Carving With Pine

[GoneGonzo]

I'ma carpenter and am covered up by pine wood scraps all day long. I'm also a greenhorn when it comes to carving and have just got a few tools to get started. While at Woodcraft I also bought a carving folding knife to carry in my lunch box and practice carving on my break times.

I know that pine isn't the prefered wood ofor carving but I do get the soft 2x4's at times.

I'm looking for ideas as to where to start. What to carve. There isn;t any carvers in my area so I'm on my own here.

Any suggestions ?

Tom D

[Buckskin]

Tom, I carve a lot of pine. I am a carpenter as well. I have found with pine you have some limitations. It does not have the strength for small parts. I tried carving a spiral icicle and it just fell apart. Stay away from pine that has large areas between early and late wood.

Best I can offer is find something you are interested in and have it. I look forward to seeing some of your work.

[Soggy]

I carve quite a bit of pine and as the previous poster has suggested, you have to be careful when you get down to the fine details;
Check this link out it's one of Gene Messers tutorials; I have done this in pine and it's a lot of fun:
A Beginners Tutorial On Carving A Simple Hillbilly Out Of A Block Of Wood
Hope this helps
Wayne