:hello all, my 13 year old daughter has been eye balling my carving illustrated magazines,here lately she has been especially interested in the last issue with the snowman in it. recently she has been wanting to learn to carve and I think this will be a good project for us to get started on, I guess my question is, is poplar a good wood for carving. I have several pieces that are 4x6x36. My daughter is very artistic, she paints and she loves to draw animals and hopefully she will stay with carving and teach dad a little bit. I guess I will let her start giving me lessons tonight.

[BobD]

Poplar is somewhat soft, but gets fuzzy. I suppose it would work for the quick-carve snowmen, but for a first project, I'd suggest (TaDah) Basswood...

Bob

Whiskers,

Poplar is not 'bad' to carve - especially if it's free. It is generally harder than bass, so it takes more effort and you need to make smaller chips. It's been a while since I carved anything in poplar, but I seem to remember that I could not put as much detail in as I wanted. It may have been due to dull tools more that the wood.

I would suggest some flat relief type carvings as a training exercise also.....like a santa face pin. I personally think these are good teaching projects as there is not a lot of heavy wood removal required. She can also do some animals of her own design (since that's what she seems to like to draw).

If she is artistic, she will have a better chance of staying with it if she can create and develop her own ideas into finished pieces. Copying items from magazines and books is a very good way to develop skills, but to keep her interest, she will need to be able to express herself a little bit.

Let us know how it goes - with the wood and with your daughters projects. Take some pictures for yourself and your daughter. The next time someone asks about poplar, we can refer them to your experience.

[AlArchie]

Here's a kink to the thinking......is that poplar or aspen, (locally known as poplar or 'popple')?

I carve almost exclusively in poplar/aspen/popple, and it is very similar to basswood in carving characteristics. It does tend to be a mite harder, but holds detail well and is still quite easy to work. It fuzzes a little less than the softer basswood, too.

Al

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

There are many varieties of poplar! Our local variety (one of them) carves a lot like basswood except it will chip on you much like aspen! I like free wood.....but I hate it, to get well along on something and have it chip out or split and screw of the whole thing and waste all that time! 'Ta Dah' basswood ha ha

I agree with the comments on poplar. The fuzz is mostly the part that bothers me about poplar. I never heard anyone mention white pine, or cedar. Both work well, and are inexpensive here in NB.

When y'all refer to fuzz, is that a function of power carving? I don't seem to have the problem with hand tools?

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I hear a lot about sugar pine...used to live in Northern California and lots of it around...but alas, wasn't carving then! That's one I would like to try....I have a very small fish that was carved in sugar pine, all one piece including the fins...must be an outstanding wood to carve and strong...

Hi-Ho - I used to have a bunch of it, but have used most of it up. It carves nicely with a knife and suspect power tools. Doesn't hold detail as well as a lot of other woods. Tends to be a little 'grainy.' Sure do like the smell though.

Fuzz results from power carving against the grain. I use tupelo for birds, and it isnt fuzzy. Its not always possible to always carve in a straight line, thus I will go across the grain with the power carving, and this makes for fuzz, or small nubbles that are difficult to get rid of. As far as I know, the fuzz is simply broken end grain. ??