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What would you guys like to see in a build along?
Mr. Woolery:
I’m looking forward to seeing your crooked knife! I make a couple versions because I carve wooden spoons. It became a fun push-pull thing for a few years. My spoons would not be quite what I wanted, so I’d change the knives, get past the new learning curve of new tools, decide I needed something different, and the cycle continues. My results are odd to some carvers, but my spoons work.
If I were to pick one knife I want to see from another maker (well, really, I want to see them all, but you know what I mean) I’d want to see either a crooked knife/hook knife or else a paring knife. Both are easy to do at a basic level, but the details show whether the maker knows how to use the knife.
Eager anticipation over here!
Patrick
Handforged:
--- Quote from: Mr. Woolery on April 02, 2020, 12:08:01 pm ---I’m looking forward to seeing your crooked knife! I make a couple versions because I carve wooden spoons. It became a fun push-pull thing for a few years. My spoons would not be quite what I wanted, so I’d change the knives, get past the new learning curve of new tools, decide I needed something different, and the cycle continues. My results are odd to some carvers, but my spoons work.
If I were to pick one knife I want to see from another maker (well, really, I want to see them all, but you know what I mean) I’d want to see either a crooked knife/hook knife or else a paring knife. Both are easy to do at a basic level, but the details show whether the maker knows how to use the knife.
Eager anticipation over here!
Patrick
--- End quote ---
Well, I had planned to do something really simple but after that comment I might have to kick it up a notch. HA! Even better I may make a couple, one very traditional, simple and one more in line with what I would do for a customer...
Mr. Woolery:
The real details I'm talking about have a lot more to do with edge geometry and bevel orientation than with fit and finish. When you see a guy like Tom Lafortune carving a totem pole, his knives look fairly primitive. But the edges and the curves at the tip tell the story of decades of learning how to use these tools right. I'd love to spend a couple of hours playing with his tools and making notes. I wouldn't learn a thing about fit and finish, but I would learn the important lessons of how to make a tool that a master carver is happy using.
From the pictures you've posted, your skills and experience are more developed than mine. I wasn't trying to challenge you, only expressing excitement that you are going to show your take on a tool that I have worked to refine and improve for myself. The part that matters to me is the part that does the work, not the part that sells to the folks who don't actually know how to evaluate a tool (that's not an insult - someone who is very good with a butcher knife can evaluate the butcher knife very well, but likely cannot evaluate a wood carving tool - they are specialized in function).
-Patrick
Handforged:
--- Quote from: Mr. Woolery on April 02, 2020, 02:32:26 pm ---The real details I'm talking about have a lot more to do with edge geometry and bevel orientation than with fit and finish. When you see a guy like Tom Lafortune carving a totem pole, his knives look fairly primitive. But the edges and the curves at the tip tell the story of decades of learning how to use these tools right. I'd love to spend a couple of hours playing with his tools and making notes. I wouldn't learn a thing about fit and finish, but I would learn the important lessons of how to make a tool that a master carver is happy using.
From the pictures you've posted, your skills and experience are more developed than mine. I wasn't trying to challenge you, only expressing excitement that you are going to show your take on a tool that I have worked to refine and improve for myself. The part that matters to me is the part that does the work, not the part that sells to the folks who don't actually know how to evaluate a tool (that's not an insult - someone who is very good with a butcher knife can evaluate the butcher knife very well, but likely cannot evaluate a wood carving tool - they are specialized in function).
-Patrick
--- End quote ---
I was just poking at you a little. I do a good many primitives as well as highly evolved types of cutting tools. To me, no matter that I am doing, the steps involved in producing the tool are always the same. For the most part the only difference is the level of finish. I think I mentioned in another thread that sometimes I have to go back after the fact and put the tool marks and look back into it.
I think for this I'll do one that is a hemp wrapped antler handle and the other a more refined carved handle version. I have used cooked knives for years, just not lately. I'll post some pictures of my personal knife in there somewhere for reference. It has a permanent place in my woods bag.
Mr. Woolery:
I hate to derail the conversation, but here are the spoon carving tools I use most nowadays, as well as a few of the spoons I use when I eat.
The small hook and the small sloyd knife were forged from 1/4" (aprox) garage door spring. The kind in most home garages. The others came from the 3/8" spring material from the large 7" diameter springs that are on the big doors.
-Patrick
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