Whittlers - who uses them to whittle?

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boris01

Joined
Aug 2, 2008
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I have a Queen Whittler with aged honey bone handles. The knife was beautiful when I bought it. I whittle alot and have stropped and sharpened the knife many times. It looks like a total mess now, the queen etching has been stropped off the blade.

There is a hugh thread "Share a whittler pic". Most of the knives in that thread are beautiful and look perfect. Are those guys collectors ?

Should I be saving the Queen Whittler as a collectable and using a cheaper knife to whittle with?
Or Should I buy 2 Queen whittlers, one to save and one to whittle with?
 
Heck, buy two. And whittle with both of 'em! :D

I have two Whittlers: one that a very generous forum member sent me, a Case Seahorse in Tru-Sharp steel, and a Rough Rider locking Whittler that I bought last year - a copy of the Case/T. Bose design that I bought before I knew it was a copied design. I had a third, a small abalone-handled Rough Rider swell-center Whittler, but I sold it at a garage sale because it was just too small to carve with.

We just moved into a house with a garage, so I have a shop now, so I've been whittling a lot more, mostly with the Case, less with the RR. The Case has held up pretty well. My preference is for carbon steel blades, but the Tru-Sharp is getting the job done. I'm not into blade etches, other than maker's marks, so if the etch wears off, I'm not going to worry about it.

I have a H&R (Hen & Rooster brand) six-blade Congress, with one set of blades sharpened to a more course edge, the other set sharpened to a fine edge. When I was eleven or twelve years old, an old neighbor advised me that if I was serious about carving/whittling, then have a knife with two or more blades: a "rough" blade for "hogging off" (removing a lot of material) and a "fine" blade for more detailed work. Start with the rough, finish with the fine. He could carve anything - out of anything - including carving your name around a peeled chestnut. I haven't worked enough with my H&R to know how well that works. It'll get more work time during the coming winter.

I doubt I'll ever get even close to that kind of ability.

As I said above, I also have the RR locking Whittler. So far the stainless steel has held up pretty well, but it does get sharpened a little more often than the Case. I don't really need the lock on this one; I haven't learned any techniques where I'd need the safety of a lock.

Hope that's informative; I'd be interested to see what this thread produces, and hopefully folks will post pics. (Of their work, that is.)

thx - cpr
 
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I tend to whittle with whatever knife I have with me.... but I do carry a dedicated whittler, one I built out of a small stockman..

I do have a case 3 7/8" split back whittler(true sharp SS in caribean blue bone) and it works great... used it for some hiking stick and bushcrafted longbow making.

G.
 
How's this one? By Reese Bose, along with the project I used it on. Knife has been retired to the safe now, and the carving hangs over Reese's workbench.

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or these by Bill Ruple. The stag was used on the project. The bone handled one is one of the first Rogers whittlers Bill made:

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boris01 said:
I have a Queen Whittler with aged honey bone handles. The knife was beautiful when I bought it. I whittle alot and have stropped and sharpened the knife many times. It looks like a total mess now, the queen etching has been stropped off the blade.
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A mess? Sounds to me like she's just hitting her stride. I say whittle away. Life's to short to stare at knives in a safe.
 
I use a Case Seahorse Whittler for whittling. I don't get whittle as much as I'd like, but I use it to whittle whenever I get a chance. I've got this little dog I've been whittling for a few months now. I'll post a pic.

I'm not sure if it's considered cheating or not, but I bought it as a rough cut blank and have been working on getting it down to a nice looking dog for a while.

I'll try and post some pics in the next couple of days.

I'd love to try the ball in the box. What kind of wood are you guys using for that and how difficult is it to complete?
 
myright said:
I'd love to try the ball in the box.
There are several good books out there, that go into beginning as well as pretty advanced projects, most of which you can accomplish with just a folding Whittler pattern. Some projects are true carving jobs, with fixed, short-bladed, dedicated carving knives. (Nordic types, etc.) I'm practicing exclusively with my folding Whittlers, as we'll be teaching the Bear scouts in my pack the basics of whittling this year. (As for me, I can work up a couple of good chain links, but I'm not to the "ball in a cage" level yet.)

What kind of wood are you guys using for that and how difficult is it to complete?
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I work on Pine right now, and I've worked Redwood too, and Spruce. I love the look of Redwood, and the smell of Spruce. So far, Pine is the easiest to work on; my wife won't let me cheat and use Balsa. :p The Spruce came from a downed tree locally, but was/is very sappy.

thx - cpr
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I use 1 inch by 3/4 inch pine. I get this at home depot, it is very cheap. I have heard that SPF 2x4 is also soft pine. So far I have carved a shark, dolphin, propeller and a few boats.

queston:
I sharpen my Queen whittler to 30 degrees (15 degrees per side) on my sharpmaker. What angle do you guys sharpen your whittler to.
 
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boris01 said:
queston: I sharpen my Queen whittler to 30 degrees (15 degrees per side) on my sharpmaker. What angle do you guys sharpen your whittler to.
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I have a Lansky sharpener, but I mostly freehand my Case Seahorse, and my RR locking Whittler, usually to about 15-20 degrees.

thx - cpr
 
orca8589 said:
There are several good books out there, that go into beginning as well as pretty advanced projects, most of which you can accomplish with just a folding Whittler pattern. Some projects are true carving jobs, with fixed, short-bladed, dedicated carving knives. (Nordic types, etc.) I'm practicing exclusively with my folding Whittlers, as we'll be teaching the Bear scouts in my pack the basics of whittling this year. (As for me, I can work up a couple of good chain links, but I'm not to the "ball in a cage" level yet.)



I work on Pine right now, and I've worked Redwood too, and Spruce. I love the look of Redwood, and the smell of Spruce. So far, Pine is the easiest to work on; my wife won't let me cheat and use Balsa. :p The Spruce came from a downed tree locally, but was/is very sappy.

thx - cpr
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Thanks. Ball in "cage" name noted. :D

I'll search around for some books on them. It looks like a heck of a lot of fun to whittle one. I'm not really sure the type of wood that I'm whittling with now since it was a blank that I bought at a wood working store I didn't think to ask when I bought it. It seems to chip a lot though and it's fairly soft.
 
I almost always use basswood for whittling. Mostly chains and balls in cages. Basswood is easy on the knife blades. If you strop the blade every 5 or 10 minutes, you won't have to sharpen it very often. Michaels crafts or Woodcrafters are good sources. Michaels sells carving pieces that are already squared up.

For a ball in cage, I mark 8 lines for the 4 columns with a pencil, using my fingers as a guide to get equal spacing. The real secret is to be patient and get the ball completely finished except for two small posts that hold the ball to the cage. Once you cut it loose, its very difficult to do any more work on the ball.
 
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