Official Luthiers Forum!

Anyone use these for carving heels, or other uses? I'm curious if anyone's using them. I think the 4" handles need to be 5" or 6" though...

Another use is trimming excess top or side where it overhangs the rims. Might need a lefty and a righty for proper orientation to grain. Mexican's use a homemade cuchillo, usually made from an old saw blade. I've got a marking knife w/o a handle which makes it easier for flush marking and trimming.

CrowDuck

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Chris Nielsen
Soquel, CA.

I use mine to mark out cut lines. I prefer them to pencil lines.

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Aoibeann

I use mine for fine marking, but NOT for cutting. The edge isn't designed for loads like that, and skew knives suited to the purpose are easily available.

i have a set i got from garret wade some time ago which have a longer blade. but as someone else pointed out, they are marking knives, not carving knives.

Any line that you are going to cut up to, use a marking knife. They define the line much better than a pencil. A good tip from Joshua was to chisel along the line on the waste side before sawing. I've found that this really helps to preserve a clean edge (if you use a sharp chisel)

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

I made 2 marking knives out of a couple of kitchen knives I bought at the dollar store. Use a dremel wheel to cut the length/angle you want, grind the bevel and finish off on a stone. 2 knives for 2 bucks. The steel in some of those cheap knives is surprisingly good.

I got these things thinking that they doubled as skew knives. Wondered if they took an edge. Thinking for neck heel carving. I'm not convinced...besides, I'm pretty happy with the neck I just got from John Watkins I might just return those and the 8" Gents saw. That seems a little more utilitarian, but not too impressed with its cutting ability..

For carving look for a violin knife. They can be found sometimes on eBay where I got mine w/o handle for about $20. Right now there are some Pfiel Swiss made blades on eBay for about $25. If you have a Dremel tool you can make really good instrument knives from old hand saw blades using those cutting wheels.

CrowDuck

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Chris Nielsen
Soquel, CA.

Or try one of these.

http://www.craftsmanstudio.com/html_p/H!MARK.htm

CrowDuck

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Chris Nielsen
Soquel, CA.

Perdy cool CrowDuck!!!!!!!!!!!!CrowDuck?????????????

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Say what you do, Do what you say.