Buying carving tools

Anyone starting out to buy tools for his shop can go one of two ways. He can buy a lot of tools or he can restrain his impulses and buy tools as he develops the need for them. I suggest that the latter step is the wise one to take, for this reason: the carver's chest can be filled with tools that are used once a year as well as those he uses constantly.

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Most companies that sell carver's tools have beginner's sets. Undoubtedly they are the result of long experience on the part of the dealer in selling this sort of equipment and therefore are worth consideration. I have, as I write, the catalogue of "Sculpture Associates" in front of me and in it they have a collection of tools in a set of five. It looks reasonable. It's not expensive, and I think that, to start with, it is adequate. At the end of this chapter, Figures 3-4A and 3-4C show some of the wood carving tools supplied by Sculpture Associates.

All carving tools are sold according to their shape, length, and size. They are classed by the form of the tool; such as "long bend" (or "bent"), "straight," "short bent," "firmer," and "skew." These classifications are further broken down into the following categories: gouges, chisels, skews, and parting tools. All of these are sold, for the most part, by the actual shape of the cutting edges, which are numbered. Each shape is given an identifying number which is, so far as I know, a standard one.

To clarify this confusion I suggest that you get one of the catalogues from the dealers and study the illustrations. A picture tells the story better than words.