I recently found a new love for a carving tool that I’ve had in my arsenal for quite some time and that is my Carvin Jack from Flexcut. I’ll have to say that at the time I received the Carvin Jack from my wife as a gift for my birthday, I probably wouldn’t have purchased it because it comes with a healthy price tag of $128. With that being said it came with a sheath, a strop and some compound.
I see now that on Amazon you can purchase the Carvin Jack for around $115 and you can buy the sheath for another $16, so it still costs around $130 bucks. If you look at the comparable Old Timer 24OT which is basically the same it only costs around $20 dollars. I plan to buy and Old Timer and compare the 2 knives in a future review.
Getting back to the Carvin Jack review. I have taken the knife out on occasion while fishing or sitting at the Motocross track while my son does his practice laps. The one thing I enjoyed about the compact knife was the basic essential carving tools it did have. I didn’t have to carry all my carving tools just to sit around and whittle. The tools included in the Carvin Jack are a Chisel, Carving Knife – Hook knife – V scorp – U Gouge Scorp – Straight Skew Gouge all relatively sharp, but as you probably know a good stropping is needed before carving anything. I usually strop all my new tools before using anyway but out of the box the knife was not as sharp as I like them.
Here is where I found my best usage for the Jack. While carving a project I did for my Youtube channel Carving a Jack-O-Lantern I needed to hollow out the inside of my pieces to leave room for a a little tea light. I remembered that the Carvin Jack had a small hook knife, exactly what I needed to quickly remove the inside of the pumpkin. This made quick work of the basswood piece and within minutes I had one side of the pumpkin cleaned out. I proceeded to use the U gouge to reach a few areas where the hook knife couldn’t reach because of its length. The tool worked great for what I needed it to do at the moment.
Recently, I received an offer to review Beavercrafts spoon carving tools for an upcoming video so being a “Tool Guy” I graciously accepted. I told them I needed to carve some spoons first before I could offer a fair review and once again while carving a spoon out of cherry I pulled out the Carvin Jack. The hook knife on the Jack peeled the wood out like butter.
All in all I would give the Carvin Jack an 8 out of 10 for what it is, a compact carving tool set with basic tools to use for whittling small projects.
Pros +
- Compact Basic Tool Set
- Relatively Sharp
- Includes a Strop and Compound
- Locking Blades
- Smooth Opening and Closing
- Cool Wood grain Handle
- Comfortable to use
- Carry Anywhere
Cons –
- Over priced
- Sheath purchase separately now
I hope this review helps you decide if the Carvin Jack by Flexcut is for you. I plan to do more tool reviews in the future so be sure and check out my Youtube channel and Subscribe to see the videos.
Pick up a Knife and a Block of basswood and carve something today
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Carverguy