The Best Linocut Tools
What I Recommend for Beginners:
Exchangeable tips tool
If you are trying linocut for the first time and don’t want to invest too much I recommend buying a linocut tool with exchangeable tips. It’s much cheaper this way than buying each individual tool.
The quality is not as good as the tools listed below, and it won’t last forever but it’s definitely good enough to start with!
What Tools I Use for Linocut (and Woodcut)
For linocut and woodcut, I use a variety of tools depending on the type of marks I want to make. I usually go for the smallest sizes of tools because I use a lot of tiny details in my work.
***These next 3 can be used for both linocut and woodcut printing (but not wood engraving! See my blog post for an explanation of the difference)
I find Flexcut really easy to hold because the shape of the wooden handles fits nicely in my palm. This is good for getting lots of power for clearing large areas and for long periods of carving.
My only complaint is that they don’t have small enough U and V gauges for me. The quality is great though and they stay sharp for a long time.
These have the smallest U and V gauges that I’ve been able to find which is perfect for my small detailed work.
The quality of the tools is great but I don’t like their handles as much as the Flexcut because they don’t sit naturally in my palm.
These are the first tools I ever bought. They’ve held up well over time. This is the most affordable option out of these three.
They’re particularly good if you’re doing woodcut printing because the sets usually come with a Hangito cutting knife (used in traditional woodcut printing for outlining the edges of areas you don’t want to carve)
Dot Tool - by Karol Pomykała
*this is designed for lino, not woodcut or wood engraving!
These are great for making uniform small dots and stippling. There is a wooden one (which I have) and a metal version which makes slightly smaller dots.
To see an example of him using the tool check out this Instagram video.
I found that this tool works quite well on the traditional artist’s grey lino that I use but it works even better on the synthetic lino that Karol sells on his website. The dots come out even more uniform and round.
I’m not affiliated with any of the sites I linked. I just want to make it easy to find the products :)
