[jillsy]

Can anyone give me their opinions on Basswood vs. Butternut? Pros and cons to each?

Is Butternut a good one for carving & staining a simple piece to show off it's grain or is there a better wood out there to use? It's gotta be soft enough for me to carve without great difficulty.

Thanks

[squbrigg]

Butternut is a beautiful wood to carve and shows off grain beautifully. It is about the same hardness as Basswood, but much more dramatic grain. They both can chip on you while carving, so kep your tools sharp and strop often. Low bevel tools work best and you can shave across the grain crisply. Careful of carving against the grain, your blade can go deep quickly.

Bob

[Kenny_S]

Bob is right on. Butternut is a beautiful grained wood and Personally, I would not stain it. I use several coats of Deft Satin and then two to three coats of Johnson and Johnson paste floor wax. dry in between the wax coats and buffed out with a fine show brush.
Basswood is the common wood used by carvers and can be painted or stained as it is a lmilky to light yellowish in color. The northern basswood is in my opinion a better basswood to carve in than the southern basswood. I have carved both and have better results with the northern basswood. Don't get me wrong, the soputhern BW is good also but perfer the Northern.
Both butternut and basswood is easy to carve. However, quality butternut is getting harder to find.
I have some that is full of holes and may lead to a good caricature with Characture.