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I am growing fonder of using edge tools, and would like to try a skew knife for the heel and throat. This is Cumpiano's recommendation, and I'm finding myself looking back at his book more often. I can't recall much mention of the skew knife here or on the MIMF, are any of you using one for your necks?

Where should I look for a good one?

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Gabriel Regalbuto
Carlsbad, California
Freedom 35!

I really like the ron hock instrument makers knives from lmi, i think the 1/2" is the most usefull. I have a nice japanese laminated knife of this style also, and i like the hock one much more. It's pretty much the only tool that i don't prefer japanese style. Everybody needs at least one good knife, i use it probably 20 times a day.

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

Todd, do you carve with a rasp and then move to the knives?

Jordan, what did you do for a handle? Straight, contoured, about how big? I'm sure the steel is good, I've got Hock irons in the planes I've built. Ron is a nice guy too, he searched his shop and found a few finger plane irons for me.

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Gabriel Regalbuto
Carlsbad, California
Freedom 35!

I like a rounded rectangle sort of handle, pretty long so i can really grab it. I dont remember the dimensions, just make it feel good to hold on to.

A big gouge, finger planes, rasps, knives, all those things make heel shaping fun.

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

William Cumpiano mentions in his book that his skew knife has a long handle allowing a double handed grip for better control. I looked but could not find such an animal so I searched the swapmeets and found an old long handled footprint firmer chisel. It had been ground down from use to no longer be of much use for it's intended purpose.

After flattening the back of the blade to remove a bit of pitting, I used a bench grinder, some water and a good does of patience to grind a skew bevel into it. I then cold honed an edge into it at an angle I felt would stand up to the rigors of the workload yet would still be really, really sharp and have found it very useful especially for blending the transition.

Cheers

Kim

His book was the first one I bought and is what really got me interested in building. However, I find that other methods work better for me, so it turned out, it wasn't "the bible of the craft" for me. Things change, methods evolve.....

This is a skew knife I made based on a GAL article sometime back. It does give good control with the butt end held against your hip and holding with two hands. Having said that, I don't use it very much preferring my rasps.

It's about 14" long with one of the Mill Knife blades from lee Valley epoxied into a slot in the end. I filled both sides of the slot with wooden shims, then whipped the end with bronze wire and then coated the wire with epoxy.

What part of a guitar are you calling the throat?

[edit] and where did the Delete button go? It's been less than 5 minutes since I double posted.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

What part of a guitar are you calling the throat? The neck?

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

woodworking stores like wood craft or wood workers supply carry a marking knife with a good edge and the squared off handle fits my hand real good. It was pretty cheap too. I think it was a Crown tools(the logo wore off a long time ago). I use it to score inlays, care the heal on the neck, sometimes on braces, just anywhere.

Thanks for the pointers on knives and sources. The throat is how Cumpiano refers to the transition from shaft to headstock.
Maybe I've been fooled by the black and white photos and their conspicuous lack of beer drinking aliens,
http://luthiersforum.3element.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=14410&KW=Installing+Binding%2FPurfings#forumTop
but there is a certain elegance to Cumpiano's presentation and methods. I don't plan on pinning a mortise and tenon neck joint or forgoing a mold any time soon, but wherever I can trade sawdust for shavings I'm going to give it a shot. My pace is so slow, nothing could slow me down.

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Gabriel Regalbuto
Carlsbad, California
Freedom 35!