[woodenbirdmaker]

I have been using White Cedar to carve shorebirds. But I am going to start carving songbirds. So I was looking for some advice on which type of wood (Tupelo or Basswood) would be better for songbirds.
Thanks John

[slivers&dust]

Tupelo is the preferred wood for me when it comes to bird carving.

IMO a good piece will be light in weight and color, it has a tight grain and takes texturing very nice with no fuzz. I also think it paints better then Basswood.

[mark yundt]

You can use cedar,or tupelo or basswood to carve any kind of bird,duck, birds of prey,shorebirds...doesn't matter except what type of carver YOU are,,,chisel and knife or power carver?.If you plan to power carve (foredom,dremel,nsk,etc.) tupelo responds great. Very little grain , no fuzz up like you would get using power on basswood. Try using chisels or knives on it though and you'll probably go nuts, doesn't respond well at all.Knives and chisels work great on bass and cedar, but don't respond well to power. What you use to carve with will basically determine the type of wood you use.Personally I only use tupelo for my birds... song, duck ,raptors, just got a 10"x10"x24" tupelo block in today to start a Golden Eagle. A block this big wouldn't be possible in bass. you could guarantee it would crack.

[woodenbirdmaker]

Thank you Tony and Mark for your quick response. Looks like Tupelo is the wood of choice, I will have to give it a try.
John

[HadACall55]

Hi' guys

The frist eagle I carved was in a large peace of mahogany it worked very will for me . I posted some pictures under (begainers) so yoy mit look at them .

L
Good Luck BOB

[mark yundt]

Yeah, Mahogany is a great wood to carve.The majority of my pieces are done in it.carves clean,sands up nicely, and it's hard to beat the color. But for the type of birds I think that woodenbirdmaker is going after ,something along the lines of Tupelo might get him closer to the level of detail he's looking for.I think that tupelo can hold VERY fine detail that none of the other woods can and has few if any pores ,so it paints up great. 99.99% of all World Championship birds are done with it. Like I said, for me , that's the only wood I use to carve realistic birds with.

[falconer]

I've been using tupelo for the last 25 years for all my birds. You really have to stipulate that you want it "light and white" when you purchase tupelo. As it can be as hard as any hard wood out there. Good tupelo is getting harder and harder to find and it's getting real expensive. A couple years ago I bought forty acres of "swamp land" with nothing but tupelo on it just so I'd be sure to have some when I need it. My wifes aunt sold it to me for ten $ a acre. Somehow I have a feeling there's a joke in there somewhere!! Not sure who got the better end of the deal. All the wood used in my seminars comes from that swamp in Louisiana. I don't carve anything else!!!
www.sierracreekstudios.com

[HadACall55]

Originally Posted by falconer

I've been using tupelo for the last 25 years for all my birds. You really have to stipulate that you want it "light and white" when you purchase tupelo. As it can be as hard as any hard wood out there. Good tupelo is getting harder and harder to find and it's getting real expensive. A couple years ago I bought forty acres of "swamp land" with nothing but tupelo on it just so I'd be sure to have some when I need it. My wifes aunt sold it to me for ten $ a acre. Somehow I have a feeling there's a joke in there somewhere!! Not sure who got the better end of the deal. All the wood used in my seminars comes from that swamp in Louisiana. I don't carve anything else!!!
www.sierracreekstudios.com

Hi' all

You know more about the tupelo wood than me . That something I'v never used . I get all the malhogany an papular , cedar , rose wood an ironwood an what ever they have laying around for 20.00 a pickup load , so as long as I can do that I got it made .

THANKS BOB