practice wood

[DanKed]

Hello everyone.
I was hoping someone out there could give some advice to a beginer. I just started whittling recently and have been practicing on small blocks of pine that I get for free before I go out and buy some bass wood. Do you think it is necessary to buy wood now, or will pine carve well enough to increase my skill? If you can understand my poorly worded question any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[Tom-H]

In my opinion, you should use some good basswood for practicing. You should also use a good sharp knife (tools) too. When one is just learning, it can be very disheartening to attempt to learn on wood that is not easily carved. You may get discouraged if trying to carve hard, grainy, "splity" wood with tools that are not very sharp. What size of wood are you talking about?

Tom H

[DanKed]

I normally use rectangular blocks of about 2.5"X2.5"X7" or so. I have mainly been doing human figures and they turn out looking pretty good other than the faces, which I have a lot of trouble with.

[pallin]

New carvers should not avoid learning the characteristics of various woods. There are good and bad examples of pine, basswood, butternut, etc. To become a good carver, you will need to discover what makes them good or bad.

[big dave]

if you use white pine or sugar pine you will be ok, but there is not much difference in price check out Heinecke wood products

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

I second what Pallin said.

Dave

[Mark Dellinger]

Danked,
When I started carving I used what I believed to be cotton wood that I got from skid runners from the company where I worked. The wood was soft and easy to cut and best of all free. However I had issues with cutting cross grain and with getting a smooth finish. I learned alot of technique and most importantly sharpening skills. I found that the lack of good sharpening skills was the most discouraging. I now use bass wood that I purchase from a local saw mill. It has different degrees of quality some dark and more open, I believe this is what I have heard referred to as bad bass wood in the forum by some but I get a large amount of wood for a good price and use the bad for small give away items or for accesories in my carvings. The hardest lesson for me to learn when starting out was how to tell the difference between a bad piece of wood and a bad sharpening job. Even now I will some times pick up a differnt piece of wood and make a few cuts to see if it is the sharpness of my knife or the wood.

Help this helps.

Safe Carving and God Bless,

Mark

[DanKed]

Thanks you guys. I was just wondering because I can get white pine for free, and if it works well enough, I'm sure gonna use it.

[Mark Dellinger]

Dan,
Sorry! Read this thread before I saw your welcome thread. As a college student money is probably tight. If you are happy with the results of the white pine and it fits your budget I say go for it.

Mark

[wildflower]

Hi DanKed: Really good question. I also agree with pallin. My first two carvings were out of pine and it can be challenging especially if you are doing fine limbs or detail however, it's an excellent way to learn control of your knife or chisel. Pine, like cedar is often referred to as a 'grainy' wood where the actual grain line is much harder than the softer space between grain lines. So there is a tendancy when cutting across the grain, as you push harder to get through the grain line, suddenly it goes thru and sails off thru the softer center and several more lines beyond. These woods splinter easily as well as a result of the harder grain line. If you are having a problem with splintering, change the direction you are working from. This is the case with most woods so it is necessary to work from the centre of your piece out to one end and then from the centre out to the opposite end. Really sharp tools are a must so the tool cuts the wood fibre rather than mushing it. And, for heavensake ~ wear a Kevlar glove on the hand holding the piece to protect your hand from those sudden 'slips'. Hope this of some help. Happy carving!

Chimo,
Leslie