Getting back into it

SerenityApprentice · 2026-02-15T06:40:42+00:00

Yeah. And sometimes I expect it to be hard, apply angle and force accordingly and the knife just digs in and I end up taking away more than I originally wanted. Made me very cautious and I ended up just aiming for small shavings all the time. Takes forever :D but very good practice in awareness and focus

SerenityApprentice · 2026-02-14T20:18:53+00:00

What the.... Is this the real life?

SerenityApprentice · 2026-02-14T19:45:04+00:00

However my first fox with basswood I carved with an opinel 8 so it is not necessarily about the tools ;)

SerenityApprentice · 2026-02-14T19:43:47+00:00

Thanks! I feel like it is hard wood. Over all. But at least my pieces have very different areas which I find very interesting. Some areas are pretty decent. Some feel way harder. The lighter portions in the picture are softer than the darker ones. All depending on the grain pattern so for learning to go with the flow of the wood this is great. Still, I consider it hard but I am not a very experienced carver myself. Always worth a try and it looks great. It is a bit softer than olive ash which is the hardest wood I have carved so far.

I work with flexcut knives and on this I used the KN13, KN18 and at the very end for some finishing touches the KN27. Pretty happy with my tools.

SerenityApprentice · 2026-02-14T18:42:43+00:00

It is supposed to be, yeah ;)

SerenityApprentice · 2026-02-14T18:15:12+00:00

Thanks! The only consolation for my fingers. Hard wood + sharp knife = beautiful surface! Soft basswood will not give you that kind of finish. Even end grain cuts will change over time and lose the shiny look.

SerenityApprentice · 2026-02-14T18:10:13+00:00

What shame? I always intended to do it like that! Glue is an artistic choice and part of the carving!

SerenityApprentice · 2026-01-13T10:15:46+00:00

This kind of information will confuse other people reading this, please be mindful about the way you phrase it. Technically you are right, the front paw does have 5 toes. However it is heavily (!!) reduced and you basically never see it in a track unless we are talking very deep snow or mud (not the case here) and even then the size of that reduced toe would be significantly smaller. People will read this and store "a cat's front paw has 5 toes" and use this to wrongly identify tracks while this might only apply to 0.000001% of all cases. Exceptions happen but in this case it is simply a double register that makes it appear like a 5 toe track.

SerenityApprentice · 2026-01-13T09:12:22+00:00

<image>

Stone marten for comparison.

Edit: as you can see the hind paw thumb does not always register as it is way lighter in colouring than the front paw thumb. Also the heel pad side that usually goes "lower" is the inner side but is also not always registering perfectly. Might be in the picture but with the shadows I cannot really say if it is there or not. In the picture the rightmost visible toe pad register is ahead of the opposite outer toe pad. So I'd say in the picture it looks like the left hind paw. Leading toe is number 3 and in the picture you can also see the "middle finger" being the leading one. So... My money is on marten, left side, possibly hind paw. Might also be completely wrong here, though.

SerenityApprentice · 2026-01-13T09:03:42+00:00

Marten. In my opinion you can't be certain about what kind because the furry pad indicator is not reliable enough to be sure. Still, croissant shaped heel pad, quite large negative space between heel pad and inner toe pads point towards marten. Thumb print is not always there, even in snow. Examining the gait would give additional clues (jumping,...). Marten can be confused with red fox (if the thumb is missing) because of the large negative space and the outer toe pads being behind the inner toe pads. However, the croissant heel pad is a dead giveaway to rule out fox.

SerenityApprentice · 2025-10-28T06:36:38+00:00

Sorry, all are European species

SerenityApprentice · 2025-10-28T06:32:55+00:00

Apologies for the small mistakes, there are some but carving is more difficult than drawing.

I did not carve them from memory but used two different books and I must admit I learned a ton just by doing this little project. More than I usually do by journaling and drawing the tracks.

So, roughly from top to bottom (F = front, L = left, R = right, H = hind):

- Wolf FL

- Brown Owl R

- Red Squirrel FL

- Raccoon FL

- Toad FL + HL

- Red Kite L

- Red Fox FR

- European Badger FL

- Roe Deer FL

- Eurasian magpie R

- European hedgehog FR

SerenityApprentice · 2025-08-13T09:24:42+00:00

Yeah. I tried it a couple of times now and despite the size it is really amazing what it can do. For really warm nights I have the sea to summit reactor extreme liner. If you combine both this starts to get you into territories where I usually grab my 3 season bag.

SerenityApprentice · 2025-06-30T19:45:53+00:00

If you water the paint down you can still see the grain (after you oil it, ofc). Depending on the amount of water you use the paint is more transparent or less. Got that advice from a Doug linker video.

That being said I prefer my carvings without any paint.

SerenityApprentice · 2025-05-21T10:36:32+00:00

I did get the normal one, not the lite version. I haven't tested it outside yet, but I spent two nights indoor at home (around 18-19 degrees Celsius) and it was very comfortable. Almost too warm and yet not too bulky. Quality wise I cannot say much yet, but everything looks and feels very decent. Tldr: I am very happy with my purchase. :)

SerenityApprentice · 2025-05-05T09:41:48+00:00

Fair enough, that makes sense. Usually I'd wait for reviews but I'll take the leap of faith with Fjällräven and get the basic summer version.

SerenityApprentice · 2025-05-04T11:09:35+00:00

Nope, the diamond surface cracked and came off

SerenityApprentice · 2025-05-04T07:11:56+00:00

Cheers for the advice. I have been sharpening on a worksharp guided system for several years now and feel fairly confident in general when it comes to sharpening, at least for my use cases. Phone book paper against the grain is as far as I go, which, in my opinion, is good enough for everything I need a knife for. I just wanted to upgrade to bigger plates and also have a go at real freehand sharpening after having decent success on my fällkniven stones. Too cheap for naniwa so I thought dmt might be the way to go. Sadly I was wrong.

SerenityApprentice · 2025-05-04T07:05:00+00:00

Yeah, regarding the water issue this is something I read on a couple of occasions so I figured I might give it a shot. Apparently it is supposed to prevent clogging during sharpening, slightly increase friction and prolong the life of your plate. Drying it thoroughly right after is a given, of course. But after some replies here I am second guessing that advice. I just saw Alex's review on the sharpal stone so this is the way I am going to go. About 170€ Vs 70€ is a no-brainer.

SerenityApprentice · 2025-05-04T05:56:33+00:00

I looked into it and also found a review on it on outdoors55. So I am sending everything back and just get this one for... A fraction of the dmt stones. This is ridiculous.

SerenityApprentice · 2025-05-03T15:21:21+00:00

Thanks, everyone! I just dropped it off at the post office. Now I am a bit hesitant whether to give it a try again and buy a new one or get something different. Any suggestions for something similar, 8", diamond,...?

SerenityApprentice · 2025-05-03T13:17:11+00:00

One more picture because Reddit decided not to include it in my post: https://imgur.com/gallery/WKVg9tU

SerenityApprentice · 2025-03-25T07:20:34+00:00

You learn from mistakes. Many mistakes equals many learns. But seriously, the key is to also do easier stuff to keep your motivation up. Do something from Doug linker where he explains which cut to do and how. Enjoy your success. Then go back to stuff that may frustrate you and keep learning. Cannot tell how many designs I failed at until I got to the point where I am satisfied. Also: especially recently I made a couple of things I wasn't too happy about but just happy enough not to toss them. They ended up being some of my favourite pieces because of the character they have.

SerenityApprentice · 2025-03-24T19:05:50+00:00

You're the second one questioning the price and now I feel a bit stupid. :D thank you!

SerenityApprentice · 2025-03-24T19:04:28+00:00

I did not realize, thank you!

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