What Blade For Bk Swivel Knife...?

[Jimbob]

Getting ready to order a Barry King swivel knife, wonder what blade I need for picture carving ( car seat's, bike seats and general paper page size carving...)..) I have been using Tandy/craft tool stuff and never liked it.

What is the difference between thick blade and thin....more detail oriented or better to bevel...?

Also how wide should I order my blade, isit ok 3/8 " for general work...?

Thanks for any input...

James

[mikesmith648]

a 3/8" blade is good for general carving. the 1/4" for more detailed work and tight curves. thick or thin is more personal preference...the thin blade is generally for more detailed work although i use it for most of my work. You will be surprised at the ease of use with the BK knife for sure. I have 3 of them...........also just FYI.......theere is a thick and thin barrel......thin I use for detail and thick for general carving....but I have large hands.........smaller hands will be more comfortable with the smaller barrel

JMHO

Mike

[Jimbob]

a 3/8" blade is good for general carving. the 1/4" for more detailed work and tight curves. thick or thin is more personal preference...the thin blade is generally for more detailed work although i use it for most of my work. You will be surprised at the ease of use with the BK knife for sure. I have 3 of them...........also just FYI.......theere is a thick and thin barrel......thin I use for detail and thick for general carving....but I have large hands.........smaller hands will be more comfortable with the smaller barrel

JMHO

Mike

Thanks Mike

I want to get much deeper into carving, love the look of old school Sheridan carving and related, but myself do flames and skulls for the folks that pay me..... I need to get better at this carving and need better tools!!

So I will order BK knife and extra blade....I have an super thick no name all brass barrel knife from ST leather ( cheap ) feel real good but blade is no quality, guess for the more delicate work a smaller barrel makes sense....need to take a carving class real bad...Trying to do Ashville, NC weekend for some years...always out of time or money...szzzz....I am self taught and make so many mistakes I am sure.....just dont know it yet.

The Rock'a Billy car szene has discovered my work here recently and I am doing hole car seats with carving and all covered with saddle/tooling leather...a first for me!!

So lets brake that piggy bank and order some knifes....

thaks for all the input, hope some more people join in.

Greetings

James

[Cyberthrasher]

Jim, a note about thin vs. thick that I had never though about before until I read a bit from Paul Burnett on it. He says the thin blade actually doesn't do much to get a more detailed line, it just has less resistance and manages to plunge itself deeper into the leather in a bad way. Not to say it's not a good knife, but all the figure carving that Paul did was done with a standard "thick" angled blade. I actually use the 3/8 blade with a 1/2 barrel on all my stuff, and I have pretty large hands. I got a standard 3/8 thick straight blade for my BK barrel when I bought it, but then bought a 3/8 angled with the Tandy shaft to go into another barrel. The straight is my primary, and I use the angled when I need to do some tighter detail.

Nothing wrong with being self taught man, just gotta stick with it, read, and be honest with how it looks. I study A LOT and I like to think it shows. Get some of Paul's books and you'll learn a lot about tooling there. I recommend the "Carving Bundle" here

http://paintingcow.c...arving_bundle1/

Edited March 30, 2013 by Cyberthrasher

[oltoot]

My preference is 3/8 hollow ground thick. I find that a thick blade sharpened at a somewhat shallower angle (actually the angle and size that Tandy blades used to be) is more forgiving with less tendency to undercut. I have an old (60+) Hackbarth that used proprietary blades and had an adapter made so it would take round shank blades 45 yrs ago. It is large enough for my paws. and has a big yoke.

[Jimbob]

OK, my BK swifel knife and 2 blades, small and large in thin came in after several e-mails and calls....seemed to be sharp ready to go.....stroped them on leather a bit and went to work on Wicked and Craig leather...5-6 oz....now I am surly dissapointed....boy, them things drag....I cant hardly make a narrow curved cut....me not being an expert on carving, but done my share over the years.....wonder what I am doing wrong....I expected wonders from this new knife....sharpeded on 400 grid, polished than stroped again....for a few seconds it seems to be razor sharp then it suddenly and unusuall drag's and having real hard time to do round curves....well, now what to do,,,!??

Anybody has any ideas or suggestions...?

Thaks for all input

James

[mikesmith648]

The BK knife blades are usually sharp when you get them....only need to strop. 400 grit is pretty rough and would suggest you go to a finer paper to get a finer edge...........sounds like you might have actually made the edge less sharp and polished....hope this helps........MIke

[Tim Schroeder]

I have a BK swivel knife with a 1/4" thin blade I have used for at least a year without sharpening once. When I first got it I resharpened it using #320, 400, 600, 800, 1000,1500 and 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper laying on a piece of granite. Just spray the granite before you put the paper on it. I have a 9" wetstone sharpener with a leather wheel for a strop on it. I usually can carve 2 flowers in one of my patterns and then a couple turns on the strop and it's like a hot knife thru butter. I can easily cut all the way thru properly cased 6/7 oz leather. I would like to try Leather Wranglers, Bob Beard and all the rest just to see the difference in how long you can cut before having to strop the blade again. Hard to beat the price of a BK. I have 4 with different size blades but do everything with a 1/4" angled thin blade. Proper casing is key to getting the right results. Tim

[Cyberthrasher]

I've had my "thick" blade for well over a year and it's NEVER been sharpened. I also just got a Tandy shank angle blade (also "thick") and have never sharpened it either. All it needs is stropping on a regular basis. Remember, a "thin" blade doesn't really get you a thinner line, but it will plunge deeper into the leather - which is most likely what you're experiencing with the drag. I'd get on the line with Barry and see if he has any information for you on it.

[Jimbob]

will try again on different leather and different stages of moisture content.....its maybe me just not holding it right.....but it drags so bad.....you can actualy see drag marks on the cuts.....so not sure what to do,,,,calling BK will be next, thanks for info and advice, maybe some more people will have ideas how to fix this...

thanks