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Tools
Most new knives and chisels arrive dull and aren’t ready for carving; a blade’s initial sharpness doesn’t reflect its overall quality. Only a handful of manufacturers, such as Flexcut and Lee Ferguson, produce tools that come pre-sharpened enough for carving. When choosing a carving knife, keep in mind that shorter blades are easier to sharpen. We suggest knives with blades between 1 and 2 inches (≈ 3 - 5 cm) in length.
Flexcut Carving Knives
Roughing Knife, Detail Knife, Cutting Knife, or a set of 3 carving knives. The knives come sharp and ready for carving. The set includes a sharpening compound for use with a strop.
Try before you buy; the Flexcut knives are available at our meetings.
Folding Carving Knives
If you need a portable option, consider a folding carving knife; just be sure it includes a blade lock (a mechanical lock is great, a friction lock is OK) for safe carving.
Flexcut folding carving knives and a leather sheath.
The Pocket Whittler Knife is pictured on the right.
Chip Carving Knives
Flexcut chip carving knives: one or a set. Good for all levels.
Lee Furguson chip carving knives feature hollow-grind. Great for advanced chip carvers. We recommend C-1 or LC-1.
Traditional New-World chip carving knives, large and small, from various manufacturers: Pfeil, Ramelson, Two Cherries
Chip carving knives from MyChipCarving.com
Flexcut Beginners Palm Tool Set
This Beginners Palm Tool Set includes a skew chisel, V-tool, and three gouges of various curvatures. It is recommended for beginner woodcarvers.
Try the set at our carving meetings before you buy to make sure you like it.
Safety
Cut-Resistant Gloves Level 5: The gloves are sold in pairs, but only one is needed for the non-dominant hand to hold a piece of wood while whittling or carving. Ask our secretary at any meeting before you buy; the club may have carving gloves available at a discount.
Level 5 provides a good balance between flexibility and protection. Some gloves may have rubber padding for a better grip.
Thumb-guard: coming soon.
Sharpening
Strops for honing carving knives and other blades
Finisolva Leather Strop is 11 inches long, including the handle, and 1.5 inches wide. This double-sided strop comes with a green compound. It is a very nice strop with a long handle, and the price is right.
BeaverCraft Compact Leather Strop LS9P2 is very compact, ideal for carving knives, and easy to carry. The strop is 8 inches long with the handle, and is relatively narrow, just 1 1/4 inches wide, but it still works fine with knives whose blades extend beyond its width.
Flexcut SlipStrop for woodcarving gouges and V-tools. It comes with a piece of gold polishing compound. The strop is relatively small, only 3 x 4″, but it works very well on many small and medium-sized gouges, including palm gouges.
Barton Ceramic Stones
Available at the Mountain Woodcarvers store: Ultra Fine or Combo.
These stones are small: 4 inches long and 1 3/4 inches wide. Their smaller size makes them more affordable than larger stones, and their perfectly flat surface is ideal for sharpening small blades. Perfect for detail and chip carving knives. Getting only Ultra Fine (white) is enough if you already have other stones.
Supplies
Polishing Cloth for Metals: not required, but nice to have for cleaning blades.
Carving tip: After using a strop, wipe your blade thoroughly to remove any buffing compound that may have stuck to it. That will help keep your carving project clean.
Thank you for exploring our curated Woodcarving Shopping List. Most links are Amazon Affiliate items, so every qualifying purchase helps fund our meetings and workshops at no extra cost to you. Please contact us if you have questions. Happy carving!
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