All About Pocket Knives

OK guys, here is my masterpiece.

Cool! Nice job!
Mark

...Nicely done...
...CCBill...

Well done.

nice job, i really must get whittling

I like it a lot.
How many hours do you have in it?

Paul

Thanks guys. This is my first attempt. Done with a pocket knive totally. Well, actually about three pocket knives. I'm trying to decide on a every day carry that will do for carving. I used a medium stockman, a whittler, and a humpback whittler. I liked the whittler best because of the blade shapes and thicknesses. I don't have a whittler in cv though, all ss (yet) . Oh, by the way all are Cases'.

Paul, I'd guess about 6 to 10 hours total knife time over a couple weeks.

Got some of my dna on it also. Man that hurts.

Basswood?

Yes Big, it's basswood. I bought a sack of it at Hobby Lobby with various sizes for about 8 bucks. First time I've ever worked with bass wood. It carves good for the most part but the grain on the cut ends are a little tough.

Good result, but I would recommend you get a decent fixed blade carving knife. Pocket knives are ok, but too often the blades are too thick or the bevel is too steep (more than 12%). Plus, carving knives tend to be fully flat ground. There are tons of good brand names that run around $20-$30. Denny, Murphy, Two Cherries, Dunphy, FlexCut, Warren and the list goes on. One other point, wood bought from Hobby Lobby is not very good quality (IMHO). If you have a WoodCrafters in your area, try there or many places on the web.

Big Barn wrote:Good result, but I would recommend you get a decent fixed blade carving knife. Pocket knives are ok, but too often the blades are too thick or the bevel is too steep (more than 12%). Plus, carving knives tend to be fully flat ground. There are tons of good brand names that run around $20-$30. Denny, Murphy, Two Cherries, Dunphy, FlexCut, Warren and the list goes on. One other point, wood bought from Hobby Lobby is not very good quality (IMHO). If you have a WoodCrafters in your area, try there or many places on the web.

I like the do-it-anywhere nature of pocketknives. And since anyone who works with wood should know how to sharpen a knife, the NIB sharpness of most slipjoints isn't that big a problem. Once you tune up the edges, a slipjoint is a fine tool for whittling.

I do not disagree and you can whittle with a pocket knife as long as the blade is sharp & proper bevel. my point, which I didn't make too well, is pocket knives tend to be small & narrow and quickly become uncomfortable after extended use. But for carry & go - a pocket knife is just fine. As you continue your whittling, you may want to add a link to two of chain & whatever else you can think of. Here's something I did from a broken 2x4. I don't recommend using pine - it can be a PITA. F.Y.I. - FlexCut is coming out with a new two blade 'pocket knife' whittler this Sep: part number - JKN88 Whittlin Jack

That's pretty impressive, Big Barn. Are you sure the 2X4 was pine?
Any that I have handled was Douglas fir or spruce. Dougfir, when it dries is quite hard.

Great whittling!!!

FRJ wrote:That's pretty impressive, Big Barn. Are you sure the 2X4 was pine?
Any that I have handled was Douglas fir or spruce. Dougfir, when it dries is quite hard.

Great whittling!!!

Yep, construction grade 2x4 pine. I was installing a window in my shop & this was scrap from that project. Again, I DO NOT recommend using pine - there are much better woods out there. My favorite is Butternut. It's a littler harder than Basswood & takes decent detail. Plus the grain pattern is wonderful if you just finish it naturally with tung oil.

Great whittlin's creekrunner and BigBarn...That chain link is real nice, and construction grade pine to boot, impressive! I like butternut as well, wonderful grain and fairly easy to work with with.

Thanks for postin' your whittlin's, you guys do some outstanding work!