What Other Woods

[A_Swope]

I know that most all of you use Basswood, but what other woods do you like to use?

My absolute favorite is Sassafras, It grows right near my house, it's the easiest to carve of all of my found wood. and it smells good. After that is probably pine and oak.

I do use basswood but its harder to find, I prefer found wood.

Alex

Alex,

So far I've been using a pack of small basswood blocks I bought from Michael's arts/crafts store a couple of years ago. I did buy a square dowel of yellow poplar from Lowes last week, along with a quarter-inch by 4" by 3ft plank of poplar (to carve some basic 2D figures). The poplar is a little harder than the basswood though. I'd love to try some sassafras, sometime.

E.G. Tangerman covers a lot of different woods in his "Whittling and Woodcarving book", and has a chart that ranks the different attributes for each type of wood.

Stephen

[johncarves]

If you think sassafras is soft you must be carving it green! I tis a commom wood here in the South. I've carved quite a few Walking Sticks from dry Sassafras and it is like carving stone. There's a small manafacturing plant locally that uses Persimmon and Sassafras to make golf club heads (it's that hard).

[A_Swope]

Johncarves it works like oak, which I like, Sharp tools make it a whole lot easier.
It's not really soft just soft for the wood available around my house.

Alex

[Big Barn]

I like butternut

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

Originally Posted by Big Barn

I like butternut

Me too, a litlle oil and the grain just pops!

Dave

[Just Carving]

I carve my Whittlebears out of pine, cedar, aspen, basswood, butternut, and spruce.

http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.co...sc01657-sm.jpg

Bob L

[Robert Cahill]

My favorite is basswood as you mentioned but I can get aspen and popular in 1/8 1/4 3/4 thickness and what is called whitewood in 3/4 in which I use to laminate at times but you have to pick your board and not get heavy grain.All good to carve in my opinion. The kids bought me a banana box of basswood from a carving store in Colorado and it was the worse wood I ever carved so I guess where you get it makes a big differance

[dhjrcarver]

My favorite carving woods are walnut, hard maple,butternut,basswood and buckeye.Depending on how spalted buckeye is.I like a few black lines in buckeye and when carved it has a soapy or waxed feeling when carving it.
Don Holsinger