Whittling Wood Carving

I think I’m done. It’s not perfect, but I’m ready to try something else now.

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More wood in Ruskin Park. Ash I think, several >20” wide branches.

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Nice. Post your next whittle too!

Checking my sanding, this looks reasonably smooth then 10x zoom reveals the flaws. Back to the 120grit...

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I think sanding out the flaws is a bit of a shame. Not to mention bloody tedious. I like that mine still have small knife marks.

bloody tedious

There is that, yes. I might just leave it then.

Yeah, embrace the rustic thing. If you want a perfect spoon then pop to IKEA.

All good until you get food debris lodged in the little crevices

No problem if purely ornamental, obviously

Here it is in action

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#pbas ?

If you’re carving it’s just going to leave a bumpy surface though. I’d suggest you’re making a hash of it if there’s little pockets and crevices. Practice the carving rather than spend hours sanding?

Practice the carving rather than spend hours sanding?

Absolutely, I'd always recommend that. You can choose a beautiful finish from either knife/gouge cuts or laborious amounts of sanding. It's entirely personal taste, and neither way is easy

I was referring to the small tear-out on @rhb 's spoon that his sanding had revealed, where you'd want to return to that area with either a blade, rasp or paper to clean up :-)

I think there's a flaw in my technique around where the handle reaches the bowl, tonight's spoon will have same cuts once I sand it, despite me gently shaping this with a small knife.

Note: this particular piece is junk as the handle/ bowl angle is wrong, I'll still finish it though to work on fixing stuff like the above.

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I just whittled this.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCjF7ESFOk2/?igshid=1c2hlcpk0t98c

Impressive.

My last effort was a Owl from Rowan.

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A Fungi

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An fungus.

This is going to be An fungus too, Oak. The above is Rowan.

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Any reason I can't sharpen my whittling knife using a 'pull through' kitchen knife sharpener? (Rather than having to buy some sort of whet stone)

It has 2 levels of sharpening on it if that makes any difference....

It won't sharpen as sharp, but will sharpen, I think?

Edit: the angle might be different, depending on blade & sharpener maybe?

I use a kitchen knife sharpener for kitchen knives that MrsE will use - results are sharper than a table knife, will cut cheese and veg etc. and easily re-edged when she cuts things on a Pyrex plate.
For more serious use - chisels, scrapers, planes, marking and pocket knives, I get a better result from a stone, with a honing guide for chisels and plane blades.

Makes sense. Got a good recommendation on a good stone? Or are they all as good as each other.

Never really sharpened my knifes before, but they're looking in a bad state. Could do with sorting out the hatchet too.

Mine are either cheap (Chinese?) or inherited and apparently nameless - I suspect care and patience counts for a lot when sharpening - you could try asking on the knife porn thread? Very much a rabbit hole, with the 'best' stone being the one you've actually got...
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/147065/?offset=3825

Nothing fancy, but now I have a sharp knife again, just made a spoon from a branch of plum tree I'm cutting down in the garden.

Beautiful wood to look at with lovely patterns, but not the easiest I've worked with.

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Buffed it and a butter knife up with some beeswax polish.

Any recommendations on a good finishing oil? Not sure how I feel about this polish.

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