I have benn carving for a few years now,but the only wood I have carved with is Basswood, or Tupelo. Can anyone tell me what cypress is like to use.I have a large piece I would like to use for a fireplace mantle in a new home I am building?

[jimb]

Kim-
The experience I have had with cypress is that carving knees, and pieces that have been air dryed is nice carving, especially for Wood Spirits and Santas, but the Kiln dried cyress that I tried not good. The kilndrying seems to take too much moisture out of the wood, and since cypress has large cell structure, it gives an effect of 'laminated' wood, with the layers very seperated and distinct. However I have only tried two or three pieces, so maybe I just ran into some bad pieces. Someone else may have had better luck than I, but personally I wouldn't try a carving on a mantle that has been kiln dried. IMHO

Jimb

Thanks Jimb. You are the first one I have come across, that has carved cypruss.Thanks for the tips. Kim

[Colin_Partridge]

Kim,
I have done some carvings in cypress but I got it when I was in Florida on a trip. Really nice stuff to carve although I have never carved the kiln dry wood. I have carved a couple of mantel's but I did them out of red oak (if your interested I put a picture of it on WWW.PICTURETRAIL.COM) recently. My biggest concern with cypress would how it would stand up as a mantel as it is a fairly soft wood.