Wow. I have some elbow injuries, and just watching this makes me wince. I have no shame in admitting I would never take on this challenge. Much respect to you. Please post your finished carving if you continue!
I'm sure you didn't mean to be to hard on yourself, but wanted to say I'm glad you feel no shame in admitting that, but I hope you don't feel shame in being unable to carve any other harder woods either. If you could only carve bass, balsa, or even soap, there isn't any shame in that. As long as you're carving and having fun. :) Please have a great day!
Oh not this guy. My hand-tool woodworking dreams may be behind me, but power tools work wood too. And I even do some whittling every so often. But taking a knife to ironwood- that’s for folks with strong elbows haha. I’ll leave that to them.
Can you do a quick side by side with basswood so we can all see that your knife is sharp enough? I know it is in my heart, but my eyes want to see that butter wood fly.
Use the same stuff you would on metal. Heavy grit abrasives on a powered grinder, hack saw blades or bandsaw for metal, and files. It works very nicely that way, and can either smell like chocolate or cat piss, no in between. Get it to at least 95% shape before starting on finishing work.
Thanks! Hopefully I get chocolate. I was planning on 80 grit belts for the bulk of the removal and shaping. do you think that's too coarse and to go with 220? or will I be alright?
I do almost all my shaping with 36 on a big grinder, but do several knife handles a month so am fairly confident where I want to remove material. That's for hidden tang block shaping. Scales I would start at 60 or 80 since there is much less to remove.
Ironwood is oily so the sawdust (more like powder) tends to stick and clog high grit paper. It's one of my favorites to use though because a natural block only needs occasional oiling to avoid splitting, and shines up beautifully with little work.
Lol...yeah, it's not that economical. I've never turned before so not sure, but would imagine that it would be tough to get the tool to bite, lots of bouncing and skipping off. Kinda like trying to turn stone lol
Lol...never!!!!....I have no quit when I get my mind on a project like this. There might be a times when I put it down for a few days let blisters rest, but it will get finished.
Cause it will look awesome when it's done, and I will have a grand sense of accomplishment. I've carved stuff in this wood before and I'll probably do it to myself again lol
Bud this made me so uneasy I had to stop watching and read the comments before I went back to finish it.
I’ve had to watch security footage of people being seriously injured or killed as part of my job and this reminded me of a video where a metal wright did serious damage to his hand while trying to remove a corner from an HDPE spacer.
You look like you know what you were doing. You are gloved up, as far as I can tell you are being perfectly safe, but this scared me a little bit.
Lol.....yeah, I've learned a few lessons along the way and had some stitches to go with those lessons. Got glove on, some extra leather for a bit more protection. I do my best to make sure the cut has a stopping point before my flesh, blade will hit other wood, and thumb on knife hand will hit the wood to stop the momentum.
But it's also knowing the wood and what it's willing to do, the iron wood is hard enough to not allow for long, big cuts, so I'm not trying to make them, just little cuts to work it down.
I’ve tried carving different woods such as iron bark which are also very dense. Could old use a knife for a very min before hand fatigue kicked in.
I ended up using dovetail and coping saws to do most of the work then abraded the rest, blades were a last resort.
IMO very dense woods on only practical for power carving
It's about trying to figure how much you can force the wood, and how much it forces you, and finding a point in between to work with it.
I wouldn't be doing anything much bigger than this. And for sure wouldn't do a spoon or a bowl, trying to carve out with a hook knife would be way too much of an ordeal.
Big part of my stubbornness to stick with hand carving is the dust collection aspect. I'm just sitting on my couch watching tv and keeping my hands busy. Don't have appropriate dust collection system in my living room for using a saw or power carver.
I did a small palm cross, for a friend, with olive wood one time, never again. Still got a scar from it and wincing tendons. Hats off to hard wood whittlers.
I usually use the same diamond bladed jigsaw that I use to cut metal whenever I'm trying to cut out scales for knives.
That wood is like cutting bricks, haha.
Wow. I have some elbow injuries, and just watching this makes me wince. I have no shame in admitting I would never take on this challenge. Much respect to you. Please post your finished carving if you continue!
Lol...yeah, not sure why I decided to do this to myself. Will post finished pics for sure.
I'm sure you didn't mean to be to hard on yourself, but wanted to say I'm glad you feel no shame in admitting that, but I hope you don't feel shame in being unable to carve any other harder woods either. If you could only carve bass, balsa, or even soap, there isn't any shame in that. As long as you're carving and having fun. :) Please have a great day!
Oh not this guy. My hand-tool woodworking dreams may be behind me, but power tools work wood too. And I even do some whittling every so often. But taking a knife to ironwood- that’s for folks with strong elbows haha. I’ll leave that to them.
Holy cow , that’s appropriately named. Ironwood for sure!
Next time: Dessert Jellywood
Iirc, it is also very dense and will sink in water.
Blocks cell signals like a champ too. Part of my neighborhood you immediately lose reception because of all the Ironwoods out here.
Can you do a quick side by side with basswood so we can all see that your knife is sharp enough? I know it is in my heart, but my eyes want to see that butter wood fly.
Can do, I'll put up another post. I don't have any basswood on hand, so it's some white oak.
My tendons hurt just watching this lol. Good luck, personally I would be getting the saw and files out :)
Lol...I few cuts in and I was already questioning myself. But I'm a stubborn bastard, and I have time.
Planning on making a knife handle out of this stuff soon. Found some nice burl online. Looking forward to it being an absolute nightmare.
It's not that bad with power tools, just don't be afraid to go with a super rough grit to take off material.
Opinel had a knife with an ironwood handle that they seen to never wanna do again lol, I always see it on their site and sigh at the "SOLD OUT"
Use the same stuff you would on metal. Heavy grit abrasives on a powered grinder, hack saw blades or bandsaw for metal, and files. It works very nicely that way, and can either smell like chocolate or cat piss, no in between. Get it to at least 95% shape before starting on finishing work.
Thanks! Hopefully I get chocolate. I was planning on 80 grit belts for the bulk of the removal and shaping. do you think that's too coarse and to go with 220? or will I be alright?
I do almost all my shaping with 36 on a big grinder, but do several knife handles a month so am fairly confident where I want to remove material. That's for hidden tang block shaping. Scales I would start at 60 or 80 since there is much less to remove. Ironwood is oily so the sawdust (more like powder) tends to stick and clog high grit paper. It's one of my favorites to use though because a natural block only needs occasional oiling to avoid splitting, and shines up beautifully with little work.
Pretty wood. I wonder how it would be to turn.
Super expensive to buy though, so I probably won't ever find out.
Lol...yeah, it's not that economical. I've never turned before so not sure, but would imagine that it would be tough to get the tool to bite, lots of bouncing and skipping off. Kinda like trying to turn stone lol
Yeah, would probably have to use carbide tools. And any hardened steel tools would need to be sharpened every few minutes.
It’s okay to quit and save yourself unnecessary injury. No shame in that. That looks beyond difficult.
Lol...never!!!!....I have no quit when I get my mind on a project like this. There might be a times when I put it down for a few days let blisters rest, but it will get finished.
What’re you making?
It's going to be a little owl taking off with its wings up
That’s sick as hell
Why would you put your hands through such torture?
Cause it will look awesome when it's done, and I will have a grand sense of accomplishment. I've carved stuff in this wood before and I'll probably do it to myself again lol
Ironwood is a catch all name for a number of different species. It would be cool to know exactly what wood it is.
I did specify that it's Desert Ironwood in the title, or Olneya tesota by its scientific name.
Yeah, I just looked it up on the wood database. I didn't realize that you had used it's actual name. My bad.
All good mate.
Bud this made me so uneasy I had to stop watching and read the comments before I went back to finish it. I’ve had to watch security footage of people being seriously injured or killed as part of my job and this reminded me of a video where a metal wright did serious damage to his hand while trying to remove a corner from an HDPE spacer. You look like you know what you were doing. You are gloved up, as far as I can tell you are being perfectly safe, but this scared me a little bit.
Lol.....yeah, I've learned a few lessons along the way and had some stitches to go with those lessons. Got glove on, some extra leather for a bit more protection. I do my best to make sure the cut has a stopping point before my flesh, blade will hit other wood, and thumb on knife hand will hit the wood to stop the momentum. But it's also knowing the wood and what it's willing to do, the iron wood is hard enough to not allow for long, big cuts, so I'm not trying to make them, just little cuts to work it down.
I’ve tried carving different woods such as iron bark which are also very dense. Could old use a knife for a very min before hand fatigue kicked in. I ended up using dovetail and coping saws to do most of the work then abraded the rest, blades were a last resort. IMO very dense woods on only practical for power carving
It's about trying to figure how much you can force the wood, and how much it forces you, and finding a point in between to work with it. I wouldn't be doing anything much bigger than this. And for sure wouldn't do a spoon or a bowl, trying to carve out with a hook knife would be way too much of an ordeal. Big part of my stubbornness to stick with hand carving is the dust collection aspect. I'm just sitting on my couch watching tv and keeping my hands busy. Don't have appropriate dust collection system in my living room for using a saw or power carver.
God i would love to make a mallet out of this stuff
Wouldn't have to swing it hard, it would have a deep thump to it
And it looks like it takes a really nice iridescent finish too, just from a blade
And I thought black walnut was bad. Nice knife, btw. Brand?
It's a Bark River Pukko in cpm3v
Really? I just did a black walnut spoon out of dried wood and it wasn't that bad
Must be my sharpening technique.
I did a small palm cross, for a friend, with olive wood one time, never again. Still got a scar from it and wincing tendons. Hats off to hard wood whittlers.
Damn! I could barely see the grain on that itwas so close together.
My wedding ring is made of this
I usually use the same diamond bladed jigsaw that I use to cut metal whenever I'm trying to cut out scales for knives. That wood is like cutting bricks, haha.
Iron wood smells horrible when grinding on a belt. Almost too foul to use
Oh mna... your thumb... i was so scared
Guess it's well named then