by Don Powell

I have been carving with Flexcut Palm Tools for years and my experience with them has been very positive. They are a high quality tool. Their design with their flat, thin shafts is a little unusual and a trademark characteristic. They are a good size for palm tools and the handles are well designed, compact and comfortable. The thin tool blades have no excess of metal around the bevels, no prominent heels and they slice through the wood without drag. They come very sharp and I have used them on an extensive range of woods and found them to cope well.

The portable set with ten interchangeable blades with a single handle is an excellent concept. They are truly compact and I know several carvers who keep them in their vehicle's glove box so that they can carve whenever the opportunity presents itself. Obviously careful thought has gone into the blade selection. They are a well balanced set of small blade profiles. They are very good for the beginning carver in the field of hand held carving, and with a modest outlay you're well equipped with a complete little set which I think that in terms of value-for-money is hard to beat. A big plus is that quite an extensive range of interchangeable blades in an impressive selection of blade sizes and profiles are available to enable one to continue to build up and extend one's carving kit.

My favourite set of fixed handle palm tools is the thumbnail set of four boxed No. 11 Palm Tools which are just excellent for roughing out, shaping and texturing small hand held carvings.

I started my carving as an 11 year old with one knife. I now have quite a collection in different makes. I particularly like the Flexcut Pelican Blade for general whittling and their long narrow bladed knife with the fine tip for detailing. These two come in the set of four knives which include a small bladed fine detail knife. They are very sharp and have comfortable nice sized handles. Although you can make most carving tools work, it is a pleasure to own and use well designed and well made tools.

Fairly recently in Australia, Flexcut have introduced a carver’s scraper set, made in a palm tool size. The set's six interchangeable blades are designed to be used with any Flexcut interchangeable handle. This kit is called the Profile Scraper Set. A wide variety of scraping profiles encompass all of the tool edges to cope with the wide variety of contours one encounters in various carving projects. I found them to work well for me and I am pleased that I got them.

Click on the links below for more information and pricing on:
- Flexcut Carving Tools
- Carving Tools
- Flexcut Thumbnail 4 Piece Palm Set
- Flexcut 4 Piece Carving Knife Set
- Flexcut 7 Piece Carving Scraper Set

Don Powell is a professional woodcarver who lives in Maleny in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. He is a well-known teacher and lecturer. You can read more about him on the Australian Wood Review's website.