tame rover
Hello, I am very new to carving and I’m having much trouble identifying which way the wood grain goes and how to work with it rather than against it. I’ve accidentally snapped off multiple pieces of wood.
I’m making this post as I’m having a lot of trouble with the upper back and the head part of my piece. As it’s so far away for me to do a potato peel cut properly, yet every other type of cut I do seems to snap the wood
granite plank
Cutting across the grain is much harder as you have to sever the fibers, whereas with the grain you only have to separate the fibers which is much easier. Taking smaller cuts should help, unless the knife is not sharp which is a distinct possibility, even likely.
tame rover
I do the strop thing every 20 minuets, but I do not really notice a difference
spring lintel
Stropping regularly is a maintenance procedure. If your knife is dull or if the steel is less tha ideal you'll not benefit much from the stropping
tame rover
The knife is brand new from beaver craft, this is my first ever knife, if I send a photo would you be able to see if it’s the correct sharpness? Or is there a test I can do ?
spring lintel
you're basically doing that test now, I'm not the best source for carving evaluation. I'll ping who is @lean steppe
lean steppe
Beavercraft should send you a sharp-ish knife but they're not great. Based on the surface you're getting from the cuts, your knife is a bit dull and has some small chips (judging from the tiny lines in some of the cuts on the second picture and the overall shine of the wood) when you say that the wood is snapping off, is that mostly happening at the corners of the block?
tame rover
Yeah the snapping is happening at the corners. The dull parts are from when I tried to sand it for a bit, bc I cut it at the wrong angle and it started to splinter
Normally after a cut it’s quite shiny, unless I cut at a different angle
How do I identify what way to cut it from looks alone?
Also what knifes do you recommend if I may ask ?
lean steppe
The lines from the chips are here. It's not a huge deal. I think you're knife should be sharper but that's not the exact issue you're having
tame rover
Time to buy a whetstone I think then, or buy a better quality knife and then a whetstone
lean steppe
With basswood it can be hard to tell by sight but a general rule of thumb is that the grain goes parallel to the longest side of the rectangle (it's almost never that easy but it's a good place to start) the problem is that your cuts are starting from the middle of the piece and going towards the end. This is all happening cross grain (which is generally okay) but when you get to the edge of the piece, the grain isn't supported so it blows out.
All of this to say if you make the same cu but start with the knife at the edge of the piece instead of the center you won't have that problem
Wood grain can be unpredictable sometimes, as a general habit if a cut isn't working, try reversing it and often times that will fix the problem
lean steppe
As far as the knife and whetstone goes. I generally recommend flexcut for beginners. No matter what knife you have you'll need some kind of sharpening stone eventually so if money is tight. The stone is definitely the smarter choice !tag sharpening has some good info on those
tame rover
Perfect!!! Again thank you so much
lean steppe
(I think that has to be in a channel for the bot to respond) I will say that most beginners tend to use a stone too much and a strop too little. You could probably get away with just the strop for a while longer but a stone would improve the knife now so long as it's use correctly
tame rover
Here’s how I’ve been carving (I have a very weak grip so I can’t get a lot of wood off)
tame rover
(I think that has to be in a channel for the bot to respond) I will say that mos...
So far I’ve been doing 30 on each side of the knife every 20 minutes
Or sometimes 40 if I lose count
I’ve tried to follow YouTube tutorials on how to crave with the knife, but I’ve found that it digs into my fingers too much or I’m not practically strong enough to do it
I’ve spent 6 hours on this piece, and I haven’t managed to get that far
lean steppe
That's a good amount of stropping, keep doing that. I can give you some technique advice in a bit when I'm not walking
tame rover
Again thank you so much for your time and instruction, I appreciate it so much !!!
lean steppe
Okay so to start with, you should not expect to carve as quickly as a YouTube video for a while. It takes time to learn the technique and build the right muscles. One thing that I notice is that you're trying to cut a wide cross section all at once. I get that you're trying to keep the profile of the bird but it's much easier to remove wood from the corner of a shape than it is to take out a wide chunk of a face of the shape. If you start removing corners you'll be faster. Second you're mostly trying to deliver force by pushing the blade. You really want to be treating the knife as a lever, either by using your non-dominant thumb as a fulcrum or by using your wrist as a fulcrum
tame rover
So basically rather than working wide scale, scale it down, work from corners and gradually build yourself up?
I have to google what a fulcrum is one moment
Ah so move from the wrist or non dominant thumb
lean steppe
Yes to all of the above