Sharpening Wood Carving Tools/Knives

Many beginning wood carvers ask for tips on how to get started of right with wood carving. The Number 1 most important thing that a wood carver can do to ensure that they are successful at wood carving, is always have SHARP tools.

There are several things that wood carvers need to know to keep their wood carving tools sharp.

Always remember that when your tools are sharp, only re-sharpen if the tools: break, chip or need to be reshaped.
Sharp tools are actually safer to use than dull tools. They move easier through the wood and don’t hang up as often and then unexpectedly come free causing slicing and puncture woods.
Choose good quality sharpening equipment. This can be anything from using sharpening stones by hand, to using power sharpening systems. No matter what method you use, the end result should always be the same. You want a “wire” edge with the proper bevel on the tool.
Constantly and consistently use a strop.

Stops are usually made of a piece of leather with the fuzzy side up, glued to a flat wooden paddle. An abrasive compound is then added to the leather to aid in removing a very fine amount of metal from the tool as you pull the tool across the leather. Remember, when stropping, you are not pushing the cutting edge of the tool against the leather, you are pulling the cutting edge away from the leather.

When sharpening a wood carving knife, the bevel is the focus of your sharpening efforts. The bevel is the degree of angle from the thick non-sharpened edge down to the fine sharpened edge of the wood carving knife. The bevel acts as a wedge and does the work by cutting through the carving wood. The amount and length of bevel on a wood carving knife affects the way that the knife cuts and carves your wood.

There are advantages and disadvantages to various bevels. The longer the bevel, the sharper and easier it is to cut through the wood, but it also makes the cutting edge weaker and can break. A shorter bevel, somewhat like the bevel on a pocket knife, allows the cutting edge to be stronger, but will not penetrate the wood as easily and can hang up in the wood, causing the wood to chip or break. The hardness and density of the wood that you are carving also has to be considered when choosing a bevel.

There are three common bevels that differ by the shape in which the blade is ground:

Hollow Bevel

This bevel is characterized by using a rounded sharpening stone or tool and the blade is ground with a slight rounding in on each side, causing a fast inward slope to the cutting edge. This bevel is favored by some carvers and cuts well, but also may break or chip easier than other bevels.

Rounded Bevel

This bevel is the opposite of hollow ground. It is ground in a rounded motion that causes the blade to slope or round out to the cutting edge. This bevel is stronger, but is also not as easy to cut into the wood very deeply.

Flat Bevel

This bevel provides a balance between blade strength and cutting ability. A flat bevel is produced by laying the blade of the knife flat on the sharpening stone or cutting wheel. This approach will grind the blade at a straight angle to the cutting edge.

No matter what bevel you grind the wood carving knife to, the end result when done properly, will be a “wire” edge. The wire edge is essentially when one side of the cutting edge is sharpened until it cannot get any thinner and will bend over to the other side. When this occurs, you will sharpen the other side until it too produces a wire edge.

After both sides of the blade are sharpened evenly and a wire edge has been created, you will use a strop loaded with stropping compound to polish the wire edge away and leave a razor sharp cutting edge on the wood carving knife. Strop the wood carving knife by laying the blade flush with the strop, aligning it at the same angle that you sharpened the blade to. Now pull the blade away from the cutting edge along the strop, being careful to maintain a constant angle.

There are different types of wood carving tools and when it comes to keeping them sharp, there are varying challenges based on the shape of the cutting edge.

V-tools

V-tools are basically just two chisels joined together at a point in the middle. When sharpening or stropping a v-tool, you will treat the cutting edges as two separate chisels. When done properly and evenly, the area where the two sides join will take care of itself. You are sharpening the outside of the cutting edge and then you can use a leather string or thin piece of leather folded up, to run along the inside of the tool to remove any wire edge.

Gouges

Gouges are rounded tools that cut grooves and dips in the wood. To sharpen and strop gouges, you will run the outside edge of the blade along your sharpening stone or strop to enhance the cutting edge. then you can use a thin folded piece of leather to run along the inside of the cutting edge to remove the wire edge and polish the cutting edge.

It is very important to remember that once you have a sharp edge on your wood carving tools, you should use a strop to maintain the cutting edge and keep it sharp. Unless you damage the cutting edge or the bevel is not correct on the cutting edge, you should not use a sharpening stone or grinding tool on the cutting edge.

As you carve, you will notice that the cutting edge of your wood carving tool isn’t cutting as efficiently and that it when you should stop and use your strop to bring the cutting edge back to a useful edge. By keeping your wood carving tools sharp, you will increase your satisfaction with your wood carvings and will grow as a wood carver.

Now that you have an idea of how to keep your wood carving tools sharp, it is time to practice what you have learned and then keep practicing your wood carving.

Another nice presentation about how to sharpen wood carving tools and knives can be found on the Northwest Carvers Association website.