The Old Timer Splinter is a tool that hopes to solve the problem of carrying your entire wood carving knife kit around in your pocket. It features six tools in one, and if it does its job right, it should be a whittler’s one-stop-shop. Sadly, it falls a bit short of its potential.
The blades are made of 65Mn high-carbon steel, and they all fold up into the handle. Those blades include a detail blade, a hook knife, a straight gouge, a v-scorp blade, and a gouge scorp. All of those blades can be stowed easily into the Delrin handle, and they’re secured in place by metal backsprings.
Each of the blades need to be sharpened before you use them, and you’ll probably have to resharpen them after a few uses, as well. The lack of a locking mechanism on the chisel is probably the biggest flaw in this entire tool, as it’s meant to be pushed downward-often with quite a bit of force, so a loose, sliding blade could cause you to cut yourself.
Overall, this is a good choice for someone looking to condense their multi-knife carving kit into a single easy-to-carry knife, but it’s definitely not the best tool out there. There are better alternatives, like Flexcut’s Carvin’ Jack, which is cheaper and has much more quality.
