marble carving - tungsten carbide VS firesharps?

["dondougan@zzzzzzzz" <dondougan@zzzzzzzz>]

Sandra;

It will be a combination of preference, acquired skills, and budget.

I personally use 'firesharps' high carbon tool steel chisels on marble and
limestone almost exclusively because they allow me much greater control over
the carving due to the more delicate angle they are ground to.  Probably
something under half my chisels were acquired new, more were acquired from
old carvers or old carver's estates, antique tool dealers, etc. Perhaps as
many as ten percent of my chisels were made by myself from old tool steel.

I only own about 6 carbide tipped chisels (most purchased new from Trow &
Holden or in Italy).  Unless I am carving granite, these sit unused in my
chisel rack because they don't give me the control I prefer.

I would rather re-sharpen my chisels on an ongoing (semi-daily) basis and
get the control in carving rather than pay several times the price for
carbide tipped tools that stay sharp but reduce the amount of control I
have.

Now, since I have been carving thirty years and have accumulated quite a few
chisels (somewhere between one and two hundred and perhaps twenty or thirty
different carving hammers, mallets, dummies), so I can afford to have a box
for chisels that are dull or have broken or chipped teeth (I DO let students
use some of my tools) so I can save them up for major regrinding and
sharpening sessions - often as demonstrations for my classes - without
leaving myself shy of a good selection of good sharp tools to use.

If you are just getting started with your carving career you may not have
the budget for the sharpening, regrinding, toolmaking tools and skills.

Carbide tools will be less maintenance in that case, at the cost of some
degree of control -- control which at this point in your career you may not
even appreciate because you are so early in the learning-curve.

Good carving to you,
Don Dougan
http://www.dondougan.homestead.com/indexdd.html