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. Read the rest of this entry »
Charles Simpson, a carver and knife maker of Guntersville, Alabama has been making carving knives for many years. He is an active member of the Huntsville Carving Club and sells his knives at their show and other shows in the Alabama area.
I first became aware of his knives while I was teaching a class at Charles Leverett’s studio and one of the students, David Wilson gave me a couple of Charles Simpson knives. Those two knives cut like a dream and I was intrigued that Charles makes them out of Personna floor scrapper blades. Since then I have purchased three more that are pictured along with the two previous knives received as a gift. Read the rest of this entry »
Randy True of Selma, Indiana is known for his Native American decorative carvings. Recently he has expanded his carving activity to include carving wooden handles of knives using Native American themes. Most of the time he carves on the cherry wooden handles of the Helvie brand of knives. He can custom design a handle and blade cover for the customer as he did for me in the following photographs. He also offers for sale Helvie Knives that he has already carved or he can carve on a knife the customer provides. Read the rest of this entry »
As a boy growing up on the farm in the early 1950’s a pocket knife was my constant companion being used to whittle toys and other boyhood interests. When in the early 1970’s I met wood carver David Monhollen http://www.monhollen.com/ who showed me the A-B-C’s and the 1-2-3-‘s of how to get started in carving, the pocket knife continued to be my carving tool of first choice. Read the rest of this entry »
Wood carvers of every level of experience soon come to have and use their favorite carving tool. Old pocket knives reshaped and sharpened have long been the favorites for the WOOD BEE CARVER. Ever since a boy growing up on a farm three miles south of Poneto, Indiana, a pocket knife has been used for whittling and developed into a style of whittle-carving. Read the rest of this entry »
“Cutting Edge Sharp” refers to the end result of sharpening a knife blade by hand using various abrasive degrees of fineness and stropping on a leather strop to create the “true cutting edge.” The drawing diagram at the left (click to enlarge) of the “cross section of a blade being sharpened” describes what happens in the sharpening process. Read the rest of this entry »
Tinker Knives were introduced in the May 25, 2008 post and since then the “tinkering mind” has been active in experimenting with another way to install a pocket knife blade into a wooden handle. That is the way the “tinkering mind” works, trying to make something out of nothing by trying different approaches to come to the same conclusion of “I made this myself.” Read the rest of this entry »
“Wood carving is more the journey than the destination,” and an important part of that journey is learning to sharpen one’s carving knives.
There is no magic formula or method as each have their own way of sharpening. However the “KEY” is to practice to develop what works at this particular time and place on the journey because sharpening is an ever learning process that will be improved upon further down the wood carving journey. Read the rest of this entry »
Charles Simpson, a carver and knife maker of Guntersville, Alabama has been making carving knives for many years. He is an active member of the Huntsville Carving Club and sells his knives at their show and other shows in the Alabama area.
