Thread: Honing chisels with a leather strop

Thanks, Ben. For heaven's sake don't buy a carving tool set. Just don't. Not yet. You have to figure out, approximately, what sort of carving you want to do. If you want to do some mallet-bashing, the tools are quite different from what you might expect to use for hours in a relief carving, or a spoon, or a caricature. Putters and drivers are not the same in golf.

Wood species is a far lesser issue except for those who want to carve cheese or soap or basswood and never want a challenge. Once that style preference is done, I have a dang good idea of 4-6 tools, max, that can get you up and running. I have quite a selection of carving tools but that was picked out over years.

I recall deciding over 4 months that a 9/15 would really speed up the rough work. All I had was a 12oz ShopFox carver's mallet = I could not hit the 9/15 hard enough to take advantage of the size over a 8/7, half the size. Smartened up and bought a lead-core, 30oz carver's mallet. Never a problem since but it took 6 months to happen.

Now, I'm thinking that I need both a draw knife and a spoke shave. May not have either one of them in my hot little hands for months to come. Nine WIPs on the bench, anyway.

Hmm. Draw knives and spoke shaves I know a bit about. Both important tools. The draw knife has been forgotten by a lot of people but I find it important at times. People argue they are a green wood tool only but I have had great success in old Australian hardwoods with lots of knots as well. Amazon has a good selection of them but the only one I could get shipped here in OZ was the two cherries. The steel is decent enough but the handles need a bit of love. They come pretty rough ground but that would probably suit you anyway as you can tune it to suite.
Veritas has a ultra low angle spoke shave which again suits knots and figured wood. I like it even though I find it a tad small. Don't disregard the old Stanley spoke shaves. You can tune them up. The old ones are better and easily found in junk shops.
Or the sky's the limit in price for handmade already tuned ones.
I think lee valley has a you tube video on drawknives. It's worth a look.