basic carving set.... advice needed

[tobytools]

evening gents,
im currently selling off most of my planes, chisels you name it..
i have a large selection of carving chisels that i don't use full stop after my accident.. i may decide to try it out again so im thinking of keeping a a few but what if i have them should i keep that will cover the basics ect, the carving i should do would be furniture carving,
is some one can give me a basic guide to follow that would be great.

cheers TT

 

[tobytools]

not getting much reaction, ill rephrase the question. if i said you can have any 10 carving chisel to do whatever ect what would those be?
or another way of saying what are the most versatile carving chisels
TT

 

[marcros]

I think it all depends what you are carving onto furniture. Is it lettering? I suspect that is your issue at the moment, you don't know yet.

If you are downsizing, I would sell what you have for what you can get for it and buy them back based on whatever you need for the job in hand. It will save you some money overall, certainly if you are willing to go around car boot sales etc when buying. I would consider keeping a v tool though, and probably a few gouges- tight, mid and gentle sweep in a small and large size.

 

[tobytools]

Thank you.
And your right in what you say about not knowing.
My days of car booting are behind me I think, time spent in a field is time away for the bench.

I'll think on what you have suggested and go from there thank you.

TT

 

[JohnPW]

I would say hang on to them for the moment, unless there's some reason why you have to sell now. As you said, if you don't know exactly what you're going to carve then having a wide variety of tools will give you the most options.

Later on after you've done some carving, you'll know which tools you use most and which ones you don't need. But even then, the ones you might think you don't use could be needed if you decide to carve something else!

 

[dzj]

It is a difficult question. There is this fellow on Youtube who carves a ball and claw foot with
an ordinary 1/2 inch bench chisel. I think it wasn't even bevel edged.
For a start you can sell any duplicates you might have.

 

[Jacob]

I think you'd get the answer if you actually started doing some carving. I know that's my problem with a lot of projects - loads of kit but not getting around to it.

 

[tobytools]

great advice thank you. been reading the anarchists tools chest, its changing the way i think. jacob, chris says a similar thing that you can't buy being a woodworker you have to actually practice the skills, this is a practise i want to live by. ill sort the chisels out and report back with what i went for,

TT

did a little research and found this, something like this is a god start and ill re buy what else i need when i need them but thats a long way away, ill also add a skew and a spoon/ fist tail one for safety.

 

[Trafalgar]

evening gents,
im currently selling off most of my planes, chisels you name it..
i have a large selection of carving chisels that i don't use full stop after my accident.. i may decide to try it out again so im thinking of keeping a a few but what if i have them should i keep that will cover the basics ect, the carving i should do would be furniture carving,
is some one can give me a basic guide to follow that would be great.

cheers TT

Lee Grindinger, and accomplished carver, from his old website and Knots forum post from years ago.

Here is Lee's post:

I've been asked to post my "Deadly Dozen" carving chisels. These chisels do 95% of my work and the work I do is traditional furniture ornamentation. Carving chisels are sized in two different systems, the Swiss system and the Sheffield system. English chisels fall into the Sheffield system and German and Swiss chisels use the Swiss System.

Chisels sizes are described with two values. The first number is the sweep or radius of the cutting edge and the second number is the width from corner to corner of the cutting edge.

Here is the set in Sheffield sizes;

#1-1/2", #3-3/8", #4-1/4", #4-1/4" long bent, #5-1/2", #5-5/8", #7-1/2", #8-1/4", #9-1/4"
a 60 degree straight parting and a 60 degree long bent parting tool, and a 1/4" undercutting tool.

Here is closest the Swiss system comes to the above set;

#1-12mm, #3-6mm, #3-10mm, #5-12mm, #5-14mm, #7-4mm, #7-6mm long bent, #8-13mm, #9-10mm, #12-6mm long bent, #17-6mm, and a 4mm undercutting tool.

You'll notice that numerically some of these chisels seem awfully close but the sweeps change a lot when the width changes. Also, I favor long bent chisels as opposed to short bents because you can use a mallet with the long bents. In addition to chisels you'll need a set of slips, a nice flat fine stone and a mallet. I know almost nothing of the Japanese sets so I'll reserve comment except to say that I've heard good things about them. Also, I use a router for most of my grounding but before the router I used a #9-1/2" for hogging out waste.

This will get you started...

 

[rxh]

In his Manual of Traditional Wood Carving, 1911, Paul Hasluck provides the following suggested list of hand tools essential to wood carving:
No. 1 – Straight Chisel ½” wide,
No. 3 – Straight Gouge 1/16” wide,
No. 3 – Straight Gouge 1/8” wide,
No. 3 – Straight Gouge 1/4” wide,
No. 3 – Straight Gouge 3/8” wide,
No. 4 – Straight Gouge 3/8” wide,
No. 5 – Straight Gouge 3/16” wide,
No. 5 – Straight Gouge 5/16” wide,
No. 5 – Straight Gouge 1/2” wide,
No. 7 – Straight Gouge 3/8” wide,
No. 8 – Straight Gouge 1/8” wide,
No. 8 – Straight Gouge 1/4” wide,
No. 8 – Straight Gouge 3/4” wide,
No. 11 – Straight Gouge 3/16” wide,
No. 21 – Spoon Bit Chisel 1/8” wide,
No. 21 – Spoon Bit Chisel 3/16” wide,
No. 21 – Spoon Bit Chisel 3/8” wide,
No. 28 – Spoon Bit Gouge or Front Bent Gouge 1/4” wide,
No. 28 – Spoon Bit Gouge or Front Bent Gouge 1/2” wide,
No. 39 – Straight V Parting Tool 5/16” wide.
The numbers refer to the Sheffield Tool List. Paul says: “The set above enumerated will be sufficient for executing all flat work, and a great amount of the undercut and solid work, and other similar elaborate carving.”

 

[JohnPW]

Starter set in John Sainsbury's "Woodworking Shop"

Gouges (presumably straight):
no 2, 10mm
no 5, 10mm
no 6, 12mm
no 7, 6mm

V tool: no39, 6mm

veiner: 3mm

chisels: 6mm, 25mm

I think I would change the no 2, 10mm, which I would have thought is a flat chisel, to a no 3 or 4.

 

[tobytools]

wow, thanks for the great references,
by the sounds of thing im going to have to buy more chisels lol. im sure i can make a ok starter set with what i go using there provided information.
once again thanks for assistance
TT

 

[SpinDoctor]

When I read your plight one thing comes to mind. With experience come an understanding of what you truly need. I've been a carver, cabinet maker, furniture maker (there is a distinct difference between cabinet and furniture maker), woodturner, joiner, carpenter, boat building… and one things rings true. The more experience you have the less tools you use. So keep what you have, in your time of indecision, and sell off what you don't use when you've' gained the experience. As you gain experience a few tools will rise to the top of your go to selection… I.e. as a carver I have one particular gouge that I reach for 80% of the time, as a woodturner I reach almost exclusively for the bowl gouge, whether I'm spindle or bowl turing. Furniture making my go to chisel is probably a 3/4 inch… But that all comes with experience and individual preference.

 

[Lons]

Hi TT
I'd agree with spindoctor and advise that you keep all your chisels unless duplicated until you find your favourites.
I'm a woodcarver and strongly disagree with recommendations that you need dozens or hundreds of gouges. OK it can be easier if you have the exact size and sweep for a particular cut but chances are that you'll spend more time looking for that gouge than you would cutting with the one in your hand at the time.

I actually own around 150, many of which are collectable old tools but the majority of my work is done with no more than 5 or 6 tools, and at least 80% with a couple of Pfeil fishtail gouges. I'd add that most of my carving is however in the round. For miniature projects such as netsuke I have a lovely set of Pfeil palm tools but this is specialist work.

There are many who won't agree with my view but IMHO you should make your own mind up from your experience and not slavishly follow recommendations which will cost a fortune and remain largely unused. If you ask a hundred carvers for a list of 10, you'll get a hundred different answers :lol:

Just my opinion to take or leave as you wish.

If you do feel rather flush with cash, I intend selling many of my older quality chisels (addis etc) as soon as I find time to get them listed.

cheers
Bob