Timber for rocking horses/carving

[pc]

g'day. i build rocking horses but want to move on to carousel horses. can anyone suggest the best timber for this (hopefully readily available)?

[Iain]

Given the bulk on these I would probably just laminate your common garden variety pine to the desired thickness.
Its cheap and workable and I would imagine it is going to be painted upon completion.
Anything else is going to cost unless of course you intend to polish.
I have made some smaller sculptures using laminated pine and I just glue up with yellow glue and have dowels to hold the lot together without protruding through the ends.
A heap of clamps and a day later you are in business.
Put plenty of newspaper under the thing as the glue goes everywhere, makes a real mess of the carpet and the missus will complain http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/biggrin.gif

[ubeaut]

Have worked on a number of old carousel horses over the years carving net tails ears and other amputates body parts. The originals seemed to range in timbers from oregan to mahogany and almost anything else that the builders could lay their hands on. Oregan however seems to have been more prevelant in the bulk of the restorations I have done.

If it were me, I would be using Jelutong. It comes in good sizes. Is reasonably easy to obtain, realitively cheap and works easily. Also once it is plastered and painted it will stand up to a bit of rough treatment pretty well.

However if you are building rocking horses, I susspect you already know all of this.

Hope this helps.

Cheers - Neil http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/smile.gif

[JackoH]

We found a carver!!!! http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/biggrin.gif

[ubeaut]

PC - Don't know where you live, but Jelutong should be readily available at any furniture timber supplier. In Melb try Mathews timber, Australian Furniture Timbers (AFT) & Adams Timber all should be able to supply you with any amount of it in a variety of sizes up to 12" wide x 4"-6" thick.

Outside of Victoria check your capitol cities Yellow Pages. It shouldn't be too hard to find some.

Cheer - Neil http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/smile.gif
-------------------------------------------
John - He can't be a true carver. We all know carvers don't have computers or if they do they don't know how to use them. http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/wink.gif

[pc]

am so! i'm not very bright but i can lift heavy fings. got computer too, not all that good for hammering in nails...thanks for the responses, this is a great system

[pc]

built missus into last horse. glue on floor no longer a problem