Pfeil Long bent

[Nonsuch]

I got to discussing my various spoon-carving efforts with my (adult) nephew, who is studying a three-year diploma in wood-carving. I mentioned that I usually used a crook knife to make the hollow of the spoon bowl, or sometimes a Flexcut gouge.

Interestingly he was quite scathing about Flexcut, saying that it is hard to get a really sharp edge on them once the initial hardened tip of the gouge has been worn off. Instead he recommended Pfeil chisels and gouges from Switzerland (available from Tilgear in the UK, among others). After a lot of consideration we went for a Long Bent Gouge 7L/14, and after much anticipation it arrived :

In the flesh it is very, very sharp and a superb shape for spoon carving. My initial forays with it have been great and I am looking forward to getting going with it. I expect it will now find a place in my pack instead of my crook knife, but it needs a nice leather sheath first !

I hope this is of interest to people

NS

 

[craeg]

Thanks for the tip. Will you do a review on how you get on with it?

Cheers
Craeg

 

[g4ghb]

I'd be interested to heat how you get on too - I would assume it is a completely different technique / action

 

[Stew]

Very nice choice! I like chisel handles with facets as it discourages them from rolling off the workbench.

The technique is different. I don't know if your nephew has given any advice but as well as the 'normal' hold of having the edge coming out of the thumb end of your fist, it's quite effective to use it in an upside down hold.

It's hard to describe but I can do pictures if it doesn't make sense.

 

[Nonsuch]

Thanks - yes he did show me. You sort of cut towards your wrist, which sounds horrendous, but the limited action of your wrist joint means you can't cut yourself - in theory... Think I'll try that one carefully !

 

[g4ghb]

Very nice choice! I like chisel handles with facets as it discourages them from rolling off the workbench.

The technique is different. I don't know if your nephew has given any advice but as well as the 'normal' hold of having the edge coming out of the thumb end of your fist, it's quite effective to use it in an upside down hold.

It's hard to describe but I can do pictures if it doesn't make sense.

pics would be good for me at least mate if you don't mind...... I have looked at gouges like this for some time but 'the fear of the unknown' keeps triumphing

 

[badgeringtim]

Im sure people have heard of them before but Ashley Isles make tremndously good chisels (and other kit).
Nice to support a british maker too - with a bit of history and some tradtion of making wood carving tools and those for the green woodworker.

I was fortunate enough to meet on of the Isles brothers recently on a carving course and it was great to see how intereseted he was in imput and how his engineering brain worked!
So i supose i am slightly biased - but they are still cracking tools!



At the other end of the scale 'faithful' do a bent gouge which works fine for doing small projects like spoons.
They come in a horrible condition but do seem to hold a passable edge once you put one on. Nice cheap way to test the waters, although i have taken to calling them faithless since they have a bit of a rough and uncared for feel when u get them but for around £3 a nice way to compare gouge and knife.

 

[nuphoria]

Now I need to find my carving stuff.... I made a big spoon last summer and really enjoyed it

 

[addo]

I have the same sort of gouge as Nonsuch, and it really is tip top. I use mine for kuksas, ive made 3 with it and its only had a little bit of stopping to keep the edge.
I would also try someone like Ashley Isles though as the tools ive used of his are very good also.

 

[robin wood]

Pfeil chisels are good as are Ashley Iles. The drawback of gouges is that they only have one radius of curvature so ideally you need a range of them (as most carvers have) in various sweeps. A good spoon knife has a gradually tightening radius so one tool does it all. When I started spoon carving there were no hook knives available in the UK so we used gouges or forged our own hooks. Wille Sundqvist gives good instructions on the various grips for hollowing with a gouge in his "Swedish carving technique". Now that good hooks are available I would find it difficult to recommend a gouge over a hook for spoon carving.

Also interested to know how far back you have to grind a flexcut before it no longer holds a good edge. I have never used them but some very good carvers say good things about them and as I understand it they are high carbon steel so no "hardened tip". How do you find yours?

 

[Nonsuch]

I don't own a Flexcut although I did get to borrow one for a while and liked the action, which got me thinking about gouges in the first place

NS