which steel for carving spruce

W

walter janos

Joined
Jul 13, 2011
Messages
5
Hi guys, great forum!

I hope it's ok to ask your advice here.. Here is the profile that I need to carve:

a2-1-1.jpg

(these are instrument braces)

There aren't really any good tools for this so I started tinkering with some carving knives. I thinned these two blades quite a bit and put a crazy bevel them (the one on left says "laminated steel", the one on right "hitachi v2 steel"). The Hitachi one for some reason seems to work better.

a3-1-1.jpg


I need to make more of these tools (some bigger, some wider) and I'm wondering what steel would suit me best? Blue steel/white steel/Hock steel.. what would you use if you had to make these?

a4-1-1.jpg


a5-1.jpg


a6-1.jpg


Thanks for your time,
W.
 
A2 is pretty popular for woodworking/carving.
And have you looked at Pfeil carving tools to see if they have something that meets your needs?
"chrome vanadium steel" is how they describe it, but I have no clue what that means in real world terms as to recognized type. (A2, M2, O1, etc...)
 
Thanks. I did a little digging and found this:

A-2 is good for critically machined machine parts, like gears, where it's best for the part to be hardened but to have minimal dimensional change during heat treating. The carbide inclusions in A-2 can add wear resistance to relatively flat and lubricated surfaces. Those same carbides, though, just tend to fall out when they end up on a fine detail like a cutting edge. They do that because they're not structurally part of the steel. Unfortunately the high heat treating temperatures required to form those carbides also causes the steel that houses those carbides to be coarse grained which is another problem for a good cutting edge.
 
wild -- works very well in my wood planes, I can make see-through shavings in black oak or southern yellow pine.
 
Typical plane iron bevel is 25 deg. My requirement is closer to 5 deg and I don't think A2 is capable of keeping an edge at 5 deg
 
Sounds like you want a steel that takes a very fine edge?

(Abstract thought: the quality of your sharpening will mean more than the steel most often)

Have you considered a stainless razor steel like 12c27 or AEB-L?

What is your finishing steps when sharpening your tools?

Can you describe a little better the performance you are looking for?
 
Sorry, had to go out of town. I'm very unfamiliar with all these steels, I should probably try them all. 12c27 appears to be Sandvik product?- I love their scrapers.

As for sharpening- wet grinder for shaping then Norton 4000/8000 then 5µ- 0.5µ 3M paper (still trying to develop a proper technique). As for performance- I need to be able to take light shavings; a thin slick blade that works with me and knows where I want to go (and helps me along the way).

For some reason that Hitachi blade is very easy to navigate, but a bit too soft..


Where do you guys buy this stuff? Does anyone sell it online?

Really appreciate your time.
 
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