Word carving - tips and advice

[blakes11]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm new to this forum but a friend suggested i register and ask for your advice with regards to suitable wood for carving. I've always whittled bits and bobs with no great success but have recently had a go at wood spirits which have come out ok so now i'm buzzing to do some more. Hopefully i've added the link below correctly, this is my first attempt at a wood spirit.

 

Photo Link

 

I've read that Lime is the best type to carve for beginners as its fairly forgiving but aside from specialist websites selling fairly expensive blanks, i can't find any anywhere. Does anyone have any opinions on an alternative? I've been reading about Jelutong but don't know an awful lot about it however my preference is to use rough rustic looking wood rather than machine carved blanks. We own a small woodland but its full of hazel and there is only so many walking sticks i can make and i've found that its a very moist wood and larger pieces can't be easily carved when green and the wood tends to look like a bruised apple when left.

 

I've also considered buying some hand tools by Flexcut. If anyone has any opinions to share there i'd be grateful to hear them.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Steve

[SJH]

Hi welcome to the site.

Your wood spirit looks very good to me!.

Lime is a great wood to carve and so is Hazel, Poplar is also very easy to carve and good for large bowls. Birch is very good to carve and graet for Kuksas and spoons. The fruit woods are good Apple Plum and the like, tougher to carve but they finish very well either with the knife or sandpaper.

The flexicut tools are suposed to be good tools, I have never used them so cant give you my opinion.

What sort of things are you looking to carve? if its things like wood spirits you can get cheaper tools until you feel the need to splash out on the flexicut as they are expensive.

 

Simon

[outdoorjoe]

Looks great mate and good fun! how long do they take roughly?

 

Good luck with the progress

[wisewood]

Hi Steve,

that's a pretty good wood spirit:thumbup1:

I've never used flexicut but I know a lot of carvers use them. What are you carving with now?

Another option is to by vintage tools off ebay, I get the odd one or two now and again and quite often for a bargain.

To add to the list Simon suggested I would add sycamore, readily available in decent sizes, carves easily and takes detail well.

All the best,

Si

[blakes11]

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply gents.

 

I'm quite happy to plod on with the wood spirits for the time being as mine have a little way to go as they are still fairly angular. The one i did in the photo only took about and hour or so once the bark was off and the top rounded so its a nice little project that doens't take too much effort time wise.

 

I do actually prefer the vintage chisels. I've got some old marples ones i seem to have acquired which are nice and i do have some ropey palm tools i was given but they aren't very good which is why i was looking to upgrade. If i ever do anythign bigger then I will definitely expand on the marples collection i think. We've got a great little shop called Bristol Design in Bristol (funnily enough) which sells all the vintage stuff but i think i'll stick with my pen knife for now.

 

Thanks again for the wood adivce, i'll have to get out and find some now :-)

 

Steve

[wisewood]

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply gents.

 

I'm quite happy to plod on with the wood spirits for the time being as mine have a little way to go as they are still fairly angular. The one i did in the photo only took about and hour or so once the bark was off and the top rounded so its a nice little project that doens't take too much effort time wise.

 

I do actually prefer the vintage chisels. I've got some old marples ones i seem to have acquired which are nice and i do have some ropey palm tools i was given but they aren't very good which is why i was looking to upgrade. If i ever do anythign bigger then I will definitely expand on the marples collection i think. We've got a great little shop called Bristol Design in Bristol (funnily enough) which sells all the vintage stuff but i think i'll stick with my pen knife for now.

 

Thanks again for the wood adivce, i'll have to get out and find some now :-)

 

Steve

 

I bought a froe and side axe from them several years back, I'd forgotten all about that shop.

[SJH]

This is a good link if you haven't already seen it.

 

Carving a simple Wood Spirit

 

There is also alot of videos on you tube.

Also I forgot to add Alder to the list of good easy woods to carve.

[blakes11]

Just carved another. Much happier with this one.

 

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