
Wood carving tools overview - wiherek
http://davidffisher.com/frequently_asked_questions
======
k2enemy
Kind of a fun thing to see on HN. If you enjoy this, you might also like frank
howarth's videos on youtube. He puts in a ton of time to do stop motion
animations of his projects coming to life.

[https://www.youtube.com/user/urbanTrash/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/urbanTrash/videos)

~~~
weaksauce
It always delights me when an email shows up saying that frank howereth
uploaded a new video to YouTube... I know what the next 15 minutes are going
to be used for. Can't recommend him more.

~~~
digitalsushi
And the other 50% of woodworkers worth watching
[https://www.youtube.com/user/Matthiaswandel](https://www.youtube.com/user/Matthiaswandel)

------
dahjelle
If you are in to this sort of thing, my wife (who carves a pretty spoon
herself) maintains a list of links to carvers, tool-makers, and the like at
[http://jarofwood.com/spoon-links/](http://jarofwood.com/spoon-links/).

------
ChoGGi
If you have (lots) of extra money to spend, then there's always Lee Valley
Tools

[http://www.leevalley.com/en/home/OnlineCatalog.aspx?id=0a61b...](http://www.leevalley.com/en/home/OnlineCatalog.aspx?id=0a61ba28)

(They do ship internationally and to the U.S.)

~~~
ne8il
Lee Valley / Veritas and Lie Nielsen have helped usher in a renaissance of
well-made tools. Their planes and saws are arguably better than any produced
during the 'golden age' before WWII. There are cheaper options from abroad
available (WoodRiver, Quangsheng, etc) but I like spending the extra money
knowing its supporting good, customer-focused companies who care about the
craft.

(But I also like finding/restoring old Stanley planes when possible, which is
cheap _and_ ethically satisfying).

------
matthoiland
More fun with bowl carving with Roy Underhill.
[http://video.pbs.org/video/2365554475/](http://video.pbs.org/video/2365554475/)

------
Isamu
Unexpected, but glad to see this as I also have some logs drying that I intend
to carve into bowls. Thanks for the tips!

Also you can make your own tools from scrap tool steel. I made a hand adze
from a broken horse hoof rasp when I was a kid. Encourage your kids to hack
stuff and make their own tools.

~~~
kd0amg
How much hot work was involved there? I sorta skimmed the bits about
particular products because I'd probably aim to make my own tools for this
sort of thing.

~~~
Isamu
Well true, I did have access to an old coal furnace and I hammered out the
basic shape. I bent the tang to follow the shape of the handle, flattened out
the burrs and shaped the blade. Not sure if it was essential to do this all
hot, but on the other hand I didn't have a bench grinder or much else, so I
was going to have to get the final shape by hand.

~~~
kd0amg
Yeah, without a grinder, you'd pretty much have to do it hot. I've run across
some knife makers who work entirely by stock removal, and I could imagine
someone just grinding an edge into the end of a salvaged rasp and calling that
it.

------
yamafaktory
I really appreciate the work of Peter Follansbee, who makes reproductions of
17th-century oak furniture, spoons and bowls with hand woodworking tools
[https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/](https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/)

------
n00b101
This is really cool! Another fun way is to use a lathe (I guess that would be
called "turning" a bowl rather than "carving" a bowl). Using a lathe would be
much faster and wood lathes are relatively inexpensive.

~~~
Someone1234
Undeniably true, that's how wooden bowls are typically made now.

But I cannot help but feel like using a lathe misses the point of hand carving
a wooden bowl. In the same way most whittling could technically be
accomplished much faster using a dremel.

------
Animats
That's so retro. I'd use a ShopBot CNC router, with a 1/2" carbide end mill
for the roughing, then a 1/8" ball cutter for finishing. Then sand and polish.

------
wiherek
that's awesome, I was playing with trying to carve a bowl, thought I might be
using the wrong tools, found that, looked good, great references thanks guys

