Thread: Chip Carving

Hi daf
Try Australian White beech or imported Jelutong to get you started
BobT

Not sure the wood type matters, i've seen examples from Eastern Europe and Scandinavia in Birch, Sycamore, Lime, Pear etc. I guess any fairly tight grained wood would do.
This is a sampler piece in Holly I started to record different patterns seen on traditional European items. The lattice patterns (on the left) are copied from a piece of wood dated to the Iron Age.


Mark

Chip carving can be done in any wood, quite often used in furniture and doors, basswood is just easy to use, well thats what i heard, im also interested in it but havent got the tools or anything... yet

Originally Posted by oldbob13

Hi daf
Try Australian White beech or imported Jelutong to get you started
BobT

it works well for chip carving

Hi folks,

Thanks for the feedback. Yesterday (Saturday) went to a timber merchant called Otto's. They suggested Poplar and English Lime. Was quite impressed with the varieties of timbers they had.

I bought an off cut of both the above woods. Also went to carbo tech and bought a Pfeil knife. Had a bit of a test run, not as easy as it looks in the you tube videos, but with a bit of practice should get the knack.

Am also thinking of having a go with pine. The softer wood might be easier to get a hang of the technique.

Open to any suggestions.

They say that English Lime is the bee's knees, can't tell, never used it. Poplar and Radiata pine sometimes work but are often disappointing. A timber that personally I do not like but is easily available everywhere and is recommended for beginners is Meranti. If you have a sharp blade everything will do. Good luck!

thanks Frank&Earnst. I never thought of meranti, I might give that a go also. As stated before, I think getting the technique right first, then applying it to a more appropriate timber might be the best way. I feel I might be getting some aches and pains in the hands for a short while. Feeback has been great , thank you.

Dave .

Originally Posted by daf

They suggested Poplar and English Lime.

English lime is the same as basswood. The Americans call lime basswood.

In addition to white beech and jelutong, I would suggest Tasmanian myrtle. Meranti is easy to cut, but it will not take detail and tends to crumble.

Good luck!

Jono

Hi guys,

the basswood is the common name (in north america) of a tree of the genus "tilia"; it is called lime in Britain and linden in parts of Europe (tiglio here in Italy where it is a very common tree). It is a good wood to start with chip carving as it is soft but tight grained, so any other wodd with the same features is OK. Anyway as you gain experience basswood will be no longer good as it doesn't permit fine details.
Take a look to my gallery for some examples of chip carving.

Cheers
Paolo

Sorry, for some reason the link to my gallery does not appear in the previous message.

lovely work paolo,
very precise and skillful,
thank you for posting your work and welcome to the forum.
looking forward to seeing more

Originally Posted by Frank&Earnest

They say that English Lime is the bee's knees, can't tell, never used it. Poplar and Radiata pine sometimes work but are often disappointing. A timber that personally I do not like but is easily available everywhere and is recommended for beginners is Meranti. If you have a sharp blade everything will do. Good luck!

good to hear from you again frank

Originally Posted by SPIRIT

good to hear from you again frank

Still earnest, but got more important things to do

Originally Posted by paolo59

Anyway as you gain experience basswood will be no longer good as it doesn't permit fine details.

Most of us would be quite happy with the level of detail shown in your tiglio carving, Paolo.

For the locals: "cirmolo" is a pine (Pinus cembra), some pine timbers do carve well. Of course a Briton like Ian Norbury found it much inferior to English lime...