r/Woodcarving

Need some help regarding beavercraft knives fresh out of the box. I’m new to woodcarving and bought my first set of intro/beginner knives. For my first project, I had to exert a ridiculous amount of force for seemingly simple cuts (Basswood). The knives appear sharp to the naked eye and I stroped them, but the problem remains. What’s the easiest way to get them to actually be sharp enough for carving, or should I just buy a new set? Complete newby here, my apologies. And if the answer is “Buy Flexcut,” that’s fine too.

Finally looking to get into the hobby as woodcraft has always interested me, but being on a fairly limited budget is there a specific brand that's affordable but still decent? I've seen people mention Beavercraft a few times but apparently their quality is hit and miss and I'm not sure what a good starting size blade for Whittling would be

https://preview.redd.it/fbz8zgeq622h1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=95f252deb06921acb88890131d8f8f6b351c0548

https://preview.redd.it/vdyroklq622h1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=def88f0695e0f1ac3a7deed9d3ab5b939b8c3278

https://preview.redd.it/4539yltw822h1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=87cc18c891fa4ce6da30f35c01d04617b1e1b312

https://preview.redd.it/4539yltw822h1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=87cc18c891fa4ce6da30f35c01d04617b1e1b312

https://preview.redd.it/6oce48tw822h1.jpg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec83dd6f49b172bb19885a0a04473e9cf0d85696

When the topic of the ever important strop comes up (about all the time), I see plenty of people recommending big brand made strops at prices that give me a heart attack. So here is a handmade strop that cost me a whooping ... 3-4€ maybe?

Wood is a board of pine from a bed that was laying in the street because some was throwing it away. Cost nothing and the board has proved useful for a number of small practical projects (it is awful for carving tho). Cut to size with the coping saw from the supermarket for my woodcarving projects.
Leather is a cowhide leather belt back bought at a second hand shop for 2€. It's pretty hard leather and does the job well, I just had to cut it to length with my woodcarving blades.
Leather strips are glued to the wood with basic cheap superglue from the supermarket. Maybe 1€ worth of glue?
Anti-slip pads are from the supermarket too and represent maybe another 1€? The glue on them being quite weak and wanting to adjust the individual heights to make sure the whole was stable I made them small recesses with my woodcarving tools.

I made it with two leather strips because I like to use two compounds but it can absolutely be made with just one strip for green compound only. The brown compound is coarser than the green one and makes removing burr and fixing minor damage a bit faster. The white one is finer than green compound and makes for some very fine edges. Got them as a pack in the hardware store and they are big enough that they'll be enough for a lifetime if I don't use them for anything else. Obviously the brown and white marks on the wood are just reminders of which compound is where for when they're both gonna be black from stropping.

As you can see in the last pic it allows to reach hair whittling no problem although I could achieve about the same result with a free strip of leather (not glued to any backing) and green compound (it does need to sit on a hard, flat surface like the surface of a desk while honing most blades nonetheless).

(Compound is better spread than the pic shows, it's mostly a matter of reflection and I added a tiny bit more in some areas but that's about the quantity you want.)
(If you use more than one compound, clean your blade before moving from one to the next so you don't contaminate a finer compound with coarser grains.)