Cypress Knees

[woodtrapper]

I am courious about the texture of cypress knees. I spoke to Tom Wolfe last year on Grandfather Mountain N.C. about this and he said you should soak the wood before carving. I hope I heard him right.Is this wood a bit finicky to work with?

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I haven't found it so and I haven't soaked it.

[Thomp]

Wood trapper,

forgive my explaination,
but i find cypress knees more like carving stryofoam or popcorn,

where carving basswood its more like the wood has been oiled or lubricated...

maybe its the way i dry it in the barn loft for 6 months to a year.

cypress knees is a very dry non resin wood,

the knife occasionaly will squeek or churp as it cuts the wood especally crossgrain .

if your tools get a little dull the wood tries to curl under the blade and tear or bend, ripple grain leaving a mess. especally if your making a deep cut with a dull edege.

I dont know if carving it wet would effect the grain that much more than any other wood.
but i have had problems with painting it with water based acrilic and getting weird results without sealing it first. on very small minature carvings this is more evident than on like a regular sized duck decoy.

very old or bark damaged cypress knees can get punky usualy found after your pretty deep into the carving, super glue usualy will restore the wood to carvability if the punky spot isent too big, but then you got to carve the superglue..rougher on tools.

the punkey places in my findings are a grey color
hope this wasent total confusion

keep your tools honed very often is the best advice...

[Doug Ridley]

When carving Cypress knees I use strictly power tools. Solves all the aforementioned problems.
Doug

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

haven't had a problem with any of that? It will churp now and then if the blade is at the right angle, I sometimes spritz some rubbing alcohol on it if necessary and for painting, I just wet down the area with water first.

[wade clark]

They're soft to carve. The dust with power tools gives me a severe sinus headache! Use all the dust precautions you can! I like cypress for carving. It obviously won't hold detail as well as oak or cherry, but it's so easy to carve that it's a good fun medium!
Wade

[Thomp]

dosent cypress scorch easily with power tools like most fruitwoods? i seam to remember it scorches really easily if your burr is getting any build up on it,

but on the smaller cypress knees new growth has virtualy no grain and is as easy to carve as a sweet potato, i love it for that charistric.
but where i found the problem is cutting a 45 degree and painting it with water based acrilic, the fibers of the wood seamed to get longer and had the look of bundled hair or hay bail...across the 45 degree cut, not normal grain raising problems, but sealing and sanding before painting took care of that. on minatures.

[woodtrapper]

This somes it up for me.I have not bought any cypress knees because of the softness.I guess you just have to have a love for it like me and the rhodendren. Thanks.

[GeorgiaCarver]

I love carving cypress knees but your tools must be razor sharp...... Power tools work good as well.

I like to rough out with gouges and then use my dremmell.

[macktruck]

I like to rough it out with hand tools and then detail with power tools also.
I like that the shape naturally adds character to the carving.
macktruck