carving redwood

[tonyp]

has anybody carved redwood,i have a red wood log,anybody ever carved it thanks,tonyp

[pallin]

Yes, I started carving as a boy whittling my own toy guns out of redwood (Giant Sequoia). It splits easily, so it's not good for projects with much detail. More recently I carved a wall decoration 4.5 ft x 7 ft. of redwood - see photo titled "Symmetry" in my gallery photos.

[Tom-H]

Many of the pairs of animals for the Noah's Arks that I make are from Red Wood. The Red Wood animals are done with a rotary tool and various sized sanding drums. The red Wood is ideal for this tool since this wood has a lot of natural resins in it. This means that it does not fuzz up. I think it also holds detail quite well when shaped with the rotary tools and sanding drum. Just be carveful of breathing in the dust. It is supposed to be a wee bit toxic.

Tom H

[Claude]

I've carved a few bears out of some old recycled redwood. I agree with Phil: the stuff doesn't hold fine detail, and it'll split on you if you aren't being careful with the grain direction.

You can see a couple of the bears on my web site (link below). I didn't put anything on these for a finish. The natural redwood darkens just a bit from the pictures and looks great without any finish, IMHO.

Claude

[Dwayne Engle]

Let me weigh in on the question of redwood. I love the stuff. I may be mincing words but I would use the term "brittle" moreso than "splits". Probably a small difference not worth mentioning. Makes for beautiful carvings though if you choose the right subject.

Dwayne

[mobjack68]

Keep your glue bottle handy if you carve thin sections....I carved a miniature carousel horse (for a carousel section display) turned the pattern several times trying to get the grain to align, did the best I could there. One leg was pulled up (canter) I bet I snapped that poor thing off about a dozen times. I finally just left the leg off until I finished the rest of it...we laughed about the 3 legged horse for awhile.
Brittle is the word of the day, cuts clean and surprisingly fast. Keep your tools sharp if you use edge tools, Fibers pull and sometimes bunch up in front of the edge...