The new Hans Karlsson spoon-carving knives are shaped with a hook shape that is in-between the standard and big brother Svante knives. The curvature is below the axis of the handle making the cutting angle somewhat different, and maybe more comfortable. These come well sharpened, and ready for use.
 

Svante Djarv Knives
These Swedish carving knives are made by Svante Djarv (left). (Pronounced something like "S-Vant-A YarVa"). These knives have rather beefy, comfortable elm handles. They are forged from a wear resistant steel that keeps a very good edge. Svante's "big brother" hook knives are similar to the standard spoon-carving knives, only the curve is larger, and they are made from thicker steel. Our new SD-09 sloyd knife has a 4 inch blade, answering the need for a knife that is useful for roughing out spoons and other carvings before getting down to finer detail work.
  

Svante Djarv Sheath Knife

I've known that Svante Djarv makes sheath knives since the first time we visited his workshop during one of our Sweden craft tours in the mid-90's. Svante generously presented a leather sheath sloyd knife to me, and another to Jögge Sundqvist who was our tour guide. We’ve been selling Svante’s carving knives (and also his Baby Axes) since then, but somehow forgot about the sheath knives.

Well, better late than never. We are now adding a very useful Svante knife with a leather sheath to our “ SD” selection. The 5/8” x 2-3/4” blade is a little narrower than our other SD sloyd knives, which makes it useful for detail work in addition to fairly serious rougher work.  The nicely shaped, flat bevels make this a real sloyd knife in the Scandinavian tradition. The generous handles are smoothly finished. As expected, they’re made with the same edge holding steel and they come really sharp. (The sheath knife in the photo has a textured handle, but the knives made for Country Workshops will have smooth handles. The other Svante Djarv knives that we sell have the textured handles.)

Svante and his wife, Elsa, cut, shape and hand sew each leather sheath to fit individual knives. (When do they have time for this?) These are super useful tools, and they will make a great gift. Maybe for yourself!

We have found the Svante Djarv sheath knife to be a new favorite, combining qualities of the smaller detail knife SD-03 with the larger SD-04, 05 and 09 knives. We now offer just the knife...to save on expenses, or if you make your own sheath.

Another special tool from Svante Djarv

When Jögge Sundqvist was teaching his Country Workshops classes in bowl and spoon carving during the summer of 2010 he told us that his favorite engraving tool is a knife made by our Swedish friend Svante Djarv. These were strong words – Jögge is one of the most skillful and artistic wood engravers that we know of. With this advise, we have decided to add Svante’s karvsnittskniv to our selection of “SD” tools. The blade is 5/16 x 1-3/8 inches, with the razor sharp bevels formed along the straight edge. (In contrast to bevels along the curved edge, as with the various “sloyd” knives.)

Knives from Del Stubbs
We are offering two Del Stubbs engraving knives. The DS-08 engraving knife is a heavy duty tool, intended for double pass, V-cut decorative incising. The blade of the engraving knife has wide, blunt sides that can be controlled from either side of the blade. The DS-07 kolrossing knife is a Norwegian-style tool, used for single cut engraving that is traditionally filled with a mixture of linseed oil and powdered bark. Both knives have turned, hardwood handles.
 

How To Order
Tools can be purchased three ways: Order by phone (Office hours: 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Eastern Time) using your Visa/MasterCard for payment; order by mail, by clicking on Order Form (you can print the Order Form on your computer's printer, but we do not yet offer on-line ordering); direct purchase at our store and showroom.

Order Form

Country Workshops Home Page

E-mail:
Drew Langsner
Phone:
828-656-2280 (Daily, 9-6 Eastern time)