The three knives pictured to the left have  an upsweep or scimitar blade shape that were made by Ralph E. Long.  They are pictured here to represent the blade shape that I have come to utilize in ninety nine percent of my carving with a knife.  That was not always the case as my journey of knife carving has taken several revolutions in the evolution of discovering what blade shape works best for me.

As a boy growing up on a farm three miles south of Poneto, Indiana in the early 1950’s, a pocket knife was a constant companion for whittling and making many of my toys.  When the “carving bug” bit me in the early 1970’s in a serious way, the pocket knife was my first choice and repeated choice while learning to carve.

The photograph  above contains four  representatives of more than can be counted pocket knives rescued at flea markets, junk stores and garage sales over the years.  The top knife in the photo is one that combined the blades from one knife  transplanted into the body of another with tiger maple wood strips inserted into the handle.  The third from the top is a “favorite” knife from 1966 that started me on the road of wood carving before I knew what I was doing.  The blades were sharpened by trial and error the best way I could at the time while still not knowing what I was doing.  These experiences were the beginning of the journey of “Accidental Learning,” which continues today and will continue in the days ahead because so much of learning is accidental.

Accidental Learning begins with the first photo of two old pocket knives that have survived repeated sharpening by previous owners.  The large blade in each is a “spear point” and the smaller blade in each is a “pen blade” which was a miniature of the spear point shape.  Over the years of repeated sharpening on a whet stone the cutting edge became straight almost to the shape of a “wharncliffe blade” shape.  It is the “wharncliffe” or “straight cutting edge” blade that is most commonly called the “carving knife blade” or “bench knife.”  The most popular and commonly used carving knives all have a straight cutting edge.

In the early stages of Accidental Learning I was content just to get the blade sharp enough to cut and shape a piece of wood.  Learning the sharpening of a knife blade is a trial and error method of a lot of Accidental Learning which is another story told in other postings on the subject of sharpening. For now, let it be said that these early years I was sharpening the shape of blades as they came from previous owners.

In the second or middle photo there are four knives.  The one at the top shows a spear point large blade that came from one broken knife and was laboriously fitted into another broken knife that also had a large spear point blade. Rose wood was used as the handle material.  The  extended blade was sharpened to be used for general purposes.  The third knife down was a knife purchased for fifteen cents in the early 1970’s in a junk store.  It had been repaired by a previous owner who had inserted a renegade blade into the knife body whose small blade protruded out of the inner liners so electrical tape was wrapped around the small blade as protection from being cut.  Notice that the shape of the blade has a straight back while the cutting edge curves up to meet the back edge at the point.  Once sharpened this knife was used in some very early carving activities.  The second and fourth knives were rescued at a flea market in the early 1980’s with the blade shape as they appear.  Some previous owner purposely shaped those blades for a particular purpose.  I often wondered what that person whittled and carved with that particular  blade shape as I carved with them from time to time.

The third photograph shows an early attempt at making a carving knife from a broken pocket knife blade that was secured in a brass fitting and then epoxied into a wooden handle whittled to fit the hand.  Notice that the blade shape has a curving up cutting edge that meets the straight back edge.  This little knife was used quite often in the early journey of carving and was returned often, even after carving with the wharncliffe or straight edge carving knife for many years.

The first photograph above shows four industrial knives commonly used in the shoe industry.  Made by such companies as Hyde and Murphy, a  movable hack saw steel blade fits into a patented chuck design and extends into the handle.  The top two knives show original blade shapes while the two bottom knives have had their blades reshaped into a scimitar blade shape.  The next photograph shows butcher and utility knives whose blades are at a skewed angle.  The third photograph shows what is commonly known as the “carving knife” or European “Bench Knife.”  Before there were custom carving knife makers, it was this European Bench Knife that set the standard for the straight cutting edge or wharncliffe blade shape as the official “carving knife.”  The Murphy Knife Company marketed a carving knife based upon the European Bench Knife which has set a standard of its own as the “Murphy Knife” as an affordable and dependable carving knife.  It was both the European Bench Knife and the Murphy Knife that popularized the straight cutting edge or wharncliffe blade shape as the official or commonly accepted shape for a carving knife.

So it was on the journey of Accidental Learning that I moved from various blade shapes  on to the “Official” carving knife shape for many years of learning to carving with that particular blade shape.  For the next twenty years most of the pocket knives, utility knives and custom made knives were reshaped and sharpened with a straight cutting edge or wharncliffe shape.  During these years, however, I would return to use one of those blades with a scimitar blade shape.  Every trip back began to teach me that the cutting edge sweeping up to meet the back edge at the point was most conducive for doing slicing cuts.  Little by little, blades were reshaped into the scimitar profile, at first on a whim and then more often intentionally until now that is the blade shape of choice.

What follows next is a photographic journey of knives whose blades have been reshaped into a scimitar blade.

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Next are a series of photographs showing how other knives have been reshaped into the scimitar profile.

The Accidental Learning continues to realize that the scimitar blade shape has been around since ancient times and has also played a part in the carving community.   Often this blade shape has been available but was overlooked.  So in the next series of photographs will look over the scimitar blade shape as if for the first time.

Accidental Learning often comes  by accident and then it dawns its possibility  upon us to try to make it no longer an accident.  The next photographs show a couple of accidents in learning that have merit of being repeated.  One is to utilize plastic tubing slid over a knife handle and the other is to consider the merits of what was once a “cheap” knife whose carbon steel blades have carving life in them.

The final photograph is of custom knife makers’ knives that have the scimitar blade shape.  These are only a few of the many other knife makers who make that blade shape.  Even if a favorite knife maker does not make a scimitar, one can reshape their standard knife into a scimitar blade shape as was done with the  Warther Knife in the photograph.  Gil Drake made the second knife.  Allen Goodman made the third.  Dave Notto made the  fourth.

No one every knows where and when the next Accidental Learning will take place.  That is what makes wood carving so much fun and the journey is quite a ride.  So for the fun of it try carving with a scimitar blade utilizing the slicing cut and Accidental Learning may take place in the process.