The Good, The Bad, and The Meh - Knife edition part 2

 

…and now for an improved knife kit.

 I decided right off the bat, this would be a kit that would be waiting for me at a location I’ll be travelling to and would contain the things I use.  

I used the case from the previous kit as I felt if would provide protection and would travel well

 

I wanted a set of knifes which that were compact enough to fit in the case as well as a supply of blades. I chose the x-acto handles #1 for fine carving, #2 for most carving, and the heavy duty handle that came with the original kit. For blades, I equipped the kit with #11 and #16 for the small handle, #2 and #19 for the medium handle, and chisel tip, U and V gouges for the heavy duty handle. For the case, I also printed out some cases for some of the blades. I also created a magnetic “pick up” tool, using an old paint brush with a magnet glued to it, to retrieve a new blade from the cases.

A quick note: I've used x-acto and excel blades because they are thicker and less liable to break when carving. I tired of cheap thin blades breaking and not keeping an edge. 

 

I also have need for a pin vise quite often, so I included one in the kit along with drills and small chisels for tight areas. (Yes, the chisels are made from old cheap mini screwdrivers.)

 

To fit them in the bottom of the kit, I used some rigid foam cutting out the shapes into the foam

 

As for the top of the kit, I wanted to have a small cutting mat, a small silicone mat, a diamond coated sharpening plates, sandpaper, the drills for the pin vice, the calipers  (from the original kit), and a carving glove.

 

I cut the cutting mat to fit just inside the top of the kit to keep the other items in place. To keep the mat for moving when the kit is opened, I embedded some small screw into the top.

 

Now this is a traveling carving kit!