Whittling Tools You Need

Wood crafts and wood working have become increasingly popular over the last 25 years. There has been a return from the mass produced throw away era to more traditional approaches in furniture and other woodcraft products like stair cases and windows.

Whittling conjures images of boyhood activities especially the pen knife and continual strokes to thin down twigs, sticks or branches into something more meaningful. At the basic level it is the start of skills like spindle making for stair rails. More specifically it gives a foundation in woodworking skills like carving.

Whether it is the complete novice, seasoned DIY exponent or professional wood crafts person, who come under a number of names from carpenter to joiner or just handy man the key to success is having the right tools. Everyone has to start somewhere and sometimes it’s just with whatever is lying around. Eventually the boyhood knife has to give way to something more substantial.

So what do you need?

The basic item is a good whittling knife. It needs to be of good quality steel and as Robin Wood puts it quite narrow from bottom to top. This facilitates use in concave areas so anything more than 6 inches will be too big.

There is no need for any fancy guard or hilt as they are only for stabbing motions which aren’t used in carving. The nearest to that would be for mallet and chisel.

Beginners will probably favour shorter blades. They will feel safer at first but will limit longer smoother actions and cuts.

The blade needs to be like a heavy duty paring knife, you know the sort for cutting fruit and vegetables. The point is similar but the bevelled edge to the blade is deeper.

The look of professional knives is quite simple they have a wooden handle contoured to be comfortable in the hand. It has a small barrel at the blade end that secures the blade to the handle then the blade in a variety of sizes dependent on the work in hand.

The blades come in a variety of shapes depending on the shape you wish to create and the finish required. Some manufacturers provide sets of knives whilst others can provide a variation on the traditional craft knife with universal handle and serious of blades that can be fitted into a slot and secured by a threaded covering barrel. More traditionally there are pen knives with a number of blades attached in Swiss army knife style.

More sophisticated tools are chisel like in appearance. They can have the traditional straight blade with bevel edge at the end sharpened to provide better cutting results. They can also have the traditional straight blade concaved so that the chiselling provides the carved finished in a smooth grooved effect.

Whatever your interest there are lots of websites out there providing information on the art of whittling and associated woodcrafts plus a plethora of sites that can provide information on the tools required to do the job and some tips to help you through the process.