I’ve nearly found my ideal carving knife

You will notice that I say “my ideal carving knife”. I am painfully aware of the fact that everyone is different and has differing opinions about everything and knives are no exception to that rule. If you read Facebook comments and posts you see that no two people who have any experience of carving with knives will hold the same view on which is best. I want to make it very clear that the views expressed here are my own.

So, for many years I’ve been trying out various knife shapes and profiles for carving in an attempt to find what I consider to be the best.
I’ve used a variety of proprietary blades as well as a lot of homemade ones. I thought I would give you a rundown of what I have found.
Firstly I need to explain what sort of things I like to carve. I prefer to hold the piece in my hand and more often than not I’ll use a knife to carve with. I like to carve while I’m out and about, often while walking the dogs. I’ve even been known to carve while hanging on to two dog leads with energetic Border Terriers on the other ends.
I actually prefer carving seasoned hardwoods and I like the harder varieties, one of my favourites is Box. I’ve done some greenwood carving but to be honest I prefer the style of work I get from seasoned timber. I dabble in spoon-carving but get bored with multiples of the same design so I now only carve spoons to use myself or as gifts. My heart is really with small carvings and jewellery.
There is a big difference between carving green wood and seasoned timber, also between hardwoods and softwood. Consequently the techniques and tools differ too. The ideal knife for carving greenwood is very different to that which is ideal for seasoned timber. For example greenwood will split more easily and with less damage to surrounding wood than seasoned timber. With some greenwood you can almost peel off the layers, whereas with seasoned timber you will always need to cut through the wood to remove it and most of those cuts need to be very thin. Also of course there are a vast number of different species of timber and they each have their own characters and needs as far as carving techniques are concerned.
So, then, what kind of blade do I find best for me? Well it’s probably easier to say what knives do I not like initially and then move on to what I do like.
I don’t like thin blades, I’ve tried the likes of Warren and Flexcut and I simply don’t get on with the feeling that the blade will bend under certain circumstances. I prefer my knives to be rigid and to feel solid. Also, since my hand spends quite a lot of time wrapped around the spine of the blade I prefer not to have a slim blade digging into my fingers.
Size matters, yes it does, I like a knife that I can get really close to the edge with. That usually means a short blade with no guards or anything else that gets in the way.
Blade geometry is probably the most important thing for me,I bought a Case Seahorse Whittler a few years ago and while I loved the shape of the blades and the quality I just can not get on with the geometry of the knife.

The main blade is a beautiful Wharncliffe shape but instead of the cutting edge being in a straight line out from the handle it is cranked forward and forms an uncomfortable angle. £80 wasted.
I then decided that what I needed was an edge that forms a straight line out from the handle. I tried a couple of variations on that, a curved “puuko” style blade, which incidentally I absolutely love,

and a Wharncliffe shape, a little bit like those beautiful knives that Jen’s Anso makes. My hands kept going for the puuko shaped blade despite my brain wanting to use the Wharncliffe. I then suddenly realised that the reason for this wasn’t the overall shape at all, it was the angle of the upswept section of the blade. I found that I was pushing the blade more than using what most would think of as a knife stroke.

At the same time as this I’ve been flirting with the Kiridashi style of knives. Simple, usually straight edges, and more often than not, chisel ground. I have found I really get on well with the simplicity of them and the blade geometry is just lovely.
Once I had figured out that my hands prefer one way of carving and my mind another there was just the decision of whether I should go with the head or the hands. The hands have it and although I keep flirting with the knives I am finding that carving with what is effectively a wide, stumpy skew chisel really works for me.

The next step therefore is to make myself a really nice little carving knife with proper scales on and a nice sheath. Or maybe go down the folding route. Part of me has hankered after making a friction folding knife for a long time but the clean lines and simplicity of a fixed blade also really appeal to me.
Watch this space……