knife choices for fine work?

[CeeCee_C]

All -


I'm frustrated with the tips breaking off of #11 xacto blades. When the tip is lost in something relatively unimportant, no sweat.

But if a blade tip were to break off in an instrument I was buildiing, it'd be a big deal.

So I'd like to take a poll of the experienced luthiers in the "room". How many of you use xacto knives or equivalent and how many of you use traditional knives and resharpen them?

Thanks,

[fscotte]

Wayne Henderson uses a pocket knife.

[Lefty Luthier]

I regularly use a DeWalt utility knife that has the segmented blade. When the using one is shot, just snap it off and extend the blade to the next one. I have found that the Xacto blades are not worth the cost when compared to the DeWalt.

[billhay4]

These are nice as are these.
Bill

[bernabe]

I use the xacto blades of different shapes for cleaning bindings where a standard razor/utility blade wont get clearance [scroll area,etc] and for trimming an occasional semi hardened varnish drip during finishing. I use small chisels and knives for cutting wood detail.

[michaelcj]

I use traditional knives from the ubiquitous "violin makers" knife to N.W Native hooked knives to my trusty Schrade Old Timer whose blades have been sharpened so many times that the original shape is long gone. That being said the exacto is a must have in the shop for lifting masking tape and a variety of other uses... most of them not cutting wood.

Mike J

[Marty Jacobson]

I've always used bare utility knife or Red Devil razor blades. Until last batch, when I cut across my knuckles. It could have been bad.... I could have gotten blood on an instrument! So now I've gone back to using card scrapers of various sizes and shapes for everything. Much more controllable, it is virtually impossible to cut yourself, and they are far cheaper in the long run.

[sunburst]

My Case XX split back whittler pocket knife is my favorite for detail work. I wore one out and found that it was out of production when I tried to find another, so the one I have now came from an antique store and I ruined it's collector value when I sharpened it for the first time. (For knife collectors, roughly the equivalent of refinishing a pristine A-2 or something.)

[Tom Haywood]

I recently bought an Xacto knife to scribe the channel to inlay a back strip. Can't imagine anything else would work as well. My main tool, though, is a Barlow pocket knife that I bought for whittling sometime around 1965 when I was a kid.

[CeeCee_C]

Bill -

Thanks for the links. These are pretty much what I was thinking of.

[Jim Hilburn]

You might try some #2 exactos which are larger than 11's. but get excels. They're made in America, sharper, cheaper and better.

[calden]

Try #24. Less pointed, so the blade is less likely to break off. I also use to do a lot of bas relief woodcarving and find I use those tools a lot. One would think there would be less control for fine work with a long blade but I get tremendous precision using one or two of these. http://www.woodcraft.com/category/10...ing-tools.aspx

[barry k]

A number 6 surgical knife with # 25 removable blades......been using them for 20 years

[testore]

Japanese knives are without comparison.

[HoGo]

Japanese knives are without comparison.

There are folks who would argue these are too brittle :-)
I personally use pocket knife wherever possible (it has quite soft blade so I sharpen it with few strokes over 1200 grit paper evrytime I take it to my hand) works great for me. I have some exacto blades set into wood handles and use them for some fine detail work where little cutting is done.

[oldwave maker]

My 3 go to knives, top is buck rancher blade epoxied into scrap curly maple, mostly used as a small scraper, the other 2 are german from woodworkers supply or woodcraft, middle one started as shape of lower one, but gets sharpened a lot.

[David Houchens]

http://www.internationalviolin.com/i...ItemCode=T1001 I have one of these with the adjustable wooden handle and a larger one without handle that I use a lot. Still use exacto knives daily as well, but not for carving much.

[David Houchens]

I just looked and I have the 6mm, not the 3.5 knife w/handle. Might have to get that one as well.

[kjbllc]

making your own knives is rewarding and fairly cheap but of course you have to invest your time. you can use old knives, hacksaw blades, grind them to you specs and put a handle on them.
I also use the scalpel #10 I think, Japanese knives are very nice also.
and then there is the joy of sharpening!!

[Timbofood]

Very interesting carving knife place in Dover, OH. Warther knife co. I have a couple of their kitchen knives and they are very nice!
Small company, good folks to support. NFI
The museum is a TON of fun, train carving, special, amazing stuff and a button museum to boot! Anybody that has ever sharpened a knife blade, of has any interest in carving should treat themselves to this place! I don't know Boo about anything else in the area but, the folks there are way yonder too much fun to visit with...... I need to go back!

[joec]

Some more knife info in this thread.
also: Japan Woodworker has some of my favorite blades--very fine tools which hold an edge for a long time. They are very thick, so better to use the Hock blades if you plan on reshaping significantly.

You can still snap a tip off in the work, though, even with one of these high quality blades, especially cutting purfling or binding channels. And then you've got a lot of re-grinding to do! It's best NEVER to put lateral or prying force on the knife tip.

Joe

[Stephen Perry]

Knives are very interesting things. I went from a few, to lots with different shapes, to a few well-worn reshaped and home made ones, old friends. I'm thinking they are sorting into rolls with a roll for this operation and a roll for that. All my tools seem to be sorting out that way. Certainly cutting a blade for a single hard operation that gets done every time is worth while!

I never use exacto knives. I have used scalpels. I just can't find the things - moving a shop is horrible!

[fishtownmike]

I use a few violin knives. I also use a couple of the Flexcut brand carving knifes. I like their detail and roughing knives....Mike

[CeeCee_C]

Thank you all for the great ideas!

[belbein]

Thank you all for the great ideas!

Here's one more, for those of y'all inclined to make your own tools. I was on the National Mall, at the tail end of the National Folk Festival, on Saturday. One of the exhibitors was a master carver from Hungary. He does these beautiful carvings and engravings on wood and on bone. For bone, he uses a knife made from a piece cut from a circular saw blade and then sharpened. The pointy edge--which is what he uses as a scribe--is the angle between the toothed hypotenuse and the long edge which runs along a radius of the saw blade.

Obviously, much, much more durable than an Exacto knife or disposable scalpel.

And by the way, he uses his thumb planted on the piece, and engraves in a motion that traces an arc ... he said (in Hungarian, via a translator) that it's important in order to be able to both get force on the point and also to get vertical pressure.