[tbox61]

Good Morning Everybody!

We had a tornado last Friday evening here in Central KS, and there is an abundance of 'free' wood around. In helping clean up, I noticed that sycamore has a very clear grain in the newer branches. Has anyone carved this wood?

I also noticed that locust and russian olive have a nice grain but seem to be hard. If Rick is lurking about, he might chime in on the prospect of using locust and olive for knife handles.

Tim

[wade clark]

Tim,
I love sycamore!!! It has the prettiest flecking and is completely wild with colors and patterns! Do a search on here for sycamore and you may find a dough bowl I've carved. The colors are better than any other wood I've carved! (just looked, it's under filling cracks, post #6 of 30 aprox)
Seal the ends right away, because it is prone to cracking. I'd recommend a product called Anchorseal, an end grain wax sealer. Re-coat every few days or weeks for a while too. I buy it from Highland Hardware, 800-241-6748, highlandhardware.com .
Locust is notoriously hard but might carve well green. I believe Russian Olive will look kind of like myrtle and be equally hard and beautiful. End seal them all! Cut the pieces longer than you think you'll need for your carving projects; then end checking (cracking) will be in scrap wood that you can trim off later when you're ready to carve.
The sycamore is a medium hardness and will carve well dry or green, but keep it moist if carving it green or it'll split wide open! The other woods I'd seriously consider carving green, because they'll be very hard when dry!
Congrats on the sycamore!
Wade

[Ron Davidson]

Tim - The locust I tried to carve a couple of years ago was dry and next to impossible to carve. If you can carve it green it might be okay. I am east of you between Kingman and Wichita so I know what you mean about the tornadoe's you had. Glad you made it through. Ron

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

that Olive wood is good turning wood. We have a couple tiny cups that are turned olive and are really nice.

[tbox61]

Thanks for your response guys! Just as soon not have this much free wood, due to the circumstances, but no one was seriously hurt. Unfortunately, I can now say first hand that a tornado does sound like a jet engine or a train going by.

Sounds like I need to try the sycamore, and stick with the locust and olive wood for knife handles. There is also plenty of pine and spruce around, also. Those trees fared the worst in the storm.

Tim