[Tarik]

I rescued a piece of apricot wood from a firewood pile thinking I could could carve it.

Has anyone tried carving apricot wood, what can I expect?

Bad thing is that as the ends weren't sealed I can see lines on them. Do you think that they reached the core or there is a chance to save the piece?

It is about 5" diameter and 15" long.

Thanks!

[Alice in Wonderland]

I have carved Fruit wood and I am sure Apricot is fruit not Northern :-) I think you can carve any wood you just have to adjust to the characteristics of the wood. I learned that most fruit woods do not take details easily. I would start with and idea and during the carve I had to chang my mind ,because the wood took over.
I hope this helps
Alice

[whitecree]

Any fruitwood I've tackled were rather hard, with a fairly dense grain, but tend to splinter easily.

If you can, work that checking or cracking into the piece so it lends a bit of character.

[yankee2]

Hi,
I recently got several small apricot logs, and have turned some of it into natural-edge bowls. It's terrific wood, with colorful heartwood blending nicely into the sapwood. It IS very fine grained and hard, and it does not crack too much. One of my bowls is a birdmouth natural edge bowl, using an entire section of a log, with the pith passing right through the center of the sides. Although there are a couple of small pith cracks, after glueing, they did not grow during drying, and there are no new ones. This bowl was, after green turning to <1/4" thick, and sanding, simply given several coats of tung oil, and allowed to dry in open air. There was some warping, as expected, but no more cracks. My plum, for example, is not nearly so stable. I can't guess if your end checks are deep, as that depends in part on how long it dried as a log, but I can say that, if you are careful to moderate the drying, a carving should hold up well. Of course, if it's already dry, and without too many checks, I'd say you are home free. Did I mention this is a very beautiful wood? Pretty scarce, too, in my experience. It should do any fine carving proud!