Carving chisels - what does it all mean?!

[pren]

Hi.

After some recent success with love spoon making, I appear to have contracted a nasty carving bug. :lol: With my birthday coming up and relatives asking what to get me, I figured some carving chisels of a better quality than my eBay, £1.99 special, might be in order.

Just had a quick look on the Axminster site. They've got a large selection and, from here at least, a great reputation. Thing is, I know nothing of 'sweeps' and 'No's' that describe different ..... profiles? :-k How do these descriptionsalter their usage/effects?

Is there much of a difference between carving and turning chisels Can the one be used for the other and v/v?

Are the one on the Axminster site any good? I'm looking at the Kirschen and Henry Taylor ones, as the look to be around the right price for my relatives.

I'm after a couple of gouges of different sizes and a skew or two, really. My current set is around 7" long, which is too small. I'd like to have ago at some larger scale wood sculpting, so some longer, heavier chisels would be best, so the 270mm ish ones look best.

Sooo many questions, so little knowledge! ](*,) :lol:

Thanks in advance for your time.

Cheers.
Bryn

 

[TheTiddles]

If you ask Ashley Iles for their catalogue it's absolutely filled with useful information and explanations, pity their website is such a shocker...

Aidan

 

[pam niedermayer]

Maybe a good idea to buy one of Chris Pye's books, or at least visit his web site (http://chrispye-woodcarving.com/).

Pam

 

[Grinding One]

As a Wood carver myself,you will want the best chisel ....have them pool there money if nessesary.The ones I started with I wore away sharpening all of the time.( yes the man that sold me them said they were the best)So now the ones you would need depends on the type of carving you intend to do.Palm chisels are great for in the round hand carving,while relief carving is done with chisels around 9 inches long,if your getting into statues your going to need a mallet and firmer chisels.Maybe a chainsaw...
But first things first you need a good knife.It cleans up a lot of bad mistakes and contrary to some all learning has a mistake here and there.A good class should help too ,then you get to ask questions when problems start to happen

I bought the Swiss ones from Woodcraft,they stay sharp a long time between honing. Around here a basic Swiss made sells for $30.00 and goes up from there....www.woodcraft.com

 

[Grinding One]

Hi.

After some recent success with love spoon making, I appear to have contracted a nasty carving bug. :lol: With my birthday coming up and relatives asking what to get me, I figured some carving chisels of a better quality than my eBay, £1.99 special, might be in order.

Just had a quick look on the Axminster site. They've got a large selection and, from here at least, a great reputation. Thing is, I know nothing of 'sweeps' and 'No's' that describe different ..... profiles? :-k How do these descriptionsalter their usage/effects?

Is there much of a difference between carving and turning chisels Can the one be used for the other and v/v?

Are the one on the Axminster site any good? I'm looking at the Kirschen and Henry Taylor ones, as the look to be around the right price for my relatives.

I'm after a couple of gouges of different sizes and a skew or two, really. My current set is around 7" long, which is too small. I'd like to have ago at some larger scale wood sculpting, so some longer, heavier chisels would be best, so the 270mm ish ones look best.

Sooo many questions, so little knowledge! ](*,) :lol:

Thanks in advance for your time.

Cheers.
Bryn

Missed a few questions: Turning chisels are just that...no cross over
The number relates to the size of the blade
The sweep is the roll of the blade,side tto side

 

[pren]

Hi.

Thanks for all the help! I was looking to get a bit of reading done on the subject first, so Chris Pye's book looks like a fair place to start.

I would also like to take an evening class on the subject. I think there's one at the local college, so I'll go take a look see.

Grinding One: thanks for all that! At least I know what I'm looking for as regards the blade descriptions. I'm not sure entirely what type of carving I want to do, but I do like the idea of taking a large chunk of wood and making something out of it. Oddly enough, I was just looking at a chainsaw carvers site!

Hmm... :-k :lol:


Cheers!
Bryn.

 

[Grinding One]

Hi.

Thanks for all the help! I was looking to get a bit of reading done on the subject first, so Chris Pye's book looks like a fair place to start.

I would also like to take an evening class on the subject. I think there's one at the local college, so I'll go take a look see.

Grinding One: thanks for all that! At least I know what I'm looking for as regards the blade descriptions. I'm not sure entirely what type of carving I want to do, but I do like the idea of taking a large chunk of wood and making something out of it. Oddly enough, I was just looking at a chainsaw carvers site!

Hmm... :-k :lol:

That can be more expensive than hand carving,cost of saw,resharpening is 20.00 over here machine done..and then protection braces ,eye and ear face and head...not to mention other people walking up on you.But you do start out with bigger logs...mistakes are way faster.
If I was just starting out it would be with a knife and small piece of soft wood or soap bar.Learn how the knife works first,then move up to a chisel but still soft wood...small baby step here.If you were only here I could lead you in your new hobby.



Cheers!
Bryn.

 

[Ray Gardiner]

Hi Pren,

Probably the best carving chisels ever made were those made by S J Addis, or
J B Addis, and you can often pick them up on ebay at reasonable prices.

Regards
Ray

 

[tekno.mage]

Hi Pren,

I started wood carving early this year and like you was unsure of which type of tools to get. I took Chris Pye's advice from his book and bought a variety of different brands to see which suited me best. Some I bought new, others I managed to pick up second-hand or special offer on ebay.

The first thing to point out is that not all carving tools arrive ready-to-use from the factory! If you are already up to speed with sharpening carving tools, that's fine, but if you (like me) are learning to sharpen at the same time as learning to carve it can be a bit frustrating. I found it was very helpful to have some of the tools arrive "ready to go" if only so I could compare the edge with my own sharpening attempts.

These are the brands of tools I have tried and my comments on them:

Ashley Iles - Lovely quality, well finished, well balanced & very nice to use, quite large handles and supplied sharp and ready to go.

Robert Sorby - Good quality & well finished, quite large handles, needed honing before use. I didn't like the "feel" of these as much as the Ashley Iles.

Henry Taylor - Slender handles, rougher finish, but good quality steel that holds an edge well once you've sharpened it to your liking. Supplied unsharpened.

S. J. Addis - I picked up a couple of these second-hand on ebay and despite having to do quite a lot of cleaning up and sharpening & making them new handles, would concur with Ray that they are very nice tools.

Marples - I bought a new (old stock) Marples carving gouge and was very disappointed with both the quality & feel. I also bought some second-hand old Marples gouges on ebay and these were much better made. Bought the new and second-hand ones arrived in need of sharpening.

Auriou - Very nice quality tools, but I understand they are no longer made, so may be difficult to obtain now. They have octagonal shaped handles and needed honing on arrival.

Flexcut - This is a system of carving tools which uses handles with interchangable blades, allowing you to use the same blades for both hand and power carving. There are two or three different styles of handle. The blades arrive razor sharp and I really like them fitted in the palm handle for small work. The main disadvantage I can see is that they probably won't last as long as traditional style tools - there being much less metal in the blade. Having said that they do hold their edge very well indeed.

Hope the above is of some use to you.

tekno.mage