[Woodcarver] Just a basic question...

[Ivan Whillock]

The skew knife is  honed to a sharp,  long bevel and is used to actually cut 
away the wedges of wood.  The stab knife, on the other hand,  is sharpened 
at about a 45 degree bevel and is not used to cut the wood but to "dent it" 
making small, wedge-shaped accents that resemble a "T" if you tilt it so 
that a corner of the tool does the cutting.  The deeper you plunge the stab 
knife, the larger the accent, but you don't generally plunge the tool deeper
than its bevel.  It makes the small wedge shape by compressing the fibers 
and does not actually remove wood, thus  chip carvers tend to use it 
sparingly.  When exposed to moisture the cuts can close back up.

The skew knife does much the same work as the standard chip carving knife 
but does it with less of a slicing--and more of a plunging--move, similar to 
the traditional carver who would use a skew chisel instead of a knife to 
make chip carved designs.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Plunkett" <jbp1255 at bellsouth.net>
To: <woodcarver at six.pairlist.net>
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 5:57 PM
Subject: [Woodcarver] Just a basic question...



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> Hi folks

> I am new to the list and this is my first post. I am

> also relatively new to serious woodcarving. I did a little bit

> back in 8th grade (I am now 50 yrs young).

> I've been doing some reading on Chip Carving. My

> question is about the difference in the "Stab Knife" & the "Skew

> Knife". I've been comparing the two & I can see little if any

> difference between them. Can you help me with this?

>

> Thanks,

>

> Jim

>

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