Good wood for carving?

[xpers]

Hi

I've just started carving with a knife but I am unsure as to what is a good wood for me to practise with.

Any advise is greatly appreciated!

Rich

 

[shadow57]

My friend who builds scale sailing ships carves the figure heads from Lime wood.

It does not have much grain and is like cutting hard cheese.

Cheap from local wood yards

Hope this helps John

 

[Kepis]

I use Birch, Hazel, Hawthorn & Willow, i have an abundance of it available to me and all for free at the moment as we are clearing some lakes that i fish ready for enlargement, got a nice little stash of carving material at the bottom of the garden ready and waiting, now what shall i make next?

 

[Fenlander]

Lime and Sycamore are good woods for beginners

 

[Laurence Dell]

It does also depend on what you are going to make, if it is sculpture or art then Lime and Sycamore are great. But if you were making spoons for example then you would be looking for a piece of wood the right shape to give you the curve of the spoon and Birch is highly recommended for this as it is easy to carve and you can usually find a piece the right shape without having to cut down a large tree. Birch is also very common in the UK and the rest of the tree can often be put to a multitude of other bushcraft uses.

As a tree surgeon, I have easy access to a wide range of woods including occaisionally some unusual and non-native ones. The other day I got some Almond to play with (I might make a nut bowl for the sideboard ) I have also had regular access to small diameter hornbeam from a woodland pollarding contract we do twice a year.

 

[manofthewoods]

Ash is good, again Willow nice and soft, Holly is a lovely wood, and some soft woods are a lot easier to start out with [pines furs etc].

 

[Mutley]

I thought hard woods wood allow more detailed carving? Obviously soft wood is the place to start though.