Carving tool question

[James Nugnes]

I have a question about carving gouges. I carve alot...I mean I carve alot....selling my wares when I can. I have many many carving gouges. When I started I just took my lead from posts I saw about starter kits and put together my first sets based on what I thought I would use for my particular subject matter and scale. I started with intermediate sized pfeil gouges thinking that I could spend the money most efficiently if I started there. To be honest upon reflection, I would call that a mistake. I only use the intermediates now when I don't have a full size in a particular shape/size. That is a heck of a note since I probably have maybe twenty intermediates.

Anyway, as any other carver will likely tell you, the #6 gouges are often ignored and I have managed to ignore them as well. That said, if you carve alot, while you don't always have to have the optimal tool for a particular job in your hand, it helps more often than not. It helps the quality of the work as well as your own working efficiency.

So whats the deal here? If you have 5's and 7's will you never want for a #6 of any depth?

Has anybody found themselves where I am and finally gotten a #6 only to now find it just as useful if not more so for whatever reason?

[Robert Engel]

I think the reason they are forgotten is a few sizes of 3's, 5's, 7's, 9's overlap them in usefulness.

I am not a very experienced carver like you, but I find myself often making a gouge work when I probably should be using a different one.

[Bob Glenn]

I carve mostly volutes on Windsor chair crests and hand holds. I have a full set of sweeps, since I plunge the outline curve with say a number 6, the excavate with a five, plunge with a seven, exavate the outside with a six. If you carve a lot, go a head and spend the extra forty bucks or so on your six. Just sayin.