Post #109073 by Benzart on Wed, Aug 18, 2004 8:13 PM

Usually the burs are Not resharpenable. wear them down and throw them away. Your best bet is to get the Carbide burs that Lowes is carrying now. Like these, you use them for Heavy wood removal (on small carvings)


There are several sizes and shapes. You can get good prices if you shop around online. Do a google search for wood carving tools

Mine are fairly small since I only use them on Small carvings. The larger pieces I use gouges

These are the Knife cutters. They work well to cut straight lines and undercut things like ears and lips. They tend to "Get away" from you and will travlel all the way around the piece cutting it the whole way. If your finger is in the way, it will cut a slice all the way around it before you can say Sh**. Theyare Nasty, but useful. These can be purchased at Jewelry supply stores. Again google-'Jewelry tools and supply" and they are fairly cheap.

These are a specialty bur for creating large carbochon settings. For me they are useful on hardwoods to get the curves along the nose to facy and different lines like that.

The ones on the far end here arn "Saw" burs and can be used like a saw to cut linesor Stopcuts with straight lines. you can also print straight edge letters with these.

These are called Cup Burs and they will create a semiball or a row of half beads, thay can be used to makeasmile type line, or other round/half round decorativr lines.http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b4d639b3127cceb4fafd365b580000001610
The spiral deal is a spiral sanding disk to get into contours. these come in several grits and sizesand are really helpful in the santing and cleanup operations. the 2 next to it are Carbide cutters more on the Fine end. After the rough out with the course carbide kutzall bits, these come next to erase the deep lines left by the rough-out guys...(this is gonna be a long post..)

These are diamond burs. they come in 2 or 3 grits course, med and fine.they are good to clean up after the smoothe carbide burs. the last step before andpaper. Available at the wood carvers supply and the Jewelers supply stores, fairly cheep.

This is a.5mm ball bur, the smallest I have. I use it to get into tight places like between teeth, clean letters in a signature, anyplace that has a small space that needs to be cleaned up

These are different size and shapes used to clean areas that fit their shape, In a nostril, shaping teeth, hair, eyeswrinkles, bore holes.



These are small chisels and gouges used for removing wood and wax. in the last one you can see reflections of my fingers holding the camera. Thats how sharp I like to keep


These Hook Knives are my main tool on all but the Super hard woods. I can get the roughout with these fairly fast. On the hard woods like macassar Ebony, Maple, Cherry, Zebra wood, Cocobolo and such, I hac=ve to use the carbide tools on those and some woods Dull the carbides rather quickly. this is wha the super hard wood pieces cost more. They cost me more, not just for the wood, but for the tools and extra time it takes to carve it.
Well thats Lesson one on tools. There are still Many more tools out there, but these basic tools will create just about any of my small carvings. WAKE UP. No Sleeping in class

[ Edited by: Benzart on 2004-08-18 20:20 ]