Create a Defuzzer!

Last week I was at the Gathering of Woodcarvers (GOW), held in Sandwich Ill. In addition to having a great time and learning lots of new techniques I learned some very useful tips. Dick Allen shared an excellent idea with the group. He makes defuzzers with 3-M scratch pads and pop rivets. As he states, this allows you to make defuzzers and not depend on the mandrel and screw. And who can pick up that little screw anyway? Tools needed: small hammer, needle nose pliers, wood block with a metal plate over a hole in the block. Use a pop rivet with the shaft that will fit your rotary tools' collets. After the pad has been worn down, the whole unit can be discarded and replaced with a ready made new one. To make the unit, place the rivet in the block with the shaft into the hole in the block. Select the pad desired, and place the center of the pad over the tip of the rivet. Force it down on the rivet. After the pad is in place, place a washer on the rivet and hold down firmly with needle nose pliers. Using a hammer. tap the rivet to fasten the washer in place and hold the pad firmly on the rivet.

The Oar Carver (My Pocket Knife)

For Hal and some others who asked about the Oar Carver pocket knife. While they make a two blade lock back pocket knife, mine is the single blade lock back. The blade is 1 1/4 inches in length (cutting edge), while the total length closed is 3 3/4 inches. It is made by QUEEN CUTLERY. The blade is high carbon "D-2" tool steel. This is my favorite tool, but I will confess that when I got it new it had a factory edge, that even when professionally sharpened would not carve, at least the way I thought is should. It had a bevel that I did not like at all. I prefer a flat ground blade. I sent the knife to Rick at LITTLE SHAVERS, with the directions to make it carve wood. The rest is history. As I said it's now my favorite. My favorite out of many, way too many knives.

Stropping A Flat Ground Blade

There has been a ton of writings about the importance of keeping your carving knife sharp. What I am about to explain and show is how I learned to keep my knife sharp. My knife blades are ground flat. When the blade is ground flat, there is no bevel. When I get a new knife I make sure the blade is ground flat and that the knife maker makes it as sharp as possible. If I don't buy from the knife maker, I send the knife to one for a flat regrind and sharpening. This way I know I start out with a well shaped and sharp knife. From this point on it is my responsibility to maintain the blade as sharp as possible. This I do by stropping the blade about every 15 minutes of heavy use, and at the end of each carving session. I use a leather strop. On one side of the strop the leather is rough side out. This is the side that I rub stropping compound into. I think that most of the "harder" stropping compound will work. The other side of the strop is the smooth side of the leather. The leather on a strop should be thin and a bit hard. By this, I mean, you do not want a soft leather that will compress when you strop the knife blade. You should be able to keep your knife sharp by frequent and proper stropping. One of the best practices to follow is to never let your knife blade get really dull before stropping. And I never use a stone or anything other than my strop except if the blade somehow gets damaged. And in my humble opinion a really dull blade is damaged. And yes, while learning to keep my knife sharp I've damaged it a few times. Stropping: Start by placing your strop on a flat surface, with the rough side with the compound facing up. Place blade flat on the strop surface. Place your index finger onto the blade tip, holding the blade flat against the strop. Use your finger to put a little pressure on the blade tip, while holding the blade flat against the strop and push the blade to the right, keeping the same amount of pressure on the tip. Do this three or four times. Do not let the knife "run" off the end of the strop. Do not let the blade "roll" at the end of the strokes, lift it straight up. Do this same stropping of the same side of the blade, only move your finger holding the blade flat against the strop, down for each sequence of stropping. Keep moving your finger down the blade to strop the whole length of the blade. After the one side of the knife blade is completely stropped do the other side in the same manner. After both sides of the blade have been stropped on the leather with the compound, turn the strop over and complete the same sequence on the side of the strop with the smooth leather. A simple test to see if the blade is sharp is to lay the blade perpendicular (at right angle) to your thumb nail, and with hardly any pressure, pull it towards you over the nail. If the blade sides without catching (digging in) it's not sharp. Most of my whittling is done with my pocket knife. This means that my knife is always carried with me. There isn't a day that goes by when I am not tempted to use my knife for something other than whittling. Don't do it! The fastest way to dull and quite possibly damage the knife blade is to use it for anything other than whittling/carving good wood. The following are things that I have done in the past that have really dulled the blade, and in some cases damaged it as well: Cutting twine, rope, opening a cardboard box, sharpening a pencil, cleaning my fingernails, opening plastic packaging....you get the idea. You don't have to remove a hubcap with your knife to damage it.

Pile "O" Knives

Seein' how it was takin' me longer and longer to find anything in my carving area, I decided I better clean it up. The first question I had to ask myself was, "self, how the heck did you accumulate so many knives"? Top row are the larger knives, while the bottom row are detail knives. "Store bought" are from John Dunkle, Dave Lyons, Denny, Jan Ogema. Home made knives by Thomas Perrin and myself. Oh, dang; I didn't even get into my pocket knives. See anything you like, let me know. It might be for sale.....

Custom Tool Handles

Tool handles are as much of the tool as is the Quality and hardness of the steel the tool is made of. A great cutting edge mounted in a awkward handle will make the tool useless to the user in a short period, never the less if the pain is caused by muscle fatigue or the tiz', an ill suited handle makes the tool useless in a shorter period of carving than it could be if the handle was a better fit to the hand using it. to understand the shape of your hand closed in a comfortable position you need only to get some modeling clay rolled onto a log shape cylinder, as large as 1"x5", then wrap it in plastic wrap, with your carving hand hold it into your grip until the clay feels comfortable in your grip. for a more permanent study shape place the clay in the freezer a couple hours then peel off the plastic wrap, and trim off the odd bits of clay to a smoother shape. while cool. notice the heel of the cylinder/handle is larger than the end located at the index finger, as well as the cross section shape is not round, its triangle with the side in the bend of your knuckles thinner than the back of the handle.. now you know why small, round or rectangle handles get uncomfortable in your hand after any period of time, Other benefits of the triangle shape of the handle is it dont roll off the table, in addition to you knowing by the feel of the handle fit in your hand exactly where the sharp edge is. and the taper in the handle wont allow the tired old hands let the knife slip, to the floor, feet or other places.... Although i didn't mention it in the steps of the clay model above, the smoothing down should include the ability to fit your hand if your holding the blade towards your thumb, what i mean here is you may be tempted to leave the deep finger grues between the fingers for a more custom grip, that's fine, but dont leave them so big its uncomfortable to turn the edge up, i find using different sized drum sanding mandrels in shaping handles a great benefit, as i can stop at any point and check the fit of the handle in my hand, the abrasive is constantly removing stock while im moving the handle, not like using a knife or saw, where the blade can take off too much to fast.. comments and questions are welcome. ill do my best to answer them...

Thomps Newest Knife

While we're thinkin carving knives, and extra fine carvin knives at that, this is Thomps latest transformation of an ol' German straight razor. Thomp patterned this knife from one that Allen Goodman uses on the shelf elf. Its an "upsweep" blade, that is 1 3/4 inches in length, with a 1 1/2 inch cutting edge. The handle is a simplified "crayfish" design, out of laminated hard woods. I been testin this one out, and can say it's a good one. As well it should be. Ol' Thomp did learn from Rick Ferry. Then of course he added some Black Water Swamp mojo to it. If interested in this knife, leave a comment, and Ol' Thomp will get in touch.

A Magic Carving Knife!

Since Bob has said he has some magic knives, maybe he'll agree with me. Some say there is no such thing as a magic carving knife. Well there may not be a carving knife that is completely "magical". But I too have some that are nearly Magical. You can, if you take the time, make your carving knife "magical". These are the conditions that must be met: KNIFE 1. Blade must be high quality steel. 2. Handle must fit your hand. 3. Blade must be properly shaped and sharpened. 4. Blade must be the proper length for the task at hand. 5. Blade must be set into the handle at the proper angle. 6. The relationship of the blade to the handle must be proper for the task at hand. Once the above conditions are met the following practice's will probably result in you saying that you too have a "magic" carving knife.... 1. Practice carving 2. Honing 3. Practice 4. Practice 5. Practice

Magic Carving Knife!

ANYBODY have a MAGIC carving knife? You know, a knife that does exactly what you want it too (most of the time). Stays sharp for long periods of carving. Doesn't leave very many "fuzzies". Isn't quick to turn on you and bite. Or are you still looking for the perfect knife? Maybe I should have asked, "is there a carving knife training program out there"?

crawfish knife info

Click image to enlarge

This Crawfish knife will generate many comments when in use. The unique handle as well as the "fat head" on the crawfish creates an extremely comfortable grip. And that's not even saying anything about the fine German Razor that gave up its existence to become a carving blade. This one is a real winner.