Carving tools advice

Jake Wilson

Member
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3
Hey there,

I’m pretty new to woodworking and am just embarking on it as a new hobby, which is pretty exciting. I made a guitar while I was in India recently – there was a guy who ran luthier courses on the beach there, which was incidentally a lot cheaper than doing a luthier course back home (and that’s including flights and accommodation!) Anyways, it turned out loads better than I expected given that I had little experience in it. It was all hand tooled and very satisfying.

My guitar.jpg

So now that I’m back home I’m thinking I want to improve my skills, specifically in wood carving. I’m a keen chess player and so I think I’m gonna start by making a set of carved chess pieces. Nothing too fancy but something artistic at least, with simple humanoid shapes for the king and queen and fairly standard piece shapes for the others.

My question is what tools should I be looking at getting? I’ve looked at buying wood carving tools online and have found a lot of options - http://www.for-sale.ie/wood-carving-set. What are the must haves? Is it worth investing in a small lathe? What tools are essential for carving small pieces.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
 
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Well... it depends..

For small stuff like that, I mostly prefer a small knife and perhaps a little skew chisel.

I have a Ramelson 1/4" skew - http://www.ramelson.com/product-page/26f965fa-05a8-3cfe-d9af-37cafa49ea61 - that is probably one of my most used tools for small detail carving, but also use a couple of small detail knives a lot. Basically fixed blade knives about the size of a small pocket knife - I picked them up here and there so not even sure on the makes mostly (and I don't think some are made anymore) - kind of like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006LAXP0 and a couple like the Hock knives here http://www.diefenbacher.com/Knives.htm but didn't pay near so much back when :) I like the Ramelson chisels a bit better than the flexcut for carving in the round, the flex of the flexcut made it harder for me to control.. other people feel differently and love the flexcut so I think its just a personal preference thing. The flexcut chisels do work pretty well for flat/relief carving.

For cleaning up inside corners and getting crisp details its hard to beat some needle files
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=32950&cat=1,43072,43089
I wish I could find the 1/2 round and just buy like 5 of those because that's mostly what I use out of the set. They aren't very useful for bulk material removal but are great for cleaning up the lines.

If you're looking at power carving small stuff, the Proxxon stuff is pretty nice, I have the 50/E http://www.proxxon.com/us/micromot/28500.php?list with a foot switch http://www.proxxon.com/us/micromot/38700.php?list (bought through amazon :) ). Their milling bits leave a really nice finish - http://www.proxxon.com/us/micromot/tools-milling.php?list which take very minimal cleanup, they do cut a wee bit fast though so you have to be careful to not get to ahead of yourself. I like this setup a lot better than a dremel, its lighter and more agile in the hand. This is, again, mostly good for small stuff you're not going to remove a lot of material with one of these..
These were all done with the proxxon:
http://familywoodworking.org/forums...ature-ebony-knots-and-crochet-hook&highlight=

A couple of other folks here have made chess sets and might have more suggestions specific to that:
http://familywoodworking.org/forums...-more-off-the-bucket-list&highlight=chess+set
http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?29173-Skew-practice-continued&highlight=chess+set
http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?27410-Turned-Chessmen&highlight=chess+set

You'll notice a bit of a trend on a lot of them being turned :) That's certainly the easier way to do things like the pawns. Part way through Stu's turned chess set he shows some tools he made from some chainsaw files :thumb:

You might want to start another thread in the turners forum on the lathe theory. For doing simple spindle work like this you don't need a whole lot and can likely find something used that would do the job just fine (maybe add your location to your profile in case someone knows of something nearby). Personally I'm a fan of cast iron, no to tube lathes (with only one or maybe two exceptions you're unlikely to ever see in the US) and pick and choose the speed control (variable is best but $$$, reeves is convenient but fussy and some are worse than others, simple pulleys are reliable and simple but more tedious to use if you do a lot of variable stuff). Add onto that some tools and .. work holding .. and... and it can add up quickly (ask me how I know :rolleyes:) which can be another advantage to used if it comes "with stuff".
 
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