Tim, Pete,
FWIW here are a few thoughts on starting.
Most carving teachers recommend NOT to buy a "set" of chisels. Their reasoning is twofold. Firstly there are around two thousand possible shapes/profiles/sizes etc that can be made and can be bought from some manufacturers and most of them will never be needed by even professional carvers during a lifetimes working. What one uses is very much dictated by what one carves and the recommendation is to buy (or make) what is needed as one needs it.
Secondly, all the cheap sets one sees (on EBay for example) are basically crap and a set of these is not much use.
Having said this it is recognised that people can be overwhelmed by the variety of tools out there and need some help. Chris Pye recommends the following list of starter tools.
No. Width(mm) descriptiion
02 10 Skew chisel
03 6 Flat gouge (straight)
03 13 Flat gouge (straight)
03 19 Flat gouge (straight)
06 6 Medium Gouge (straight)
06 13 Medium Gouge (straight)
06 19 Medium Gouge (straight)
09 6 Quick Gouge (Straight)
09 13 Quick Gouge (Straight
09 19 Quick Gouge (Straight
39 10 V-Tool (parting tool)
Note that the No. refers to a system of numbering called the Sheffield List and manufacturers mostly designate their tools in this way. However, a No 5 can be the the same as someone else's No 6, so caution is needed when buying unseen. The No. refers to the sweep or curvature (concavity ) of the gouge and the more curved (the "quicker" the sweep (or curvature) becomes. Straight means straight along the length of the tool. flat means nearly flat (there is a curvature or shallow sweep - definitely not a woodworking chisel.
As soon as one commences a carving, then it starts to become clear pretty quickly that one may need other tools. I have acquired around 50 tools by now and I would say that I have actually used about thirty of them and could probably have done all my carving to date with perhaps twenty tools and that includes lettering that I did that requires a different set of tools.
The best recommendation I can make is to get a couple of books. I recommend Chris Pye's two basic books
"Woodcarving Tools, Materials & Equipment Vols 1 and 2. Also get a book on basic carving with some designs in it Chris Pye has a couple as does Dick Onians, another good carver. There are a couple of older books - one by Charles Marshal Sayers - The Book of Woodcarving and another by Wheeler that are very good too.
Chris Pye covers sharpening better than most writers and sharp tools with the right form to the edge are a pre-requisite of progress. Don't rely on your sharpening knowledge from woodworking tools, it is different and not sufficient.
Carving seems to be fairly popular with Adult education centres. there are a couple near me that I tried to join but I left it too late into the term as both are now full. I shall try again for the next round of classes.
My tools come from a variety of sources and they are of different makes
Sources: New from Tilgear and Alec Tiranti (
http://www.tiranti.co.uk/) and Classic Handtools (
http://www.classichandtools.com/acatalo ... ion_2.html)
Used come from Ebay, friends a live auction and this website
http://www.theoldtoolshop.fsnet.co.uk/c ... isels.html
Makes. As ever, it seems a couple of old makers are the best, with Herring Bros and Addis as the ones to go for.
In modern tools, Pfeil ("Swiss Made") as sold by Tilgear are very good, Henry Taylor are not bad. Auriou are good but expensive and Ashley Iles are OK too. Sorby make only a few and are said to be not very good but I have none of these and can't say personally what they are like. Stubai as sold by Alec Tiranti are said to be a bit soft - I only have one of these and it seems OK.
Prices range from about £10 per chisel to up to £15 or so. Some of the older ones by good makers command more.
I mentioned making tools earlier and it is perfectly feasible to do this for some shapes that may be hard to get. Either through modifying another carving tool or using any old bit of tool steel. I am currently making a very narrow dog-leg gouge from an old woodworking chisel.
By the way, carvers refer to all their tools as chisels. Within this classification sit the subspecies such as gouges, bent tools and so forth.
