"To do a good job, one must first sharpen his device."
Master Chin-fu Shih said, "In the past, after taking
someone as his teacher, an apprentice should learn how
to sharpen knife first. Actually, sharpening a knife is
also a process to exercise one's patience. Everyone
sharpens his own knives, thus everyone has different
tools." Therefore, we took the following photos and made
the following videos of Master Shih's current tools
1. Round chisel:
A round chisel has curved blade. Those can beat a base
are called "chisel", while those cannot is called
"knife". A big round chisel has front and back sides.
The front side is made of steel, while the back, iron.
Both the front and back sides of a small round chisel
are made of steel.
Function: It is mainly used for the carving of lines of
round or curved clothes patterns. Besides, it is also
great for flower patterns, such as the round surface of
leaves, petals, and branches.
(Master Shih calls it as "inner steel", because the
inside part is made of steel, while its outside is made
of iron.)
2. Flat chisel
Flat chisel, also known as
square chisel, has flat and straight blade.
Function: It is mainly for splitting, poking, and
trimming.
(Master Shih calls it as "flying chisel", because, in
the process of cutting, sawdust will fly out.)
3. Aboral chisel:
An aboral chisel has similar shape as round chisel but
larger radian. The blade of the steel is outside the
circular arc. That is why it is called aboral chisel.
Function: It is mainly for trimming a solid base,
especially for the deep part of hollow carving and
digging holes. One can dig holes well by holding a small
aboral chisel with both hands and pulling and turning it
front and back. While using a big one, the both blade
shall be round, otherwise, they will hinder digging
deeply and make it difficult to clean saw dust. An
aboral chisel is suitable for intaglio and digging.
(Master Shih calls it as "outer steel", because its
outside is made of steel while the inside, iron.)
4.Upturn chisel:
An upturn chisel is a curved chisel.
It is mainly used to empty the deep part of deep relief.
The bottom of some deep relief shall be emptied, but the
angle of a flat chisel makes it unable to penetrate. The
curved upturn chisel serves for the purpose well.
(Master Shih calls it as "thun–sî".)
5.
Triangular knife
Triangle knife is of course triangular. The left and
right sides are ground to be sharp with the sharpest
point in the middle corner.
Function: Push the middle corner of a triangle knife can
quickly make a complete triangle dent with neat and
beautiful lines. It is commonly used to carve the lines
of clothes or eyebrows.
6.
Pointed tail knife
Most pointed
tail knives are made by careful grinding of the blade of
large hacksaw blade. It is similar to bevel cutter, but
its blade is sharper and longer and suitable for carving
lines, characters, or the refinement of small round
opening.
Videos on woodcarving
tools