Wood Whittling

As for me, I have been using my drop point 73 to whittle. You can do a surprising amount if you use different areas of the blade for different functions.
 
richstag said:
I know from the whittling section that you do some great whittling, so how do you like the Courthouse?

I got one but have yet to use it. Say compared to a boker or queen whittler? I think you have one of those?

Thanks :)
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I have a couple of Queens and a Boker. The GEC Courthouse Whittler is a bit larger than the Queen and quite a bit larger than the Boker, so it fits my hand better. I think I'm going to turn the coping blade into a sheepsfoot, though. The corner of the spine sitcks up above the pen blade, and it is somewhat annoying when using the main blade. Normally that's not a problem for me, but this is one of the few whittlers that I actually use the main blade when whittling. Aside from that little problem, I really like it.
 
I really like the Queen 1/2 Congress in D2
The sheepsfoot is a good size and the small pen is swedged and has a sharp strong point
The D2 hold a good edge for a long time

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But honestly, I now use a Mora 120 in laminated carbon with a big wooden handle
It out cuts any regular slippy
 
Hi I am looking to buy my first whittling knife and I am looking at the wrangler. I would like some thoughts. Can anyone help?
Thanks
 
I liked my swayback jack, alot. Recently lost it and will probably be shopping for another whittler... Or another SBJ...

Though I did find my SAK Hiker to work rather well. The small pen blade works rather well for the more detail work, not quite as well as a pointy wharncliffe, but not bad. And you can use the main blade for beginning shaping, too.
 
I tend to whittle with my sbj mostly, but i recently purchased a Buck stockman and it also works quite well.


Any direction to the whittling area of blade forums
 
OK I love using my slipjoints for whittling. So far all I have made are some spoons out of Basswood.
I actually like a medium stockman for a lot of my work. The larhe clip blade is good for removing a lot of wood in the beginning, then the sheepsfoot and spey do smaller jobs.
I intend to get a CV med stockman with the spey swapped out for a pen blade very soon.
I also have used my CV peanuts, some old US Schrades and imperials as well. Seems like some are better but really any old knife will do.
So how do I find out how to carve one of those ball in a boxes? I haven't found anything on the web that was helpful. Any tips of links? I am bored making spoons.
 
billym said:
So how do I find out how to carve one of those ball in a boxes? I haven't found anything on the web that was helpful. Any tips of links? I am bored making spoons.
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cut out everything that's not a box or a ball.... ;) I'm far from an expert, but this one is actually pretty straightforward, just takes some trial and error, and understanding of three dimensional carving. I started simply by tracing an outline of the cage rails and ball on my piece of basswood, and go from there.

One tip, though. Shape as much of the ball as you can BEFORE freeing it from the rails, once it's freely floating around, you want to do as little cutting as possible.
 
billym said:
OK I love using my slipjoints for whittling. So far all I have made are some spoons out of Basswood.
I actually like a medium stockman for a lot of my work. The larhe clip blade is good for removing a lot of wood in the beginning, then the sheepsfoot and spey do smaller jobs.
I intend to get a CV med stockman with the spey swapped out for a pen blade very soon.
I also have used my CV peanuts, some old US Schrades and imperials as well. Seems like some are better but really any old knife will do.
So how do I find out how to carve one of those ball in a boxes? I haven't found anything on the web that was helpful. Any tips of links? I am bored making spoons.
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I haven't done a how-to on the ball-in-cage, but there's a thread on how to whittle chain in the Workshop.

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Jack, that is awesome.
Sooner or later I will start whittling. I still need to get better at sharpening though :rolleyes:
I have a little question for you. Since, obviously, you know what you're doing (at least when you're whittling a chain :D), have you ever thought about whittling a "closed" or "circular" chain? It would be awesome and I'm sure you could do a fantastic job with it.
Just a curiosity from someone who appreciates your woodwork :)

Fausto
:cool:
 
The problem around here is finding a piece of wood big enough to do something like that. Trees are rather scarce, and most are either too soft, too hard or too twisted for anything very intricate. I'll keep an eye out, though.
 
I don't know anything about whittling but...wouldn't it be good enough to have a slightly wider piece of wood (a bit more than double than the one you "normally" use, and whittle the two ends in some chain rings so that you can separate it in the middle and whittle more rings on each "half stick"?
Don't think I managed to explain it properly, but I hope you get my point :)

Fausto
:cool:
 
quattromori said:
I don't know anything about whittling but...wouldn't it be good enough to have a slightly wider piece of wood (a bit more than double than the one you "normally" use, and whittle the two ends in some chain rings so that you can separate it in the middle and whittle more rings on each "half stick"?
Don't think I managed to explain it properly, but I hope you get my point :)

Fausto
:cool:
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Fausto,

I was thinking a pine 2x4 would work. Like you said, just make the chain all the way around the 2x4 or etc. Basically you mean take something like a 2x4 and draw out a looped chain on it and whittle it out right?

Kevin

BTW, one of these days, I have to post a pic of a friend's granpa's chain he whittled. The man owned a lumber company and said it took him years to whittle with his pocket knife. I was sent a picture of it. It hangs in the den across a couch, draped a few times. Its ridiculously long. Can't see starting on that one sitting on the lazyboy :)
 
Not necessarily that wide.
I assume (I know I'm fantasizing) that you could do it this way. Take a piece of wood, and divide it into two longitudinal pieces, separated for the whole length but the ends. At the ends, you could whittle a few rings (I assume 3 or 4 would be enough) on both ends, then the two long and thin pieces could be separated, and you could go on whittling the remaining rings.
Oh, and we wait for your picture too :)

Fausto
:cool:
 
Well great Fausto, you said it better than me and its not even your native language :D

I don't see why your idea would not work. Makes perfect sense. As soon as I find the pic I will post it :)
 
Kevin,
thanks for taking the time to find the picture. That thing is unbelievable, and my guess is that it was made with a big log and several "turns".
No wonder it took him so long. But hey, that chain is awesome :)

Fausto
:cool:
 
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