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Greetings from Austria, I am new to the forum and new to Chip Carving and got a few questions on the matter, that some more experienced folks can hopefully help me with. Heres the Knives (2 Pfeil and 1 Stubai) https://puu.sh/yOhJz/3ee7afab4d.jpg and Carving i did so far https://puu.sh/yJ7mt/eb48567364.jpg and https://puu.sh/yJ7pV/ff31938da4.jpg</p>
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Now to the Questions</p>
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1.) How do you carve in terms of Workholding and "posture" for lack of a better term, do you carve on a table? workbench? sitting? Wayne Barton says in his book to sit down and hold the piece in your lap i find that works well for reasonably big pieces of Wood but im having trouble holding on to smaller practice boards that way.</p>
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2.)How do you use the longer knives properly? theres a lot of material on how to hold shorter knives (Waynes Book, Youtube etc.), but i didnt really find anything on how to use the Knives with longer blades like the Stubai in the picture linked above, or the other traditional german style knives. Reason im asking is that the short Pfeil knife is too wide to get around tight turns without chatter, the Stubai has a good shape for that but due to its lenght i cant use the same technique very well.</p>
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3.)Sharpening, again im a bit confused Wayne says that the correct angle to sharpen is no secondary bevel at the beginning of his book but goes on to sharpen a secondary bevel at 10 degree either side in the sharpening section. So whats the right way now? shallow secondary bevel or no? What kinda Edge geometry and angle range am i aiming for? i got plenty experience with Chisels, Kitchen+general purpose Knives however just about none concerning chip carving knives.</p>
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I got a whole range of Diamond stones (Eze-Lap, DMT) from 150 to 8000 Grit, a couple older Waterstones and some strops with different compounds from Aluminium Oxide to 1micron Diamond paste available to me.</p>
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4.)Which knife do you use mainly? I like the steel of both the Stubai and the Pfeil but i dont find the handles comfortable for longer periods of carving. So I am kinda looking for something a little more ergonomic, any recommendations you could give me or should i try to make a new handle for the knives i do have? Please keep in mind I am from europe so a source that ships over here would be much appreciated.</p>
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I hope my english is understandable enough, Regards Philipp.</p>