The WOOD BEE CARVER  is primarily a knife carver who has developed a style of carving called “Whittle-Carving” to imply carving using only a knife.  The most efficient use of a carving knife is to utilize a slicing cut as often as possible.  A slicing cut is similar to slicing bread, slicing steak or the action of the guillotine’s skewed blade slicing as it slides down the track of the guillotine.  The cutting edge of a knife is made up of very small cutting teeth similar to teeth on a hand saw and it is these teeth when used in the slicing action that separates the wood fibers for a clean cut.  Using the knife blade with a wedge cut crushes fibers before the edge cuts the fibers resulting in a fuzzy and cloudy surface.  A slicing cut creates a clean and slick surface.  The scimitar blade shape with its curved cutting edge slices in both the push and pull stroke.  It can also make slicing cuts upside down and sideways as well as right side up. The concave shape of the back of the scimitar blade allows for reaching into tight areas where another blade shape would be impaired. Read the rest of this entry »