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Thread: Spoon carving knife

  1. #1

    Spoon carving knife

    I'm not sure if this should go into Neander or Woodcarvers but i figure i'll put it here.

    I'm planning on making a Spoon carving hook knife and want to use some steel from an antique hand saw. Is that steel going to be thick enough or will it flex too much? I'm thinking since the blade will only be ~2" it shouldn't flex too much but i don't want to go through this much work if it's going to be junk.

    Thanks,
    Mike
    ~Everyone has the strength, few possess the will~

  2. #2
    I've made quite a few knives/chisels out of old saw blade metal. One thing I'm sure you realize is the metal is tempered. You'll have to remove the temper to shape the blade, then re-temper it as well as anneal it to remove brittleness from the tempering. The average ( handsaw?) blade should work fine. As far as flex is concerned, once metal is curved it can take on a bit more rigidity. Think of a piece of paper, it's floppy until you curve it then it becomes more rigid and maintains a curve. Roll it into a cylinder and it can become quite stiff.
    Working with metals is fun to see what you can come up with. The tempering and annealing can be tricky to get right, but most tool steels seem to work well regardless to some extent.
    But I have to admit, carving spoons of most any depth and curve, it's hard to beat a decent #7 gouge or so. I can knock out the bowl of a spoon in just a few passes quite quickly and easily without much fuss. Using a knife , in my perspective, would be a last choice. I'm just not a fan of knives in my line of work. Two hands guiding a chisel offers more control and power but that's just my opinion.
    Last edited by Mark Yundt; 08-24-2011 at 10:07 AM.
    The Woodworking Studio

  3. #3
    Thanks for the info Mark. I guess I'll try it. I found a good tutorial on making them on Knol which covers tempering but wasn't sure about the saw metal "which is the only scrap metal I have"
    ~Everyone has the strength, few possess the will~

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