Acacia wood - carving

[Ruby]

Can anyone tell me what Acacia wood is like for carving? I'm assuming it is hard (?) - I'm thinking about getting a piece - it's 1" thick - I would want to do a shallow relief carving. I don't have much experience in exotic woods other than Honduras Mahogany. (use Swiss Made tools and Taylor palm chisels) appreciate any advice.

[kaiserb]

Looks like good cabinet and pole making wood:

(Exo 25:5 NIV) ram skins dyed red and hides of sea cows ; acacia wood;

(Exo 25:10 NIV) "Have them make a chest of acacia wood--two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.

(Exo 25:13 NIV) Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.

(Exo 25:23 NIV) "Make a table of acacia wood--two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high.

(Exo 25:28 NIV) Make the poles of acacia wood, overlay them with gold and carry the table with them.

(Exo 26:15 NIV) "Make upright frames of acacia wood for the tabernacle.

(Exo 26:26 NIV) "Also make crossbars of acacia wood: five for the frames on one side of the tabernacle,

(Exo 26:32 NIV) Hang it with gold hooks on four posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold and standing on four silver bases.

(Exo 26:37 NIV) Make gold hooks for this curtain and five posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold. And cast five bronze bases for them.

(Exo 27:1 NIV) "Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide.

(Exo 27:6 NIV) Make poles of acacia wood for the altar and overlay them with bronze.

(Exo 30:1 NIV) "Make an altar of acacia wood for burning incense.

(Exo 30:5 NIV) Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.

(Exo 35:7 NIV) ram skins dyed red and hides of sea cows ; acacia wood;

(Exo 35:24 NIV) Those presenting an offering of silver or bronze brought it as an offering to the LORD, and everyone who had acacia wood for any part of the work brought it.

(Exo 36:20 NIV) They made upright frames of acacia wood for the tabernacle.

(Exo 36:31 NIV) They also made crossbars of acacia wood: five for the frames on one side of the tabernacle,

(Exo 36:36 NIV) They made four posts of acacia wood for it and overlaid them with gold. They made gold hooks for them and cast their four silver bases.

(Exo 37:1 NIV) Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood--two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.

(Exo 37:4 NIV) Then he made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold.

(Exo 37:10 NIV) They made the table of acacia wood--two cubits long, a cubit wide, and a cubit and a half high.

(Exo 37:15 NIV) The poles for carrying the table were made of acacia wood and were overlaid with gold.

(Exo 37:25 NIV) They made the altar of incense out of acacia wood. It was square, a cubit long and a cubit wide, and two cubits high --its horns of one piece with it.

(Exo 37:28 NIV) They made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold.

(Exo 38:1 NIV) They built the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood, three cubits high; it was square, five cubits long and five cubits wide.

(Exo 38:6 NIV) They made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with bronze.

(Deu 10:3 NIV) So I made the ark out of acacia wood and chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands.

(Isa 41:19 NIV) I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together,

[kaiserb]

Acacia is hard ... it appears to have about the same properties as mesquite or iron wood.

Probably not a good choice for carving. It should hold a lot of detail...if you do carve it.

[wade clark]

Ruby,
Hi! According to WOOD IDENTIFICATION AND USE by Terry Potter,
MYRTLE (Umbellularia californica (Myrtaceae)) is also called
ACACIA, baytree, bay laurel, ...OREGON MYRTLE, California Olive, Pepperwood, Spice Tree.
Dry weight: 53# per cubic foot, about 4.42# per board foot. Heavier woods are usually harder woods. Basswood is 2.18# per bd.ft., Hickory is 4.25#, chestnut is 2.5#, cocobolo is 5.67# per bd.ft., butternut is 2.33#, American walnut is 3.33# per bd.ft., apple is 3.58#, balsa is .83#, purpleheart is 4.5#,pines run 1.83# (sugar pine) to 3.42#, poplar, cottonwood and aspen at 2.33#, cherry 3#, pear 3.67, white oak 3.92#, S.American Mahogany 3#, Western Red Cedar 1.92#.
Myrtle is heavy, hard-wearing and resilient...can be difficult to work...rapid blunting effect on cutting edges.
...glues, bores, nails and screws well, and polishes very well...Prized by woodturners.
...not very durable...low resilience to decay and is attacked by powder post beetles.
Beautiful HARD wood, certainly worth carving!
I hope this helps!
wade

[Ashbys]

Ruby,

Although Acacia isn't listed I did find the listing of three simliar wood types.
These were Rosewood (HongKong) Koa ( Hawaii) and Blackwood.
The Acacia is listed as being over 750 different types. Acacia itself is a classifaction of tree type.
I compared all three types and then looked for a more common comparison in North American woods. It should fall somewhere close to Black walnut. But could push closer to birch. Either way your tools should work fine but I would expect a lot of mallet work. The only concern would be grain structure , but your tools should still work without a major concern.
I would strap them often outside of that your really should not have a problem putting in a low relief carving, well at least in my opinion.
The larger problem would be, this information is based upon 3 types of Acacia out of 750 types.

http://woodworkerssource.net/onlinewoods/woodsearch.php