Thread: timber for carving

Hi Astrid

The kids will love it, I'm sure

Have you checked the web, rather than buying a book? I was wandering about the other day and found Chris Pye's website http://www.chrispye-woodcarving.com/ has beginners instructions in his Slipstone area. I have one of his books and really like his work and thought I could try carving on my turning later on.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Robyn

Thanks robyn, this will help,
Astrid

Hi Astrid,
see if you can get hold of some Camphor Laurel, a really nice timber for carving. I try to use it in my classes, and you can see the students enjoy it after trying other stuff on offer, like pine, Macrocarpa, silky oak or that horrid Chinese elm! The colours in Camphor can be a bit distracting though, with wild streaks of brown, purple and green amongst the pale straw that most of it has.

Cheers,

I have a 10" x 3" disk of camphor that was for turning but had a bad section in the middle. I'll try and remember to bring it on Sat, it may suit carving if you only want small items. The smell should keep them entertained anyway.

That would be really nice,
thanks Groggy

Astrid

So how is the carving going? My dad suggested Jelutrong (spelling?) as an easy wood to carve.

Donna

well as usual with kids there not interested when you have time to help.
my 10 yo is thinking about what to carve and the 14 yo cracked it when i told her she has to use the vice till shes used to the tools.
went all arty on me and told me she cant feel the wood.
tough titty.
Groggy gave me a nice chunk of camphor laural and i have sone Qld hoop and kauri' so this should keep em busy while im inmy shed with that chair

theyll get into it
Astrid



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[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzs3JlU2WE8"]Heres[/ame] a video on carving

That was interesting! Thanks for sharing it.

Donna

Flynnsart - just for info, it's "Jelutong", which is a soft Malaysian hardwood (don't you just love the paradox of the term hardwood & softwood).

Thanks bob,
sorry i didnt get back sooner, I was exiled to Heywood for 4 days.
I think the vidio is the answer to their problems.
Theyve been tring to carve 3d, where as i think starting them on a simple relief animal or flower or MANGA stamp would be best.

Whats a good size for a child with limited concentration? not mine in particular but kids in general.

I have some kauri in 5" squares

this vid was great and even inspired me to have a shot, now I've got the chisels

Cheers
Astrid

here is the web site that got me hooked into carveing the pic of the old carver l just love
a wood spirit is a great first carveing if you make any mistakes it doesn't matter http://www.blanchardwoodsculpture.com/home.html

Just like to echo that camphour is a great wood to carve, although I started my (then) young son on carving years ago and he used Jelutong and it was like carving butter, but his flat project 'wilted' like butter with heat/humidity etc too.

I use camphour to make my rocking horses. I find the wood very stable, and a joy to carve, other than those frantic, busy red areas, where the grain goes off in all directions and can make a fury mess with unpredictable end grain popping up from nowhere. Still, I like to use it for ease of carving, but also because I know I'm not damaging any fragile environment with this wood. Where I live it's often bull-dozed up into huge piles and burnt. Such a waste of a brilliant resource, even if it's not native, but we humans can be a little remedial sometimes, repeating the same history over and over.........

But GOOD ON YOU for getting your child into carving/arts appreciation! Brilliant!!!

Clare.

Thanks Clare,
Unfortunately, HWMBO bought them Laptops
Till they get this out of their system no carving is being achieved.
But their both pretty creative, there's no forcing the muse
Got as far as tracing a pier and seagull on a bit of hoop pine today

Astrid