Caring for your Kutzall
May 31, 2016
The complete guide to maintaining your tools!
Thanks to our exclusive coatings and unparalleled quality of materials, Kutzall tools are acclaimed for staying cleaner and lasting longer than their traditional counterparts. But, like every well-used tool, eventually it will need maintenance.
If your tool, whether it’s a Rotary Burr, Shaping Wheel, or Hand Rasp, has accumulated too much medium in its teeth and it’s affecting your carving performance, you may need to give it a thorough cleaning.
Not to worry, cleaning and caring for your Kutzall is an easy, straightforward process. Depending on the material you’re carving there are two ways to clean your tool.
Option 1: Burning (for wood only)
What you'll need: A well used Kutzall tool, butane or propane torch, fine hand wire brush, dusk mask or respirator, leather gloves, eye protection, water or a fire extinguisher on standby for safety.
- Set-up in a well ventilated area.
- Unplug the power source and remove your Kutzall from the power tool.
- Ignite your butane or propane torch, and slowly pass the flame over the built up material until it burns and hardens to brittle char.
- Using the hand wire brush, scrape away any excess buildup that's caught in the teeth.
- Repeat burning and brushing as many times as necessary until the teeth are free of debris.
- Allow the tool to slowly cool down to room temperature (do not quench in cold water immediately after burning).
- Inspect the tool for excessive wear, broken teeth, etc. (replace if necessary)
- Reattach to your power tool.
- Carve on!
Option 2: Soaking (Recommended for wood, stone, plastics, and composites)
What you'll need: A well-used Kutzall tool, solvent capable of breaking down your clogged material (mineral spirits, turpentine, or acetone work well), large glass container, fine wire brush, dusk mask or respirator, leather gloves, eye protection.
We hope this article has provided you with some clarity on how to properly clean and care for your Kutzall. If you have any questions, please feel free to post them in the comments below and we'll do our very best to answer them!
7 comments
Terron, thanks for sharing! Interesting idea using a wood stove to clean your burrs, that’s certainly one way to burn off the built-up wood material. The torch & wire brush method does take a little while longer, but this is the way we’ve had the best results and recommend! If you need any specialty burrs/tools to help you produce more wooden spoons, you may want to look into “Kutzall Customs”: https://kutzall.com/pages/kutzall-customs. Take care!
Thankyou for this very usefully information
I have been using Kutzall tools for woodcarving for over 20 years and I saw it suggested that they could be cleaned with a propane torch, so I tied it, but although the bit got very blackened, the dust seemed to be still in it, no matter how long I kept the flame on it. (I was trying to clean a 1" sphere.) I had a wood stove, so I put the bit in the fire and the dust was ashes the next day. That is the only way I’ve ever had success with. They clog so quickly that it would be worthwhile to have several so as to have others to be using while one is being burnt out.I started making wooden spoons in 1988 and I tried all kinds of this to find something that would work fast enough to suit me. A friend of mine called to my attention an article is something like a Popular Science or Popular Mechanics magazine about the Kutzall burrs. So I tried them and they were the best by far of anything I had found. Then Typhoon began selling one that was even better has far as my work was concerned even though it was smaller than the largest Kutzall spheres. Eventually, Typhoon gave up on them and let Oliver take them over. These were the Kutzall Extreme which have been discontinued. People ask me where they can get them and I am sorry I have to tell him that they can’t get them anymore. The coarseness does not concern me because the finest burr is still far too coarse for me to leave that way. I sand with three grits of sandpaper on electric sanders and finish with 320 grit by hand. I make is many as 100 in a week, so how quick I can hollow them is important. The Extreme burrs were by far the quickest thing I have ever used and they never clog when carving wood. If I did need to clean them, a wire brush would certainly do it. I hope I bought enough of them before they were discontinued to last me as long as I will be doing this. I am 74 years old now, so it may very well be they will last. If they don’t, I think I will go back to some of the partly worn out ones that I have stopped using. I do use some of the Kutzall coarse when I need a smaller size.
Terron Dodd