Woodcarving Which Blade's Best

[MANIXWORLD]

I was wondering if any of the Spydie fans, have ever used a specific Spydie or couple of to carve an object/figurine etc. from wood?
I know that there are specific woodcarving tools for this task,but i want to make it a bit of a challenge by using one or some of my Spyderco blades,to see what results i can achieve.
I feel that if i was going to use woodcarving tools,i might neglect my Spydies, which can also do the job of woodcarving and stick to a more primitive African method of woodcarving.
I know that plain edges would be the obvious choice,so can i use either my D3 plain,Dragonfly plain,D4 plain or Native CPM S30V plain for the task at hand.
Which of these bladesteels would perform best for woodcarving?
MANIXWORLD.

[Fusion]

I could not imagine woodcarving with a spyderco. when i woodcarve without special tools, i use a swiss army knife. I reground the small blade to make more of a tip, and i only use the large blade to take off bark. all of the spyderco knives with blades that small like the lava, have an enormously thick blade, and almost no point.

[Bolster]

I regularly use a Spyderco during my woodworking projects. That may not actually count as "wood carving," but I am frequently shaping the wood with a CalyIII. Yes, I have specialized wood carving tools and knives, but that Caly in my pocket does the job 95% of the time.

So my advice is to use a relatively small blade that's flat ground. Wharncliffe shapes often work well, so the Yojimbo would also be an option. Personally I'd avoid saber ground blades as they introduce more "wedging" during the cut.

[Domanfp]

i think a PE dragonfly would work pretty good granted that you are not going to need to remove huge chunks of wood or anything.

[MANIXWORLD]

I regularly use a Spyderco during my woodworking projects. That may not actually count as "wood carving," but I am frequently shaping the wood with a CalyIII. Yes, I have specialized wood carving tools and knives, but that Caly in my pocket does the job 95% of the time.

So my advice is to use a relatively small blade that's flat ground. Wharncliffe shapes often work well, so the Yojimbo would also be an option. Personally I'd avoid saber ground blades as they introduce more "wedging" during the cut.

I was thinking flatground,the Yojimbo sounds perfect-good steel,G10 for good grip,thanx 4 the help.

[JD Spydo]

Personally the wood carving that I have done with knives is all confined to some building repairs I've made to cut or whittle something into place. I've never done any artistic carving at all. To me the ideal carving knife would be something like the leaf blade LlL Temperance which has a very thick spine, flat grind and premium steel to take punishing jobs like wood carving can be.

Most of the carvers I've run into over the years seem to use really stout tools to do most of their work. A lot of carving is done with Dremel tools as well.

Also one cabinet maker I ran into a while back who did some carving showed me some of his tools. His chisels were made with Hitachi Super Blue steel. I'm wondering if carbon Steel might have an advantage in that line of work. Also because some of the knives he was using were Japanese carbon steel blades. That is truly an area of edged tools that I could stand to know more about. This is an interesting thread needless to say.

[MANIXWORLD]

Personally the wood carving that I have done with knives is all confined to some building repairs I've made to cut or whittle something into place. I've never done any artistic carving at all. To me the ideal carving knife would be something like the leaf blade LlL Temperance which has a very thick spine, flat grind and premium steel to take punishing jobs like wood carving can be.

Most of the carvers I've run into over the years seem to use really stout tools to do most of their work. A lot of carving is done with Dremel tools as well.

Also one cabinet maker I ran into a while back who did some carving showed me some of his tools. His chisels were made with Hitachi Super Blue steel. I'm wondering if carbon Steel might have an advantage in that line of work. Also because some of the knives he was using were Japanese carbon steel blades. That is truly an area of edged tools that I could stand to know more about. This is an interesting thread needless to say.

I know, that some wood used for carving,can be softer wood than other.That's easier to carve and shape into art.
These type of woods,i would like to use a Spydie blade on, defenitly of high carbon steel like ZDP189 for these type of carvings.
Imagine Spyderco bringing out a special woodcarving knife,with some Spydie panache,like only Spyderco can do,just a thought....
MANIXWORLD.

[boxer93]

Like JD I use them for small wood repairs around the house. My Paramilitary and UKPK S30V works quite well. My son used my VG10 Caly Jr Ltwt (Black) for the woodcarving merit badge.
Chris

[The Deacon]

Never tried it, but think the best Spyderco models for it would be the small Centofante, the C27 Jess Horn, and the Kiwi. All have (relatively) thin, narrow blades - characteristics most Spyderco knives don't share.

[sal]

I use the now disco'ed small paring knife. Full flat MBS-26 warncliffe. We made a variety of sizes around 2-3".

sal

[MANIXWORLD]

Thanx for the great feedback everyone,i've seen some truely beautiful african woodcarvings here in South Africa by some artists from African tribes,who use real mediocre carvingtools and cheap knives to create some magnifecent artwork sculptures from wood,depicting the history of Africa.
This has inspired me to also start with woodcarvings,but to use my favorite knives, my Spydies to create art from raw chunks of wood.
MANIXWORLD.

[Bolster]

Well you will certainly enjoy your work more if you're using a knife you love. More power to you. As you specialize, you can add chip-carving knives and the like (What Sal uses is sorta similar to a chip-carving knife). Most people who carve have a variety of tools they use.

To address JD Spydo's question above about chisels being made out of carbon steel:

To me it seems like the "good steel" revolution has largely passed the woodworking community by. You can find an occasional D2 chip carving knife if you look hard, and a few high-end but very expensive D2 chisels are available if you look for them.

I own what are considered to be top-shelf Sorby and Hirsch carbon steel chisels and ... compared to our Spyderco knives ... they can't hold an edge worth crud. Even sharpened to obtuse angles. So you are wedded to the waterstone when you use chisels in woodwork...least that's my experience.

I earnestly wish somebody would start making upscale steel in accessible (meaning, you don't have to pay botique prices) traditional woodworking tools. Criminy, I can't even imagine how wonderful it would be to have a chisel with GOOD steel in it.

Too bad Spyderco isn't in the woodworking tool business.

[yablanowitz]

Of the knives listed, I think the Native and Dragonfly would be the most useful for woodcarving. The C25P Centofante is still my favorite whittler among Spyderco knives. The thin flat grind, narrow width and extreme point are wonderful for detail work in tight areas. It edges out the C39 Dyad Jr. by having a handle I can hold comfortably in my big mitts.

[STR]

The Para Military was great for this. All the ZDP189 Calypso Jrs are exceptional detail knives too as well as the later CIII models.

STR

[Brad S.]

Dragonfly and Caly 3 are my woodworking tools. Sometimes a Boker Subcom wharncliff when I need the point.

[Jazz]

Definately the older Delicas with a good point. I don't have one, but the Kiwi would work awesome. Also, I'd use the Caly 3 and Centofante 4. Being a carver though, I really like my D3 PE. I haven't tried my Caly 3's carving yet, but any of those beautiful full flat grinds would be great. I hope this helps.

- best wishes, Jazz.

[christopher]

You might take a look at the Centofante 4. Wharncliffe blade 5/64" thick. I love mine for whittling.

Chris :) :) :)

[wagdie]

yablanowitz advised me the nilakka , i think it is the best spyderco for woodcarving .

[Surfingringo]

I used to do a lot of carving, but kind of got out of the practice. I would commonly use carving tools and small exacto knives. Recently I sat down and started doing some carving with one of my new knives and was really quite impressed. The knife?? Don't laugh....it was a dodo. Seriously. I found it to be an exceptionally effective carving tool. I would not use it as my only knife, but the recess between the belly and tip works great for wood removal and the tip is very effective for certain types of detail. The curve at the tip is useful but a little too extreme. If I was going to use it regularly I would gring a tiny bit of the curve out of the tip. I dunno...I think I could do some pretty intricate work with a dodo and a kiwi.