My knives

Here are 5 knives that I do most of my carving with, and have made many of my other carving tools redundant!

       Lignum vitae               Lacewood             Brazilian tulip/ebony        Mora                                         

On the far right is a Swedish Mora knife that I purchased many years ago. It has a 5 cms blade and a 10.5 cms handle and is fine for roughing out shapes. The 4 knives on the left are typical of North American style knives with a 3 cms blade and a 13 cms handle. The steel blades I source from Warren Cutlery www.warrencutlery.com and the handles I made from attractive hardwoods gathering dust in my workshop. The broader blades are for heavy roughing-out work and the slimmer blades for fine detail work. The handles are designed to fit my hand after an article published in Woodcarving Illustrated Spring 2011 by Carl Johnson. They are extremely comfortable to use in a wide range of cutting modes. In particular I find the North American style of knife allows me a greater level of cut control where the hand grip is close to the cutting tip.