Brand new to whittling

[Porteiro]

I've never whittled before until this month when I picked up The Little Book of Whittling. I've been enjoying it.

Right now I'm trying my hand at whittling a love spoon out of some cherry. The cherry is about an inch and a half thick and is about a year and a half old. Which means that for normal woodworking, it's not dry, but for whittling, it certainly ain't green.

Is it possible to soak wood in water to make it easier to carve, as though it were green? Are there any drawbacks to doing so?

[Claude]

Welcome to the forum!

Many recommend a 50-50 mix of water and rubbing alcohol, sprayed on the surface of the wood. Let it sit for a minute or so, then carve. As you remove wood, re-spray. Soaking for a lengthy period is likely to cause the wood to crack/split as it dries out.

Claude

[aulddiy]

Again Claude and I agree. Anytime I've soaked cherry in water it later cracks. Now this is cherry grown here in Scotland. While I know very little I know there are many types of cherry wood.
Try the mix Claude suggests. Believe me there are few things so upsetting than spending a lot of time on a spoon for it to crack in front of you. Been there done it.

[Porteiro]

Thanks for the advice.

What does the alcohol/water mix do that plain water doesn't?

[Claude]

I'm not an organic chemist, but I think the alcohol will penetrate into the wood farther and quicker than the water does alone, but will also evaporate much quicker than the water. This probably means the alcohol softens the wood and the water with it keeps the wood from drying again almost instantly... I could be wrong, so if we have an chemists on the list, please speak up.

Claude

[Ron T]

Hello and welcome, Porteiro.

[A_Swope]

I'm gonna have to agree with Claude

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

I agree with Claude, welcome to the forum.

Dave

[jmischel]

My experience is that I can't tell the difference between spraying with a mixture of alcohol and water, and spraying with water only. In fact, since I typically carve small things I'll often dispense with the spray bottle altogether and just dip the whole dang carving in a tub of water (or in the pool if I'm carving out there).

The other problem with the 50/50 alcohol/water mixture is that if you keep it in the bottle overnight, a lot of the alcohol will just evaporate and you're likely just spraying water anyway. I found the whole mixing thing and making sure I had alcohol around to be a giant pain in the neck that didn't pay off. So it's just water for me, if I use anything at all.

To be perfectly honest, I very rarely these days even worry about putting water on the hard wood in order to soften it for carving. As I become more proficient at sharpening my tools properly, the need for softening the wood decreases and I find that I prefer the way the dry wood cuts. It seems to cut cleaner than when it's wet.