I'm also looking for a vise to clamp the stock while shaping it, seems so basic yet ebay and Amazon searches don't really turn up any suitable hits.
Hi,
Do a Google search for "wood carving" or "pattern makers" vise. Shown below is the vise and a #49 pattern makers rasp by Nicholson. I do 75% of my stock shaping with that one rasp.
However, try to find an old one because manufacturing was shifted to Mexico some years ago and the new ones dull very quickly. There are good alternatives made by Auriel in France but they are more expensive.
dave
Make your own.I'm still shopping the small carving tools.
Zonie had posted this & I had too. We both bought one of these woodworking vices & put it on a base standing vertically, so one side is fixed and the other moves. You can pad the vice too.
And I made “shaped” jaws of thin wood to affix to the jaw faces, to hold round or ‘heart profiled’ forends, well padded with felt from DuroFelt. Works great!
View attachment 1916
Another thing; you can pick up random old chisels from flea markets for often less than $1 and grind and bend them to be anything you need. Heat them, bend them and quench in oil. Tempering them is an option but for the little speciality use I give them I don't bother other than heating them to straw color and letting them cool. Often the steel in these vintage tools is very good and they sharpen easily.
Here is a skew chisel I made out of a 50 cent flea market find, not a work of art by any means but it gets the job done. I enjoy making handles for my simple tools, the one in the picture is osage.
View attachment 1917
Make your own.
If you believe you can build a gun, you have more than enough skill to make a carving chisel. Concrete nails are easily found at your local hardware store. Heat to a bright red color and allow to cool slowly (softens the hardened concrete nail), shape with a hammer and/or files, heat to a bright cherry red and quench in oil or water, temper in your (toaster) oven at 375-400F for an hour and do a final sharpening.Maybe but I'm really not that talented
You will need a few small gouges and although it is blasphemy, the cheapest set from Harbor Freight will serve your purpose on your first build and let you determine what size quality gouges to buy for more involved builds.
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