New Whittler - Grain Question

[mcilroy50]

Hey Everybody,

I just started whittling in December and have become quickly addicted to the message board. I got inspired by the 'Jenga' challenge and started working on a leprauchan? from a piece of scrap. However, the grain runs Left to Right instead of top to bottom. I am almost done with the roughout, but I am not sure if I should proceed any further due to the direction of the grain, or does it even matter?

Thanks,

Paul

[Donna_T]

Well, my first thought is if you're nearly finished, it won't make much difference. Generally, however, you want the grain to run the up/down height of your carving. If you're doing animals or people, the arms and legs will be more prone to breaking (Either while you're carving or once the carving is finished) if done crossgrain. The length of the grain is stronger.

You can carve it on either grain--it's just easier and makes a stronger carving to do it the other way. If you're doing much detailing, be careful when it changes grain--you can lose a nose, tail, leg, or hand pretty quick when the grain changes .

Donna T

[Claude]

Originally Posted by Donna_T

...
You can carve it on either grain--it's just easier and makes a stronger carving to do it the other way. If you're doing much detailing, be careful when it changes grain--you can lose a nose, tail, leg, or hand pretty quick when the grain changes .

Donna T

And when it happens, and it will, it you're careful and can find the broken off part, a little dab of Elmer's white glue or (better) Elmer's carpenter's glue, a little time, and a couple of rubber bands to hold in place, and it'll be good as new.

Claude

[wade clark]

Paul,
Welcome to a wonderful hobby and to the Forum!
Donna's advice is right on the mark. Sometimes though, especially if you're planning on a natural finish on the project and the wood has a beautiful grain, it's worth taking a little more chance for the beauty of the wood...especially if the wood's nice and hard like maybe tiger oak or maple.
Wade

[Lynn O. Doughty]

Claude has a good point. However, it's best to "peg" a piece when trying to reattach it. Glue alone will do the job but the joint will never be as strong as it originally was. Pegging it with a small dowel and glue will generally make it even stronger than it was in the first place. Sometimes, when I know a piece is apt to break I will either use a seperate piece of wood or drill a hole through the weakest part and insert a dowel to prevent any breaks.

[xsailer]

Lynn,
Beg to differ with you, with all due respect of course, about the glue joint being weaker than before break. In fact it will never break at the glue joint(once cured) because it will be stronger than the wood it glues. This statment comes from many articles I've read over the years and tests conducted during my college years. If it does break again in the same area it will be a new break in the wood because the glued joint is stronger. I would agree with you about pegging in some fashion thought in order to stabilize locating the joint alignment.

[Lynn O. Doughty]

xsailer....Having just repaired a broken arm on one of my carvings that was damaged by the collector I speak from experience on how to fix a break so it won't break again.

They had tried the glue and rubber band method with no success. I cleaned the broken surfaces, drilled a matching 1/8" hole and glued and doweled it back together. I can now safely say that it will never break again, at least at that point.

I agree that glueing two pieces together that have a large glueing surface the joint is very strong. Unfortunately, the smaller that glued surface becomes the weaker the join becomes.

[mcilroy50]

Thanks for the input.

[xsailer]

Lynn,
........OK

[Claude]

I agree with Lynn about using dowels for the larger parts that break off, such as arms or legs. I was actually referring to those small parts, such as the mustache on my Mexican Peon that are way too small to peg - but a touch of glue and the wood is back in place and carvable after a bit of time. Just tonight, I was working on a cowboy bottlestopper and tried a bit too big of a cut on the edge of his hat and wasn't careful of the grain direction. Resulted in a chunk of the hat brim breaking off. I glued it back on carefully, and I'll be able to carve it to shape tomorrow.

Claude