wood

[aaronh33]

just getting started and was trying to find out where everyone gets their wood. what stores carry good carving wood, websites, do you just find it laying around the yard. any help would be appreciated.

[Rooster]

Yeah, anything that's lying around is good. Anything that's structural should only be considered as a last resort,

Heinecke Wood Products is probably a good place to start. Basswood is supposed to be very good to carve for a beginner although I haven't gotten any yet.

Rooster.

[susieq]

Hi Aaron,
I actually used to carve white spruce 2x4 in the beginning. It's not bad wood at all. I had even laminated to pieces of it together for a fatter piece to work with. But basswood is best. Poplar is not bad to work with. Finding good basswood is a problem and it's not cheap.

I will say this, if you stay with carving for a few years, you will accumulate a pile of wood along the way. No carver can pass up a good piece of wood whether he needs it or not, just because good wood is hard to come by. So you may be scratching around trying to find wood right now, but that will change. Most of us who have been carving a long time, have more wood hoarded away, than we will ever use in our lifetimes...LOL.

[aaronh33]

thanks for the help. thats kind of what i have been doing. when i find a piece i usually try to keep it around. for me its something to do when im out camping or hunting. it passes the day. also i am a wildland firefighter so it is a nice way to unwind at the end of the day.

[Claude]

Rooster is correct about Heinecke. I've bought basswood from them for several years now. Top quality wood, decent prices, and fast delivery.

Claude

[Old Codger]

Hi Arron! Haven't tried Heinecke yet, but have bought 4 or 5 twenty pound boxes of assorted basswood from Rockler (Rockler.com) and have been quite pleased with it too... Buy it when it's shipped free, they offer free shipping often) and a 20 lb. box costs less than $30...mostly 1" X 1" X 12" and larger sticks all the way up to some 5" X 10" X 12" pieces and some 1" X 8" X 12" at times...usually a great assortment and like I said, it's cheap which is fine for a newbie like me to practice on... Good luck and keep the chips flying!
Kenn

[LBlake]

I agree with what folks have said here, but thought I'd offer a little more variety...
When you're looking at poplar (I get that at Home Depot or Lowes), try to select pieces that look like they have nice close grain - creamy-looking, if that makes sense. Some poplar likes to tear more than other. I like the whiter, creamier-looking poplar boards. Also, if you have access, soft maple like Western Red maple or also Red Alder are supposed to be quite nice. Birch is quite nice, too. Most things are harder than basswood, so don't let them discourage you - just go in knowing that. Most fruitwoods can be nice, too. I like cherry and mahogany and walnut quite a bit, but again - harder. Have fun!

[SlowMover]

Look around and see if there is a woodcarving show near you sometime and pop in both to see the carvings, and also to visit the vendors and see if they have good wood prices. I stopped in at CarvFest in Minnessota this month while passing through on vacation (just lucky we were there when the event was), and I got a lot of great basswood and also some butternut for about half of what I usually pay on the internet once you add in shipping...and I got to pick out the pieces I wanted at the show. Also. some clubs ( at least mine does) order wood in bulk and resell to members..there are other advantages to being in a carving club as well. Just get the wood no matter what and carve, carve, carve to improve.

[susieq]

Yes, a wood carving show is a great place to get wood. You get to see what you are buying before you buy it, no shipping charges either. Amen on the fruit wood being hard.... my brother cut an apple tree that had died. He burned most of it in his wood stove but saved me a nice chunk of the trunk. It had laid by his wood stove for several years but he didn't have the heart to burn it...so it was good and dry by the time I got it.....and hard. Harder than any piece of wood I have ever put a blade to....

It was beautiful but I didn't want to work that hard so I gave it to a knife making friend of mine to use as knife handles. Rich made some gorgeous handles with that chunk of wood.....

Poplar has a wide variety of hardness and other features. I had a poplar log given to me by my brother in law in Indiana...it was probably 6"x8" by 6 feet and we hauled it back home to Florida. Lengthwise one half of it was great but the other side of the log was hard as rock maple. I carved one large Santa from a chunk of it and was real glad that the hard half was on the back side of the piece....so I didn't have to kill myself putting the detail in....this was way before I had power..... I gave away the remainder of the log....

But the point is....once you are a carver, wood will come to you, will find it's way to you. People will give you wood or offer it to you at a good price. Or you will find it when you least expect to find wood....at a yard sale where the person was a carver. It's Karma. Once the universe knows you are a carver, the wood comes. You have no idea how much good wood you walked by and missed just because at that time, you were not a carver so you were not looking for it. Now that you have "eyes" for wood, you will find it or it will find you.

[toycarver]

Aaron, I checked your profile to see what part of the country you are in. Couldn't tell, but I get mine from a supplier in Montana. Let me know if you want more info.