Help with Carving Wood!

[Outdoorlifeofbrian]

Hello people!

Basically I'm taking a course in Countryside management, and one of my assignments is to carry out a project and my project is, which wood is best for carving? So I need a place to start from, so I was wondering If anyone could help, I need 4 types of wood which are generally good for carving and why? Then I can try all 4 of them and compare the differences. I will then use this thread as a reference

Please help!

Thanks Brian.

 

[Hugo]

Sycamore, Hazel, Ash, Poplar.
In order of my own preference, easy to carve and availability for me, after that it's up to somebody else to chip in.

 

[spandit]

Birch is lovely to carve green

 

[Retired Member southey]

Rohdydendron (sp) is lovely.

 

[bushwacker bob]

Lime, easiest to carve green or seasoned but has very little weight to it.
sycamore, takes good detail like lime and the fibres cut rather than crush like a softwood, it is heavier than lime and used for macklin ware
birch, very easy to carve when green popular in Scandinavia for everything
Ash, best carved fresh as it becomes very hard when dry but lovely white wood.

 

[Outdoorlifeofbrian]

Thanks guys this is great!

 

[mayobushcraft]

Apple is also a great wood to carve when green but gets harder as it seasons.

 

[ex-member Raikey]

i find birch a bit too soft , difficult to get a good finish unless you break out the emery paper.

+1 for Ash, if you catch it in time,

willow and Hazel are forgiving when green and still offer a decent finish,

Laburnum , if you carve through the sap wood and expose the darker heartwood with some detail its lovely, hard as nails but worht it, ot polishes like glass too,..

Yew, similar to the Laburnum, with sap and heartwood constrasts, and the ability to take a good shine up,...

so its each to their own i suppose, when you say "best woods to carve" do you mean the best result, or just the easiest,

i tend to enjoy finishing, so dont mind putting the work in early with the harder stuff (and keeping my knife sharp) ,

i even had a go at some seasoned oak , but the blisters alone made it my last attempt,..

i hope my bit of input helps ....

and good luck with the study,

Stu

 

[ex-member Raikey]

oh,..i had my first go at a piece of green Rosewood yesterday too,....

Quite a hard one with a soft pulpy core,...

only managed to get a spoon blank out though so i'll let you know how it goes when its finished,.

oh...

Hawthorn too!

a bit of a bugger and it runs off in strips if your not careful with the stop cuts,...

but really lends itself well the utencils,...

spatula's etc,...i think i made a fork out of it too,...

 

[addo]

Good as easy to carve
Willow, lime poplar, birch

Good for patterns finish
Cherry, laburnum, beech, yew

Good as all over the place and regularly discarded
Sycamore, birch, Rhododendron, Ash

Good for tight grain
Fruit woods, lilac

Good because its all there is to hand
Any, as long as its green

Just off the top of my head mind, but hope it helps with your project.

 

[Outdoorlifeofbrian]

Thanks people

Raikey I'm looking for an all roumd, obviously some are better than others but i just want 4 which are generally all round good for carving at, thanks for the help!

Brian

 

[grey-array]

I also love green Alder, but do try to get it green
It has a lovely grain and color to it and if it dries out is a lot harder which makes it cope with rough use

And lime is to my experience indeed the easiest to work.
The fruitwoods to my experience are allot harder because of their tightness of the grain but because of the tightness of grain they do retain beautiful details
I also have heard of butternut to be an awesome carving wood, yet never had the privilege of carving it.
Yours sincerely Ruud

 

[Big T]

Loving this thread.

 

[Harvestman]

My local wood supplier stocks all sorts of wood, but has a section devoted just to lime wood in blocks specifically for carving. So I would definitely say lime should be one of your 4.

After that, depends on what you mean by 'best'. Ease of carving, ability to hold fine detail, durability, looks and finish - each wood will have its advantages and disadvantages, as summarised above.

My opinion - birch (because it is widely used, and has the 'traditional' label), apple (for fine detail and because I like the colours you can get with it), sycamore (properties like lime, but heavier), although for myself I would like to include yew in there just because I like the wood so much.

 

[Outdoorlifeofbrian]

This is great I'll have to give this a good think lol Harvestman which supplier do you use? this could be helpful as I dont have much time to collect wood atm

Cheers Brian

 

[Andy T]

I'k doing a bit with oak at the moment and really like it. You can get alot of detail into it.