A woodcarver's tool is everything! The success of all work depends on its quality and sharpening. Therefore, many craftsmen prefer to work exclusively with knives self-made. Moreover, making a chisel or the same cutter yourself will not be difficult for an experienced person. The main thing is to have suitable materials at hand.
My toolbox contains quite a few chisels, cutters, knives and other wood carving tools. And I must say that most of them are handmade, that is, made by me personally. One feature distinguishes them all - a special shape of the handle. I always do it with finger pads so that it is comfortable to hold the knife in your hand and convenient to work with.
We will need:
- old chair leg for handle
- metal cutter for cutting part
- cardboard for templates
- epoxy resin
Note: The shape of the leg can be either rectangular (this is what I use) or round.
Tools:
- hacksaw
- straight and semicircular chisels
- Bulgarian
- vice
- drill
Making a template
Before I start working with the material, I always prepare a template. I advise you to follow my example.
We will make it from thick cardboard. The shape of both the handle and the cutting part can be chosen arbitrarily. The main thing is that it is comfortable for you.
For the handle, I personally am going to make this option, as shown in photo No.2. As for the cutting part, I intend to make the “heel” of the future knife with an oblique, so that in the future it can be used for cutting recesses and slits.
We transfer the templates to wood and metal and cut them out.
If you have already noticed, I make two tools at the same time.
Cutting out the cutting part
We place the cutter in a vice and use a grinder to cut out the part we need. We work carefully, not forgetting about safety rules.
Preparing the handle
Using a hacksaw, we cut out the shape of the handle and process the wood. We make cutting movements in a circle and under the arm.
When the handle is almost ready, we begin sanding. We carry out this process with sandpaper until the surface of the wood becomes smooth.
Then you need to drill a hole into which you will insert metal part knife We use a drill for this. Moreover, the resulting hole should be slightly larger in size than the tail of the knife.
Assembling a knife
Now you need to secure the cutting part and the handle. We insert the metal blank into the hole of the handle and fill it with epoxy resin (photo No. 4).
You can buy it in the store and easily prepare it yourself ( detailed instructions included with the kit). After 1-3 hours, the mixture will set and the joint knife will actually be ready. If you want to shorten this wait time, add a little hardener to the resin.
AND last steps- before use, the knife handle must be varnished (I choose nitro varnish for these purposes), and the cutting edge must be sharpened. That's it: our tool is ready to go.
Alexander Tsaregorodtsev, Tomsk. Photo by the author
On one of the forums I came across quite clear material on the manufacture of carving knives, which is given below without any changes. I hope that the author of the note Serjant and the administration of this forum will not complain.
"Hello guys, it's me, Serjant, I'm writing from Flyslayer's computer, because the bastard admin cut off my Internet.
So:. Let's begin.
It's called the "Bogorodsky knife" (Fig. 1). Designed for both rough and fine workmanship on wood. For rough work means for handing over to the workpiece the desired shape. Approximately trim so that the silhouette can be guessed. For example, whittling a spoon. For a thin one, for example, cut out fingers on a small wooden toy, cut out the face of an animal, etc. Speaking of toys. This knife got its name from the village of Bogorodskoye, Moscow region, where they cut, which has been famous throughout the world for several centuries wooden toy. As can be seen from the figure (Fig. 1), the knife is simple in shape and also simple in manufacture.You will need:Knife first
1. A piece of steel. Ideal option, among wood carvers, it is considered a mechanical saw blade (they cut rails with this saw and similar pieces of iron). The grade of steel does not play a special role. It doesn’t really matter whether it’s P6, P9, P6M5 or the really tricky P3AM3F2. This is all wonderful material. The thickness of these canvases is usually 1.8:2.3 mm. We are looking for the right size piece of canvas. You can buy canvas at any construction market.
2. Tree. Or rather, a couple of linden or birch plates. Evenly planed and dry. Why linden or birch? This wood is very good at absorbing the hand sweat that comes with the wood carving process. But still, linden is preferable, although it is inferior to birch in terms of fur. properties.
3. PVA glue or any other hardening wood glue. It is possible epoxy resin. Moment glue and the like are not suitable; they do not hold the glued seam.Sharpening the blade. We choose the dimensions of the blade and shank based on what we will do with this knife. If you roughly plan wood, then we make the blade larger, 70-90 mm, more is possible, but not necessary. If delicate work, then smaller, 30-60 mm. Shank:. We leave as much as we don’t mind. On the shank, using a sharpener or grinder, we make a bunch of “teeth”, notches or whatever else you call them. This will serve as a good fastener in the tree. Sharpening the blade razor sharpening the blade will make the cut softer, and the blade will not get stuck in the wood. (see Fig. 1). We sharpen the blade and straighten it to the point of shaving hair (we use our own carcass)
After sharpening, wrap the blade with paper and electrical tape so as not to cut yourself during installation and processing of the handle.
We attach a shank to one of the wooden plates and trace the outline of the shank with a pencil. We hollow out a groove in the plate with a depth equal to the thickness of the blade. The blade, after being inserted into a wooden plate, should not protrude; it may even need to be slightly lower than the plane of the wood by 0.1..0.2 mm. There is no need to worry, the glue will fill this gap. In principle, you should get what is shown in Fig. 2. On the wood planes to be glued, using the sharp tip of a knife, apply a mesh for better penetration of the glue. Apply glue liberally, insert the blade into the groove, and press the second plate. We tighten this entire structure with clamps or clamp it in a vice until the glue dries completely. For PVA this is usually a day.
When the glue dries, shape the handle into an oval shape. I deliberately do not give any cross-sectional dimensions; everyone can choose what suits their hand, how it will be comfortable to hold and how it will be correct. We carefully grind the handle, but without fanaticism; there is no need to grind it to a “cat-like” state. There is also no need to soak it in oil or any other nasty thing like cyanoacrylate, let the wood nourish the sweat from your hand.
Sometimes it is useful (but not necessary) on the handle, closer to the blade (step back 5 mm from the edge of the handle), to sharpen a narrow groove with a file, and wrap it with wire or thick cotton thread and soak it with glue. Make the winding not wide, 10:15 mm wide, so that the winding and the handle are flush. Such strengthening of the structure is necessary for power work or when repairing a knife, when you are lazy to make a new handle.
It is useful to have several Bogorodsk knives, different sizes and with different angles sharpening. Personally, I have 5 of them.
Knife-jamb
The name comes from the fact that the knife has a beveled blade.
Well, that's not the point:
The knife is used for cutting through material, cutting veneer, trimming contours, various types carvings, such as flat-relief geometric carvings, Kudrinskaya carvings, etc.
This knife is also called a shoe knife, but, as far as I could find out, a shoe knife is distinguished by a one-sided (chisel) sharpening of the blade. Although not always. Generalth appearance and dimensions are shown in Fig. 3
The knife manufacturing technology is exactly the same as the Bogorodsky knife. The only difference is that the handle of the knife is adjusted in such a way that it is convenient to hold the knife with a reverse grip, with the blade facing you. This is the basic position of the knife in the hand.The number of jamb knives a carver has is also not regulated by any rules or traditions. I have about 10 of them, all different. "
You can enlarge the images by clicking on them or open the following links:
Bogorodsk knife
knife - jamb
Source http://talks.guns.ru/forummessage/5/61314.html
Every specialist knows perfectly well how important it is to have a good and reliable tool at hand. Unfortunately, it happens that he is not there at the right moment. This is where the search for either a ready-made tool or numerous other options begins.
This happened to me too. Once upon a time, in a carefree childhood, I made attempts to learn. For these purposes, I even purchased a set of cutters (manufacturer: Zaporozhye Instrument Plant named after Voikov). Much of it has been lost by now, but semicircular chisels preserved. Unfortunately, my attempts to master carving in those days were not crowned with success - there was no one to show me the basic techniques of working with the tool. As a result, there are many scars on his left hand and the desire to improve in this direction has been repulsed - almost literally.
This fall I felt the urge to catch up. Fortunately, there was time - I had to stop my impromptu activities in the garage and patiently wait for spring. But now I decided to start by making a suitable tool, and first of all - knives for wood carving. One of the incentives was their lack of availability in local stores.
My knives (blunts and cutters) had to meet the following requirements:
high quality steel from which they will be made;
ergonomic (comfortable) handles;
relative ease of manufacture;
reliability.
In addition, I planned to use the materials that were available for the knives.
Materials and tools for making knives
As source material I used pieces to make blades. Previously, I made kitchen knives from them - they hold an edge well.For the handles I used scraps oak boards, left over from other works. Oak is a durable, beautiful and technologically advanced material.
For the work, I needed an electric sharpener, a belt sander (grit sandpaper - 40), a regular hacksaw, sanding paper (grit 80, and for finishing - 240, 800 and 1000), a respirator (gauze mask) - to protect the respiratory system.
All parts were glued together with Titebond II wood glue.
Blade making
From pieces of a saw blade about 8 cm long, I turned metal blade blanks of the desired shape. The blanks were left with shanks approximately 4.5-5 cm long. Such dimensions ensure sufficient strength for fastening the blade in the handle. For a more reliable fixation (so as not to loosen and fall out of the handle), I made semicircular cutouts on the sides of the shank.The cross-section of a knife blade usually has a wedge-shaped narrowing (approximately at an angle of 10-15°) from the butt to the cutting edge. This is the so-called large chamfer or descent of the blade. The cutting edge itself is formed by a small chamfer (approach) - a steeper narrowing (at an angle of 25-30°) in the immediate vicinity of the blade blade.
I make a large chamfer on the knives before I glue the shank into the handle. When forming a chamfer, I grind the workpiece on both sides at the desired angle. At the same time, I try to grind the metal symmetrically.
The most important thing in this work is not to rush. During intensive grinding, the metal heats up and tempering occurs. That is, the metal becomes softer and loses its ability to maintain an edge. In addition, I cool the workpiece being turned in water from time to time, preventing it from overheating. To do this, I place a container with cold water and periodically lower the workpiece into it. The final shaping of the blade, sharpening and polishing is done on the finished knife.
Making a knife handle
For the handle, oak blocks with a cross-section of 12x22 mm and a length of slightly more than 12 cm were suitable. The bars were selected so that the surfaces to be glued were smooth. To simplify the work, I chose a socket for the shank in one of the halves of the future handle.The sequence of operations is as follows. The shank was treated with sandpaper along the edges (knocked off the burrs). After that, applying the shank to a pre-prepared block, I traced it with a pencil or pen. Then, using chisels, I selected a socket to a depth equal to the thickness of the workpiece, from time to time assembling the entire structure “dry” to check how the blocks fit together. If the depth of the socket is insufficient, the handle will not stick together or will glue poorly, and the handle may break during operation. At the same time, if the socket is too deep, the blade will move from side to side, which is also fraught with undesirable consequences - cracking of the handle or deformation of the shank. Thus, it is necessary to select the socket for the shank as accurately as possible. I know this from my own experience - I have repeatedly had to split the already made handles of kitchen knives and replace them with new ones only because the shanks did not hold tightly!
After the test “dry” assembly of all parts has achieved the required result (tight fit of the shank and no gaps between the bars-halves of the handle), you can begin gluing. Glue was applied to the surface of the block and into the socket under the shank - when manually selecting a socket, inaccuracies in depth cannot be avoided, and it is better to fill possible cavities with glue, which, when dry, will harden and hold the shank. A layer of glue was also applied to the mating part of the future handle, but this time it was thinner.
Then he combined the parts (it is necessary to connect the ends of the blocks located closer to the blade as accurately as possible) and tightened them with clamps. I tried to tighten it as tightly as possible, but, as they say, without fanaticism, so as not to split the bars. The squeezed-out excess glue was removed with a damp cloth and the workpiece was left for about 12 hours until the glue had completely dried.
After that, I checked the tightness of the shank in the handle: I held the handle with one hand, and tried to loosen the blade with the other. If at the same time subtle, quiet creaking sounds were heard, then such a handle is no good and needs to be redone. If the work is done well, there should be no extraneous sounds.
Handle adjustment
For myself, I have long determined the most suitable shapes of handles for cutting tools. For example, on the handles of kitchen knives and carving knives, I usually make a slight bend in the back for a thumb rest. There are also general features handles of all tools, namely:the back part of the handle is wider and rounded than the one closer to the blade, so all blanks for handles at the beginning of processing resemble a truncated elongated pyramid;
The handle has a recess for the index finger.
When the workpiece is glued, with a hacksaw or miter saw I saw off the back part based on the required dimensions (in my case - 12 cm).
After this I move on to grinding the edges of the tape handle grinder. I work using personal protective equipment - safety glasses and a respirator, since oak dust can cause allergies.
You should not try to turn the tool handle as accurately as possible on a 40-grit tape. It is better to leave small allowances for more precise processing with fine sandpaper by hand. I always coat the prepared handles with nitro varnish (I like it better).
Finishing the blade
Let's return to the issue of forming the cutting edge. The sharpening angle of a large chamfer of 10-15° is suitable, perhaps, for a straight razor, but for a knife for wood (even the softest) it is still small. During processing wooden blank With such a knife, the tip will wrinkle or chip. Therefore, a small chamfer is needed, the sharpening angle of which for my knives is approximately 25-30°.To form a small chamfer, I use sandpaper (but you can also use blocks) of different grain sizes according to the principle from larger to smaller. First I take 240 grit sandpaper, then 800, then 1000 and finally polish it on a leather belt fixed on a wooden block.
With good sharpening, wood should be cut both along and across the grain without much effort. And the cut surface should be smooth and shiny - in this case they say that the result is an “oil” cut.
I check the quality of sharpening on a board specially used for this purpose. I take the board from a soft wood, since it is more difficult to achieve an “oil” cut on such a board than on blanks made from hard wood.
Naturally, during the carving process the knife becomes dull, and you have to restore the cutting edge from time to time. I do it this way: on an even wooden block I apply a sheet of sandpaper and perform several grinding movements, after which I finish the knife on the belt.
Acting according to the described scheme, I made several knives over the fall. They are quite functional - reliable and convenient. For a beginner, I think it's not bad! I plan to use the experience gained to expand my instrument collection. I hope that knives will become my faithful assistants in mastering wood carving.
DIY wood carving knives: robot sequence
1. I used a band saw blade as a blank for making knife blades.
2. The shanks of all blades have approximately the same shape.
To perform triangular-notched carving, you will need only one tool - a jamb knife (Fig. 1). It is so called because it has a beveled blade.
Rice. 1 blunt knife
How to make a blunt knife
1. Take a board 10-12 mm thick from any wood, but without knots.
2. Use a jigsaw or hacksaw to cut out two identical pieces 130 mm long and 32 mm wide.
3. Using sandpaper (“sandpaper”) wrapped around a small piece, sand one wide side of each workpiece.
4. After this, on the polished side of one of the workpieces, mark a groove for the knife blade (Fig. 2)
Rice. 2 Marking the groove for the knife blade
5. With flat chisel Cut a groove 10 mm wide (Fig. 3).
Fig.3 Groove cutting technique
6. Insert a blade (possibly an old or broken blade from a hacksaw), the length of which is 6.5-7 cm, into the groove, having previously coated it and the entire surface on which it is placed with PVA glue.
7. Now coat the polished side of the second workpiece with glue and carefully connect them (Fig. 4 a, b), then place them under a load or clamp them with clamps.
Rice. 4 Connecting knife parts
8. When the glue dries, after about 12 hours, use a sharp knife to cut the handle so that it fits comfortably in your hand. The handle can be of any shape (Fig. 5). After processing with a knife, sand the handle with fine-grained sandpaper.
Rice. 5 Possible shapes of the handle of a jamb knife
In Fig. 6 shows a drawing of a handle that is easy to manufacture and easy to use. Practice has shown that a knife with such a handle can be used by a carver with both small and large hands.
Rice. 6 Drawing of a comfortable handle for a knife
The knife must always be sharpened, otherwise you will not get any pleasure from carving. Therefore, pay attention to sharpening Special attention.
First, you need to grind off the angle of the blade so that it is 60° relative to the cutting plane (Fig. 7). How to do this is shown. Then you should sharpen the cutting surface, which should be 2-3 mm wide. Sharpening is carried out on both sides until a burr appears on the blade.
Rice. 7 How to shape a blade
To grind, the blade must be placed on the block with the cutting surface, pressed and moved the knife back and forth until the burr disappears. Both cutting surfaces of the blade are subjected to grinding.
After this treatment, the knife becomes sharp, but we need the joint knife to become like a razor, that is, it should literally shave. This is the only way a carver should have a knife. And to do this, you also need to polish the cutting surfaces so that they become super smooth and clean. This is achieved by processing on a felt wheel coated with GOI polishing paste.
Polishing is carried out using a drill into which a mandrel with a felt wheel is fixed. When polishing the knife (Fig. 9, b), you need to hold it differently than when sharpening (Fig. 9, a). In case of violation correct intake You can damage the circle and break the knife.
Rice. 8 How to hold a knife when a - sharpening, b - polishing
Now the jamb knife is ready for use. Make a cover out of foam and protect the blade with it. After every 2-3 hours of continuous work, polish the cutting surfaces - and the knife will always be sharp. Cutting with such a tool will become a pleasure for you.
All photos from the article
Experienced craftsmen can use even the simplest folding knives with wooden handle. However, a beginner should use a specialized tool for carving that will allow him to perform all basic operations without additional effort.
In our article we will tell you which knives can be used to process wood, and also provide recommendations for making and sharpening such tools yourself.
Description and types of instruments
Knives for wood carving can have a variety of shapes. As a rule, they differ from ordinary knives in having a shorter blade. This design feature is explained quite simply: when threading, the tip experiences a fairly strong load, and therefore the shorter the metal part, the less the risk of it breaking under pressure.
Depending on the type of design, there are several types of cutting knives.
| View | Peculiarities |
| Cutter | Utility knife, which is used both to give the main shape and to make small parts. The design usually features an elongated blade with a straight or curved cutting edge. The types of cutters are:
|
| Jamb | Structurally, a knife-jamb for wood carving follows the design of a cutter, however, it is characterized by a larger blade bevel angle. Due to this, the jamb can be exposed, which is actively used when carving flat surfaces. At the same time, the technique of some craftsmen involves using a joint as the main knife due to a fairly long cutting edge. |
| Auxiliary tool | When performing carving, in addition to knives, craftsmen also use other cutting tools, such as:
In fact, all of them are not knives, but have a cutting edge. |
In addition, other tools used in mechanical woodworking are sometimes included in the classification.
These include:
- Wood milling knives are either whole cutters or removable parts of cutters.
- Planing knives for a woodworking machine - used for machining elongated parts.
- Planing blades are used, as the name implies, in planing machines.
However, these and other types of parts for carving are used only as auxiliary ones, so we will not dwell on their description in detail.
Making a knife
Making a blade
When choosing a cutting knife, you should give preference to simple and reliable models made of high-quality steel. However, the price of such products is quite high, so beginners most often purchase cheaper models, and therefore are inevitably disappointed in the quality of the cutters.
The solution in such a situation may be to make a knife with your own hands. This task is solved quite simply, so even a beginner in plumbing can quickly acquire his own tool.
First of all we need to find suitable material. This is not difficult since we need a fairly small piece of good steel.
The following can be used as a blank for a future knife:
- A strip of good steel is about 8 - 12 cm long, up to 2.5 cm wide and 1.5 - 2.2 mm thick. The brand does not play a special role, as long as the material is strong enough and holds an edge well - R6 / R6M5, and R9, and even R3AM3F2 will do.
- Mechanical saw blade made of hardened metal. It is better to choose the same dimensions as in the previous case - this way we will save energy on roughing.
Note! Despite the fact that, compared to a saw, the knife will be subjected to significantly less stress, you should not use rusty blades or parts with cracks (even shallow ones).
- Part (it is convenient to use a fragment of a cracked disk with one or more teeth).
The work process itself looks like this:
- First, we make a drawing of a jamb knife for wood carving, determining the shape of the shank, the length of the blade and the bevel of the cutting part.
Note! For cutters, the bevel ranges from 15 to 45 0, for jambs - up to 60 -70 0.
- Next, we cut the workpiece along the right sizes, making the blade from 30 to 90 mm long and leaving a tang sufficient to be secured in the handle.
- We form the blade by cutting the front edge of the workpiece at the desired angle.
- We perform rough sharpening, making the cutting edge.
- Several holes can be drilled in the shank, which will be used for fixing in the handle.
After this, we wrap the cutting part with electrical tape so as not to cut ourselves during further operations, and proceed to making the handle.
Making a handle
The knife handle is made from linden, birch or similar wood.
The main thing is that the material absorbs moisture well - then the knife will not slip out of a hand that is sweaty from exertion.
- We take a block with a diameter of about 40 mm and a length of 200-250 mm.
- We cut out the handle of the shape we need from the workpiece, thinning the rear edge of the part.
Note! We can limit ourselves to rough processing, since then we will still be “finishing” the surface of the wood.
- Carefully split the workpiece along the fibers.
- We place the shank of the knife on one of the resulting planes, and then trace it along the contour.
- We select a recess in the workpiece that corresponds to the shape and thickness of the tail plate. At the same time, we make sure that the shank laid in it does not protrude above the plane.
- We remove the workpiece from wooden plank, after which we apply wood glue to all surfaces.
- We install the blade in place, press both parts of the handle tightly, and then clamp all the parts with clamps.
After the glue has dried, we perform the finishing treatment:
- If necessary, we drive rivets into the pre-drilled holes, with which we finally fix the shank in the wood of the handle.
- We put a metal ring on the front of the handle.
- We carefully sand the wood, removing all irregularities. We pay special attention to the junction of the halves.
Correct sharpening
Now, to get started, we just need to sharpen our knife.
The sharpening instructions are as follows:
- Place the blade on an abrasive block with coarse grain (pre-wet it with water) at an angle of 15 to 24 0. Using movements away from us, we shape the cutting edge until the sharpness can be felt under the finger.
- We switch to a medium-abrasive stone and repeat the operations, leaving a ground metal chamfer (burr) on the cutting edge.
- On a small (diamond) block, generously moistened with water, we finally remove the burr, forming a blade.
Editing on the belt
Conclusion
If necessary, you can make knives for wood cutting yourself - this is not particularly difficult even for a beginner. But the result will be that you have a tool that perfectly meets all your requirements.
You can learn more about the features of such devices, as well as the techniques for their manufacture, sharpening and use, in the video in this article.
1. Take a container board (board from a box) 10-12 mm thick from any wood, but without knots (Fig. 3).
2. Use a jigsaw or hacksaw to cut out two identical pieces 130 mm long and 32 mm wide (Fig. 4, a).
3. Sandpaper(“sandpaper”) wrapped around a small wooden block, process one wide side of each workpiece. This process is called grinding (Fig. 4. b).
4. After this, on the polished side of one of the workpieces, mark a groove (recess) for the knife blade (Fig. 4, b), and then use a flat chisel 10 mm wide to cut it (Fig. 5).
Rice. 3
Rice. 5
a-c - sequence of procedures
5. Insert a blade (which will be an old or broken blade from a hacksaw - Fig. 6, a), the length of which should be 65-70 mm, into the groove, having previously coated it and the entire surface on which it is placed with PVA glue (Fig. 6, b).
6. Now coat the polished side of the second workpiece with glue and carefully connect them (Fig. 7, a, b), then place them under a load or clamp them with clamps (Fig. 7, c).
7. When the glue dries, which takes 12 hours, use a sharp knife to cut the handle so that it fits comfortably in your hand. The handle can be of any shape (Fig. 8). After processing with a knife, sand the handle with fine-grained sandpaper.
Rice. 9
a - front view; b - right view
Figure 9 shows a drawing of a handle that is easy to manufacture and easy to use. Practice has shown that a knife with such a handle can be used by a carver with both small and large hands.
Now let's talk about sharpening. Your knife must always be sharp, otherwise you will not get any pleasure from carving. Therefore, pay special attention to sharpening. It is best to contact a specialist for this, but only if you do not have an electric drill at home.
The fact is that with the help of an electric drill you can not only drill holes, but also saw, grind, sharpen, mill. The drill is universal. A special clamp is sold for it, allowing it to be attached to the table. It resembles a clamp. Drills and other cutting tools are secured in the chuck. The abrasive wheel is purchased at the store along with the mandrel. This circle is the sharpening wheel. Having inserted it into the chuck and secured it, turn on the drill and start sharpening your knife.
First, you need to grind off the angle of the blade so that it is 6° relative to the cutting plane (Fig. 10). How to do this is shown in Fig. 11. Then you should sharpen the cutting surface, which should be 2-3 mm wide (Fig. 12). Sharpening is carried out on both sides until a burr appears on the blade.
Now sand on a fine-grained stone. Be sure to moisten the block with water. This is done so that the grains of the whetstone, under the pressure of the knife, turn into a kind of grinding paste that will remove the thinnest layer metal
To grind, the blade must be placed on the block with the cutting surface (Fig. 13), pressed and moved the knife back and forth until the burr disappears. Both cutting surfaces of the blade are subjected to grinding.
After this treatment, the knife becomes sharp, but we need the joint knife to be like a razor, that is, it should literally shave. This is the only way a carver should have a knife. And to do this, you also need to polish the cutting surfaces so that they become super smooth and clean. This is achieved by processing on a felt wheel coated with GOI polishing paste. The paste is a solid green block. It was invented for polishing optical glasses at the State Optical Institute (abbreviated as GOI), from which it got its name.
Polishing is again carried out using a drill, into which a mandrel with a felt wheel is fixed (all of the mandrels and fasteners listed are included in the kit of some drills, so buy a drill that is fully equipped).
I draw your attention to the fact that when polishing the knife (Fig. 14, b) you need to hold it differently than when sharpening (Fig. 14, a). If the correct technique is not used, you can damage the wheel and break the knife,
Now the jamb knife is ready for use. Treat your instrument with care. Make a foam cover and protect the blade with it (Fig. 15). After every 2-3 hours of continuous work, polish the cutting surfaces - and the knife will always be sharp. Cutting with such a tool will become a pleasure for you.
- Wood carving technique
- Let's make it ourselves
- Blade
- Lever
- Sharpening
Knives for wood carving are a must-have accessory in the arsenal of a craftsman who makes decorative objects from natural wood.
Such tools may have Various types and shape, which directly affects the specific processing of individual parts. The most famous cutter, which is very popular among our craftsmen, is the Bogorodsk knife.
Wood carving technique
Wood carving is a complex, but very interesting technology decorating products, known since ancient times. Getting started, as a rule, consists of creating a blank, or, more simply, a deck or blank. Next, a rough surface treatment is performed, during which it is leveled and all sorts of defects are removed. Then comes the turn artistic work, which the master carries out using wood carving cutters. Technically, this process looks like removing a piece of wood, which allows you to give the workpiece relief and volume. This stage can be called the main one, because it determines what the final appearance of the product will be. Finishing decorative item consists of sanding wood and impregnating it with antiseptics and paints and varnishes.
For execution self made of this type cutting devices with different blade configurations can be used. The purity of the ornament on the wood depends on their quality no less than on the skill of the carpenter, so it is necessary to ensure that the chisel blade is strong, sharp and free of jagged edges. If seasoned craftsmen will be able to determine the type and quality of carpenter's knives with their eyes closed, then the choice of wood cutters for beginners can be challenging task. For those who are not yet fully familiar with the features of choosing and manufacturing cutters, we suggest that you familiarize yourself in more detail with their main varieties and method of application. You can also learn how to make wood cutters yourself by giving them the required sizes and shapes.
Kinds
It is believed that master virtuosos can get by with one or two incisors, however, as practice shows, they can achieve best result and a good set of special carpentry tools, which includes chisels with blades of various shapes, will help make the work easier. Experts in this industry recommend adding the following items to your arsenal:
Along with devices for cutting openwork elements, there are also additional items that no carpenter can do without. Such tools include hacksaws, jigsaws, drills, wood hacksaws can be intended for roughing or finishing work(saber, bow).
Those craftsmen who work with large-sized structures acquire not only hacksaw tools, but also include hatchet cutters, or, as they are also called, figured adzes, in their arsenal. Their operating principle is similar to that of smaller cutting tools, with the only difference being the scale and purity of the process. Beginners who are just beginning to learn the craft do not understand the types of instruments as thoroughly as experienced craftsmen, so the main thing here is to observe Golden Rule– quality is above all. Since buying high-quality knives can be expensive, many people make cutters on their own, especially since today it’s easy to find on the Internet suitable videos and photo lessons. Next, we will tell you how to make knives for figured carving with your own hands from scrap materials.
Let's make it ourselves
Let’s say right away that it’s not always high price forces the carpenter to go to radical measures. Often, a good experienced craftsman cannot choose a tool for himself that would meet his requirements, and this also becomes a reason for independent work above the incisor. In principle, this problem is solved quite successfully, the main thing is to know what to make the cutters from and what technology to use in in this case.
Blade
In most cases, as raw materials for self-harvesting regular one will do canvas on wood or metal. You can make an excellent jamb knife from such material - just break it off by hand or cut a segment of the blade on a lathe, and then form a cutting edge. The wood saw blade also has decent characteristics suitable for our product, because it is very important what steel the knife is made from, and here we are dealing with a carbon metal that is easy to sharpen and remains sharp for a long time even when working with hard rocks tree.
If your future homemade cutter is intended for cutting wood, it should have a semicircular blade shape, and in this case it is better to make it from a punch, which can be found in almost every home workshop. In private carpentry workshops you can find homemade cutters made of bearings, which have also proven themselves well in operation.
Lever
When cutting part The chisel is ready, you can start making an equally important part of the tool - the handle. Here we will need a wooden block, and it is better if it is hardwood, from which we will need to cut a holder with a hole in the end. Please note that the shape of the hole must correspond to a similar parameter of the metal shank of a knife for wood carving, made with your own hands from a canvas or disk.
If a handle consisting of two parts is used to make a wood cutter, it is recommended to additionally fix the blade with fasteners and carry out the gluing process using a vice or clamps.
Sharpening
A carver can achieve a decent result in his artistic craft only if the tool he makes is sharp. When carving wood, knives tend to become dull, so a properly sharpened joint can work for a long time without re-processing.
All photos from the article
Experienced craftsmen can use even the simplest folding knives with a wooden handle to make various decorative crafts. However, a beginner should use a specialized tool for carving that will allow him to perform all basic operations without additional effort.
In our article we will tell you which knives can be used to process wood, and also provide recommendations for self-production and sharpening of such tools.
Description and types of instruments
Wood carving knives can have the most different shapes. As a rule, they differ from ordinary knives in having a shorter blade. This design feature is explained quite simply: when threading, the tip experiences a fairly strong load, and therefore the shorter the metal part, the less the risk of it breaking under pressure.
Depending on the type of design, there are several types of cutting knives.
| View | Peculiarities |
| Cutter | A universal knife that is used both for giving the main shape and for making small parts. The design usually features an elongated blade with a straight or curved cutting edge. The types of cutters are:
|
| Jamb | Structurally, a knife-jamb for wood carving follows the design of a cutter, however, it is characterized by a larger bevel angle of the blade. Due to this, the jamb can be subjected to heavy loads, which is actively used when carving on flat surfaces. At the same time, the technique of some craftsmen involves using a joint as the main knife due to a fairly long cutting edge. |
| Auxiliary tool | When performing carving, in addition to knives, craftsmen also use other cutting tools, such as:
In fact, all of them are not knives, but have a cutting edge. |
In addition, other tools used in mechanical woodworking are sometimes included in the classification.
These include:
- Wood milling knives are either whole cutters or removable parts of cutters.
- Planing knives for a wood lathe - used for machining elongated parts.
- Planing blades are used, as the name implies, in planing machines.
However, these and other types of parts for carving are used only as auxiliary ones, so we will not dwell on their description in detail.
Making a knife
Making a blade
When choosing a cutting knife, you should give preference to simple and reliable models made of high-quality steel. However, the price of such products is quite high, so beginners most often purchase cheaper models, and therefore are inevitably disappointed in the quality of the cutters.
The solution in such a situation may be to make a knife with your own hands. This task is solved quite simply, so even a beginner plumbing will be able to quickly acquire his own instrument.
First of all, we need to find a suitable material. This is not difficult since we need a fairly small piece of good steel.
The following can be used as a blank for a future knife:
- A strip of good steel is about 8 - 12 cm long, up to 2.5 cm wide and 1.5 - 2.2 mm thick. The brand does not play a special role, as long as the material is strong enough and holds an edge well - R6 / R6M5, and R9, and even R3AM3F2 will do.
Conclusion
If necessary, you can make knives for wood cutting yourself - this is not particularly difficult even for a beginner. But the result will be that you have a tool that perfectly meets all your requirements.
You can learn more about the features of such devices, as well as the techniques for their manufacture, sharpening and use, in the video in this article.