Question about wood - oak for practice

[cseymour]

Hi All,
New to wood carving, have a question about wood to learn on. I live in the Northeast (NY) and have a lot of oak and maple readily available. I recently had a few limbs come down in the yard (oak about 3" in diameter).

My question is if I cut these in to like 6" - 8" pieces, is this ok to practice on?

Thanks.

Chris

[Gergie]

If you are just starting, I'd cut that wood and but it to dry somewhere. And start with Basswood. Your oak and maple are pretty hard woods and could frustrate you on your first attempts.

Basswood is a softer wood with a pretty straight grain and would be a much better wood to start with. My guess is you could find a supplier of basswood in that area of NY. Good luck Buddy!

[Thomp]

chris,

being a beginner, you wont want to start on such a hard wood,
new carvers have enough wrisk cutting them selves hard wood souldnt be one of the contributing factors,

after you learn how to keep your tools sharp and gain experiance enough to control your tools you should definately stick with a better - easier to carve wood..

the green wood from the tree should be sealed at the chainsaw cut with parifine wax or good latex paint to keep the moisture rate of evaporation from the wood more constant which will keep it from cracking

but a newby with a dull knife shouldnt carve hard wood, even now i hate to get a piece of cherry mixed up in a grab box of wood, i have cut myself more on cherry and construction lumber pine than anything else..

but you can do as you wish,
some of us are hard heads, and have to learn best from the school of hard knocks..thats where i got my g.e.d...HA!

[cseymour]

Thanks Thomas for the advice.

I have enought of these babies that I can just wait for the next one to drop

Much appreciated.

Cheers.

Chris

[JohnReid]

In the beginning save yourself a lot of grief and just buy a few well seasoned pieces of basswood,even just to practise on.Getting discouraged at this point by bad wood could be a disaster for your budding carving career!

[RUssL.]

Take these fellows' advice and start out with wood that will add to the pleasures of your early carving experiences, not add to the challenges of it.

For basswood from NYS you could contact Brian Bailey. He is in Warsaw NY.
http://www.baileyswoodworking.com/basswood.htm

Though I have not tried his basswood, the butternut I bought from him is outstanding.

For another source of (non-NYS) basswood there is the ever-popular Heincke Wood Products. Their basswood is darn near perfect.
http://www.heineckewood.com/

Best regards,

RussL.

[Eddy-Smiles]

Oak makes a great fire but a lousy carving medium unless you're into power. Stick with the basswood.

[Clifford_Parker]

Oak and maple are both hard but don't let that discourage you. While basswood is soft, straight grained, and super popular among modern carvers the master carvers of old would rarely have used such "weak" wood.

I use a lot of maple for walking sticks and it carves fairly easily with sharp hand tools and holds details incredibly well. My first carved stick was a red oak staff that I had owned for 5 years and was actually the reason I started carving in the first place.

I personally have a "fear no wood" attitude and feel that modern carvers are often "spoiled" by the ease of carving basswood. I love the look and feel of oak, maple, birch, alder, and other woods. Basswood is soft but is also plain and boring I.M.O. while some harder woods have far more beautiful grain, color, and texture.

[Gergie]

Originally Posted by Clifford_Parker

Oak and maple are both hard but don't let that discourage you. While basswood is soft, straight grained, and super popular among modern carvers the master carvers of old would rarely have used such "weak" wood.

I use a lot of maple for walking sticks and it carves fairly easily with sharp hand tools and holds details incredibly well. My first carved stick was a red oak staff that I had owned for 5 years and was actually the reason I started carving in the first place.

I personally have a "fear no wood" attitude and feel that modern carvers are often "spoiled" by the ease of carving basswood. I love the look and feel of oak, maple, birch, alder, and other woods. Basswood is soft but is also plain and boring I.M.O. while some harder woods have far more beautiful grain, color, and texture.

Clifford, I just went to your site "Great Work", And I think you contradicted yourself. Those basswood canes were anything but plain and boring. Thumbs Up

I think you also hit on the key to the success of carving harder woods and that is sharp tools, and keeping them sharp.

[Eddy-Smiles]

So what do I know? I guess that I'm just a lazy carver! Go for it Chris!