Thanks Bill.
I - like you have a piece of an old leather belt glued to a stick that I am
using. I have some buffing compound that I am using that is fairly coarse
for a buffing compound that is. It's working great on my little cheapo tools
so far. I managed to get several of them shaped in such a way that they are
usable and now I have not had to run them on a stone for quite awhile..
thank goodness!
I'll check out the info you gave me. It would be kind of weird to find other
carvers in the area. Humbling to be sure!
I'm really interested in a set of micro carving tools to begin with. I see
that Flexcut makes a set, so now I just have to convince myself to spend the
money on them.
Maybe I'll sell a couple of boxes to pay for them and then I won't have to
dip into my Jeep Mod money... I'm saving for things like a lift kit, a
snorkle and a light bar. You know Girlie stuff ;ŹD
Kate
"Bill" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 15 Oct 2007 15:59:51 -0500, "Kate"
wrote:
Thank You Bill,
I have been eyeballing some Flexcut tools. I'm really glad to have your
recomendation.
Buying tools is always an investment and it's great to hear from someone
who
has experience with a product.
I see that they make a micro carvint set as well, something I would be very
interested in.
Now here's the big question, what do you do to keep yours sharp?
Particularly the gouges and curved blades?
TIA
Kate
The flexcut tools come pre-sharpened and so far, I haven't had to do
anything but strop them with a leather strop and "Flexcut Gold"
stropping compound. My strop consists of an old (real) leather belt
section glued to a stick.
Some people use diamond sticks and ceramic sharpening sticks. I
picked up a Japanese water stone with various gouge shapes several
years ago and use this on occasion to touch up the edges. Some use a
power strop such as the one sold by flexcut.
Some of the Flexcut sets come with a strop, stropping compound and
shapes for conditioning the inner edges of the gouges.
There are many tools and methods of sharpening. I suggest thet you
Google "gouge sharpening" and "slipstones". That should point you to a
lot of good information. One good source of info and a very reputable
(sp?) on-line source isSmoky Mountain Woodcarvers at:
http://www.woodcarvers.com/sharpening.htm
Another fantastic source is your local woodcarving club (I'll bet that
there's one somewhere close to you). You might contact the National
Woodcarvers Association at:
http://www.chipchats.org/ - Many clubs
are members and they may be able to point you to a local club.
HTH
Bill