How To Pick The Best Wood Carving Knife For You
Table of Contents
When looking for the best wood carving knife there are a lot of different options to choose from. This guide is designed to help you know what buying criteria you should look at when purchasing a wood carving knife.
Knife Blade Type
Fixed Blade
With a fixed blade carving knife you will get a blade that is specially designed for wood carving. Fixed blade designed knifes means that the blade cannot be folded, these types of knives will typically come with a sheath to protect the knife when it’s not in use. Wood carving blades are typically going to be short with blade lengths typically under 3 inches.
Morakniv Wood Carving 120 Knife with Laminated Steel Blade
Folding Blade
Folding wood carving knives or pocket knives are designed to have their blade or blades fold into the handle of the knife. With these sorts of wood carving knives you don’t have to have a sheath for them as the handle of the knife will protect you from the blades as long as they are folded up. This makes folding wood carving knives typically easier to carry in your pocket. Some folding wood carving knives will also feature multiple wood carving tools to help you with specific wood carving tasks.
Sharpness
The sharpness of the wood carving knife that you go with is going to be one of the main factors you will want to look for. The sharper your blade the easier you will be able to make cuts and slices to your wood carving project. You will want to look for a blade that is designed to hold it’s edge and sharpness for a long time. Typically you will want to go with a blade that is made from high carbon steel as high carbon steel blades are designed to hold their edge and sharpness longer.
Size
With wood carving knives usually a smaller knife is going to be preferred over a large one because of the need to be precise with your cuts. With a smaller blade, it makes it easier to control the tip of the blade and make more precise cuts and strokes with the blade. If you end up going with a fixed blade knife it will typically be longer than a folding wood carving knife; however, most of the sheaths that come with fixed blade knives will typically have a belt loop strap so that you can attach the sheath to your belt loop.
Multiple Blades
Some wood carving knives will have multiple blades that are designed to be used for different wood carving techniques. If you are looking to whittle something intricate you may want to look at getting a wood carving knife that has multiple blade tools designed to be used for specific jobs. If you are just looking to wood carve as an amateur you would probably be fine with going with a wood carving knife with just one fixed blade.
Weight
When looking for the best wood carving knife you would want to look for something that is going to be on the lighter side so that it is comfortable to hold for long periods of time. While wood carving you may have to hold the knife for hours depending on how long it will take you to get the job done so the lighter your wood carving knife the easier it will be for you to hold the knife.
Blade Steel Type
Carbon steel blades are going to be the preferred blade type for wood carving knives because of their ability to stay sharp for long periods of time. Carbon steel blades are designed to be able to hold their edge and sharpness better than a stainless steel blade.
However, carbon steel knife blades usually do not hold up as well to water and will be more likely to rust than a stainless steel blade so keep that in mind. If you are planning on going with a carbon steel blade just make sure that you take care of the blade by cleaning the blade after use and making sure that the blade is dry before you store it.
Handle
When looking for a wood carving knife you want to make sure that you go with one that will have a comfortable handle as you may be working on your wood carving project for extended periods of time.
If you go with a wood carving knife that doesn’t have a comfortable handle your hand will eventually get fatigued and you will need to stop. It’s also important to go with a handle that fits your hand size.
If you are an adult you would be fine with most wood carving knives but if you have small hands or are a kid you may want to go with a youth or kids wood carving knife as their handles will be designed for smaller hands.
Warranty
If you want to ensure that your wood carving knife lasts a long time you may want to get one that offers a lifetime warranty on the craftsmanship of the knife. If there is any defect or issue with the craftsmanship of the knife or blade you could then turn the knife back into the manufacturer for replacement. These types of warranties would not cover issues with the knife or blade from normal wear and tear, however.
Sheaths
Most fixed blade wood carving knives will include a sheath with the purchase of the knife to help protect from accidentally cutting yourself with the knife. Most of the sheaths that you would get with a knife are also going to have a belt loop attachment so that you can attach the sheath to your belt loop so that you can carry it on you and makes the knife more portable.
Blade Maintenance
Using Sharpening Stones
You can buy sharpening stones that are designed to have you run your blade across the sharpening stone to help sharpen the edge of the blade. When doing this you typically use two types of sharpening stones one course and one fine. You would first sharpen the blade with the coarse sharpening stone to clean up any big imperfections in the knife edge. You would then follow up with the fine sharpening stone to leave the blade edge with a smooth finish. You can find some sharpening stones that have both coarse and fine stones built into the same sharpening stone.
Below is an example of a two sided sharpening stone
Premium Knife Sharpening Stone 2 Side Grit 1000/6000 Waterstone
Here is a video showing how to use a sharpening stone properly
If you want you also have the option of mailing your knife to your knife manufacturer to have them sharpen your blade if you don’t feel like messing with doing it yourself. You would probably save some money doing it yourself but if you are hesitant to do that shipping it to your manufacturer is another option that you have.
What Wood Carving Knife Brand is Best?
The two leading wood carving knife manufacturers I found when doing my research look to be Flexcut and Morakniv. I personally have a bias towards Morakniv because I own another Morakniv knife and I know how well they make their knives. It looks like however if you want to have a wood carving knife that has many different wood carving tools that you would be better off going with a Flexcut knife as Morakniv doesn’t have a knife with multiple blades or tools to help you with specific wood carving tasks.
In Conclusion
I hope that you were able to get a better understanding at the different buying criteria when looking for the best wood carving knife. Ultimately it’s up to you to decide which wood carving knife to go with based on your preferences and needs but hopefully this guide was able to provide you with more wood carving knife knowledge so that you could make an informed decision on your knife purchase.
