Geek Slop Score: 92/100

Flexcut knives and micro tools

A good pocket knife will suffice for most whittling tasks but nothing beats a tool specifically designed for carving wood. A wood carving or whittling knife will have a substantial handle for easy gripping which lets you carve longer without getting tired and will use a shorter, thinner blade designed to cut through wood with less resistance than a normal (thicker) blade. Probably no other company makes better whittling knives than Flexcut.

Flexcut blades

Flexcut Micro Tools come in a variety of blade types – chisel, skew, sweep, U-gouge, V-Tool, and of course, normal carving blades (with cutting, detail, and roughing-blade options). Each blade type is offered in a variety of sizes and many of the tools even come with right and left-hand options.

Quality construction

Flexcut Micro Tools handles are a work of art – solid ash, beautifully finished, with a slight curve and narrowing near the end. They are sized for the average man’s hand and are ergonomically comfortable to grip.

Flexcut blades are made from razor-sharp high-carbon steel (spring steel), barely 1/16-inch thick (hence the name “micro” tools). The spring steel Flexcut uses is extremely hard and holds an edge especially well.

About Flexcut

Flexcut has been making wood carving knives since 1986 and offer over 300 wood carving products. All Flexcut tools are made in the USA (Erie, Pennsylvania). The quality of Flexcut knives can’t be beat. With proper care, they should last you a lifetime.

Blades come pre-honed but given the blade’s thinness, you’ll need a slipstrop to go with them (Flexcut makes a nice one). Slipstrops are used to sharpen the blades. After about 15 minutes of carving, a couple of slides across the slipstrop and you should be good to go.