Side by Side Comparison of: X-Acto vs G & F vs Design Originals vs Walnut Hollow vs Charles Beiderman

Basic Knife Set review: Great set. Each of the three knife sizes has come in handy on a small project where I'm cutting pleather. Blades are strong but be careful when using the sharp-point blades; I broke the tip of the smallest pointed blade by putting too much pressure on it. The zippered case is such a bonus.

This set has most of the common blades with a magnetic holder for each blade type and a booklet describing their uses. Although the set duplicates the smaller handles I previously owned, it provided the large heavy duty handle I didn't at a great sale price. I commend the case as well because, while a bit bulky, it provides clearly designated spaces for each blade and handle.

I do a bunch of projects at home that involve fixing all sorts of things from accidentally broken toys, to furniture, etc. For almost every project I need to cut off old adhesive, or cut off broken pieces etc. I have been using a box cutter which works great, but there are a number of times I need a different angle on the blade, or something with a bit more finesse. I picked this up, and so far it has been great. I like the multiple handles as the red one allows me to really get a nice solid grip on it, but the thin metal ones are great for delicate and precise work. All the blades have been really sharp, and the diversity has been fantastic to use.Definitely a good purchase.

I originally purchased the Elmers X-Acto Zippered Storage kit for work while preparing for a museum exhibit. The kit has been so popular that I added a keyring loop to the zipper pull and hung it at the entrance to my workshop in the museum. We access it regularly for different projects. The different blades have already come in handy.I liked it so much I purchased this one for myself. I did the same thing and hung it in an active workspace for easy access. When we are done, we just hang the kit back up and it is ready for the next use!

I ordered this set because I'm a leather-worker and wanted to get an Xacto knife set to be able to have options when cutting my leather. This nice Xacto kit came exactly as pictured. Absolutely no disappointments at all here! I especially can appreciate that this kit comes in a really nice looking wooden box. They also include several replacement and different blades for any type of project!Do yourself a favor and get yourself this kit. Especially if you're in to crafting that requires the use of Xacto knives. You won't be disappointed!I've cut at least 50-60 pieces of 3 oz to 5 oz veg-tanned leather, and have yet to need to replace a blade. Though I have already purchased replacement blades for when that day comes. I favor the number 11 blade, which I believe is the "original".Anyhow, this kit is great, came very nicely packed and quickly. Great buying experience!

Great Cutting Scraping Set...I repair cracked tablets and phones and this is perfect for scraping the glass off and cutting double sided tape.It's just perfect for me. Very well made....

I bought this for my husband while he's at work. He occasionally gets put in a station where he has to sand burrs off pieces of metal and comes home with the skin on his thumb sanded as well. Due to safety they aren't allowed to wear gloves, but obviously need something for thumb protection and ideas such as Band-Aids, tape, etc. just aren't good enough. After some searching I came across this cowhide protector. He was able to try it for the first time yesterday, and while not 100% perfect (I honestly don't think that's possible), it worked SO much better! It covered the areas that were affected most and protected the skin on his thumb without wearing down or crumbling off as previously mentioned "fixes" do. I'll more than likely buy these again sometime in the future but since he doesn't do this kind of work consistently, these thumb guards are perfect and should last some time between replacements!

I'm a man with smallish to medium size hands. I bought the medium size thumb guard and itended up fitting perfectly (for me). Don't know if that's helpful to anyone but hope it is. As forquality it will work out nicely for what I need it for, which is to shield my thumb/finger from highheat when hand grinding/sanding small metal parts with motorized bench grinders/sanders.

If you own sharp knives, you need this! My son started selling CUTCO knives this summer so of course I had to buy them and absolutely love them and many friends and family bought them. The only problem is they are so sharp when I trim hard veggies (such as Brussels sprouts, i was making small cuts into my thumb. Out of the blue I searched for a solution and fell upon this handy protector. I've now bought them for all my friends and family who also bought the knife sets. LOVE, love love this item! I plan to purchase a bunch more for gifts and will have my son buy some as gifts for his customers and tell them about this product.

This was a one-off order for me. I'm trying to find something I can put on my left thumb and then attach an abrasive surface to it, so I can press the finger tips of the four fingers of my left hand onto the abrasive surface and thereby develop thicker calluses on my fingertips, making it easier for me to learn to play guitar. This thumb guard is perfect for my needs. The leather is soft suede that feels really good on my thumb. Delivery was fast and customer service was proactive. I like it when you buy something, even something as inexpensive as this item, and the seller reaches out to make sure you are satisfied. Now I want their entire catalogue. There are probably other things they sell that I might need in other aspects of my life.

Saved my thumb the first time I used it! I have small hands and fingers and I am elated to find a thumb guard that works and fits so well. Great company to work with. I'll probably need more in the future so I don't want to loose track of Work Gloves Depot!

This product came fast. I received them a few days ago and have already used them for several hours. They took a little bit to get use to, as expected, but now feel comfortable. I do basic traditional carving as a hobby. These have done a great job giving my hands just a little extra protection from routine nicks and cuts that come when whittling or doing details on small carvings.Of course you could still find a way to cut through them I'm sure, but anything strong enough to protect against any cut would be too heavy for my liking, or too expensive.A note on the sizing, I generally where large gardening-type gloves when I buy from Home Depot, and the medium thumb guard fits my hand perfect.I would recommend them as a great option for anyone who does basic traditional carving, and doesn't like wearing full gloves.

very nice book

Came before expected. Amazing book, well written, awesome for beginner.

Very detailed and easy to follow direction.

Outstanding product quality for the money. Exactly what we wanted. So far exceeded our expectations.

This was recommended by someone that whittles and I am happy with it. It was a gift for my son-in-law. He loves it. Great quality

One of my absolute go-to books on a regular basis. From small detail cuts to projects, this book is great for beginners and up.

Got this for my husband as part of his Father's Day gift. He had mentioned wanting to pick up wood whittling. This is perfect for a beginner. I think that once he gets the hang of it these soft little pieces won't be a "go to". But for someone just starting, this was great to practice on!

Excellent block of basswood, well machined, great value. Highly recommended.

The price is why I bought this, and I'll probably order a couple more while I learn basic wood carving. Its pretty soft, but VERY imperfect wood. If you're new to the art like I am, you aren't going to get a very consistent grain for nice cuts. It's a forgiving medium for new carvers/whittlers.

I've purchased a lot of different variety of woods lately (Balsa,Walnut, pine, etc) and this package is the best that I've found on Amazon. It has 3 equal sized pieces of solid wood that is a medium soft texture. It allows the knife through but does not crumble under pressure. Other packages include a bunch of different sizes and you cannot tell what you are really going to get or if you will be able to use all of the bits and pieces that they put in the bag. Here you get three good pieces of wood. I highly recommend this and will be back for more.

As always, Walnut Hollow Basswood is consistently clean, dry, and ready to carve. Ordering Walnut Hollow Basswood Carving Blocks on Amazon is a reliable source of basswood for carvers if you do not have a local supply. The price is more than you can get if you DO have a local supply, but it is still very reasonable for those who don't.

Great little bag of blocks. Some small ones for a small figure and some just about right for carving little people. No knots, clear straight grain and no splits or checking. Seems like a good way to get started in whittling or carving of small figures. It might be less expensive to cut up a big piece or basswood, but these sure are handy to have around when you get the urge to sit down and make some wood chips.

Basic Knife Set, compression case. Nice kit once you get it open. Very difficult, blister pack. You will need a utility knife to open. Blades are held in place by magnets - may come loose if dropped. Several blades were loose when mine arrived.

Great kit. The blades work well and the assortment is useful.I do wish the blades had covers. Or at least, that there were three covers that collated with the three handles, for when the knife is out of the case but not actively in use. There is an accident waiting to happen.

Good product in a nice pine box. All the blades are razor sharp and useful for many applications. I use my kit for my 3D prints to add some finishing touches. There was a little hiccup with mine however, the magnetic strip that holds all the extra blades kept falling out of the box when I opened it. It was due to the double sided adhesive tape not being able to support the weight of the magnetic strip. I applied a bit of superglue to the strip and it stuck fine afterwards. I urge you to be careful when opening this box because in my case I almost cut myself when flipping the box open and having those razor sharp knives falling onto my hands. But you should be careful in general when handling these. Overall a great product for any hobbyist crafter, I fully recommend it.

Though I didn't change blades yet (actually I couldn't figure how to).. But the one's placed by default work wonder and are quite versatile.. I humbly consider myself a self-made creative and artistic person ;-).. I was making this beautiful lovely hand crafted birthday card for my honey... It was beyond my expectation.. I used the wooden base instead of the conventional polymer base people use ( I chose not to spend more). It cut very delicate designs intricately. Only if there was an informative instruction page as to how to change blades... Sometimes applying more pressure bends the delicate tip but that was probably because I was using the wrong blade. Grip is too good. I was lured by wooden boxes but this box is great too. Very light weight, safe and handy. My honey loved the card. Thank you guys. I owe it to you.

After many hours of searching for my original X-acto set purchased about 40 years ago, I finally concluded I'd lost it during a move. I looked for a replacement in several different hardware and craft stores, but was unable to find the X-acto brand and settled for another "craft knife" which simply did not hold up. It finally occurred to me to check Amazon, and I am happy to say that my new set is of the excellent quality I expected from the X-acto brand, including the wooden storage box. The only thing which has changed is that the moulded compartments for the tools is no longer rigid plastic, but a flimsy, lightweight substitute which I expect to deteriorate with age. For that reason alone, I cannot give this set a full five stars.

Great kit. I've been using my old X-ACTO blades for years, but needed a case. For the price of a good case, I got this kit with extra blades and two extra handles. It's not the most sturdy case, but it does the job well and keeps my blades organized. I would recommend.

This product was delivered on time. It seems to do what it is intended to do. I have to switch the thumb and finger because the medium thumb was a little small for my thumb and the medium finger was a little large for my finger.

Great product, but mine was oversized. I have since replaced with a smaller 'thumb' version. Great idea but it will take some getting used to as I have carved so many years without one. Give these folks a purchase, might just save that finger from getting cut (known from "Experience"). Happy carving !

I followed some of the other reviews here and sized up on the thumb guard. I normally buy small everything, but I went medium here and it fits nicely. While this is the thumb guard, I have used it on both my thumb and index finger. I can whittle much longer now! I'll upgrade this to 5 stars if it's still working well for me after a few months of wear.

I took up whittling last year and generally cut or stabbed either my forefinger or thumb every weekend. This protects your finger from the blade.It works and didn't cost much so I'm happy with my purchase. The sizing runs small. Read other reviewers' feedback to get a better idea about the size you should order. I don't have very big hands and the large fit me.

I ordered the small thumb guard for a 10 year old, the leather flap is approx. 1" to 1 1/4" wide and 2 1/2" tall with the back having two elastic pieces sewn on, where the top elastic is like a pocket or hood and the lower is a single 7/16th" wide elastic strip/band..just as the photo in the ad portrays. Stitching is minimally sturdy and not back stitched over all stress areas. There is no adjustment...either the digit fits in the elastic or it won't...unless you MacGyver it with velcro and maybe more pieces of elastic. Having only the one piece (thumb/small), I have no way to gauge if these measurements are consistent with every guard produced as far as quality control. In comparison for size, a friend who wears a woman's small glove could fit this on her index finger (widest circumference at base of finger & also middle knuckle at 2 1/4" circumference X finger height of 2 1/2" to 2 3/4") but guard was too short by approx. 1/2 ", to protect where finger joins the palm area, and very snugly fit on her thumb but was usable (widest thumb circumference at 2 1/2 "). Due to the nature of these materials, with repeated pulling on and off, the guard (elastic especially) will loosen eventually. This has reasonably less than a bucks worth of materials used and is made to minimal craftsmanship standards (see pics of guard inside out). The 10 year old this is intended for will receive it soon and I will update on fit by end of the month (10/2015), he has normal/average size hands for his age. It appears to be a good size for him for now, but my bet is he will soon outgrow this (which I don't care as it needs to fit NOW, for a beginners protection, who is new to whittling). I also got him a roll of elastic self stick 1 inch wrap and level 5 cut-resistant gloves- all for learning protection as I really don't want to have to use my suture kit or steri-strips lol. I also got him a soap carving book and multi-pack of Ivory soap, figuring he could get the feel & basics of knife manipulation in a less dense and easily carved material, and then he will be better prepared to dig in with harder wood whittling and carving. I dropped a star due to it not having sturdier overall stitching, and the leather had not been sliced to accommodate the curves on the sewn top, and the elastic seems cheap and is not double stitched and will predictably start to fray away from the leather with repeated use . Overall, this fits the general needs, so 4 stars.

Nice thumb guard, but they seem to run a little small. Not something you just slip on or off. Takes a bit of fiddling around to get it on. I guess they have to cover a lot of variations in digit size, so perhaps that is just the way it is. I think it would work better if the elastic was full length rather than the two bands. My hands usually fit a large glove but on occasion a medium fits best to give you some idea of the size. If you have larger hands it might prove to be much to tight as the thumb guard is quite tight on my thumb.

good

Great beginning projects by a number of different contributors so that you can see a few different styles of carving. I wish there was some more information on how to make some of the cuts for some of the more complex projects, but it just may take some practice. For the price, this is excellent.

Wish there was more material in it but overall great starting book

I really like this book, but I gotta say, the "5 minute owl" is taking me a lot longer than 5 minutes to whittle... ;-P

Pretty decent book as far as wood carving books go. Well worth buying.

Great introduction to a new hobby

SO small. The only thing I can whittle with these is chess board pieces or little bugs. maybe a dog and cat at most. But carve easily and are in good condition. a fine wood.

I didn't encounter any knots. The wood is softer and good for beginners like me. I was able to carve an owl and a Santa head so far.

Small pieces of quality basswood. Only one piece in the bag had a knot it it so I'd say the quality control is pretty good. Cuts like butter. Great for beginners but after almost finishing this bag I'm ready for larger sized pieces to work with. Most pieces are around 2-3 inches with a few that go maybe 5 inches in length at best. Definitely would recommend for beginner woodcarvers like myself.

I used these for a scout knife class and they worked great. I gave it a 4 because a few of the pieces weren't quite big enough to use. Most were perfect for kids just learning to cut soft wood with a pocket knife. Some made small carvings, but they were a little small for this if you are a serious carver.

I loved how soft this wood is. The blocks are slightly small, so unless you want little carvings, yopu should get something bigger. No knots, no splinters that were an issue. The wood was beautiful.

I'm using these pieces for a couple of cub scouts to earn their whittling chip badges/cards. After working on soap, these wood blocks seem to be a great transition to "regular" wood. These have a nice grain and are easy to work. The boys are having a lot of fun with them and like the fact that different size blocks seem to spark different ideas. Docking a star for the price though I couldn't find anything more cost effective.

Box came as shown, blades are nice and sharp. There is a thin magnetic strip to hold all the blades which has an adhesive on the back side, the strip would not stay adhered to the plastic backing, so I removed the plastic and stuck it directly to the wood. No more blades falling out as it's opened.

The knives are nice and Sharpe and come with a pleasing variety. Hopefully they last me a while. The wooden container is sturdy, but the latch doesn't match up at all. The knives are held in a thin plastic bed that don't quite stay put inside the box. The middle knife is almost to big for the container and is only held in because the knife is stabbing through the plastic holder. To replace back into the container, you have to restab into the plastic. Remember there are no protective coverings delivered with this product.Overall, I am pleased with the product.

I wanted a set of xacto knifes and this fit the bill. The knifes are exactly what I was looking for. The box does suck though. More specifically the cheap plastic holder inside the box. It is very flimsy, falls out easily, often comes out with the knifes. I ended up making my own holder from extra foam. Not the best but 500x improvement over what it came with.

Xacto really needs to examine this product and their heads. I have had to tape the plastic insert that holds all the extra blades into the box since at first it simply fell out dropping blades everywhere. Fun, right? When I taped it in I also put a rubber band around it thinking it might help the blades stay in the plastic mold since they do not fit in there snugly however this really doesn't help a whole lot as you can see in the picture they tend to simply fall all over the place. I love the handles and blades but the box is absolute garbage. You might as well put everything that comes in this kit in a plastic bag and shake it around. That is pretty much what you'll find once you unpack this little ditty.Epic fail on keeping extremely sharp blades from being strewn about very close to your fingers when opening and closing this thing.The only reason this gets any stars at all is because of the handles and blades alone.Don't say I didn't warn you!

The actual blades and holding tools are very useful and seem pretty well built. The twist-locks don't seem to hold the blades as securely as one would hope for such sharp blades - the red-handled tool is especially bad about this.The storage box is pretty nicely built but the blade holders and tool holders are just flimsy plastic which does not seem to want to stay in the storage box. This is particularly worrying since one of the blade holders happens to hold a dozen blade tips and likes to fall out of the top of the box.Additionally, the magnetic strip on the blade holding plastic is very poorly attached to the plastic.With these two flaws together, you end up opening up the box and having either the blade holder and blades fall out on you, or the magnetic strip with all of its blades fall out on you, and I'm honestly not sure which is more terrifying given how well these blades can cut.

As the title says: The knifes are what you'd want. Sharp, decently sturdy. Good variety of them. They seem like they'll do whatever job you expect of them. However, the box, while very nice looking isn't very good at keeping them in. If I close it the "correct" way (handles on the bottom of the box) when I open the box back up (after no jostling, mind you, just sitting on the desk) the plastic that holds the replacement knifes will be face down on top of the handles. Upon picking it back up to put in place, I will discover further, that the little magnetic strip taped in to hold the replacement blades will have also fallen out, letting the little blade scatter all over the inside of the box. From that point, I get to carefully re-stick the magnetic strip in place, and then place each little blade in it's own little spot. This isn't as fun as I make it sound. So I just close the box with the replacement blades on the bottom. When I open it now, I only have to put the plastic holding the handles back into its spot, but the handles stay in the plastic holders.

It works, but the elastic on the back pulls out of shape and stitches starting coming undone pretty quick.

It does the job but a bit tight even on my thumbs... I have thin fingers so it works well but if you have wide thumbs it may not work for you make sure you order a wider one. other than that it works well as it does doesn't slip on me when working with leather sewing. Thank you.

The sizing was much smaller than I expected. I ordered a medium, but should have gotten a large. My thumbs are pretty average so you may want order up one.Perhaps this is why the stitching holding the leather to the band has failed on mine.Sizing and construction aside, this little guard has made spoon carving much easier and the leather has protected my thumb from many cuts already.

The quality of this is good, it definitely keeps your thumb safe from any knives, but GO A SIZE UP. As an adult woman, I figured medium would work. After all, that's the size they recommend. It was too small. I can wear it, but after about 15 minutes or so I take it off and my thumb looks like a tomato. It cuts off your circulation just enough for you to put it on and think it's okay, then become painful after a longer length of time. Other than that, I can whittle safely for those 15 minutes.

I thought I would wear these as I tend to nick myself with chisels etc....but they are somewhat bulky and awkward to me so they just sit on my bench.

This has saved my finger from getting cut several times. The one time I didn't bother putting it on and of course I cut myself, so now I'm sure to always wear it. My only issue is that even though I have large fingers, this is too big for me. The backing is a stretchable elastic so I'd recommend going one size smaller to make sure you have a snug fit.

Easy to work with

It does have some interesting projects in here but only a few otherwise it's better just to look for the things online. It's nice having a physical copy of something though. The book itself is nice quality

other than the projects on the cover the rest are very mundane and basic.

Ok

I ordered this book because I thought it might be fun to do with my son. It was on backorder so took over a month to get to me. The book is smaller than I thought but well printed on quality paper. It's a book that will last a long time. There are a lot of designs to try and minus a few they seem like fun, easy, starter type projects. Each design has written directions as well as the steps in pictures. I wish they would have put more pictures. Sometimes they skipped two or three steps between pictures and it would have been nice to see how they did some things. Overall, however, I'm pretty happy with it and excited to try carving a wizard on our next campout!

Had on my wish list, and wife got it from Amazon for my birthday this week. It has some interesting projects, as much as any other of the six newer books I have on the subject. But if you like whittling and want an inspiring book, try to pickup a second hand copy (here) of "Whittling and Woodcarving" by E.J. Tangerman (c) 1936, its full of many, many examples from an era when whittling was much more popular. Unfortunately, it only has instructions for a lesser number of the projects, and some of them are challenging. However, seeing the vast greater quantity of examples in that book, I long for someone to write a book with instructions for a greater range of more challenging whittling projects as seen in that book. Whittling is a step in the right direction, but I'd like to see a turbo-charged version of that book.

Seems overpriced for the amount of wood that you get. The quality of the wood is fine and consistent, but we got more whittling wood at the hardware store for a fraction of the cost.

I thought these were longer and thinner. but for what I needed, for demonstrating using a whittling knife, its ok. The pieces are so short, its hard for a hand to grip them. I would have preferred them to be longer. But its not like I can go in my backyard and get a stick here, so I bought what I could. The wood is easy to work with, soft to cut.

Decent starter set for whittling. I will say though the wood is very very dry. It means that it's harder to hand carve/ whittle but it also means that the finished piece won't shrink like green wood does. Some of the smaller pieces are just to dang small for my hands, more so when I have been using my hands a great deal like auto repair and such. You will learn to keep your hand carving / whittling tools sharp though. I probably won't reorder for the simple reason that I found a local source that provides any size of block I may wish.

The wood itself is good quality and has been easy to whittle thus far. But the claim that all three pieces would be the same size was false, as I received one full-size piece and two others that were at least 1.5 inches shorter. Not a huge deal for my current project, but I might look elsewhere for my next one.

Its almost what I expected. The blocks look much bigger in the photos. The smallest blocks are 7/8"x1"x2" the largest are 7/8"X1-1/2"x4".

Pretty expensive for how small the pieces are. But I knew that going into it. I knew i wouldn't have the time to drive the 45 minutes each way to the woodworking store, so i bought this with the free 2 day shipping to tide me over until I can get to woodcraft. some of the small pieces are really small. I guess i can make them into strawberries or something. But the large pieces I sawed through the thickness to give me two pieces. I made two of the 'man in the moon' projects that can be found on woodcarving illustrated site. It was my first actual carving not in found wood. Turned out pretty well.

Crappily built. The blades are held to the lid by magnetic strips that hardly stayed attached.

Not as good as Xacto use to be when I was a kid. Have bought generic knife sets.

New purchase and the blade holder falls out if the case every time I open it. I've been thinking of how to glue gun it in permanently but I'm sure the thin flimsy plastic would just disentegrate. The knife handles stay in place but pulling them out requires pulling the other flimsy plastic shell out. Searching for a replacement case already.

SO not worth the money. Came DIRTY and SCRATCHED UP. Visibly old and used. The box has a large, deep scratch on its lid.

This set is not for carving basswood or other similar woods. The blades are OK but the gouges and v-grooves leave a lot to be desired. The first v-groove I tried to use on basswood bent in half. I think this set would likely be OK for balsa wood or Styrofoam. If you are a wood carver, buy Flexcut or other quality specialized wood carving tools. You could buy one good carving knife for the price of this kit and be ahead of the game. I'm going to be trying some paper cutting projects in the near future that I think I'll be able to use the blades for so the set won't be a complete waste of my money.

Other than the handles, this is a pretty low quality product. For this price, just buy the individual packs of Xacto knives and save yourself the money. The wooden box is poorly assembled, the hinges and lock are not square and the black inserts which hold the knives and handles are made of the thinnest cheapest plastic. The plastic is so bad, in fact, that the shrink wrap used to seal the items into the black inserts cracked and warped both the top and bottom pieces. Now neither will stay secure in the box, the top piece just falls out when I open the box and the whole bottom lifts out when I try to pull a knife up.Would not recommend this kit. Just buy the individual knives/handles.

I must have long fingers (not) lol..a little on the short side and not like pictured. Maybe works for a kid size.

This did not fit correctly to tight I had to cut the elastic and then i tried to make something to hold it on my thumb , waste of money , Cut up a glove it would do better

This turned out to be pretty worthless. Way too small for an adult thumb. There is a seam inside the "tip" that is very bulky and the elastic "band" makes the whole thing too tight. It's a little better if you turn it inside out so the seam is on the outside, but still tight.

It fits, but that's about all I can say. I don't feel it's providing me any real protection, as it works itself off my finger with the motions I make.

The material is the only reason for the 2 stars, the missing stars are based on the following reasons.1. I bought the thumb guard and you would expect it to be a somewhat wide patch of leather; but in fact it seemed like its for a pinky finger. Its too narrow for a thumb or index finger. And the cut seemed more for index than thumb.2. The size on this particular guard is extremely small, I bought a medium based upon the few comments mentioning size in proportion to the body size and have come to the conclusion that they either have child's finger size or it was a Woman and not a man as posted. LOLI'm 6'1" @ 190lbs and average large (long, not wide) hands with narrow fingers and I was unable to fit my thumb or any other finger inside the guard save for my pinky finger. And when I did get an index/thumb finger to get inside, my finger was turning blue immediately from the severe lack of circulation. I was considering changing it to a larger size but couldn't see how they would increment the sizing and I no longer needed the guard for its original intended purposes.I kept the guard for my wife if she ever found the need we would have it. I would consider buying them again just to have them but will role the dice on the XL to see if that fits right.

The picture is deceiving as the leather is only half way around the thumb. The tip has a pocket of black elastic similar to that in the waistband of a pair of men's briefs. An inch down from that is another band of black elastic near the palm end of the leather. My thumb is about 1" across at the widest and the large moves around a bit. Looks like this glove company found a way to sell the scrap left over from the gloves they make. For a hefty profit.Buy a pair of gloves and cut the thumb off, it'll work better and you will have extras for the same price.

Instructions are unclear and intended for advanced carvers. Would not recommend.

Save your money. Pieces are too small for serious carving unless you use magnifying glasses and micro tools. Unidentifiable wood.

Many of the pieces were too small

Wasn't expecting Lego size peices of wood...

I don't know what I expected after reading some reviews before buying this but, the pieces were indeed very small. You could do small miniature swords or something with them. Not worth the price imo.

Wood pieces were much smaller than expected and made it difficult to carve on.

The picture is misleading. The bag I received had 10 very small blocks instead of 3 decent sized looking blocks.

The handle fell off the black holder before I ever used the tool.Although the case is wooden the holders inside are flimsy.

I recieved a cheap Chinese knockoff in a plastic box on a bubble card. Stay away if you want Xacto knives. Same thing is $6.24 at Walmart.

It came dull in the package I expected to be able to use it

The regular Xacto handles and blades are fine but the wood cutting tools are poorly made and not worthy of purchase and this set was sent backfor a refund.

The blades themselves are fine but the box is pretty terrible. The black plastic inserts are not securely affixed and despite lots of attempts to wedge them into place, the flimsy plastic keeps falling out over and over again. There's a magnetic insert in the plastic part that's supposed to keep the blades in but that falls out too. So the blades always kind of end up loose and tumbling out...? I'd be very embarrassed to give it as a gift.

Very disappointed with this purchase, what i've received was a different set than the picture showed and it was rusted.It's going back.

The finger guard is made of very thin material and is unable to protect skin during whittling.

I ordered a large. I have an average size thumb. It was tight even on my wife. I wore it anyway for two days then it fell apart. Got so frustrated with it I threw it in the trash. Should have done that the day it came as it looked cheap and flimsy. A lousy product. Don't waste your money. I'm back to wrapping my thump with tape.

Fell apart after about 3 hours of use. Worthless product.

This worked really well for the wood burning art I do'; it protects my thumb from the heat, but still allows flexibility to do the artwork.

They are what they say, and the leather is OK, but the straps around the back were torn on arrival, so it doesn't stay on our thumb even for a moment, it just sags. We'll have to figure out a way to keep it on, or it's worthless, unfortunately. :(Sadly, it's not as good as the finger guard we also purchased.It might just be a quality assurance issue, but the cost of shipping is probably more than the guard sooo... Oh well.

Does not stay on. The bottom elastic is way too far up the guard to be effective. It doesn't even get past my middle knuckle. The leather extends down into into my hand and pushes the guard up off my finger. Also, the edge of the lower elastic that's seared to keep from unraveling is cut off longer than the edge of the leather. It's sharp on the side of my finger and painfully pricks my skin. I can't imagine trying to work with that continually pricking me.My rating is for these above issues alone, but the following does not help the matter:I'm a visual person, so when I ordered, I thought I was getting both the finger and thumb guard together in one package because I remembered what the picture showed, not the words on the caption which do clearly state this sale is for the finger guard only. Show both in a supporting photo and state in the description they're sold separately, that's fine, but at least make the primary picture just the finger guard only. I would not have paid this price for just one had I paid more attention to the title than the picture.I will not buying the matching thumb guard because this one just doesn't work. Hopefully I can return this product for a refund.

I am hoping that the contributing artists were were more revealing and honest with their inputs to this book and the editors just edited away all the useful information. The book in fact does give ideas to beginer whitlers but the how to is really bad. The book tells you what needs to be done but doesn't tell you how to. Very disappointing book.

This is so bad it's a joke. If you buy, the joke's on you. The largest piece is a 1x2 cut so short you can't carve anything. This is literally garbage.

Garbage. The pieces are fit only for scrap as they are far too small for whittling, if I could give negative stars I would.

The amount of wood for this price is pathetic. DO NOT BUY!!!!

not walnut too small for making much of anything

This is a joke unless your planning on carving small fishing lures. Other than that don't waste your money.

tiny pieces they dont put the size measurements on the description to fool you dont waste your money like i did