[Smee]

Has anyone carved wood? I understand it is very hard to dry apple without it cracking.

[squbrigg]

I have carved Apple wood and have a whole tree of it drying in my basement. Should be almost ready to use. Yes, it does present some cracks, but I will be able to live with that as I will be cutting it into planks and frames for a ship model, I have some pieces earmarked for other carving, spoons, knife handles, that sort of thing and find the wood very hard, and smooths well to take a beautiful finish. Even found some "birds eye" in it and have plans for some small boxes with that.

Bob

[wade clark]

is a wonderful wood. If you milled it into lumber and kiln dried it, I don't think it would crack that bad. If you dry it yourself use an end-grain sealer such as Anchor-Seal on it to slow the drying process.
I've been told that the early Black Woods Forrest Coo-Coo Clocks had mo metal parts at all; all the moving parts including springs were carved from apple wood.
I have some kiln dried pieces that I plan to carve a chess set out of some day. I also have carving knives that Rick of Little Shavers made for me, with handles out of apple wood from a tree that my Aunt planted in the 1920's; the tree died in the 50's and stood dead until I took it down in the early 80's. It was so hard that sparks flew off my chainsaw! I still have some of that piece the handles came from.
You could also carve it green, keeping it moist until you're done carving, then there's several ways that have been discussed on here that you could dry it. My Dad knows a carver who deep-fries his carvings done in green wood...supposedly works great, but I haven't tried it. I just keep them sealed in Anchor-Seal for a long time so they dry evenly and slowly.
Wade