How to make a wood carving knife

Making a wood carving knife is a multi step process consisting of choosing and preparing the metal to become a wood carving knife blade blank, annealing, removing fire scale, shaping the blank, hardening, tempering, sharpening, making the handle and attaching the wood carving knife blade to the handle.

In this blog, we will be detailing how to make straight and crooked wood carving knives. Crooked wood carving knives are also known as hooked carving knives, spoon carving knives and curved carving knives and I will be going over each of the steps in detail, however...

Safety First

For this post I will go over safety, as safety is important enough to deserve its own post. Don't take risks with your health.

Recommended equipment for wood carving knife making:

Face shield and half face respirator or full face respirator.

I prefer the 3m full face respirator: 3M-6700 (small), 3M-6800 (medium), 3M-6900 (large). It retails for about $150cad and while Chinese clones can be had for much less that take the same filter cartridges but I am unsure of their quality (comfort and seal to face). lungs are very important and as such I would highly recommend a genuine 3m respirator.

A face shield and half face respirator is an alternative but does not protect your eyes from dust. 3m sells the inexpensive 3M-7501 (small) 3M-7502 (medium) 3M-7503 (large) and 3M-6100 (small), 3M-6200 (medium), 3M-6300 (large) series half face respirators that all use the same filter cartridges. 6000 series is thermoplastic elastomer for those who are allergic to silicone while the 7500 series is silicone. the 6000 series is cheaper ($20 vs $30) while the 7500 series also has a better exhaust valve for reduced fogging of safety glasses.

P100 filter cartridges.

Generally about $10cad to $15cad. 3M-2097 is a nice P100 filter with nuisance level organic vapor protection and if you can't get those locally and don't want to order online consider 3M-2091, its P100 but without the nuisance level organic vapor protection. They work with the 6000 and 7000 series 3M masks.

Finger Gloves

These finger gloves cover individual fingers and as such are safe to use around grinders and other spinning machinery. Full gloves are not safe to use around spinning machinery as if the glove gets caught you can get pulled in, while a finger glove will just get pulled off your finger. they protect you from abrasive and heat. Get one for each thumb and 2 or 4 fingers

Leather Apron

Leather aprons protect your clothes from heat, dust, grinders sparks, wires from wire wheels and stops fragments of cutoff wheels.

Hearing protection

Over the ear or earplugs whatever you find most comfortable. Ones with built in speakers for music, or even good sound isolating earphones or ear buds area great. Bluetooth is recommended to keep cords out of the way.

Safety is very important, never take risks with your health. By using all the proper safety equipment you can insure you have a long healthy career in wood carving knife making.