Rookie

[fatdaddy]

Hi all, my name is Doug. I'm as new to this as anewborn baby! Got a few questions that i hope you all can help me with. I love youtube and I spend about about 80% of my time when I'm online is on youtube, the other day i happened to stumble upon wood spirti carvings. Man! I was blown away! They are beautiful. I'm a creative fella, I used to airbrush motorcyle tanks, car hoods, truck tailgates, t-shirts, etc. I had an HO train layout in my teens, more recntly, I just took down my 1/32nd scale racing layout due to my health problems. I've made scenry like mountains, trees, rivers, etc. I've never done much wood carving or whittling before. I fell in love with the walking stick carvings and the blocks with the wood spirits and such. With all that being said, my questions, I need to use a soft type of wood because of hand weakness. I know zero about wood. Other than balsa, what would be a soft wood I could use? I would mostly use my Dremel tool, maybe a knife, my eyesight isn't very good anymore, diabetic, haha! I went to Lowes yesterday and they said the softest wood that he had was pine. So I bought an 8 ft. secton of 2x2 furring strip and had them cut in smaller pieces so I could handle it better, and so it would fit into the car! Any and all help would be so welcome! Thanks in advance, God bless, Doug aka Fatdaddy

[Magicman]

Hi Doug
The wood most frequently used is Basswood. There are a lot of nice people on this forum that are more than willing to help. So ask any questions you might have,
Welcome to the group
Larry

[Mark Dellinger]

Fatdaddy,

Hello and welcome. Good to have you with us. Many of us use basswood because it is a soft, tight grained wood and lends itself to carving. Alot of folks here use Heinecke Wood Products, for their source. Pine is probably as soft of a wood as you will find at Lowes or Home Depot. It is workable, but watch the knots, the sap, and the grain sometimes make it difficult to cut thin slices when using a knife and sometimes wants to come off in larger chunks than planned.

If I am reading correctly you are interested in doing wood spirits, and possibly with power such as a dremel. If that is the case then you should check out "found wood" under forum jump at the bottom of the screen. The power will help with the weak hand and also lend itself to harder wood that you might have access to without having to purchase wood, just a thought. Again it is good to have you with us.

Safe Carving and God Bless,

Mark

[flyfisherman_53]

HI Doug welcome to WCI forum, dido what Larry said there are alot of members on here willing to help. Think you will find that most of us prefer Basswood , as the primary wood for most projects. some use hardwoods but like I said depends on the project. Myself I just got a idea to try some Butternut from a posting I read on here earlier so I located some and have to pick it up next week my source is a roughcut saw business.Going to try it for some relief carving

[Bob K.]

The most commonly used carving wood is basswood...it's fairly soft and holds detail very well. But if you are interested in carving wood spirits you should try working with cottonwood bark. It is very soft and super easy to work with, and when it is finished with just a clear coat it has beautiful grain!

[carvereric]

Everybody is dead on, Cottonwood bark is great for carving spirits and Basswood for characaters. Heinecke hands down has always given me great Basswood, kiln dried so it is nice, clean and great to carve. Just keep your knives sharp and wear a glove!

[breezly]

Welcome to the forum

[Riverman]

Hi Doug, welcome to the group!
Bob

[fatdaddy]

Thank you all for the replies, I will be watchin', postin', contactin', and so on and so on. Doug

[JJF]

Welcome to the forum