Thickness of wood carving knives.

S

skillgannon

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Apr 27, 2009
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My cousin asked me to do a carving knife for her. I thought I would do a set of 3. If any of you carve what would be the 3 most useful? I can copy the patterns but I'm not sure how they should be beveled is a chisel grind best or something like a scandi?
 
I really prefer a scandi grind for my carving knives. If I had to choose three I'd pick a 3/32" thick 2.5" long slöjd knife with a zero degree scandi, a smaller 1/16" thick 1" long clip point "detail" knife with the same grind, and a hook knife with a concave back (like a urasuki) and a blade that is slightly convexed to zero. Personally, I find that 1/16" for my main carving knife has a little too much flex when I'm hogging away wood, but it all depends on the kind of carving they plan on doing...
 
Agreed, a main blade longer than 1.5" would be better in 3/32.

On larger blades ( 3/4" height and about 2.5" long), I use a scandi where the upper bevel is about 33% of the height. A half inch high scandi in 3/32" stock would be about a 10° inclusive edge …. very sharp!
On the smaller detail blades ( 3/8" to 1/2" high and 1.5" long), I uses a FFG to zero with a micro-bevel at 10° per side. - also very sharp.

I just flat grind the backs of my hooked blades (not much hook, really) and bevel one side only. Obviously, make a left and right blade. Same goes for detail blades, a set of flat backed left/right short blades can cut very tight details.
 
Just out of curiosity, what steel are you using? I've listened to old timer neanderthals wax poetic about W1 carving tools, but that also may have just have been the most steel available back then.
 
1095, W2, O-1, A-2 - all will work. I use 1095 and W2.

I bet AEB L would make good carving blades.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Agreed, a main blade longer than 1.5" would be better in 3/32.

On larger blades ( 3/4" height and about 2.5" long), I use a scandi where the upper bevel is about 33% of the height. A half inch high scandi in 3/32" stock would be about a 10° inclusive edge …. very sharp!
On the smaller detail blades ( 3/8" to 1/2" high and 1.5" long), I uses a FFG to zero with a micro-bevel at 10° per side. - also very sharp.

I just flat grind the backs of my hooked blades (not much hook, really) and bevel one side only. Obviously, make a left and right blade. Same goes for detail blades, a set of flat backed left/right short blades can cut very tight details.
Click to expand...

One last question. As far as temper goes I would think running it hard would be good. Like 300 degrees for 15n20?
 
I have a lot of odd size pieces of 1084 and 15n20. I thought I would make her 3 pieces now and then once I get dialed in with A2 I wanted to make a couple of sets. My wife has been wanting to try it as a hobby too. I'm hoping A2 will be my go to carbon steel. I did get some M2 my last order from AKS. I'm a big fan of M4 so I was hoping maybe M2 might work out for smaller blades.
 
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