Knives for Carving and Whittling
This is the Helle Polar, now sadly discontinued. It has a curly birch handle and a stainless steel blade. I like the three inch blade, which is just the right length for whittling and carving and the handle feels good too. Note that the knife does not have a finger guard where the handle meets the blade. This makes it ideal as a whittler as a guard so easily gets in the way.
The Norwegian knife makers Brusletto supported a campaign a couple of years ago to encourage children to take up whittling as a way of preserving a traditional craft by bringing out this little knife, the spikkekniv or whittling knife. On the handle is a picture of a little troll or a ‘spikketrollet’ that is easy to carve out of a piece of branchwood. Here’s my attempt on the left. The spoon alongside the knife is carved from applewood. This knife has been adopted by my son Aidan as ‘his’ knife. I’m pleased that whilst he won’t take any instruction from me, at a recent weekend in Wooplaw Woods my pal Gavin Phillips sat him down and stopped him slashing anyone within an arm’s radius so that he was soon sharpening birch spears in safety!
This lovely custom knife belongs to fellow APT Northern England member Peter Simpson. The blade is by Svante Djarv and he has produced the handle from oak, leather and cow horn. Peter says that he treated the fibres of the leather with superglue before sanding it. The spoon is from alder and Peter carved it at our APT Northern England meeting in June 2009