What chisels to buy?

[J.P. Rap]

I recently found out we have a Coat of Arms and my uncle has asked me to carve it. Well, I don't carve but Im always up for a challenge.
I have done a bit of carving on a couple of my turnings but nothing to brag about. Im sure it would help if I wasn't using a caving set from the buck store. :P

Here's what I need. A cheep set of carving chisels that will do the job. I have little interest in carving so, other than this project, they will see VERY little use. Any suggestions of were to buy or what chisels will best suit this project would be appreciated

Once I get the pic of the Coat of Arms, I would like to get some pointers on were to start and a few tips to get me going.

I expect this project to take a year or so since Ill be doing it a little at a time, between jobs. (That and the fact that I don't carve)

If anyone is interested in trying to teach this old dog a new trick, I would be glad to give some turning lessons in exchange.

Thanx!
J.P.

Oh...BTW... I have always heard bass is the best for carving but I recall somebody mentioning a better wood for the task. I think it was tulip but that's just a guess. What do you suggest?

[Shawn in Cambridge]

Hey J.P. have you tried looking in Canadian Tire or Michaels Craft Store for inexpensive chisel sets, even Home Depot or Rona should have decent sets. I use a set from Canadian Tire when I work with soapstone and they work great. You'll probably need to sharpen them yourself though. As for carving wood, Basswood and Tupelo are easy to carve as well as Butternut. A family coat of arms sounds like a cool project, good luck with it.

[J.P. Rap]

Hey J.P. have you tried looking in Canadian Tire or Michaels Craft Store for inexpensive chisel sets, even Home Depot or Rona should have decent sets. I use a set from Canadian Tire when I work with soapstone and they work great.
Hi Shawn. No I haven't actually looked at any chisles yet. Your suggestion about the CTC set is exactly what I was looking for. A cheep set that somebody has tried and is happy with. If I planned on doing a lot of carving, I would go for a good set... but I don't.

You'll probably need to sharpen them yourself though.

Ill just follow the sharpening instructions in the last CWW mag and I should be all set. I expected to have to sharpen them regardles of what brand I buy.

As for carving wood, Basswood and Tupelo are easy to carve as well as Butternut.

Maybe that was it. Tupelo. Is it similar to bass in appearence? I didn't know butternut was good for carving. I have turnned a bit but never tried carving it.

A family coat of arms sounds like a cool project, good luck with it.
Ya...Cool eh? I was surprised to find out. Im still waiting for the pic. I think Ill email him again with a reminder. This is going to be one of those projects that Ill work on when I don't feel like doing anything else...If you know what I mean. As soon as I have the pic and the wood Ill be posting some pics to get some advice on were to start.

Thanx for the help.
J.P.

[Mack C. in Brooklin ON]

Give Dennis a call and tell him I sent you! and have a look here.

http://www.chippingaway.com/

They are the largest mail order carving supply house in Canada.

[J.P. Rap]

Thanx Mack.
Great link.
Ill give them a call when I'm ready to get started.
J.P.

[Robbie@Napanee]

Hi J.P., You may want to rethink this. A Dremel tool with the router attachment and some bits. Paste the image to the piece of basswood or pine or butternut and do your relief carving that way? Just another angle on how you may want to do this. Cheap carving chisels are going to turn you off of carving faster road kill served for the main coarse! Like anything else in this huge hobby,bad tools are a turn off and can really be hard on your end results. Just some down to earth thinking and I know that no matter what, you'll do a great job.
Cheers, Robbie.
BTW, You can use your regular router to do relief carving also.

[Brian in Whitby]

Give Dennis a call and tell him I sent you! and have a look here.

http://www.chippingaway.com/

They are the largest mail order carving supply house in Canada.


Mack............... :shock: Chipping Away,.... isn't the only store in Canada. There ones that have better quality and certainly , better cost.

Cheers, Brian. :D

[Mack C. in Brooklin ON]

Hi Brian; here's what I said "They are the LARGEST mail order carving supply house in Canada."

If you are aware of any other Canadian mail order service that offers better quality at better cost and service, by all means let everybody in on the secret.

[Bill Simpson]

Shopless, sense you aren't a wood carver and it would be an alful expense for aset of carving chisels to take a stab at the skill. why not try Intarsa as a way to create the coat of arms. A scroll saw and a pattern, cut segments of the design, round the edges and glue to a panel even use different species of wood for colors. Might be a fun project. Or a fun way to approach the project.

[J.P. Rap]

Hi Bill.
Thats certainly a good idea but I have no intrest at all in taking up intarsia. It does nothing for me. On the other hand, I have done a little (very little) carving and it's nice to be able to dress up the odd turning with some carving.
I think it would be a lot cheeper to buy a fair set of carving chisels than to buy a good scrollsaw and since scroll sawing isn't my cup of tea either, it would be rather foolish of me to move in that direction.

Thanx for the suggestion.

This is the first carving I did. Not much , just some relief at the bottom. It's not much of a pic but it's all I have. (Honey locust)
J.P.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid20/p6fa5109eab6475095f02fe358f0102fe/fdba3621.jpg

[J.P. Rap]

A Dremel tool with the router attachment and some bits. Paste the image to the piece of basswood or pine or butternut and do your relief carving that way?
Cheap carving chisels are going to turn you off of carving faster road kill served for the main coarse!


Hi Robbie.
I have tried that in the past and I think Im going to stick to carving. I've never been able to get good results with a dremel tool unless Im using it to polish small parts or drill small holes. Thats about it. :(

Believe me. Im all too familiar with cheep tools. I figure as long as I keep them sharp, I should be ok. As I mentioned, I don't plan on getting into a lot of carving. Im only interested in doing this one project and perhaps dress up the occasional turning.
Thanx for the suggestion.
J.P.

[Kerry in Fort Sask, AB]

I have little interest in carving so, other than this project, they will see VERY little use.
I expect this project to take a year or so since Ill be doing it a little at a time, between jobs. (That and the fact that I don't carve)

If I planned on doing a lot of carving, I would go for a good set... but I don't.

As I mentioned, I don't plan on getting into a lot of carving.

Now JP, just so we're clear - do you or do you not want to get heavilly into carving? :)

Just kidding - as I was reading through this thread I was chuckling - this fellow is making darn sure we know he doesn't want to carve for a hobby :-)

Cheers,
Kerry

[J.P. Rap]

Now JP, just so we're clear - do you or do you not want to get heavilly into carving? :)

Cheers,
Kerry

Well...Ida know. Im still really on the fence about it. Maybe I should pick up a set of titanium chisels with gold plated handles. Just in case I decide I want to do a lot more carving. I think a 100 piece set should do for now. You know, Just to get started. Whata you think?

:P :P
J.P.

[Brian in Whitby]

Hi Brian; here's what I said "They are the LARGEST mail order carving supply house in Canada."

If you are aware of any other Canadian mail order service that offers better quality at better cost and service, by all means let everybody in on the secret.

T.O.W. Well Mack, I have purchased PFEIL, (made in Swizerland) carving chisels They are extremely high quality. When Gordon Meincke was still in business, he had the Canadian operations. When he shut down (retired) from his business he had 50% off and more.. So, Tom and some other carvers, had a field day. The reason I chose these is; #1 All PFEIL tools are sharpened and honed, ready to use. #2 Blades electronically hardened to exacting tolerances, tempered to RC 59-61. #3 Long blade length between 110-135mm.Overall tool length 245-270 mm. There is another seller . in Sarnia and charges a bit more and sends anywere

LEE VALLEY, Have good chisels but some aren't sharpened. They carry a large variety of sweeps and #'s....Hirsch, Narex, Japanise chisels, Sorby and Two Cherries and Vertias. They send From Canada to any place in the world.

CHIPPING AWAY, well, expensive and not much variety especally in sweeps and #'s are concerned. I bought one palm chisel made in Austria STUBA. It cost 35.00, plus..... shipping. They have alot of palm handled chisels and small ones for carditure carvings. but not very many medium or large chisels. So, thats my secret. How about yours?

[Brian in Whitby]

Did you complete that coat of arms yet?

[Brian in Whitby]

Oh, by the way if still interested I'll trade with you if not too far away........

[Ed in Leaside]

... if still interested I'll trade with you if not too far away........

That was a long nap you took from this thread. Almost 4 years. :D Any chance you're related to someone named Rip. :)

[Brian in Whitby]

I guess it was. Water goes under the bridge rapidly......Went away and didn't follow up. But I'm bk. Cheers
Brian. RAP still around?

[J.P. Rap]

I guess this explains why I didn't recall making that post when I saw the title.:shock:

Mack kindly donated a nice set of chisels that I managed to get a razor sharp edge on. I dug some basswood out of the log pile, sawed it up into planks and prepared it.
That's as far as I got.:oops: I still intend to do it. I just don't know when the mood will strike again.
...but thanx for the interest.:thumbup:

[KenL]

I guess this explains why I didn't recall making that post when I saw the title.:shock:

Mack kindly donated a nice set of chisels that I managed to get a razor sharp edge on. I dug some basswood out of the log pile, sawed it up into planks and prepared it.
That's as far as I got.:oops: I still intend to do it. I just don't know when the mood will strike again.
...but thanx for the interest.:thumbup:


Jeez, the guys have a pretty good memory and hang on like a starving dog on a steak don't they JP??!!

A note to potential carvers, if you ever hope to master woodcarving; you need to use carving tool shapes like gouges in addition to chisels:D

Ken in Ottawa

[wilson]

My wife bought me a Henry Taylor set last yr for christmas ,it was the short ones , I luv them,great to work with ,easy to handle when carving .

[OttawaP]

I know even less than you JP about carving but I would buy a very good set and plan to sell it after the project. The difference is probably equal to a cheap set that has no value when the project is finished. this way you probably break even and at least have quality tools to work with while you do the project.

My $.02

[Mark in Burlington]

I noticed BB is selling this set on sale for $28.00. Anyone tried these? It has a Smith and Wesson name on it, made in China I bet. Looks nice in the picture but the only really way to tell is try them. :confused:
http://www.busybeetools.com/pictures/SW1092.jpg

[mreza]

I noticed BB is selling this set on sale for $28.00. Anyone tried these? It has a Smith and Wesson name on it, made in China I bet. Looks nice in the picture but the only really way to tell is try them. :confused:
http://www.busybeetools.com/pictures/SW1092.jpg

Let's see, a dozen chisels at $28 is less than $2.5 each. I bought my Henry Taylor carving set at about $240 for a 7 piece set which is more than $34 a piece.
If you want to learn sharpening that might not be a bad set (I once bought an 8 piece chisel set for $17 just to practice sharpening) but I doubt any of them will hold a sharp edge to be useful.

[J.P. Rap]

Thanx for the replies guys. Just in case you didn't notice, I asked the question in April of 06.

[mreza]

Thanx for the replies guys. Just in case you didn't notice, I asked the question in April of 06.

Yeah, I saw it and your more recent reply before i posted.

[asindero]

I noticed BB is selling this set on sale for $28.00. Anyone tried these? It has a Smith and Wesson name on it, made in China I bet.

Smith and Wesson makes guns. They don't use lemon steel for guns, do they?

Once I got touch dimmer switches for $3 a piece at Rona. Now the same switch is about $40. When CT offers introductory sale, grab it because they will never give the same price again.

My point is, it might be an introductory price.

[Wallace's Dad]

Smith & Wesson make quality firearms but they also sell alot of accessories such as knives which are made under licence but are not made in U.S.. Most of their knives have been coming out of Taiwan for a long time and Japan before that but it wouldn't surprise me that some come out of China.
Hopefully they would not let a company sell a product with their name on it if it was junk.
Stu

[KenL]

They might!! My son was given a boxed set of Winchester (the famous firearms company) knives as a gift a few years ago. As knives go; they looked really nice in the box. The knives were made in China and the blades are a soft as ---- (fill in your own descriptor to taste). In short, trash with an excellent name emblazoned on it.

Ken in Ottawa

[Backflush]

Anyone have a CNC router. It could pump out the coat of arms in no time. Since you have no interest in carving it should take less than 4 years. There are some cool programs that can take a picture and render the machine code to carve it.