finally finished it!

[In Wood]

Nicola that was wonderful, Robin you are a very Luky man.
There is something very pleasing about watching a lovely lady carving, may haps it happens so rarely and appeals to our inner Bushcrafter.
all the videos were very good, but sorry Robin I would rather sit and watch Nicola than you any day. (No offence)

 

[g4ghb]

Love it! - the spoon the Video the lot!!!

Whats due next off the cutting room floor? - You have wet our appitite now, more Pleeeeeease!

 

[robin wood]

Glad you all enjoyed, thanks for the comments. For those that are interested in tools we have used pretty well all the tools available for knife carving and keep a wide selection for folk to try on courses but the ones we used in the videos are;
axe Gransfors Bruks "Carving axe" its the best, a few folk find it a little heavy for continued use. If you are on a tight budget this is the place to save money by buying a cheap old English Kent Pattern axe for £1 at a car boot and putting a new handle on it.
Knife we are using Del Stubbs standard Sloyd, I first got some of Dels knives 10 years ago they were very expensive then (£50) though I traded them for bowls but they are very good. Now with the weak dollar you can get them for less than £25. Mostly howver we use and recomend Frosts narrow bladed sloyd (106) its a fantastic knife for the money and far better than a mora or bushcraft type knife for carving. The narrow blade is important as it allows concave cuts without the back of the blade getting in the way.
Hook this is the place where it really does not pay to buy a cheap one, the one in the videos is made by Bo Helgesse and is in a different league to any other I have used. others that work OK are Del Stubbs, Svante Djarve and Ben Orfords.

What's coming next? Well Nicola is currently doing vids of Traditional Sheffield knifemakers the youtube links are on BB...she is called "watcher" over there.

 

[DoctorSpoon]

Minor correction to Robin's post: the hook knife maker's name is Bo Helgesson and his makers mark is 'Helgess'. His web site is www.helgess.se but it's all in Swedish!

 

[JonnyP]

Hook this is the place where it really does not pay to buy a cheap one, the one in the videos is made by Bo Helgesse and is in a different league to any other I have used. others that work OK are Del Stubbs, Svante Djarve and Ben Orfords.

Interesting...I use and have only ever used a cheap frosts hook knife for doing bowl work... How would I get on better with one of the above mentioned knives...?
I would also be interested in hearing how you hone them. I assume they are scandy, so holding the bevel flat on a stone and twisting the knife and stropping at the same time is not easy. Or do you use another technique..? I have a diamond coated butchers steel that is oval shaped and fits inside the curve of the knife well. That works well to do that side of the blade, but even that is difficult as you have to hold the steel flat against the blade so you don't get a secondary bevel...
Cheers.....Jon

 

[Earlyturtle]

I use wet and dry sandpaper wrapped round a broomstick, followed by rubbing the broomstick with honing compound and stropping the knife on there.
Hope that helps!
Mike

 

[JonnyP]

I use wet and dry sandpaper wrapped round a broomstick, followed by rubbing the broomstick with honing compound and stropping the knife on there.
Hope that helps!
Mike

I have heard of people using wet and dry around something like a broom stick, but have not heard about using the honing compound/paste etc straight onto the wood itself, nice one...It is still just doing the one side though, the beveled side still needs sharpening/honing too, this is the harder side to do...

 

[robin wood]

"How would I get on better with one of the above mentioned knives...?"

That's not really something that can be explained easily in words, but if we ever meet up I have examples of most of the available hooks and let people try them out, that is the best way to find what works for you. I have been forging hooks for my bowlturning and for spooncarving for 15 years now and it is not easy to say why one tool works wonderfully when another quite similar one doesn't, simple fact is the Helgesse hook works wonderfully.

"I would also be interested in hearing how you hone them. I assume they are scandy, so holding the bevel flat on a stone and twisting the knife and stropping at the same time is not easy"

Again not easy to put into words, the inside I only use a broomhandle with autosol, the outside I use stones. My personal set up is diamond bench stones fine followed by extra fine then 6000 waterstone followed by autosol on a piece of planed softwood though use whatever suits you. I lay the knife, bevel on the stone left hand on the handle right hand in the hook, starting near the handle at the top of the stone I draw the knife towards me at the same time raising the handle gradually so all the hook comes into contact during the stroke.

 

[Earlyturtle]

Sorry, forgot to mention the outside. I use stones for that and then hone on leather strop.
Mike

 

[JonnyP]

Cheers guys....Sounds similar to what I do, though I use my thumb on the blade when stropping...I do find it awkward still to get the blade really sharp, but then that might be because I am using oilstones rather than water stones or diamond stones. It may well be because I don't have the knack for it yet.. I would love to try a different hook knife to see/feel the difference, but I cannot justify the extra cost, because I can make do with the frosts one ok...