wood carving chissels (advice needed)

[jon r]

i want to get a good set of wood carving chissels for my 18 birthday but am a bit stuck when it comes to the make of the tools. What companies make the best tools? I want top quality chissels by the way!

Ive looked into buying some palm tools before and have decided on the ones i want. They were amde by Flexcut. I want to so some larger sculptural work though so im going to need some mallet tools.

Flex cut does this set which looks pretty good. what do you think?
http://www.flexcut.com/products/cart.php?target=product&product_id=1057&category_id=111



Thanks in advance for any help and advice!

Cheers

Jon

 

[scottishwolf]

You can't go wrong with flexcut, they are top quality, but most important of all is learning to sharpen them properly.

 

[pumbaa]

I have one of these and other than the sheath swear by it . Mind you my carving is not at that good a standard so it may be easier for you with a proper handle . Worth a thought though .
Pumbaa

 

[stotRE]

I use henry taylor chisels for all of my carpentry/timber framing work and they are well made and reasonably priced.

http://www.henrytaylortools.co.uk/carve.html

 

[Stoker37]

My preferred maker (still in production) is Ashley Isles, I‘ve found the quality of their tools second to none currently produced. Also they are nice people to deal with.

Its worth looking on evilbay you can pick up some really nice high quality old tools for far less than new stuff. Although if you start buying Addis tools you wont stop. I'm addicted!

I agree with Scottishwolf that learning to sharpen them properly is really important

 

[Eric_Methven]

I was also going to say Henry Taylor or Ashley Isles. Flexcut are great fr the small stuff.

Eric

 

[Quickbeam]

By far the best ones I have used are made by Addis - look for the "10 gold medals" stamp. You will have to look around to get them as they are no longer made. Often you can pick them up and restore them - remove rust and if necessary re-handle.

 

[Hoodoo]

I don't think you can go wrong with Flexcut. Excellent tools, small and large.

There's a lot of different makes I haven't tried so I can't speak to very many. I don't particularly care for Two Cherries. They usually come pretty dull. pfeil and Hans Karlsson make great chisels. Hans Karlsson tools are especially nice.

 

[jon r]

Thanks for all the advice! So what is the best way to sharpen? can i just do it freehand with my japanise waterstones? I have a bit of experience when it comes to sharpening all my tools but but do you strongly recomend a jig for these carving chissels?

Also i want to buy a book to get me going. Any recomendations? I want to look at a wide range of different types of carving.

Another question... What do you use to keep your work still whilst using your chissels?

Many thanks!

 

[Hoodoo]

For sharpening, I prefer large ceramic benchstones. No mess and easier to work with than waterstones imo. Also, ceramic stones never need truing. For really dull tools, I use a large DMT diamond benchstone.

You can sharpen your tools by hand but I don't think you will achieve the precision you can get with jigs. And fine carving tools really should be sharpened precisely to get clean, even cuts.

As for clamping, how much money do you have?

Personally I go the cheap route. I use a large bench vise for a lot of work. Then I also use a black and decker workmate. You can make a couple bench dogs that work well with the workmate. More expensive carving benches are nicely set up for bench dogs.

Here's my homemade setup.I use a couple pieces of all thread rod. Beneath the bench I have a couple hunks of channel iron bolted to the rods. You can slide these along the adjustable slot of the workmate and use a variety of wood blocks on top to clamp your work.

I'm sure there's lots better ways of doing it. This works for me given the resources and room I have at the moment.

 

[Schwert]

I will definately second (or third) the Ashley Isles chisels and gouges. Simply perfect tools. Sharp and honed out of the box, superb beech (I think) handles and good steel. My favorite of the traditional tools.

Flexcut, North Bay Forge, Diobsid Forge, Kestrel Tool, make up most of my smaller tools.

(Ashley Isles in the back left.)

 

[Hoodoo]

Nice bench Randy. I may have to get some of those Ashley Isles. We have a Woodcraft store here, though, so it's easy for me to pick up Flexcut and pfeil. Recall where you bought yours?

Here's another pic of those bench dogs.

 

[Schwert]

I bought my Ashley Isles from "The Woodworkers Store"..."Rockler" now. However they stopped carrying them when they became Rockler. I have not seen them in any other storefront outlet for years.

Online would be the only bet and I have never ordered from any dealers.

 

[SOAR]

My Brother in law is a joiner and he was always taught to sharpen his chissels on a oil stone in a figure of 8 movement, his chissels are very sharp indeed.

 

[jon r]

thanks for the help!

Those bench dogs look pretty good Hoodoo! Do you think i would be able to pick up all the parts to make those from just a normal hardware and DIY shop? Maybe Focus Do It All?

 

[JonnyP]

thanks for the help!

Those bench dogs look pretty good Hoodoo! Do you think i would be able to pick up all the parts to make those from just a normal hardware and DIY shop? Maybe Focus Do It All?

Hi Jon...You should be able to get all that from focus or homebase or your hardware shop. If you have a builders merchant nearby, try there too, I have bought threaded rod from the builder ctr, comes in 1m lengths (I seem to remember)...

 

[Hoodoo]

thanks for the help!

Those bench dogs look pretty good Hoodoo! Do you think i would be able to pick up all the parts to make those from just a normal hardware and DIY shop? Maybe Focus Do It All?

Not familiar with stores over there so I'll have to defer to Jon on this one.

 

[mr dazzler]

Personally I go the cheap route. I use a large bench vise for a lot of work. Then I also use a black and decker workmate. You can make a couple bench dogs that work well with the workmate. More expensive carving benches are nicely set up for bench dogs.

I'm sure there's lots better ways of doing it. This works for me given the resources and room I have at the moment.

I have a bench with a big solid post vice and 2 iron hold fast's. The vice is strong enough to hold a chair seat securely for carving the dishing with an adze. The hold downs are fast and fool proof no fannying about with screw threads, you just bang down from above to fix it in the vertical hole in the bench top, and bang it from the side to loosen it again. I can use them as clamps for gluing up sometimes. So I have rock solid work holdong for horizontal or vertical. PS that pic was taken when it was new, its a bit battle scarred by now

I also have a chopping block (massive) with 2 vertical ash poles set a few inches apart at one end. I can place a board betwen the pegs then fix it with a wedge for hewing and shaping etc, no stray metal for the tool edge to get damaged on. Its also fast and fool proof, an ancient nordic or viking method for boat builder's. I beleive clog maker's use a similar set up to hold clog soles secure while they shape and finish them.
http://perso.orange.fr/vidauban/dompierre/sabotier.jpg
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?i...v=/images?q=sabotier&svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&sa=G (scroll down the page to sabotier)
http://www.zyeuter.com/data/big/55138.jpg
Note the stones acting as ballast weight's. This is my favourite version, but they are essentially all the same idea
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?i...ier&start=20&ndsp=20&svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&sa=N
http://www.campingariege.com/images/PHOTO/sabotier.gif
This one is just a larger version of the clamp joiner's use to hold a door on edge in a housing in a 4x2 for shooting in, the wood held in place with a simple wedge
http://www.fete-du-ble.com/images/bretagne-fete-du-ble6-3.JPG
http://legavre.free.fr/tourismescan7.jpg
My concern with your set up hoodoo would be its light weight, and also the metal threaded rod's sticking up getting in the way and also a hazard to a sharp edge

 

[weaver]

That's a great simple bench, love the vice! Did you make the little frame saw? I wish I had room for a solid bench like that.

 

[mr dazzler]

Hi weaver
Thanks for your kind comment's about the bench. I've had to wait 15 or 16 years to be in a place where I could finally set up my own bench. It took me 2 "days" (IE about 8 hours) to build, plus an afternoon to flat the top with 2xstabila level's, smoothing, jack and jointer plane's. The frame is 6x4 and 4x3, the end stretchrs are 8x2, the top is made of 8x2's biscuit jointed with a 6x4 front and back apron to give additional solid support for chopping mortice's. I drew out the design full size on plywood and took all the positions for joints from that (French scribe lay out method-fast simple and fool proof, I dont like to mess with tapes its too easy to make expensive error's If the drawing is right the job will come out right) It was draw-pegged together with 3/4 inch diam cleft oak pegs, no glue was used except to lanimate the 6x2's on the top. I added the iron hold fast's (made by a ocal blacksmith) and drilled 3/4 inch holes to acomodate them. There is a 2 inch square oak planing stop at the vice end it can be dropped down below bench suface when not being used. The bench is as solid as a rock, the diagonal braces (unusual for a bench) are extremely efficient at resisting the racking forces you get when planing, even when scrub planing boards that have been chain sawed. The gap underneath makes a convenient spot to store saw horses etc
Post vice's are greatly under rated (because they appear so simple I reckon, the "tool industry" wants us to pay for complex tail vice's and so on) The great thing about it is it has phenomenal gripping power compaed to a regular joiner's vice. You can fit a board up to about 12 or 13 inches wide without snagging on the vice screw. Also the jaw's "give" slightly to grip slightly uneven or taper'd piece's, useful when shaping chair parts. The downside is having to bend down and adjust the peg on the bottom adjuster to acomodate different widths of stock. If I made another I'd make the front jaw thicker (say 1 1/2 or 1 3/4 inches instead of an inch for this one, it flexes a little sometimes, but its still solid. I saw a device in the workbench book (scott Landis) where a bloke who carved duck decoy's used a post vice but with a simple but effective cam lock to clamp the vice shut rather than a slower bench screw. Theres some great ideas in that book. I love the sabotier's benches in the links, low tech, no mechanical parts, easily repaired, or modified. A good carving or hewing bench doesnt necessarily have to be big, just solid and heavy. The old metods and devices seem crude initially, but theres a lot of sense in there designs, developed over many hundreds or even thousand's of years of pracical hands on experience
PS, I didnt make the small frame saw (its a marples one) but I have made other bigger ones from modified old disston saw blades.
Cheers Jonathan