Maple for hand carving?

[Clumsy Eddie]

I've got a couple of pieces of maple I'd like to try carving, but I use hand tools. Is maple a suitable wood to hand-carve, or is it more of a mallet-and-gouge type of material?

Thanks to all who reply.

With best regards,

Stephen (aka Clumsy Eddie)

[Donna_T]

Yikes, but maple is a hard wood to hand carve. My opinion is that it is more suitable for mallet or power carving. I'd put it right up there with walnut for hardness.
Donna_T

[A_Swope]

I use Maple a lot, mainly because of availability, I needed to cut down two Maples last year for some landscaping and I'm going to burn the larger pieces next winter if it's dry enough, but the smaller pieces I cut them into long pieces roughly 1x1-1x3 depending on the size of the branch and then I take that and cut it on my scroll saw into whatever shapes I need. But a lot of my carvings are under 1 1/2 inches, so there isn't much wood to be removed.

Alex

[Eddy-Smiles]

Stephen... It also depends on how old your maple is and how it was cured when it was cut. As with any wood there can be differences in hardness.

[Clumsy Eddie]

A big Thank You to all who have replied so far!

With best regards,

Stephen (aka Clumsy Eddie)

[jmischel]

I like carving maple. It's a bit hard, true, but it carves well with sharp tools. I especially like the spalted or ambrosia maple, for the color.

I've carved some small stuff from very green maple (cut the limb, start carving). Probably don't want to do that with larger carvings, as it will likely split on you.

Maple is definitely carveable. I love the stuff.

[dnstehly]

The main consideration is "what kind of maple do you have?" There is a wide variety of maple out there. The soft maples such as silver maple, red maple, or Norway maple can be easily carved with hand tools. The hard maples such as black maple or sugar maple will easily frustrate someone trying to carve them with a knife or hand gouges.

[arbarnhart]

Kind of a nit, but if carve with a mallet and gouges, I would absolutely consider the piece to be "hand carved".

There is a tremendous difference between kiln dried hard maple and air dried red maple or ambrosia, especially if you live somewhere with high humidity (I do). The softer stuff is good carving wood, though I would still prefer full size gouges whether or not I used a mallet. The hard stuff is hard to work without a mallet or power, but holds detail very well.