Thick knife for fine work

[beef]

Hi All,
as I count down the week till I can go on my next trip, I thought I'd see how a 4mm thick knife does for finer carving work. Answer? Surprisingly well!

Though obviously not ideal for the task, a thick blade can be made to do finer work in a pinch.
The exercise made me want to get a 1cm bladed mora carving knife next!

Would like to hear about others experiences of using larger/ thicker knives to do smaller knife work.

 

[s7brad]

Wow dude, that's awesome! Never tried anything so intricate, but have notched traps and other small detail work with an Entrek Javalina 3/16" blade. Decent skinner, too. Great pic, great carving job, cool knife as well

 

[hlee]

I wonder if anyone around here has done any carving with a Busse Off Duty... Ovderall length 7.87 inch. Blade thickness 0.35 inch = 8.89 mm.

I guess it is all in the grind...

 

[kgd]

Nice carving job and thanks for posting your knife. Looks like a woodlore style of some type. With a scandi edge, the thickness seems to make less difference when it comes to carving like that. I routinely use my B. Andrews 3/16" thick blade for wood shaping without ill effects but there is one thing that I hate about it. Its a PITA to work an acute notch in wood (as in bowdrill) with this thick-spined scandi blade, whereas working the notch with a 1/8 thick flat grind or even a scandi mora is a pleasure. It seems that when I start the notch that the bevel kicks the blade out of wood contact. Still, I do love how that scandi behaves on all the other wood processing chores.

Working one of those 2.5" dedicated carving knives however is a special pleasure. Sure, you are going to baton split rounds with one, but they sure as hell make detail carving enjoyable. My non-knife buddy does a tonne of wood carving as a hobby. He uses a very small custom carva similar to the small mora for much of his rough work, but most of the detail is done with gouges and chisels.

 

[HandofCod]

Fantastic work Beef! You've inspired me to get out there and create something!

 

[killa_concept]

I wouldn't call a .16" with a scandi grind a thick knife by any means, but you certainly did some fantastic carving there!

Maybe I'm a tad biased as I've done some carving with a .25" thick, convexed BK-2 weighing around a pound The nice thing about a thick, heavy knife is that you can use chopping strokes to do the preliminary shaping and save a ton of time if you don't happen to have a sharp hatchet on hand. Certainly could not do the level of detail (easily) you've accomplished with my BK-2 though!

 

[GingivitisKahn]

Here's my BK-2 spoons. Not sure it's what you'd call fine work but that's my fault and not the knife's.

Anyway - it can carve spoons smaller than I'd ever be likely to use and it can chop and split the limbs needed to do so. Seems good enough to me.

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Beckerhead #42

 

[Brian Andrews]

I routinely use my B. Andrews 3/16" thick blade for wood shaping without ill effects

That dude is 5/32" I have some 3/16" stock in my shop, but I haven't made a knife out of it yet. Other than a large chopping parang, I haven't made anything that thick.

B

 

[jw2n]

I could see it as a challenge with some of Busse's "fatties".

 

[beef]

Thanks all for the responses. I've been wanting to pick up a BK2 for a while. I know deep down it's so heavy it wouldn't get carried, but there's something about having a pound of 1095 that is alluring...

Surprising the level of detail you guys were able to achieve with it.

 

[GingivitisKahn]

Thanks all for the responses. I've been wanting to pick up a BK2 for a while. I know deep down it's so heavy it wouldn't get carried, but there's something about having a pound of 1095 that is alluring...

Surprising the level of detail you guys were able to achieve with it.

It's a bit of a chunk but not as bad as you'd think. I carry mine horizontally in front and rarely notice its there but then I'm a bit of a chunk as well.

There it is.


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Beckerhead #42