All About Pocket Knives

When whittling small characters. Do you start with a small piece of wood? Or a longer piece make the character then cut him off of the long piece?

In other words. Leave it long so you have a handle.

I’ve done it both ways. Curious what you all prefer.

Use a longer piece if at all possible.

In some case, fabricate a handle which can be detached later.

When I carve the inside of golf balls, I drill a 3/8 hole in the ball first. That tells me what color the rubber inside is right away, and allows me to whittle a handle which makes removing half of the cover and carving the inside a LOT easier and safer too. Later I can fill this hole with a dowel and cork to make it a bottle stopper or just glue in the dowel,and install a corkscrew, or use that glued in dowel as a place to attach the finished piece to whatever else I might want it on.

Mr. Chips wrote:Use a longer piece if at all possible.

In some case, fabricate a handle which can be detached later.

When I carve the inside of golf balls, I drill a 3/8 hole in the ball first. That tells me what color the rubber inside is right away, and allows me to whittle a handle which makes removing half of the cover and carving the inside a LOT easier and safer too. Later I can fill this hole with a dowel and cork to make it a bottle stopper or just glue in the dowel,and install a corkscrew, or use that glued in dowel as a place to attach the finished piece to whatever else I might want it on.

Carving the inside of a golf ball? I'd love to see some pictures!

Me too! Best thread drift ever!

Mr. Chips, I third the request for some photo's of the golf ball carving. Thanks.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0u4038cul7xj5 ... 1.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q9po25mhhicet ... 2.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g421rx22c4j9g ... 1.jpg?dl=0

Here are a couple of golf ball "trolls" that I made.
One has been mounted on a cork - with a dowel through it, and the other one is still on the handle.

Most golf balls these days are of two piece construction - the outer cover and the rubber inner core. (some are made differently)

There are lots of different colors in the inner part depending on the brand and compression and ??? of the balls. They take acrylic paint well too.

OK

I am obviously not good at posting pictures etc. I see after posting that what I thought were three different pics were actually all the same!

I don't know what went wrong

clicking on the links will get the other pics.

Those are cool! Thanks for sharing them. I’ll have to give it a try sometime. But I’m not very good at faces.

After drilling the hole and jamming in the handle (it is best if you make that handle a little oversize so that it is necessary to force it into place), draw a line around the ball, and then using a hacksaw, carefully cut all the way around the ball along the line. You will feel the saw go through the cover.

Then using a screw driver (hopefully a worn one without sharp corners) pry off the half of the cover. After a bit of fiddling it will pop off.

Then whittle away!

I've whittled things both ways. It's easier to whittle then cut it off if it's a smaller piece you're working on but you can do it either way. The little character I just posted was whittled out of a stick of basswood then I cut it off and shaped the bottom of it a little bit more.
I can't even begin to imagine how hard a golf ball would be to carve out. Very nice!

Actually, the rubber insides of most golf balls is easier to carve than basswood. No grain to contend with either.

One thing that is a bit of a concern is that when a cut is made and the knife removed, there is no visible line left! The cut is there, it is just almost impossible to see.

They actually sell a tool to cut the cover on golf balls for carving. They were making them at the Wood Carvers Round Up. Evert, Mich. As for figure carving, many draw or transfer a pattern then band saw out most of the waste. Just hold it in your hand. When I carved my bass wood Abe Lincoln's bust, I made a rotating stand to go in a wood workers bench vise. Long lag bolt to hold it. A friend had done a large clay model, that I looked at. Used a Detail Master to wood burn all the hair.

What a great educational thread. Thanks for getting it started eveled. And for all the fresh input.

mrwatch wrote:They actually sell a tool to cut the cover on golf balls for carving. They were making them at the Wood Carvers Round Up. Evert, Mich. As for figure carving, many draw or transfer a pattern then band saw out most of the waste. Just hold it in your hand. When I carved my bass wood Abe Lincoln's bust, I made a rotating stand to go in a wood workers bench vise. Long lag bolt to hold it. A friend had done a large clay model, that I looked at. Used a Detail Master to wood burn all the hair.

I would really like to go to that show in Evert?. I am hoping to go this year. Do you attend every year?

I have not been there for some years. People even came from Texas. Where I learned about cotton wood bark carving.

mrwatch wrote:I have been there for some years. People even came from Texas. Where I learned about cotton wood bark carving.

Wow very nice!

Somebody somewhere (I thought it was here). Mentioned they use golf balls as handles for files. It is a great idea and works fantastic. Just drill a hole and stick the file tang in. I came back to say thanks but it wasn’t here. Figured I’d add it here anyway. Ed