Lets talk GEC!

Watching those burnt sienna bone 29’s come in and not getting one is killing me. If it wasn’t for the 92’s I would probably find myself walking up to my wife with my hat in my hand.
 
EngrSorenson said:
Watching those burnt sienna bone 29’s come in and not getting one is killing me. If it wasn’t for the 92’s I would probably find myself walking up to my wife with my hat in my hand.
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I fought off the urge to buy one of those earlier as well. And yeah, those 92's will be nice when they come out after the 77's! :D
 
I was thinking to pick up whittling as a hobby so I've been considering starting my whittling with a 29 but I was wondering if the punch on the 29 is useful for whittling or is that more for leather work?
 
AZCoyote said:
I was thinking to pick up whittling as a hobby so I've been considering starting my whittling with a 29 but I was wondering if the punch on the 29 is useful for whittling or is that more for leather work?
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I’ve got years and years of whittling under my belt and in my experience I generally only need one or two blades to do most everything I need; some kind of bellied blade (usually a clip) and some type of straight blade (wharnecliffe preferred but sheepsfoot is fine). Just about the only thing you can’t do with those two blades is drill a hole. If someone wanted just one knife to whittle with, a #29 seems like an excellent choice for most tasks, with the added benefit that you can drill a hole to hang your art, if you want.

I generally carve things like chains and various assorted trapped/caged things and I have little personal use for the punch/awl/drill. I can see how it might be useful, though. I was using the awl on my SAK for a while to make the center points for wood turning. Since then I found my old awl.

TL;DR: the #29 is a great size for whittling and has the two most necessary blades. A Spey blade to me is a redundant curved edge. The punch at least adds the capability of drilling holes in wood.
 
EngrSorenson said:
I’ve got years and years of whittling under my belt and in my experience I generally only need one or two blades to do most everything I need; some kind of bellied blade (usually a clip) and some type of straight blade (wharnecliffe preferred but sheepsfoot is fine). Just about the only thing you can’t do with those two blades is drill a hole. If someone wanted just one knife to whittle with, a #29 seems like an excellent choice for most tasks, with the added benefit that you can drill a hole to hang your art, if you want.

I generally carve things like chains and various assorted trapped/caged things and I have little personal use for the punch/awl/drill. I can see how it might be useful, though. I was using the awl on my SAK for a while to make the center points for wood turning. Since then I found my old awl.

TL;DR: the #29 is a great size for whittling and has the two most necessary blades. A Spey blade to me is a redundant curved edge. The punch at least adds the capability of drilling holes in wood.
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You bring up some good points with having the ability to drill holes in the wood work. I'd be just getting started so I'd definitely rather cram more functionality into one tool, while also having that tool look good as well of course. I'd also be curious to hear your opinion on the blade lengths. A lot of the other whittler pocket knives out there seem to have much shorter secondary blades. I'm having a hard time finding the exact dimensions of the primary and sheep's foot blades on the 29 but the sheep's foot seems to be longer than the average whittler pocket knife secondary blade.

Thanks
 
AZCoyote said:
I was thinking to pick up whittling as a hobby so I've been considering starting my whittling with a 29 but I was wondering if the punch on the 29 is useful for whittling or is that more for leather work?
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What sort of whittling do you have in mind?
 
AZCoyote said:
I'd also be curious to hear your opinion on the blade lengths. A lot of the other whittler pocket knives out there seem to have much shorter secondary blades. I'm having a hard time finding the exact dimensions of the primary and sheep's foot blades on the 29 but the sheep's foot seems to be longer than the average whittler pocket knife secondary blade.
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You have a keen eye to notice that. In general it’s thought that a shorter blade gives you better tip control. Also I’m currently thinking about my own whittling and I’m realizing that I tend to use the last 1/2 or 1/3 of the actual blade’s cutting edge, despite blade length.

Blade length does buy you some ability to carve through larger blocks of wood, but in general I’d expect most dedicated “carving blade” lengths to stay around 1-1.5 inches. M Morrow7x has a great point that perhaps you might want to consider what it is that you want to carve, though if you don’t know yet that’s completely fine.

Unfortunately there is no one knife that can handle every carving situation, but don’t let that deter you. I’ve seen people do very impressive whittling with a sub-optimal knife. The #29 has a lot of great whittling features. The long (2.125! Wow!) narrow sheepsfoot might prove to be excellent at hogging out the insides of “ball in cage” whimsies, not to mention more typical uses.

I will say I’ve had tremendously good luck with GEC’s as whittling knives. 1095 might not be a super steel, but it can sure chew up wood and come back to life off a strop.

And no matter what, just think of the old timers- the original whittlers. They just used whatever they had on them that would cut. I like to think there’s a difference between whittling and wood carving- whittling can be spontaneous and features ingenuity and improvisation. If you carry a knife and look at a stick and wonder what it could become, in my mind you’re already a Whittler.

I’d get one of those burnt sienna #29’s if I was you, and while you wait for you’re new knife to arrive you can always look up pictures and ideas that others have had.
 
Morrow7x said:
What sort of whittling do you have in mind?
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Not sure exactly what kind of whittling I'd be doing. Probably nothing too elaborate maybe just some easy projects I could finish in a weekend. Just looking for more excuses to use my knives and it would also let me justify picking up a whittler.

EngrSorenson EngrSorenson I appreciate the input, it's good to hear the opinion of experienced whittlers.

Cheers
 
AZCoyote AZCoyote whittling is the *perfect* excuse to use a knife. There are some things a knife is just suited to: like today I cleaned up all the rough edges on a stool I built for my 1 year old using my #93 ramsfoot. I had started with a chisel, but quickly realized it was easier just to use my knife.

I’m starting to really consider my pocket knives to be tools that go beyond mere day-to-day tasks. I’m using them a lot more in my purpose driven woodworking. The length of that ramsfoot straight edge is just spectacularly suited for wood work.

Another optimal choice for whittling that is available now? The GEC Possum Skinner. That looks like a very useful Wharnecliffe.
 
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I did not find the 29s sheepsfoot to be a very good carver out of the tube. I am going to reprofile it as soon as I get a minute. I used my carving knives to finish old Sarge here this afternoon. For GECs that fit my personal carving likes the 82s warncliff is nice, would love it ¼ inch shorter. However the 35s sheepsfoot is a really go to for me. It is thin, not too long and the 3¾ cigar fits well in my hand.
 
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Jiki said:
rSf0TxE.jpg

I did not find the 29s sheepsfoot to be a very good carver out of the tube. I am going to reprofile it as soon as I get a minute. I used my carving knives to finish old Sarge here this afternoon. For GECs that fit my personal carving likes the 82s warncliff is nice, would love it ¼ inch shorter. However the 35s sheepsfoot is a really go to for me. It is thin, not too long and the 3½ cigar fits well in my hand.
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Show off. :D

It is a good size. Nice job on the carving.
 
EngrSorenson said:
AZCoyote AZCoyote whittling is the *perfect* excuse to use a knife. There are some things a knife is just suited to: like today I cleaned up all the rough edges on a stool I built for my 1 year old using my #93 ramsfoot. I had started with a chisel, but quickly realized it was easier just to use my knife.

I’m starting to really consider my pocket knives to be tools that go beyond mere day-to-day tasks. I’m using them a lot more in my purpose driven woodworking. The length of that ramsfoot straight edge is just spectacularly suited for wood work.

Another optimal choice for whittling that is available now? The GEC Possum Skinner. That looks like a very useful Wharnecliffe.
Click to expand...
I would think a block plane would yield better and more consistent results for breaking edges. In the shop I only use knives for layout work, and then marking knives at that.
 
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