Favorite wood

[dereks]

What is your favorite wood to carve? And your least favorite and why?

[Donsexton]

Red Oak, Walnut, White Oak, Ash. Green yellow pine sappy and messy splits to easy.

[Bob K.]

For the type of carving I do Basswood is my wood of choice. I also like working with Butternut, Poplar, Walnut, Mahogany. and Mesquite.

[Buffalo Bif]

Bass is good, right up there with Bass is Alaskan Yellow Cedar and Spanish Cedar. Spanish Cedar is brown or red, and has open pores to deal with- so it won't do for some projects. I've whittled Walnut, that takes patience. Put a knife to a pice of Douglas Fir, will probably never do that again- hard and grainy, fought for every chip. Looking to get my hands on some
Sugar Pine, have been told it is equivalent to Spanish Cedar.

[Robson Valley]

I can't say I have a favorite. I like western red cedar, it's local, free and a signature species of the Pacific Northwest. Holds as much detail as I need.
I bought some aspen/poplar for another project. It's milled and finished to 1/2" x 6", sold as drawer side material. Perhaps a little softer than basswood, it was very nice to carve.
BUT
Right now, I'm concentrating on several shallow (1/8") relief carvings to be used for woodcut printing. Using more of that aspen/poplar. Power carving would probably be another method.
One board is soft/lovely down the right side, tough as rubber on the left. All looks the same.
I have eyeballs popping off, antlers splitting, eyebrows chipping, every day, I have to stop to glue a bunch of bits back on. No wonder they sell the junk as drawer side stock.
Not too happy but I'm so far along, I'll finish them and print. Stay away from this for relief carving and if you want to hold detail.

[telecarver]

It depends on the project. Doors-alder It's stable, readily available on the west coast, carves well and it's light in color so the detail stands out better when air brush stained. Mantels- Incense cedar- It's available locally, it carves well and I have it custom cut to size after which I air dry it for three or more years. Small power carved figures-tupelo. It carves like a dream and is very resilient for delicate sections. Relief carvings- alder or genuine mahogany. Alder for the reason mentioned above and mahogany because it carves beautifully and looks elegant finished. Signs- genuine mahogany or redwood because they hold up well in the weather, mahogany especially.
I try to buy as much of my wood FSC certified, salvaged or recycled as possible.

[telecarver]

I see that some people like basswood or butternut. Since this was posted in the power carving forum, I assume you are referring to power carving. Although basswood and butternut are great for edge tool carving, they do not carve well with power tools. Conversely tupelo doesn't carve well with hand tools. The properties that make them suitable for each method make them unsuitable for the other. Although I like to work with lighter toned woods, for ease in carving, genuine mahogany has to be my favorite all around carving wood. It carves equally well with edge and power tools.

[carvingbarn]

Most of the hard woods are my favorites to work with. Walnut , oak and so on. Love how they finish out.

[torpidhummer]

Since I discovered Jelutony Wood,have it available to me and edge tolls slice right through it like butter as well with power tools and sands great.It will be my favorite wood.
Oscar

[Dull Knife]

Originally Posted by dereks

What is your favorite wood to carve? And your least favorite and why?

Bass wood, when I can get.....it's getting to the point that I have to order it. 'Twas awhile back, I could drive to a saw mill and buy nice long and thick chunks of it......not no more!