My new favourite pocket carver is a small Puuko style blade, it’s made from a massively thick, (7mm) HSS wood turning tool inherited from my late Dad. I’ve done it as a full flat grind with a slight convex secondary bevel that blends into the primary grind to give a really smooth curve.
I’m not a great lover of scandi grind knives for a variety of reasons but chiefly because when you need to sharpen them you end up grinding a lot of metal off. Also I carve a mix of seasoned and green wood and for that I prefer an edge that will do sweeping concave cuts which I have always struggled to achieve with a scandi. I like to cut small slivers for which a convex edge suits better.
The 7mm thickness suits me nicely as I have a real thing about thick blades, I don’t like thin blades much although I do see their value for some work. My general carvers are all now thicker than you would normally get with a carving knife and this little beast really is THICK..
It’s got an antler handle that came from a much larger piece than I needed and so is sanded down to fully white all over and feels lovely in the hand. The blade is a combination full tang for about 25mm and then a really thick stick tang for the remainder.
It fits nicely into my small hand and carves beautifully.
