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The help the club members can give you is invaluable in terms of support and woodworking advice.
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Folding pocket knives will work well also and are very convenient to have with you to help whittle away some time waiting for any reason. X-acto knives will work for some carving and detailing. The replaceable blades are sharp and reasonably priced but are not designed to remove lots of wood. An alternative and a somewhat better choice would be Warren Tools Interchangeable blade knives. The blades come in a multitude of shapes are sharp to start with and can also be honed and sharpened many times.
A lot of bird carvers and some relief carvers use the Warren blades as their main carving tools. They like the different shapes and low prices. Besides changeable blades they also have various different handles to chose from. The company also makes interchangeable gouges and fixed handle gouges. I've seen people make their own handles for the knives blades and gouges as a cost saving measure and to save time not having to switch blades. If you are handy and adventuresome you can make your own knives and tools from various items. Hacksaw blades, files, old straight razors and broken kitchen knives can be ground down, shaped, tempered and sharpened it very useful knives.
Some people make their own knives to save money, some just for the challenge and others because they wanted a special shape or size that they couldn't find elsewhere. I have a couple of knives that my grandfather had made from hacksaw blades and kitchen knives which I still use from time to time. Anyway wood handles feel better than a metal ones. When you look through some catalogues for knives some will say honing required some may say pre-sharpened ready for use.
If you don't know a lot about sharpening ordering a pre-sharpened knife could be a good choice. You may also see phrases such as, steel edge is hardened to Rc 62 or blades are tempered to Rc 58 - The Rc refers to the Rockwell scale of hardness. The higher the number the harder the steel is, the harder the steel is the longer it will hold it's sharp edge, and a longer time before it gets dull and needs to be sharpened again.
However the lower the number the easier it is to sharpen, the higher the number the more effort that is required to get the tool sharp, a classic trade off. I like the harder edge. Once you get it sharp it is easy to keep sharp. In order to enjoy carving you need very sharp tools. A sharp tool sort of whooshes through the wood leaving a neat clean curl.
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A less than sharp tool sort of rips it's way through the wood leaving crushed and splintered wood fibres instead of a clean cut. A sharp tool is generally a safer tool. It requires less effort to move it through the wood and the carver therefore has more control over the tool. However if you have been working with less than sharp tools and get hold of a very sharp tool be careful.
If you use the pressure as with the dull tool the sharp tool may get away from you.
I read a posting on the woodcarvers list that a carver went out an bought a new Sloyd knife. Went through the wood, through the thumb guard and into his thumb. Wood carving knives and tools are by necessity very sharp and are capable of inflicting serious injury if misused, abused or used carelessly. Please do not leave knives out where young children can find them and play with them. To be safe you should wear a Kevlar type glove on your non knife hand and a leather thumb guard or similar protection on your knife hand thumb.
This is far from an exhaustive list of safety ideas but just a few to help you enjoy carving. But you want to avoid those careless mistakes and slips that can result in the cutting of nerves and tendons, which can take weeks, months, or years to heal. Please if you are just starting out carving get into the habit of using the safety glove and thumb guard.
Hopefully they'll be like seat belts once your use to them you will feel uncomfortable without them. If possible visit or join a local carving group, guild, or club. The carvers there will probably have information available for new carvers.
Some groups may have a beginning kit available at a reasonable price. Most carvers are delighted to show their latest project or new tools.
It would be hard to find a nicer, friendly group of people than carvers, If the woodcarver listserver is any indication.