drift wood?

[LIBuck]

hi all - i'm new to this, and i've been doing a ton of reading to learn as much as i can while getting started.

however, i have not really seen anything on drift wood... i live by the beach, and usually am able to find lots of interesting drift wood. in general, would you think that salt water drift wood will be good to carve? i read some things about wood being too dry and i'm afraid that might be the case with drift wood...

any thoughts/advice?

any driftwood pieces that you have carved that you would like to share?

thanks!

[wildhare]

Hello LIBuck,

I don't know about salt water driftwood, but I have carved fresh water drift wood. As a rule of thumb, I used the thumbnail test. If I could make a mark with my thumbnail, I figured I could carve it with hand tools. If it left a little bit of a mark, I used my dremel and did detail with my carving tools.
Wanda

[wildhare]

Here is photos of my earlier carvings in driftwood.

[wildhare]

Here is the finish Salty Sam on a beaver chewed walking stick.

I can't upload the best picture, but if you look at Salty Sam finds a new home you can see a better photo of him on the "beaver wood" stick. I simply lighly sanded the beaver chewed stick and applied Poly mixed with universal tint of sea blue green. I liked the way the chewed areas grabbed the the stain differently.
Wanda

[chuckbolton]

in missouri- and the surrounding area-- we carve driftwood from the lakes-- it tends to be the heartwood of western cedar-- so after being in the water and all the sap wood rotting off- its very hard- but carves great with mallet tools-- i dont think u would do it with palm tools

[wildhare]

I forgot to tell you what kind of driftwood I find. I live near the Kerr and Arkansas River, which is part of what is called the Great circle. You can go down the river to the Gulf and around the eastern seaboard thru the Great Lakes and back. So we get quite a mixture of driftwood. I even have some cherry we had to use the chain saw on just to lift it (2 people) into the truck. I have found birch, river birch, willow, pine, just to name a few.
Wanda
Wanda

[TreeWizard]

I picked up some driftwood on the beach in Fla. this past Feb and have it on my wood collection. My concern is that even now it is loaded with sand and I can just imagine what that will do to my tools.

Anyone have any ideas how to get rid of the sand?

[oregoncarver]

We have a vacation home on the Oregon coast and I pickup driftwood all the time for carving. I have gotten cedar, myrtlewood and a little of everything else. I have even gotten some pieces to do chainsaw carvings. I wash the wood really well before carving to get as much sand out as possile.

Arthur

[Bill]

I found a couple of Red Cedar Burls in Alaska and have carved them, but
only with power, beautiful wood to work with wish I had more.
Bill

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I haven't carved any driftwood, but know from using a chainsaw, the sand and grit will sure dull a blade in a hurry! The south spit in Eureka California used to be covered with logs/wood...haven't been there for years but suspect it still is as the storms blow it into the beach there.