Learning to Carve - Pt 3 - Tools & Equipment – Burs
When starting out it is useful to have a good selection of burs to play with and then over time you will start to get the feel of what personal preferences you have. You can buy them in sets or purchase them individually. When purchasing individually, you can buy single ones or any number you like. Usually there will be a discounted price for a packet of 6. I am referring mostly to purchasing from a Jewellery tools supplier, rather than the local hardware store. The local hardware store will usually only sell sets and will have limited range. You can order online from a Jewellery tools supplier however I think it is helpful to physically go in the first time to eyeball the sizes. This helps so you have a reference point for future orders too. Even now I still order the wrong size time to time!
You can get Tungsten steel, which is more expensive but lasts longer, or your basic tool steel drill. I mostly use the latter but for fine detailing I do like a good Tungsten steel bur.
I will focus on the standard sized shank to fit quick release hand piece tools which is 2.35mm. I think that you will also be able to apply the same information to the 3.2mm burs however as I do not use that size, I cannot comment on the range of sizes and shapes available.
The following burs are the main ones I use all the time. (Although I do use others for specialised work) …
Twist Drills – I use several different size twist drills for drilling holes into and through the bone. The smallest being 0.5 mm and upwards from there. The common most sizes I use are 1.5 mm, 2 mm and 2.3 mm. These cover most requirements. Note for those with 2.35 collet handpieces, the 2.3 is the largest twist drill it will accommodate. For any sizes above this, I use a cordless power drill.
Ball Burs – These are among the most popular that I use. They do the majority of the rough shaping. It’s also handy to have a larger one on hand too. E.g. a 5 or 6 mm. I also do the first stage of detailing with this kind of bur. For shaping I most often use 2mm size. For the first stage of detailing I like to use the 0.4 or 0.5 mm sizes. For the smallest, I tend to do for a Tungsten steel as it lasts a bit longer and I use these a lot.
Cylinder Burs – I primarily use two sizes of these for different jobs. The larger one I use is around 4 to 5mm and it is used for the very first stage of shaping the outside of the carving once I have cut it out with my bandsaw. The second one is a very small one 2 mm used to tidy up the detailing and sharpening various lines within the carving.
Flame Burs – This is one of the most important for shaping and smoothing the work done by the ball burs. The main size for this is 2 or 3 mm. I also use smaller ones to tidy and sharpen edges (0.9 and 1.4).
Cone Squared Burs – I really like to use a very fine cone shaped bur to complete the sharpness of the detailing. 0.6 mm.
Core Drills – I use a couple of different core drills too. I’ll cover the sizes of these in a later blog as the sizes you want will depend on how you want to use them. For example, to make inlays.
There are many other bur shapes and it is a matter of experimenting with what you like and what works for the style of carving you are doing. These are my go-to burs that I use all the time.
