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Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge

Craftsman 12" Bandsaw – Fully Rebuilt + Turning Blanks

carving tools

Posts

carving tools

#1

carving tools

John Lucas

>Dominic brought up the question of what carving tools does Keith use. I thought this would be a good topic for everyone. I play with carving but I'm really an amatuer. I have a flex shaft tool that I got for $10 at the flea mkt. It's not a foredom, doesn't have the power and only runs at 10K but it hogs off wood much faster than my Dremel. The flex shaft has broken twice but came loose at the ends and I resolder them.

the Dremel is a tool I use a lot. It not a hogging tool but with good cutters you can do a lot. I buy cutters from www.riogrande.com or from Woodcraft.

I have a mediocre set of hand carving tools. I can put a razor edge on knives and plane irons but always have trouble getting these really sharp. I think it's me not the tools. I just need more practice.

I need more sanding tools. I have some drums that I use on my flex shaft machine but the smaller flap sanders are pretty high priced for the limited use I get out of them. What do you all use.

Re: carving tools

#2

Re: carving tools

John U - Charlotte, NC

>John -- I saw a demonstration at a Carolina Symposium a few years ago where the demonstrator made his own "star" sander for a dremel -- just cut off 1/4" strips, about 1.5" long or so, punched a small center hole in each, screwed it onto a blank Dremel mandrel, and spread the star out. I can't remember who the demonstrator was, but he used this on a basketweave carving he was showing, and it worked well.

Re: carving tools

#3

Re: carving tools

John Lucas

>That may have been David Nittman. I'll try that. I bought a handpiece for my flex shaft that holds a 1/4" bit. I use a 2" sanding disc on my 2" holder to sand some of the pieces. It works really well.

Re: carving tools

#4

Re: carving tools

Pascal Oudet

>there is a useful accessory here for Dremel-like machines called a "fly". just a small rod (3mm diameter, 5cm long) with a slit at one end. put a small strip of sanding paper in the slit, and run the Dremel. the noise is similar to a (big) fly, thus the name. it's used my many turners to sand some complex shapes (Alain Mailland, Marc Ricourt for example).

as far as carving is concerned, I use normal hand carving tools (Pfeil from Swiss, and Kirschen from Germany), and was recommended to look at jewelry suppliers for bits in the Dremel: your link to riogrande confirms this.

Pascal

Re: carving tools

#5

Re: carving tools

John Lucas

>Pascal

I have one of the "Fly's. I haven't used it for sanding yet but put a piece of cloth in there and charged it with rouge to buff the feed ramp on my Colt 380. Stopped the occasional feed ramp jam.

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