Best Wood For Carving

[mattange]

Can anyone suggest a good wood for practising carving skills on. Thanks

 

[Buckshot]

Lime and willow are easy to carve on

Cheers

Mark

 

[R-Bowskill]

Lime is good, but alot depends on whether you're carving green or seasoned wood for most others.Green oak can carve really easily in my experience but I'm not sure of the exact species I've been using. Also I like Hawthorn, that's easy to get hold of when peole are doing any scrub clearing and as it dries it goes the most beautiful orange colour.

Alot depends on what you want to carve though, I would buy a 2" square length of Balsa if I was going to make a waterfowl decoy to use when shooting for it's bouancy but for something that would get alot of rough handling it'd havew to be a denser wood to be stronger and more resilliant.

But remember, all discoveries come about by trial and error (called experimentation) so give it a go with whatever you've got, either freshly cut or well seasoned.

 

[brucemacdonald]

Holly is a nice wood to carve with; it is tight-grained and can be sanded down to a nice finish. It is also quite hard-wearing. However it needs to be well-seasoned as it is prone to splitting.

Best wishes

Bruce

 

[Realgar]

That's kind of like asking which beer is better.

I love blackthorn for carving but large pieces are hard to get hold of - it's what I taught myself on though. Anything not too hard is worth a try - even a chunk of pine offcut from the DIY can turn out a treat. You can't beat a nice piece of hazel or birch either,

 

[arctic hobo]

I'd say any close grained hardwood - because it's hard, you can carve it precisely and you won't make any huge gashes if you slip or something, and also hardwoods finish well.

 

[Gary]

Practise carving go for soft woods, lime or birch being best and easiest. This will allow you to learn god knife control while not requiring you to force your knife through anything to resistant.

Lime wood carves 'like cheese' as it was described a weekend or two ago - birch especially green is nice to work with.

My favourite wood is fruit wood espcially crab apple or cherry.

Until your familar with carving steer clear of hard woods especially beech and such.

 

[JimH]

Can anyone suggest a good wood for practising carving skills on. Thanks

Green birch splits reasonably and carves well. It's a good bit harder when seasoned, but still compliant in my experience.

That said, I practice on it 'cos it's common round my way - lots of "brownfield" replanting on old rail lines from the 60s....

I've had good results from green ash and beech, too, but they tend to split more as the object dries out.

Kephardt's book has good details of wood characteristics. Many of the species are relevant here as well as the US. I'm sure there must be others, too.

HTH,

Jim.

 

[Roving Rich]

Lime - Without a doubt is the fiest carving wood in this country. It has been used for centuries for all the finest work, its reasonably soft, without being easily damaged or "flaking".
To start with I'd go for whatever is at hand, i tend to pick through the log pile and spot something with a nice grain. Keepimg your tools sharp makes and enourmous difference, but expect sore hands and aching wrists if you at it for a long while.

Lime tree

Cheers
Rich

 

[Marts]

Or if you're not sure what lime looks like or can't find any suitable you can buy nice bits pretty cheaply here

 

[simonsays]

I just bought a big bag of sticks from my local garage forecourt for £2. I have no idea what sort of wood it is but it seems okay to practice carving on (It also burns pretty well in my chiminea).

cheers,
Simon

 

[Earth Mother]

I'm unsure of the rules for collecting wood. Is it okay to take discarded logs from felled trees? Should you only take from dead standing trees or can you take substantial branches from living trees? I feel too guilty sawing anything from a living tree and therefore have never done it - is that silly?

 

[Squidders]

I would suggest lime as it resists splitting very well and if you get a nice bit, it's grain can be quite good also.

 

[innocent bystander]

I'm unsure of the rules for collecting wood. Is it okay to take discarded logs from felled trees? Should you only take from dead standing trees or can you take substantial branches from living trees? I feel too guilty sawing anything from a living tree and therefore have never done it - is that silly?

I'd err on the side of caution - criminal damage is a possibilty?
If you want greenwood, might be best to ask someone in the trade (tree surgeon / gardener).

 

[Toddy]

I'd err on the side of caution - criminal damage is a possibilty?
If you want greenwood, might be best to ask someone in the trade (tree surgeon / gardener).

That's an excellent idea. I contacted our local tree surgeons and acquired masses of timber for various projects. They usually just chip all of it. I got lime, yew, hazel, willow, chestnut, oak and elm
The guys who clear the railway sides have some brilliant timbers.

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[Gary]

I'm unsure of the rules for collecting wood. Is it okay to take discarded logs from felled trees? Should you only take from dead standing trees or can you take substantial branches from living trees? I feel too guilty sawing anything from a living tree and therefore have never done it - is that silly?

Technically speaking even fallen dead wood belongs tot he owner of the land and to remove it without permission could be theft. In Epping forest where I play there is a bye law which stipulates how much dead wood and of what size a 'commoner' can take for fire wood.

This may sound a bit harsh to people but in our over crowded little island (especially the south east of it) if we all went to our local woods and started carting off arm loads of wood is would soon seriously damage the ecosystem. Epping forest have recent (2 years ago) reintroduced a zero management policy because it was found that cutting and clearing the tree was damaging the ecosystem and creating an imbalance which allowed non native species to flourish and also meant more human access which in turn further damaged things,

All that said one stick collected here and there isnt going to destroy the world (famous last words) and I am sure the land owner would be more worried about you carrying a cutting tool than they would about you removing a dead peice of Lime or Birch.

 

[Squidders]

If you're looking at the axminster site, they only have lime in the carving section but have a poke around in the wood turning section... they have some nice woods in there and in reasonable sizes.

The only thing I would advise with the more exotic woods is to check about the safety of working with them as some sawdust can be an irritant or even slightly toxic... I personally am not too up on suitability of all the woods but i'm sure some of the folk here have the knowledge to help in more detail.

Cheers

Joe

 

[Earth Mother]

Great suggestion about contacting the tree surgeons - I'll do that first thing tomorrow!

 

[zambezi]

I tried working with lime for the first time this last weekend and found it to be very soft and predictable. Here's a pic of the spork I made. I am very happy with the way the grain is becoming more evident as I apply more olive oil.

 

[CatFisH]

most hardwood species are good for carving...some are harder than others to work...the only problem I encounter with green wood is that it checks and splits...

as to sources for carving wood...well...most people here know that I am bored and have a chainsaw...so iI get plenty of offers to collect wood...most I end up burning as scrap...here is a small part of my wood pile that'll someday be carved into something..this is my bushcraft place...12 acres that is a tree farm and place to camp and collect wood...

sometimes I get very lucky...got a call asking if I wanted and unusual tree as it was to be removed...ended up with this Black Cherry burl that weighs well over 100 lbs...

with some more luck and persistence...sometimes it comes out looking like something...Mulberry bowl with Cherry and Maple utensils