I have said on a number of occasions that I have found my ideal carving knife and gone on to explain why. Well I have figured out that actually there is no such thing. I am fickle and change my mind often about what I like and dislike in a carving knife.
I have a few basic preferences and these remain constant but they tend to be more about what my hands like and find natural to use than about any really considered preferences.
This fickleness extends from my selection of knife right out to whether I use gouges, mallets, axes, power carvers, rotary tools or chainsaws. The simple answer is that one minute I will want to be using just a knife and I’ll be looking for a knife shape which will do all of my cuts for me and the next I’ll be looking at gouges and then trying to figure out how to carve bigger, quicker and with less work. That is when I start loking at power tools.
I suppose my basic requirement for a carving knife is as follows:
- Short blade, no more than 50mm(2 inches). I like to get up close and personal with my carving and I tend to think that a long blade gets in the way and provides more oportunity for unintended slices resulting loss of essential bodily fluids.
- The blade needs to have plenty of belly (curve) to it with the angle of the edge at the tip being almost perpendicular to the haft. This allows for push cuts using the tip in much the same way as with a skew chisel.
- Broad blade. Whilst I don’t want a long blade I do want one which is capable of powerful cuts when needed. I want my blade to be rigid with no flex and I also want a very shallow grind. (you’ve guessed it I hate the blades on Flexcut knives).
- I like the trailing edge to be concave so that I can get the very tip of the blade into the tightest of spaces for detailed work.
- Linked to 4. I like the very tip of the blade to be very narrow which allows for concave or dished cuts, much like the tip of a sloyd knife.
- The grind must be as shallow as possible with a very slight convexity to it. I want tiny slivers of wood to come off my carvings but I don’t like scandi grind knives due to the sheer amount of metal you have to remove to sharpen them. Also a convex grind provides a smoother concave cut than a true zero grind or scandi.
So, this then is what I am currently carving with. I suppose if I had to give it a name or describe the shape I would use the phrase “Rhino Horn”
The haft is also carefully considered. You will see from this photo that it fits snugly into the palm of my hand providing me with the ability to work comfortably cutting away from me with no loss of control.
Of course the only problem is that as knives go this one doesn’t really push any of my aesthetic buttons. I prefer the look of my current edck (every day carving knife), the one I carry in my pocket because it is small and I like the shape. It’s actually not a bad little carver either to be honest.
The blade is just a smidge over 25mm (1 inch) and is virtually a zero grind, mirror polished and as sharp as they come. I can’t help it I just love the way it looks and feels.
Carved by Trev 