Thread: Carving timber?

Mathews Timber, Rooks Rd Nunawading or Australian Furniture Timbers, Plumber Rd Port Melb.

Your best bet as a beginner is Jelutong. Just make sure you don't get a piece with too many sap veins. It pretty easy to carve and really forgiving. The ideal timber for working with for the first few projects, then you can graduate to something that will be a bit more challenging.

Get carving and enjoying it before going for harder timbers otherwise you may cruel your enthusiasm for it and that wouldn't do at all.

Cheers - Neil
Huon Pine.
One of 3 I carved for Supreme Courts, Court of Appeals Melb. Seen in the background of the court scenes in The Castle. Approx 1.3 mt high 800mm wide and 300mm deep.

Hi gvassila, it depends on what a "larger item" is, say a rocking horse, then you would probably need to "laminate the wood", just depends on how big your laminations can be, given the blocks you get. Where the pieces in your laminations join its hard not to let them show, so be aware of their distraction.

You can buy (or used to be able to buy) Jelutong in billets up to 12" x 3 feet wide (300 x 900) wouldn't want to foot the bill for one though. The billet for the coats of arms above was over $6000 some 15 years ago.

It is getting harder and more expensive to buy the bigger pieces of timber as it isn't the done thing to chop down the rain forests any more. So more and more plantation timber is being used. hence the smaller sizes that may need to be laminated.

I'm sure Jelutong will be one of the few still available in larger sizes. Long time since I purchased any. Still have some bits around 300mm square and 150 x 450.

No I don't want to part with it.

Cheers - Neil

Originally Posted by ubeaut

Mathews Timber, Rooks Rd Nunawading or Australian Furniture Timbers, Plumber Rd Port Melb.

Your best bet as a beginner is Jelutong. Just make sure you don't get a piece with too many sap veins. It pretty easy to carve and really forgiving. The ideal timber for working with for the first few projects, then you can graduate to something that will be a bit more challenging.

Get carving and enjoying it before going for harder timbers otherwise you may cruel your enthusiasm for it and that wouldn't do at all.

Cheers - Neil
Huon Pine.
One of 3 I carved for Supreme Courts, Court of Appeals Melb. Seen in the background of the court scenes in The Castle. Approx 1.3 mt high 800mm wide and 300mm deep.

Outstanding workmanship/carving! thanks for showing it! Dave

gvassila...
Congrats on completing your course, seeing and hearing and doing, AND being able to ask questions is worth a ton.....a suggestion.. I feel sure you took notes/looked at samples/possibly made drawings during your class????
Keep a journal!! I have a sketchbook of ideas, simple drawings (my greatest weakness is my drawing ability...) and thoughts about what I was looking at/thinking about. What a resource it has turned out to be for me. I have quite a collection of wood pieces, MOST uncut, and most all of them I had a project in mind for, just wrote on the timber what page in the sketchbook....has worked well for me and my oldtimers disease...

Hi Gvassila,

Great you enjoyed the carving course. I would echo what's been said before-stick to 'softer' woods. Camphour is a pleasure to carve but I don't know how accessible it is your way.

And beautiful work Neil! Really impossing. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for all the responses, I was planning on sticking to the softer woods at least till I'm really really comfortable, which is a pity as I do have access to larger bits of gum, I think it will be about finding that supplier and then finding the bits to suit my ideas which I might need to scale down.

Great to see the sort of work you are doing Neil, I was aware of the guys in Port Melb but wasn't sure if they did anything apart from furniture wood, and I think that the large bits of jelutong are slightly out of my price range especially as a beginner. Plus I also have some issues with the knocking down of rainforest timbers. I do like the AFT's website as it gives a list of the timber they can supply and the density of it.

I was planning on doing some drawings of ideas as well but I have to say that my drawing skills leave a lot to be desired.

I did think laminating would take away from the carving so will keep on the lookout for the right sized wood.

Thanks everyone.

Impressive carving, Neil.

According to Google and this forum, a decent substitute for Huon pine is golden cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa), advertised as available up to 400x400 in long lengths.

I like the cypress, but have never carved Jelutong yet. Any comments on their comparative qualities?