Best whittling knife kit for starting a hobby

Good afternoon to everyone reading this, hope you’re having a nice one! This is going to be my classical article with 5 reviews on 5 different products that I’ve tried out and decided to share. The beauty of having an open market like this is that you always have something new to try and review afterwards, isn’t it? This is not going to be an article dedicated to separate knives or chisels since some of that info would be quite enough for now. 

“What is this going to be about, then?”, you’ll ask. Well, I’ve thought – better than buying each knife all alone and adding it to your collection, why not grab the best wood whittling knife set you’ve ever seen and supply yourself for a very long time of pleasure while carving, right? 

Fortunately for all of us, these sets exist regardless of the purpose and your skill level – you’ll be able to find something for yourself whether you are a beginner or an experienced person and whether you want to do in-round carving, chip one or relief one. Why do I believe buying a set is better than everything separately?

Well, first of all, to find what you need as separate items will be more difficult and you’ll spend more time looking for what you want. Moreover, you need to be quite knowledgeable (or at least do some proper research) before doing it or you risk wasting money in vain. Grabbing a knife kit is easier – they are designed by people who know a thing or two about whittling, so you just need to define the purpose of your desirable set and the quantity of tools you’d like, that’s about it.

There are quite a lot of options to choose from if you are looking for a knife set, so now we’ll dive in and explore some of them.

Best whittling knife kit – at least, some of them

BeaverCraft S15

This whittling kit includes everything and more for you to start whittling right away. Three knives, stropping accessories and a canvas pouch to keep them all together – comfortable and convenient to use. The knives aren’t the same, of course. Kit has a roughing knife, so, general outlining, a detail knife for some finer lines and a knife with a blade set a slight downward angle specifically for chip carving. Meaning that purchasing this small set will open three doors to you and it’s your choice where you want to go. This is why I recommend kits – they are a great way to develop and broaden your approach to the wood while leaving out the stress and headache of having to find the tools yourself.

To sum up: a nice whittling kit, suitable for beginners and not, lets you try new things and experiment with new styles of carving.

BeaverCraft S15

Flexcut KN500

This is a kit similar to the previous one, with 3 knives for the same purposes: general roughing to remove more stock, detail one and a chip carving one. I should notice that they don’t include anything for stropping in contrast to BeaverCraft – at least, I haven’t received anything and it doesn’t say anything about that in the description. The compound is shown on their promotional pictures though. Some of the people say they received the compound but got 2 knives instead of 3, not sure if that’s the bargain you’re looking for. However, the knives themselves are really nice, quite tough and sharp, hold their edge well and are overall not a bad addition to your workshop at all. 

To sum up: pretty great set and Amazon usually helps fix things that are wrong with your package, so it might be worth taking a risk after all. Tough steel blade, lays nicely in hand, quite nice to enjoy carving.

Flexcut KN500

BeaverCraft Comfort Bird DIY

This is what I’d call the best whittling knife kit for child (or any beginner, really). It does include everything you’d require, safety tape and band-aids as well as wood, a knife, sandpaper and stropping kit. It also has a pattern for the comfort bird carving added to the set together with an instruction booklet and a small bottle of Beeswax polish for finishing – as I said, everything you’d require. The instruction is nice and detailed, the pattern is of an appropriate size, perfectly adjusted for the wood blocks you get with the set. Overall, it is a nice way to introduce a newbie or a kid to this gorgeous hobby and spark an interest in them.

To sum up: a great beginner set or a gift for somebody who is looking for a new hobby, lets you try out carving and decide if it’s what you like. Won’t be suitable for a long-term use since it comes with only 1 knife and you’ll need to expand your tool stock eventually.

BeaverCraft Comfort Bird DIY

Flexcut 2-piece

This is a set with two detail knives, one with a bigger blade and one with a smaller one – so it’s a great kit for somebody who is looking to diversify their carving process with more intricate and tiny details that are not done easily in the first place, not even talking about doing them with a general carving knife. These knives have sharp thin tips and bevels themselves, quite small but indeed handy for detailing. Comfortable wooden shafts and a polishing compound that’s included in the set, overall make this kit one of the best whittling knife kit detail.

To sum up: small but nice set of two detailing knives, so if you were looking for something to work on the tiny little things with, this is your desire right here. Might get dull too fast, but regular honing should help with that. Enjoy the small details with the set in front of you.

Flexcut 2-piece

MAMAR SK10 12 Piece Set

Well, this set is certainly different and you won’t have any doubts about that as soon as you look at it. It includes 5 wood blocks for you to whittle from and 12 tools to use for finer details than ever. The instruments have quite a thin shaft so they feel light in your hands. The shapes of the blade here are very distinctive and vary depending on what tool you want to use. This set would allow you to be very thorough and detailed with whatever you carve. It’s also a nice gift for a kid because the handles are too small and thin so they will be easy to use for a kid (but might not be the best for you).

To sum up: not a bad set by any means, the variety in blade shapes could make any other manufacturer jealous, but it shows in the quality – sometimes less is better. Won’t be a bad set to learn carving or have fun with your kids.

MAMAR SK10 12 Piece Set

My view on the best whittling knife set

As you could have already noticed, many men – many minds. It would certainly be wrong of me to tell you “Buy this, don’t buy that”. I share with you what I’ve learned while working with these tools and what the other reviewers shared from their experience, so this is your call to judge.

My idea here was to present you 5 most recent out of the best whittling knife kit options I’ve tried out and I hope this gave you an idea or two. When thinking of purchasing a set, make sure you know for a fact what comes with it so you are not disappointed after the delivery. It’s also a good idea to find some video reviews or tutorials on using them so you could see what they look like in action and decide if that’s the thing for you.

Enjoy your shopping, find the best tools and share your own review with like-minded people of this community!