS. That makes a world of difference. I also have used files to modify the shape of some to make them more to my liking. If you're curious about that sort of thing, lutejones lutejones recently posted a tutorial on how he goes about reshaping blades for whittling.

There's also a good post from @Mr. Chips that details his sharpening process for whittling blades. I think I linked to it in this thread once. I can probably dig it up if you're interested.

Edit: I forgot to mention that that's a nice looking set of Helvies. What a thoughtful gift from your wife!

lutejones said:
WhittlinAway WhittlinAway fixed I think
Jiki Jiki realy nice carvings Jim, have you tried to modify the shape and grind of the slipjoint blades?
Nice to see this thread back up
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Yup, you fixed it! That's a nice collection of whittling knives you have. I admire your whittle-anywhere ability. :)
 
lutejones said:
WhittlinAway WhittlinAway fixed I think
Jiki Jiki realy nice carvings Jim, have you tried to modify the shape and grind of the slipjoint blades?
Nice to see this thread back up
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I have reprofiled the straight blades on most of my pocket knives down to 17°. This is something I am also learning , I am more hesitant with reshaping my knives because if feels more permanent. If I make an error on a piece of wood I modify or toss out and start over, if I screw a blade I feel I am out $.
 
WhittlinAway said:
Regarding pocket knife edges, I totally agree. I always reset the bevels of my whittling blades to around 10-12 DPS. That makes a world of difference. I also have used files to modify the shape of some to make them more to my liking. If you're curious about that sort of thing, lutejones lutejones recently posted a tutorial on how he goes about reshaping blades for whittling.
Click to expand...
I am interested I just ordered a second 2 blade 78 and think that making the pen blade a carver on one of them would be fun. Love carrying that knife.
 
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