Chip Carving Help

[Red Gum]

I am not new to woodworking or to the Forum but I am new to wood carving so this is a first for me.

I have been playing around with chip carving and found it quite interesting to do. I have used a couple of scroll saw patterns that I have and these have worked out for me.

In one of the books I have it shows painting a board with acrilic paint before carving. The reasult looks to be quite good. However if the grain of an expensive piece of wood is going to be coverd I think it is a waste.

Has any one chip carved MDF and if so what where your reasults? Also does the MDF take the edge off the knife quickly? Any time I have used MDF it has been with a power saw using tungston blades so I havn't had to worry about taking the edge off.

I would apreciate any advise on this

Red Gum

[Whittling]

I could be wrong... but I've never heard of anyone ever carving MDF with anywhere near satifactory results. You can cut the stuff with saws but that seems to be about it. The criss-cross nature of the fibers that make it up, plus the glues etc that hold it all together, make it very hard on knife edges. I can't imagine that chisels would be any different. It doesn't sand or file all that well either...

In my opinion, if you want to chip cut a painted surface, use a cheap wood like pinus or jelutong which will chip cut fairly well and don't have much colour to them.

[Robson Valley]

I wouldn't dream of sticking a good chip knife into MDF for any reason. I'm convinced that 40% of the filler is dirt & sand off the shop floor.

The chip carving work that I admire most seems to be done in quite featureless soft wood. Makes me pay attention to the cast shadows and highlights of the cuts.