Proper set of carving knives

When I was younger I watched the Woodwright Shop on PBS every Saturday morning while the normal kids watched cartoons. I enjoyed watching Roy Underhill use the older tools turning a log into something. I remember the episodes that he had a guest on the show demonstrating their field of expertise.

One particular show was about carving spoons, I found it fascinating watching the guy rough out the shape of a spoon from a log with a hatchet. Few years later I caught the episode being shown again. I wasn't as young and had been given a Swiss Army knife as a birthday present. With the small blade I attempted to carve me a spoon out of a wooden dowel I had.

I did pretty well on most of the spoon up until it came to carving out the hollow space of the spoon. The flat blade of the knife didn't work so well in my inexperienced hands. The spoon ended up being more a scoop.

Years past after I given that spoon to my dad as a gift like many kids do. Recently my dad was cleaning out somethings from the old house and found a box of things I have given him over the years. Several of my Popsicle stick folding knives, a paper helicopter, a Lego hit and miss engine model, and the spoon I carved.

Seeing this I made up my mind that I wanted a proper set of carving knives including a spoon carving knife. I ordered a total of five knives over a few months. I ended up getting a Mora 106, Mora 120, Mora 122, Mora 164, and Flexcut kn12. I like the handles on the Mora knives, they fill my hand nicely without causing to much cramps or pains.

I have read that the Mora spoon knives are horrible out of the box and must be reprofiled and sharpened before use. With testing I did notice that it scraped the wood rather than slicing it. So it's currently being worked on. Need to make a few sticks to hold sandpaper of various grits to properly work the bevel, and a set to hone the inside of the curve.

Buying the knives and restoring the axes and other woodworking tools I learned I have inadequate means to sharpen everything. I discovered a two sides whet stone within my boxes of antique tools. I have recently made a leather strop out of a large paint stirring stick and a scrap of leather. I only need a finer grit stone and honing compound to go in the strop.