carving knife recomendation

I'm going under the knife for my back on 11/14. Doc said I might be down for up to a month with a weight restriction and little or no physical activity. I'll go crazy sitting around with nothing to do, so I was thinking about getting a carving knife or two to help pass the time. Any recommendations knife wise would be greatly appreciated?

Well John, its a rather large subject There are knives that are specialized for all sorts of things and the limitations on budget can also drive a lot of variations.

If you're just looking for a basic knife for whittling the two flexcut offerings are decent
https://www.amazon.com/Flexcut-Tool-FLEXJKN88-Whittlin-Jack/dp/B005V400AA
https://www.amazon.com/Flexcut-Right-Handed-Multi-Tool-Woodcarving-Included/dp/B000ZUBDV0
Personally I think the carving jack is a bit overdone.

Mostly for simple whittling I pretty much just use this Boker knife (that and an arkansas stone are my "don't get bored travel bag" set):
http://www.garrettwade.com/whittlers-special-pen-knife.html
It takes a decent edge with just a simple arkansas stone and wasn't absurdly priced.

I've tried some of the replaceable blade knives like the Warren knives:
http://www.leevalley.com/en/Wood/page.aspx?p=44062&cat=1,130,43332
they're ok but lack the "handy in the pocket" flexibility. A couple of the warren blades have proven useful on some specialty items (and they did arrive literally razor sharp).


For spoon work the combination of the mora straight knife
https://www.amazon.com/Morakniv-Carving-Knife-Laminated-2-4-Inch/dp/B004GATX62
and one or two of their curved knives (may be cheaper individually) - I only have the 164
https://www.amazon.com/Bundle-Morakniv-Carving-Stainless-Laminated/dp/B072F61Z6F
is pretty decent. The Mora knives take a bit of work to get perfect, basically they have a two part bevel and you want to remove that so the bevel is a continuous curve
Note cheaper at Garret Wade as a set:
http://www.garrettwade.com/spoon-carving-tools.html

If you're looking higher end.. there are a few top quality vendors like deep woods:
http://deepwoodsventures.com/en/7-spoon-knives


You didn't ask but imho this is still the classic whittling book:
https://www.amazon.com/Whittling-Woodcarving-Dover-Woodworking-Tangerman/dp/0486209652
I also enjoyed this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Whittling-Twigs-Branches-Easy-Find/dp/1565232364
The Tangerman book doesn't do a lot of hand holding, but if you're just looking for ideas and the kind of basic fundamentals its a really interesting book.

Start stocking up now on green wood and twigs and the like. Rough cut them a bit longer than you need and throw them in the freezer to keep them from drying out and they should be good for a month or so. You can also store them under water but that needs to be changed every so often or it gets a bit slimy/funky. Barring all that wrap in plastic wrap and keep in the coolest place you have available.

Good luck on the operation!

Hope that all goes well and if you have questions along the way or want to go a somewhat different direction than I intuited here, please follow up (or follow up anyway!).

Wow! Thanks so much Ryan that's what I was looking for! Great information.

Good luck John. When I got my new artery in my arm I also had a weight restriction. With carving you have to remember you are not lifting but pulling is also putting a strain. With them taking the vein from my leg, think top of belt line to top of ankle, the groin was the most painful. But as I healed one of Lou's cousins put the lifting restriction into context. It is like a hydraulic system, the lift requirement is for both arms and legs, it is the pressure in the blood system they want to keep lower. Word searches and playing cards with my wife were helpful, actually slept more than I thought possible, which is a good thing as healing takes place then at its best. Will start including you in my prayers.

Well John all the best on the medical side, but it seems the big guy is smiling on you too and influenced good old Lee Valley to consider your desires.

They have a deal on that just came in via email for free shipping and a starter kit from Flexcut. Its a real good deal in my opinion. You may or may not know but around this time of year i get ready to bring my carving stuff in doors and whittle away during winter. Well i have purchased the flex cut knives i have two, and they good steel and good grip and that yellow stuff on a strop is really great stuff to hone the edge.

Take a look at the set for $50 you cannot go wrong.
And with free shipping man...
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=76229

I just saw the links that Ryan posted re Flexcut and i can also recommend those knives i have the one with all the bits and bobs and its a serious keeper. But for value for money this LV set is just the deal for starting out.
I used to think that their knives handles were too big until i put one in my hand and i also had a questionable opinion on the blades until i actually used one. NOW i am sold on the Flexcut brand. Still not sure about the sets that have the removable swapable blades though but i am probably wrong about those too. I have visions of the blades wobbling and felt it was more of a marketing bundle but i think Frank Fusco has them and he said they great if my memory is serving me well today.

Those folders Ryan posted are nice. Pricey but good for travel. The basic Flexcut roughing knife will be all you need for whittling. Do a search for wood carving tools. You will find many others of different brands, often good quality for less money.

Thanks all for the help.

Jon makes a good point. A lot of the "harder" (physically) parts of carving are in the "power cuts" where you're taking the bulk of the material off. Detail/finish work is mostly hand and wrist motion so not so bad. So that likely takes spoons off of the table (so to speak ) at least to start with.

For more sedentary pursuit I might look at some caricature or other pre-roughed carving activities - search for "carving roughouts" for ones that have the bulk done and you're just filling in the details (there are a lot of details to fill in). For something like that the LV flexcut knives rob pointed at would be pretty reasonable or some other short blade knife (I have a handful of different ones but I don't think most of them are sold anymore). I'd also consider some 1"x1" by long enough to easily handle basswod blanks for practicing cuts on. I don't have any specific recommendations on any particular seller of "carving roughouts" as I've never used any of them but they're pretty popular with a lot of folks.

There's also a facebook group I'm a member of:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Woodcarving101/

That has a lot of really helpful folks on it. You might ask there about any specific project you're looking at. The group admin has a bunch of interesting projects (rose carving is kind of his thing) and has posted patterns in the files section (basically anything there by Perry A Reynolds is pretty solid):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Woodcarving101/files/

The spoon carvers mostly hang out over in the green woodworking group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/GreenWoodWork/

You need to be more specific about what you want to carve and your level of interest (i.e. will you study & practice hard to master the craft or do you want to quickly knock out a piece or two as a craft project?) The are a number of "schools" of 3-D figure carving, with Duck Decoys being a very traditional example. There are several styles of flat & relief carving seen on European furniture, boxes, & chests. Chip carving might have the simplest technique, but by placing & repeating the cuts many elaborate patterns can be created. Not (usually?) done with knives, but rather chisels, is relief carvings seen throughout European culture. Flowing stylized Acanthus leaves being a classic design theme. I'm sure there are an equal number of Asian and Native American styles & traditions too. The last category that springs to mind is spoon, and other utensil, carving. Spoons are traditionally done with curved knives and can be highly decorated as well as functional.I started with a dremel for about $70.00. I wanted to make sure I liked the hobby before investing a lot of money.
Scandi ground so good for wood work and stainless steel so it won't rust. A knife you really can't go wrong with.If your knife use increases, well then you can start to shop about. My current choice alternated between an F1 which I had re-handled and a hand made knife.I have spent a lot of time working with natural woods and have found that the non-locking knives like a Stockman, According to this article can close suddenly, unexpectedly, and violently. It seems that just the natural variations around knots & irregular areas can throw a non-locking knife into dangerous position via your fingers.However, I've had some good luck with locking knives with drop point blades of around 3" length.Yesterday I saw a lot of videos on a similar topic on Youtube, here is one of them, look if it's interesting, I hope it helps you.

i must admit that when I saw the title of this thread, I thought you meant meat carving. Wood carving is far too difficult for mere mortals with ten thumbs.

Thread might be a bit timed I would think! Surgery months ago, before this resurrection.