I purchased the The BeaverCraft Deluxe Wood Carving S50X kit as an upgrade to my original 3 knife setup from BeaverCraft. There's so much good with this kit that I'll just say it's worth buying for yourself or as a gift for someone else, you definitely can't go wrong with this! The variety of knives make it possible to whittle caricatures and carve spoons and add details like chip carvings and kohlrosing to your wood crafts.Leather Carry Case:The two tone leather carry case is by far the best feature of BeaverCraft's Deluxe Wood Carving kit, the knives are awesome too, but dang, that leather is beautiful! The two tone look is gorgeous and the feel of the leather is silky smooth and soft. The leather carry case zips up to ensure your knives stay in the case and don't fall out, something I've always been concerned with when using the tool rolls. On the front of the leather carry case is a roomy zippered pouch that is excellent for storing the strop and polishing compounds that come with the kit. Inside the main zip up compartment is a denim look canvas backing with leather straps sewn in to secure each knife in it's own custom spot. The leather straps that hold the knives inside the case are custom fitted around each handle, ensuring a snug fit for each ergonomically designed knife handle. Overall, the zippered leather carrying case is the perfect blend of beauty and function and is what makes this kit so wonderful!The tools:Overall, I'm impressed with the quality of the knives that come with this kit. First and foremost, the blades all come sharp enough to carve without doing anything. The leather strop and honing compounds that come with kit will bring the already very sharp blades to a razor sharp edge capable of shaving with. Typically, these knives are used for carving green wood, or wood that is freshly removed from a tree, however, they are capable of carving seasoned hardwood, but it'll require more frequent stropping and sharpening.For my review, I tested the tools on some well seasoned apple wood and a flame box elder spoon blank I had laying around. All of the edges held up nicely with only using the strop to hone the edges. The steel used in this blades is hard enough to hold a good edge, which is great for more advanced carvers, but soft enough to be forgiving to beginners learning to carve and sharpen knives. In general, all of the knives, and the bent spoon gouge met or exceeded my expectations. The upgraded walnut handles are shaped and profiled to best serve the purpose of each blade. They are very pleasant to look at and more importantly feel great in my hand.A few things worth notingThe Detail Knife that comes with the deluxe kit does have a little bit more of a blunt tip as opposed to my older detail knife from BeaverCraft. I suspect this slight change has increased the durability of this detail knife. The tip on my older detail knife was rather easy to bend/roll out of place while carving because of sharp point of the knife. Personally, I like the adjustment made to the detail knife in this kit because it has mitigated that problem I was having with my older knife and better fits my carving style.The Hook Knives: The hook knives that came with my kit are for right handed carvers and I don't recall if there was an option for left handed knives. Both right handed hook knives, however, have the bevel already ground on the other side to less than 1 mm thickness, making it relatively easy to convert these single edge knives into double edge hook knives via sharpening on your regular stones.My first spoon carving knife set was given to me by my wife a about 4 years ago and was a BeaverCraft 3 knife set. At the time, I had no intentions of becoming a BeaverCraft fanboy because I thought the knives were just going to be my beginner set. The more I used those knives, the more I became impressed with their quality and durability. Over the years since, I've added a few more knives from BeaverCraft and have been just as impressed with the quality and durability of their knives. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the BeaverCraft Deluxe Wood Carving S50X kit to beginners and advanced carvers looking for a great quality diverse set of carving knives with an even more amazing leather carrying case to keep your tools safe and stylish.
