Side by Side Comparison of: Sculpt Pro vs G & F vs Design Originals vs Walnut Hollow vs Charles Beiderman

I gave this item as a gift to a young whittler. He absolutely loved them. He has used them any times and they are still going strong. They seem strong and well made. Should last along time.

My husband loves it. Great for beginners.

GREAT

Excellent set of tools. It took me a long time to find a set like this that did not have a ton of reviews talking about broken tools or handles popping off, but these are great. They are very durable and well crafted. They weren't as sharp as I'd like out of the box (but by no means dull) however they are nice enough to include several sharpening stones. Pretty nice tool roll, too.

Excellent quality stainless steel set. The chisels are sharp and well made. The rollup case is nice, but the sharp ends of the chisels could easily poke out and cause harm if not careful. It is shipped in a box that I will keep it in to a avoid the issue. I still can't believe the price! A starter set costs much more than this very complete set! It also comes with sharpening stones to keep them razor sharp.

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.

Fairly comprehensive set of chisels for beginner's & general carving. Higher degree of quality steel than I expected. The wooden handles fit to hand very well. Thanks!

I got this for my boyfriend and he loved it! The one thing I would change though is how short the bag is. The chisel tops poke right out of it!

Items are decent quality and the case is nice, but they are very large! If you are wanting to carve very large pieces these might work, but we were unable to really even use them because of how large they are. Read measurements carefully. For someone wanting large chisels these seemed to be made well and look like they would last, but they do need to be sharpened further before any use.

I recently ordered a set of the Sculpt Pro 13 piece chisel set it came in the mail and arrived on time.
Pros-The handles are very solid and well made and with a nice finish. The steel blades are made out of what seems to be good high quality stainless steal. Also includes a good roll up carrying case which makes transporting them easy and also makes them easy to hang up in your work shop such as on a peg board for example. The set also came with some nice files that were already included and three small sharpening stones. Now onto the Cons.
Cons-
The set of chisels and gouges came completely unsharpend, and the sharpening stones that came with the set are very fragile and it would take hours of working with the tools to get them honed in and sharp like they need to be. But other than that this is a very great set of tools. Since I received a defective set and contacted the company , they decided to not only to send me a new set but let me keep the set that was defective. I greatly appreciate how the company strives for complete satisfaction and deemed that the way I received my tools was absolutely unacceptable. They were very prompt, polite, and have great customer service.
Other than the issue of receiving a defective set like I said before they are great tools that is why I give four out of five stars. Once I receive the new set I will make another reveiw and most likely will be giving them five stars. Hope this helps

This is a good carving tool kit. At this price offering it is a great buy. I recommend these for any carver but they are great starter set for a person that wants to carve as a hobby. The selection of tools in this set are good. I also liked the pouch that neatly stores this set.

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.

Chisels came dull. The Large sharpening stone was not included as pictured.

the big stone does not come with it and is you drop the little stone it will shater

I ordered quickly from the picture and was somewhat disappointed to find that all of the chisels are on the narrow, small side. I was hoping for a at least one to be in the 1/2" to 5/8" size. Not noting that was mainly my fault. Hurry, hurry.

This set is made well. Nice weight to them and sturdy. The case is decent although the elastic band and Velcro that hold it together once rolled up is a bit flimsy. My only complaint about these tools is I had to do a lot of work on some of them to get a sharp enough edge for carving. Most of them just required a few minutes of sharpening on the stone included with some honing oil. Some the tools however were completely dull and required a few hours of work on grinder to get a proper edge. I gave these three stars because they have the potential to be really great tools but will require more than typical work on your part to get all of them working properly.

This product is OK, they could have been sharper, but they are well made,. also i had to sharpen them straight out the box.. but a OK product..and these wood tools are not for *FINE DETAIL WORK* they are to large..but ok for regular carving, the storage bag is a OK product also.heavy duty material..

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.

Returned product because they were not sharp, very dull and hard to work with. If someone had a way of sharpening them, it might be an OK set for an experienced wood worker.

These tools were not sharp at all when I received them and are so cheap they don't hold an edge well when I sharpen them

The first set I received didn't have the rasps or sharpening stone, and instead had 6 of the stick files. Returned it, got the replacement, which has three stick files and two rasps, but still no sharpening stone. (Though the sharpening stone isn't mentioned in the item description here or on the box, nor is it in the picture on the box it comes in.) Rather than attempt a third set, I'm just gonna go buy a sharpening stone myself.

Ok startor set But tools come dull and need sharpening. Also the v gouge will not stay sharp and the edges chip away. Would recommend spending more money on a different set.

The fact that these don't come final sharpened is no big deal but they need a lot more work than more expensive chisels and gouges to make useful. The stones that come with the set are useless garbage. The steel used seems to be lower quality than other tools as well and they don't hold an edge as well. Decent enough for what you pay Though I suppose.

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.

Sent them back they were dull, uneven and stones were broken

This set is CHEAP. All the bevel grinds were off, some by over an 1/8 of an inch. Luckily, I was able to repair it with my bench grinder. But for someone who is new to carving, you will only curse the hobby if you buy this set. Save your money and put it towards a more expensive, European (Swiss) set.

Cheap made and will not hold an edge !!!!!!

This is a really poor quality chisel set. REALLY poor quality. I knew it wasn't going to be great when i bought it but i didn't expect the steel itself to be shoddy. I sharpened the flat chisel for 2.5 hours to get it absolutely razor sharp and within 60 seconds of chiseling it was dull and the steel bent along the edge. This isn't a good set for a beginner or anyone else. I can't think of any reason or case for buying it.

Nothing was sharp and the metal used to make the tools was of low quality, I would not purchase this tool set again

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