Thread: Celtic Dragon Lovespoon

Originally Posted by underfoot

...You have tried huon pine DS...have you not?

My very first attempt at carving a lovespoon was in huon pine but It broke under hand pressure when I was carving it. So I re-started with a piece of english walnut, that I knew to be still strong when short grain areas were incorporated.

I must try huon pine again now that I've had some experience and don't need the training wheels of tough timber so much. I like the feel of hard timbers though.

Have you tried inland rosewood? Very dark and hard; it could well suit a dragon.

Inland Rosewood

Originally Posted by movay_2008

Have you tried inland rosewood? Very dark and hard; it could well suit a dragon.

Inland Rosewood

I have some small pieces of NSW Rosewood, but haven't got around to trying it yet. Yes it would suit a dragon, but for some reason I've ended up doing a lot of dragons lately, in various media. Thanks for the suggestion though.

PS I just had a look at the link you posted ... very interesting and thank you. Seems it would be quite different to NSW rosewood and would finish well because of its hardness.

Thanks, David.
My wood of choice is western red cedar, Thuja plicata. Local, lots of it and all for free in the logging debris piles. The carving wood of the Pacific Northwest coast native peoples.
The smell, the color and the heritage may be why I stick with it.
Being a conifer, the wood is usually straight grained, very long fiber and quite soft, like pine of softer. However it doesn't hold detail well at all as it is very prone to lengthwise splitting. The tips of finely tapered features just pop off. Consequently, my simplistic renderings with sparse detail turn out mostly to my satisfaction.
Starting soon, I will be using aspen and poplar (Populus sp) in shallow relief carvings for wood block printing. The mountain goat and mountain sheep from The Animal Family were carved in aspen. White, soft and very homogeneous. I liked that.
I can get large pieces of Alaskan Yellow Cedar (Xanthocyparis nootkatensis). This is the crown of carving woods in the Pacific Northwest. So far, I can't think of a thing that I'd like to carve with it.
I have boxes and boxes of carving "blanks" with drawings all laid out. More boxes of layouts for the wood block printing. I think I should save some of my wind and get to work.

Originally Posted by David Stanley

I have some small pieces of NSW Rosewood, but haven't got around to trying it yet. Yes it would suit a dragon, but for some reason I've ended up doing a lot of dragons lately, in various media. Thanks for the suggestion though.

PS I just had a look at the link you posted ... very interesting and thank you. Seems it would be quite different to NSW rosewood and would finish well because of its hardness.

Its an acacia, and any acacia from inland is bound to be hard - maybe too hard! They were used for spear tips often.

This is a beaustiful work of Art. How long did it take to carve? Is it for sale or are you holding on to it?

Wow that is fantastic
A big well done and it looks so crisp to