“Must have” carving chisels

[Booneliane]

I want to get more serious with relief carving.

I have a very modest selection of chisels, a couple gouges, v-gouges. A very Spartan selection.

So if you could only have 6-8 carving chisels, what would you “gotta have”?

Thanks

 

[Dibbuk]

Just my opinion: 1/8", 1/4", 1/2" square, and gouge. Buy good quality, and toss in a really good quality fine sharpening stone.

 

[oldwood]

Most used carving/inletting chisels? Lets start with a 1/16" , 1/8" , 1/4" , 3/8" std. chisels. Next , take a 1/4" std. chisel and grind a half moon shape onto the existing edge and resharpen to the original bevel. Do the same to a 3/8" std. chisel. The round shape allows you to walk the chisel in circles and around curves following a pencil line drawn onto the wood surface. Another incising chisel in this family has the end ground with opposing bevels and the rounded shape. The idea for these last chisels came to me 30+ yrs. ago via a friend working in the Colonial Williamsburg gun shop. These "walking" circular line chisels are also used for making the initial incised cuts on straight parts inletting , as well as incising curved lines . If you can learn these chisels , you will retire your Exacto knives that are difficult to control. These chisels make gun work enjoyable...................oldwood

 

[eggwelder]

I`ll be honest, my hands are not what they used to be. I use an electric chisel with flex cut blades now, and detail with the hand held ones. Have found the trick with flex cut is to run them on the buffer with jewellers rouge before and during use when they start cutting slower. Any mistakes on this carving were made with hand chisels .

 

[rchas]

Next , take a 1/4" std. chisel and grind a half moon shape

[/QUOTE]

. Hmmm. I have an extra 1/4 chisel that I'm going to give this a try with. Thanks!

 

[oldwood]

Not using any names here, but I was told in early 1970's , some of these chisels turned up at Col. Wbg. gunshop from something like an antique tool sale??? The parties involved did a study to see how valuable the chisels might actually be in various carving disciplines , and instantly discovered how using them would speed up and simplify gun carving. In the shop I wear a 2 power Optivisor to keep my mistakes 2 times smaller than those of the naked eye. The improved vision allows the use of even 1/16" curved chisels for very detailed work ......oldwood

 

[Col. Batguano]

2mm Pfeil "V" and "U" gouges in hand pushed palm tools see a LOT of work on my carving. (And a 2 1/2x Optivisor.) Go slowly. You won't regret it in the end. The shape of the handle works better for me than the Flex-Cut tools do. Sanding sticks and scrapers too for modeling.

 

[Booneliane]

. Hmmm. I have an extra 1/4 chisel that I'm going to give this a try with. Thanks!
[/QUOTE]

Ditto.

 

[waarp8nt]

I'm new to carving myself, I have various older chisels, a newer flex cut set and a couple Exacto sets. With my lack of experience I will not attempt to make a recommendation on chisels. That being said I agree 100% with a good set of optics and a quality sharpening stone!