A good friend who shall remain nameless (unless he would like to jump
in here) sent me 5 carving tools which were recently made in deepest
darkest China. They appear to have been made by the village blacksmith
with a minimum of tools. The sockets are not real well made.

I just finished making 2 handles for them and sharpening the same 2. I
don't know what they make carving tools out of, but the steel is HARD.
Sharpening was a real chore, particularly on the tool that is used like
a drawknife. The gouge was not as difficult to sharpen, but it was not
nearly as easy as most of my carving tools.

It seems that they are not as fond of deep gouges as I am, because all
these are shallow. The vee tool is strange because of the bend in the
shank. I prefer vee tools to be straight, but I will try this and see
how I like it.  I haven't sharpened the vee tool yet, but the shape is
interesting because the wings are cut back at 45 degrees.  Americans
generally sharpen them square on the end.

I added a second picture containing an Addis tool for size comparison. 
The Chinese tools are rather long, and I made the handles to be
proportional to the tool. Most of the handles on my carving tools are
smaller, like the one shown.

The wood is Coastal Live Oak from a friend's tree in Monterey CA. I
kinda like the way this wood looks on the Chinese tools.

P.S.

I forgot to mention that the tools are pretty thin, and they came ground with an incannel bevel.  I found that a little odd too.  But the Chinese may have a completely different carving style than we do.

August 30, 2005

I just put up a picture of the 5 Chinese carving tools that I recently
received. I made handles for them and sharpened them, so now they are
ready to use, provided I can find a chinaman (Chinese man ? Which is
correct?) to use them. I took them to my carving club meeting today and
had several serious carvers try them and offer their opinion. They all
disliked the tools. The style and shape and almost everything about
them is contrary to what we westerners like in our carving tools.

I offered the opinion to the galoot who gave me these tools that it
might require an apprenticeship in China while holding the work with
your feet to learn to appreciate them. I have seen pictures of carving
in the orient, and that seems to be the method of choice.

August 30, 2005