Old Timer 24OT Splinter Carvin' 6in Traditional Folding Whittling Knife with 1.5in Detail Blade, Sawcut Handle, Nickel Silver Bolsters, and Convenient Size for Carving, Camping, EDC, and Outdoors

Awesome little whittling tool.

Very versatile pocket tool for variety of carving tasks. Yet small pocket knife sized tool. Outstanding build quality.

This knife is awesome IF you know how to redo the bevel angles. That’s a big “IF” because if you can’t, this knife will frustrate you. All of the bevel angles are really far too steep to be able to do clean and efficient work. Why they are ground so high is something I don’t know. I suspect that they believe, at this price point, that the people this knife appeals to are folks that just want to fool around and do some really crude carvings and probably don’t understand sharpening all that much because the high bevel angles will obviously stay sharp longer and are less susceptible to damage. The problem is that it just makes it very difficult to do anything other than brute force (and difficult) cutting. That said, if you take the time to redo the bevel angles, then this knife will work very well. I would suggest not more than 25 degrees (combined, so 12.5 + 12.5) for the double bevel blade and not more than 25 degrees for all the single bevels. Is it a pain? Yes. If you have a belt sander for knives, then it will be easy, but I don’t have one so I did it by hand using a small diamond stone (The Sharpal Buddyguard to be specific). It took a while and requires a little bit of skill to do this by hand, but it’s also not rocket science. Once I did that, this thing really sings!!The steel is surprisingly good. It’s slightly soft, which is good; I’m guessing something like 58 HRC. The softness less you get an absolutely ridiculous edge and also means you will likely never have to use anything more than a strop to resharpen. I like my tools SHARP so by way of example, carving a little butter knife I might stop and re- strop for 30 seconds halfway through the project. Speaking of which, you MUST make or buy a strop. The one I keep with this is about an inch and a half wide and maybe four inches long (not including the handle portion) and has green compound on it. If you ever need to do more than strop this thing, then you probably screwed up somewhere. I also keep a small loose piece of leather with compound on it for inside bevels, although 95% of work will be done with just the double bevel blade.There’s no locking feature. I consider this a pro rather than a con. You should NEVER be using a knife like this in ANY kind of manner whereby the locking mechanism would do anything. If you feel you need locking blades, then that’s a sign you need to do some learning on proper technique. Not trying to be rude, but technique is key to being able to actually carve stuff you like, and for safety. There’s nothing inherently wrong with locking blades on a knife like this, but they do make it a pain in the butt to close a blade and flip to something else – and possibly coax you into doing something with the knife you should NOT be doing. As for the straight chisel and straight gouge, you should be choking up on the these and not really pushing from the knife handle so a locking feature would be of no value on these either.I would consider the springs rather mild. It is not difficult at all to pull the tools out. This is good because some of them are a bit tricky to reach the nail nick. That said, you could shake your arm enough to dislocate your shoulder and nothing will pop out on it own. There’s no risk of anything opening in your pocket or backback accidentally. This is not a survival blade – you don’t need heavy springs that will break your fingernails.The selection of tools is good. Obviously, 95%+ of the time you’ll just use the regular knife blade. There are some limitations by nature of this being a folding design that ALL folders including the flexcut one this mimics. If you try to carve a spoon you will run into the issue of the hook blade being somewhat shallow and the handle kind of bonking into the wood due to its proximity to the blade. This is because you simply can’t fold a more effective hook blade into the body. Like I said, this is a problem the flexcut also has. Realistically, if you are THAT serious you would have a dedicated hook knife instead of relying on this folder.Is it sharp? Mine was pretty sharp out of the box. But that doesn’t really mean anything because if you use it, you will have to sharpen it. Realistically, I don’t think I’ve ever bought an edge tool of any quality that I did not feel could be sharper out of the box, including high end tools. So to me, there’s no difference out of the box between “sharp” and “not very sharp” because neither is sharp enough. You should always expect to have to sharpen any blade out of the box. And ultimately it doesn’t matter with this knife because you are going to remake the bevel angles anyway.This folder is for two types of people: First type is really skilled folks who want something they can throw in their pocket or convenient whittling when they get board or to take on a hike without having to pack a bunch of individual tools. The second type is the person who just wants to casually carve and not invest in a small handful of dedicated tools. Will this knife (or the flexcut, for that matter) work as well as dedicated tools? Absolutely not, but you can still do extremely good work with it.This folder is NOT for people who want a really good knife and to be able to do great work, but are unwilling to redo the bevel angles.Should I get this one or the flexcut? If you are willing to redo the bevel angles, this one will do everything the flexcut will do and it will do it just as well (without the burden of Unlocking a blade just to switch tools). Just make sure to check for defects. Mine had no defects, but obviously quality control will be low at this price point. Once you are sure you have one with no issues, then proceed with the bevel angles. If you are not willing to redo the bevel angles, then I would not recommend this folder – just pony up the big bucks and get the flexcut instead which has more appropriate bevel angles out of the box. Ultimately it’s time vs. money.4 YEAR UPDATEI've had this knife for four years and I've whittled an awful lot of stuff. The longer i've had it the more it impresses me. In fact, someone I know with the Flexcut (of which this is a knock-off) felt like he'd prefer my knife over his because he found the locking mechanism to be pointless and made it a pain to switch blades. This knife doesn't have a locking mechanism (you shouldn't need a locking mechanism for a whittling knife) so I was able to switch between blades with ease. The most impressive thing is how well this knife has held up regarding side-to-side play. With any pinned slipjoint knife that can became a problem with whittling. It hasn't been a problem yet. I basically do ALL of my whittling with this knife and a Schrade 44ot Workman (4 blade medium stockman with the fourth blade being a very small wharncliffe).

There are definitely better quality products out there.For $20, a pocket tool like this a great value. A couple of the tools were razor sharp. Most were quite dull. That will be something you will have to contend with.

Exactly what I was looking for -- a reasonably priced folding, multi-blade carving set for fun and for small tasks. Blades and construction are excellent, they stand up to Schrade and Old Timer standards, but a folding knife will never have the same function as a high-grade carving tool and this should not be thought of as one.Pro: 1) The price is terrific. Kind of surprising.2) The blades are all solid, carbon- or tool-grade steel, and come very sharp! Note the polished bevel on each blade. Not like other factory sharpenings I've seen, this one you'll need to be careful with right out of the box.3) Straight blade is a solid, workable carver. Good shape and thickness.4) Other blades also solid, and fun to try out. They are of varying degrees of usefulness, but allow some unusual side angles (probably so it can be folded safely).5) In terms of design I think this is a better tool than the only other competitor I've seen, at roughly 10 times the cost, but to be fair, I've never held that one. The angle of the blade on the competitor is not comfortable to me (I have the fixed-blade version, which I think works well for chip carving but not forms and shapes).Drawbacks: The handle is wide and the blades do not lock (both are a necessary compromise in the design for what it is).Do NOT think of this as a primary or even a high-grade carving tool. For that, you should have dedicated blades and handles for each purpose, orpossibly one of the traditional slimmer pocket knives -- but choosing one of those over the Splinter Carvin' tool is only a matter of preference.Advice for Beginning Carvers, or Gifts for Them: For beginners who want to start whittling, this will work fine (be careful of your fingers -- it is SHARP!) but for smaller hands as in youngsters or such as mine, I'd recommend you start with any other pocket or fixed knife that is comfortable in the hand, or that you just like. But even then, if you don't mind the width, if you like the idea and the looks of this one, then why not? The straight blade is the right shape and thickness and I believe it is high-carbon, or tool-grade steel (check the description).I have been looking for years for a portable little folding knife with gouge or veiner heads, partly just for fun and interest, and at a reasonable price, since I won't be carving masterpieces with it. This is the thing!