We recently bought some new bedroom furniture from a great company called Indigo. First though we requested a sample of their oak. I imagined a tiny chunk would arrive through the post but was surprised to find a piece that was roughly 6 inches long by four and around an inch thick. Ok so it had a handle screwed to it which meant four screw holes but you can’t have everything can you?
When I first saw it my wood-lover’s eyes lit up, what could I use that for. Well, as we have ordered a chest of drawers in the same wood and Valentines day was coming soon it was a little bit of a no- brainer.
My darling Tracey loves hearts and I have a favourite heart motif that is formed from two halves of the same figure. So, with my Nick Westerman hook knife in hand I set to.
I love the way this knife works. When I first saw it in the flesh I fell in love with it and it hasn’t disappointed. Even though this is seasoned ( I suspect kiln dried) oak this beautiful blade just slices through it. I love the curve of the blade and the way I can get a lovely round dish shape without really thinking about it.
In my previous post I talked about how different styles of knife lend themselves to different types of carving, well I would like to amend that slightly. Different knife shapes all cut with different characyetistics. As I see it there is no such thing as a “greenwood carving” knife only knives that many people prefer to use for carving greenwood. The same holds true for most tools. Bladesmiths don’t make knives any softer because they are intended for use on greenwood, which is generally, soofter than seasoned timber. Quite the contrary in fact, the Scandinavian tradition of laminated knives actually have harder edges than most other European and North American non-laminated blades. My view is that it has nothing to do with the kind of wood to be cut and everything to do with edge retention.
Nobody wants to be constantly re-honing their blades and so harder edges are a good thing whatever you are carving.
Anyway back to my Valentine’s gift. Tracey loved it…..
