need advise about the types of wood

[hope]

hiiiii, i posted my first caricature in the general carving message, please give me your feedbacks
thanks

[Dileon]

I have mango trees in my yard, and I cut and carve the mango wet.....of coarse then you need seal it ....as it will crack especially where you live. I seal the finished work in wax. You can carve anything.....mango is hard and you will need sharp tools. Honestly hard wood is a good way to learn, just do not give up trying because it is extra hard.

[hope]

Dileon Thank you so much for the advise
But varnish can be used to seal the wood
Or I have to use wax?
I don't have any other types of wood except mango and lemon tree that I cut it from my garden

[STAR]

Hope.

I sort of understand your plight. I have only 12 months experience with carving. Without this forum , carving would have finished up with many of my pursuits. " it was a good idea at the time. "

For a beginner it can become frustrating. On this forum it is easy to form the opinion that American basswood is the King of Carving woods. The one sample I saw of basswood here in Australia was at an Exotic Timber resellers workshop where he had many different experts put on displays of their craft. There was one person who was a carver. He let me use one of his gouges to play with some Basswood. I thought it was very hard.

I went to this display to purchase a lange plank of Jelutong to make the Christmas Nutcracker soldier that is in the General Woodcarving section. I had seen Jelutong used by a Rocking Horse carver and he uses it and let me cut up some sample pieces.

However, I realised that here in Australia, and i think that you will too that if you want to carve you have to learn to sharpen. I wondered how sharp was sharp so I bought a knife from Alan Goodman , a member on here. Now , I had a reference on what The experts here call sharp.

He also sent me four pieces of basswood, each about pen blank size for me to experiment with. That wood was very soft and his knife just sliced through it. The knives which I had made myself went through it easilly too. So, at the start of your carving career, you, like me, will do it a bit tougher. You will have to alter your thinking, think outside the box when carving a wood like Oak.

You will have to get your sharpening up to speed and you may have to consider some power carving help to speed things up a bit. All this is a lot for a new person to Carving, but if you can fight through this tunnel and persist I can almost guarantee that in twelve months time you will be more adaptable with your carvings and choice of wood then a lot of more experienced people here that only use North American basswood.

It will be slow going for awhile, but once you make that mental breakthrough you will be able to use any wood available to you and not be hamstrung with a wood that is not available to you. In time you will find and be given opffcuts of more desirable wood. To a lot of non carving woodworkers the offcuts are a nuisance and are discarded or burnt.

To a beginner Carver and the more experienced, they are gold. Sometimes you can find good wood in old furniture going to the tip or landfil, grab them and break them down. train your mind and eye to see opportunities where others see junk.

Pete

[hope]

Star thank you so much you encouraged me alot.))))