Thread: G'day Australia (and a few carvings...)

G'day Raven and welcome to the wide world of wood!!

And pretty soon it will be welcome to the wide brown land.


Those figures are all knockouts!! Can't find a favourite as the choice is just too difficult.

If you browse through this forum you will see plenty of interedting carving and sculpture work.

Hi Raven,

Glad you found your way here. Its a great site for a wide variety of carving and sculpture styles. Lots of great examples and some fantastic step-by-steps.

Just curious but are you the Raven sometimes known as 'Grimnir'? If so this is a new and interesting side of your work I've not seen before.

As for wood... lime is still used here but jelutong is easier to find and usually a bit cheaper. Poplar and willow are here too. Huon pine is almost worshipped here but expensive as the sources are limited. After that they get a bit harder, though not all are really hard. Camphor laurel is popular in Brisbane I'm told but my knowledge of Queensland wood is limited. Some of the others here should be able to advise you better.

Anyway, welcome to Oz. What are you going to be doing here (besides carving)?

Hi there Whittling, yes that'll be me I only started doing figures a month ago and can't stop lol. Love to do them, can literally sit here for hours. I've heard of Jelutong, will have to look some up when I get there. Hmm camphor wood, does it have that camphor smell? If so I want to carve it

I have a job lined up as in Brissy with a market trader I know online, will see how that goes. He says I can easily earn a weeks money doing the weekend markets. If it works out it'll be perfect, 2 days work covering most of the bills and the week for carving etc

Hi Raven...and welcome to the forum.
some really nice pieces there..my favorites are the first two pics..are they of your own design?....We have some great carving woods here..let us know when you arrive and we'll steer you in the right direction..
One of the things I don't get about carving woods is that some people quibble about $5 or $10 for raw materials when they are going to spend 10-20hrs carving it.....the cost of the wood is such a small component of the finished piece...and (trust me here)..jelutong is not anything like huon pine....or white beech...or celery top...or rosewood...or..etc etc..
cheers and welcome

I'm a few hours from Brizzy. In this part of Australia white beech is probably the pick of the bunch. Its not all that easy to get a hold of but is around (give me a yell if you get stuck). You'll miss the unbeatable paleness of lime here, but the loss is more than made up for with colour and variety.

Originally Posted by movay_2008

I You'll miss the unbeatable paleness of lime here, but the loss is more than made up for with colour and variety.

Yep...what movay said ...
a couple of Australian species that I like carving...(in no particular order)
huon pine, white beech, rose wood, red cedar, camphor laurel, Qld and Tas myrtle, .etc,
I'm sure others will add to the list.

Hi Artme thanks for the comments glad you like them!

Underfoot, the carvings are based off of photosets. I was looking for inspiration online and was finding it hard to find pics with enough views to get the feel of it. Found a set a woman had posted as stock photos with all 4 sides and thought 'that's the one!' It was the pregnant one. From then I've downloaded a few stock photosets to use as guides though of course once knife hits wood a guide is all it is lol.

Movay thank you I'll definitely give you a yell when I hit Brissy. TBH the 'unbeatable paleness of lime' is overrated IMO it's rather bland in a lot of cases and I'd love more feature though of course that's not the best idea for figures.

This should be a big help, though it doesn't give densities. There are a lot of exotics in this mix, but the majority are Australian, and a lot of others are successful exotics (Except for things like Lebanese Cedar at no 262


All the eggs

A lot of these woods are accessible from this part of Oz if you keep sniffing.

My personal favs, and quite soft except perhaps the cypress pine 35 263 13 57

Very hard but rewarding 204 175 5

The hardest of all wood 127

Sandpaper fig at 284 is abundant in certain spots on the NSW?QLD border

Red Cedar is still about here as well 18. Rosewood which nI couoldn't see on the list is less common, but a must!

Huon Pine is an Aussie Fav from Tasmania, and possible to get if you enquire enough 74

I have had good access to macadamia, though with poor success in curing. 95

Black silky oak looks great 120, so does Koa 153

Coachwood i've had success with 186, and a good carve

I couldn't see hairy walnut either on the list, but think I found some today after pulling some large she-oak logs out of the creek.

BTW, I think you have great feeling and sense of the round in your work.

Oh wow, excellent resource there! Thank you And thanks also for the comment on the carvings. I'm in the process of carving 2 figures for a woman based on a few old pics, one of her before her pregnancy one at full bloom. Took me over 3 hours just to get the rough outlines worked out on paper (I have trouble drawing curtains, figures are way beyond me!) and I still made her boobs too big :P apparently I carve a very nice bum though I'll post a thread on it when it's done.

Figures are nothing - Underfoot has a nice WIP on figures somewhere. Practice is all it takes.

I noticed something of a pregnancy progression in your pics.

I'm tempted to knock up some of my more detailed erotic pics; but will resist asthey are really only for one other's eyes. There is a huge difference between erotic and pornographic. I like that light erotic nature in your work. There should be more of it.

Really beautiful work!!! Gary

Movay, I do like the pregnant form, my first figure was of a pregnant woman, but I enjoy doing other shapes too. I like the light erotic, you're right there is not enough of that around. These days they seem to want to hit you round the head with it it's so blatant!

Rocfish - Thank you

Well, I'm here in Australia now My wife and I have a nice place in Corinda, Brisbane. I've got all my tools now so I need to start looking for some timber. Want to get on and start carving!

Anyone know of any Mens Sheds in this area? Been reading about them and they look really interesting