Carving knives?

K

Kev

Well-Known Member
A question about carving knives, wood carving knives, or whittling knives as some would say.
Does anyone have a recommendation for the best steel to use? I have never carved anything, so I have no point of reference on what the best qualities in the steel would be.
Thanks in advance.
 
Most carvers are simple, high carbon steels at higher hardness with fine edges.

If I were personally trying a dedicated carving knife, I'd do 80CrV2 starting at about 63 HRC with a zero scandi at about 10 degrees and temper down and/or steepen the angle to adjust for durability if needed. I make lots of 80CrV2 knives in the 61.5-62 range and never have had a brittle failure. But you might above that.
 
tkroenlein said:
Most carvers are simple, high carbon steels at higher hardness with fine edges.

If I were personally trying a dedicated carving knife, I'd do 80CrV2 starting at about 63 HRC with a zero scandi at about 10 degrees and temper down and/or steepen the angle to adjust for durability if needed. I make lots of 80CrV2 knives in the 61.5-62 range and never have had a brittle failure. But you might above that.
Click to expand...
80CRV2 is quickly becoming my go to high carbon steel. I like putting thin hard edges on most of my knives and Ed turned me on to 80CRV2 because it can hold the edge.
 
May I ask what you mean exactly by "carving knife"? Do you mean the very thin, very sharp, highly polished small blades with long handles of the woodcarver or more the "sit on the steps on Saturday morning with the rest of the old farts and whittle"?

The carving knives I have are made mostly from 1095 or other simple carbon steels. They are very fine grain, small, convex ground, cut-to-the-bone sharp, and very thin. I would bet a lot of carver makers are grinding wet from things like standard bandsaw blades.There are larger blades along the idea of the Sloyd Knife which are popular for the whittling crowd. tkroenlein's idea above of the Scandi grind is intriguing. Those are also mostly simple steels, also. Flexcut makes a couple "carving jacks" folding carvers you might look up to see shapes.

I keep them sharp while carving by constantly touching them up on a hard felt buffing wheel loaded with green chrome rouge.
 
I'd agree depends on type of carving. I make a decent number of those aforementioned sloyd knives for spoon carvers. I use 52100 at around 62RC and between 25-30deg(inclusive) scandi grind depending on type of speciality knife.
 
Many decades ago I carved wood, lots of wood. As others have said, the "tool" for carving can take a number of forms from a simple pocket knife for whittling to very complex shaped gouges. Back in the day - before I heat treated anything - I simply bought broken razor blades and ground them to fit the shape I needed, very crude and very effective. I still use those knives today.
Today, my go to steel for knife blades is thin O1 tool steel, say, less than .100".
In my opinion, steel alloy is important. But, equally important is blade shape and handle shape. The cutting edge profile must fit the need for material removal. The handle needs to fit the hand - AND, provide comfortable leverage around a fulcrum point just behind the blade. Carving relies a lot on rotating the blade around the thumb positioned just behind what would be the bolster area, giving significant controlled force at the cutting edge.
Here are few examples of the many carving tools I have, these were mostly made of razor blades. They are very crude, but very effective. Note the different blade shapes, all are used for a specific purpose.
1619020439597.png
 
fitzo said:
May I ask what you mean exactly by "carving knife"? Do you mean the very thin, very sharp, highly polished small blades with long handles of the woodcarver or more the "sit on the steps on Saturday morning with the rest of the old farts and whittle"?

The carving knives I have are made mostly from 1095 or other simple carbon steels. They are very fine grain, small, convex ground, cut-to-the-bone sharp, and very thin. I would bet a lot of carver makers are grinding wet from things like standard bandsaw blades.There are larger blades along the idea of the Sloyd Knife which are popular for the whittling crowd. tkroenlein's idea above of the Scandi grind is intriguing. Those are also mostly simple steels, also. Flexcut makes a couple "carving jacks" folding carvers you might look up to see shapes.

I keep them sharp while carving by constantly touching them up on a hard felt buffing wheel loaded with green chrome rouge.
Click to expand...
Yup, there are a lot of types of carving knives. My reference to the scandi is based on @Kev 's previous thread about the through tang construction. ;)
 
MTBob said:
Many decades ago I carved wood, lots of wood. As others have said, the "tool" for carving can take a number of forms from a simple pocket knife for whittling to very complex shaped gouges. Back in the day - before I heat treated anything - I simply bought broken razor blades and ground them to fit the shape I needed, very crude and very effective. I still use those knives today.
Today, my go to steel for knife blades is thin O1 tool steel, say, less than .100".
In my opinion, steel alloy is important. But, equally important is blade shape and handle shape. The cutting edge profile must fit the need for material removal. The handle needs to fit the hand - AND, provide comfortable leverage around a fulcrum point just behind the blade. Carving relies a lot on rotating the blade around the thumb positioned just behind what would be the bolster area, giving significant controlled force at the cutting edge.
Here are few examples of the many carving tools I have, these were mostly made of razor blades. They are very crude, but very effective. Note the different blade shapes, all are used for a specific purpose.
View attachment 77879
Click to expand...
oooohhh! Nice!
 
fitzo said:
The carving knives I have are made mostly from 1095 or other simple carbon steels. They are very fine grain, small, convex ground, cut-to-the-bone sharp, and very thin. I would bet a lot of carver makers are grinding wet from things like standard bandsaw blades.There are larger blades along the idea of the Sloyd Knife which are popular for the whittling crowd. tkroenlein's idea above of the Scandi grind is intriguing. Those are also mostly simple steels, also. Flexcut makes a couple "carving jacks" folding carvers you might look up to see shapes.
Click to expand...
I knew a guy years ago who was making whittling/carving knives out of hacksaw blades. Not sure how he put handles on them, probably just a split dowel sandwich with tape wrapped around it... but man he got those things sharp!
 
MTBob said:
Today, my go to steel for knife blades is thin O1 tool steel, say, less than .100".
Click to expand...
I just noticed that what I wrote here is unclear. What I meant to say is that I prefer to use O1 tool steel for wood carving blades. Certainly, other alloys will work just fine.
 
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