pine

[alias]

i would just like to get some opinions on everyone's choice of woods to use and why.

thanks for the help

[mtylerfl]

i would just like to get some opinions on everyone's choice of woods to use and why.

thanks for the help

Hello,

Hardwoods with tight grains carve the best, but I use Select Pine a lot and it does well for most projects. Kiln-dried, flat, straight, no knots. I avoid lower grades of Pine due to high moisture/pitch content (twists/warps) and knots. Of course, if you want/need the "knotty pine" look, try to find wood that is decent (harder to locate good wood in a pile of #2 pine these days).

I also use a lot of Maple. Maple is less costly than Select Pine in some areas of the country, and carves very, very well.

Cherry seems to be the smoothest carving with Walnut a close second. (I have carved neither - that's just based on feedback from others on various CNC forums.)

I have carved Beech wood. It's more open-grained and kind of looks like a cross between Oak and Mahogany. I don't use it for finely detailed v-carving because it has a tendency to have some tearout here and there. Red Oak behaves similarly to Beech, only a little worse on the tendency to tearout on certain fine raised details and closely-spaced V-carvings. White Oak is a little tighter grain than Red Oak. It carves fairly well.

Alder is a new wood I've experimented with. Seems on par with Select Pine quality of carve.

Poplar is used by a lot of folks. Some like it - some don't. I'm in the middle. I won't use it for projects with lots of fine detail (too many fuzzies), but others report the opposite, saying it has less fuzzies than pine. Must be a regional thing - perhaps some Poplar is harder than others. One fellow told me he selects "darker colored" Poplar (a sort of greenish tint). He says it's a little tighter grain and carves better than "light-colored" Poplar.

Cedar is too stringy for me to be happy with - at least the Cedar they sell around here (I live in Brunswick, GA on the east coast). There are varieties of Cedar that do carve better than others, and is favored by outdoor sign makers. Some have reported they use Redwood too and like how it carves. I've not even seen any Redwood available since moving from Arizona to the eastern states in 1992.

I'm sure others will chime in with their preferences and tips, but I hope this helps a little.

[Old Salt]

What they call pine select from Lowe's and home depot because of price is used a lot, not relay pine .
Cherry is my favorite most of the hard woods work well, red oak is ok but is open grain and tears when cut but the people like it.
Search for woods many post on the subject.

[alias]

all replys help and i am very grateful for the help it is good to know that i can come on this forum and get help from people who are willing to share their knowledge

[dltccf]

It might also be helpful to talk about where people get their wood from. Do you purchase from the bog box stores? I find that they have lots of pine, but only a token amount of poplar and oak. What is the Select Pine if it is not really pine?

There is a Hardwoods Inc store near me but I haven't been able to get there yet. Their hours and direction from work don't suit for me getting there while they are open.

I have been looking on craigslist lately and there is lumber listed sporadically. Haven't bought any yet because I haven't seen a deal I can't pass up yet.

I did buy some flooring from lumber liquidators. White Oak two boxes worth off the open box pile for about $20 was worth a try. If you glue it together just using their prefitted edges you won't get a very good fit. Worth a try, but next time I'll plane it down from the 3/4 to 5/8 to get rid of the ribs on the bottom and cut off the edges and glue flat edges together.


dave

[b.sumner47]

I like to carve with poplar for most of my everyday carvings, it has a fairly tight grain the look of the grain is very inportant to me as well,sometimes you will get the fuzzies in a board I don't know why. Special carving in walnut, oak , cherry I use in upgraded carvings. Capt Barry Welcome Aboard !

[myshop1044]

Thanks Michael T., for that very good info on your choice of woods and why you use them in different carvings. That is good general info.
I just hooked up with a wholesale wood dealer and he has all kinds of exotic woods and I can get them thru
a friend who owns a cabinet shop.
I sometimes would like to try some other types of wood, but I don't know what carves good and why.
Thanks again

Perry

[mtylerfl]

It might also be helpful to talk about where people get their wood from. Do you purchase from the bog box stores? I find that they have lots of pine, but only a token amount of poplar and oak. What is the Select Pine if it is not really pine?...
dave

Hi Dave,

Good idea to mention sources. I found a local cabinet shop that stocks a good variety of wood, and I've been pleased with their prices. They also plane and orbit sand anything I ask them to. I just choose the wood in the morning, they plane/sand, and I pick it up in the afternoon. Great service. the owner will also special order "anything I want", says he. Oh, Select Pine is...well, PINE!

Thanks Michael T., for that very good info on your choice of woods and why you use them in different carvings. That is good general info.
I just hooked up with a wholesale wood dealer and he has all kinds of exotic woods and I can get them thru
a friend who owns a cabinet shop.
I sometimes would like to try some other types of wood, but I don't know what carves good and why.
Thanks again

Perry

Hi Perry,

Thank you! I am no "wood expert" (wish I was), but glad you found the info helpful! Good to hear you found a similar source as I did here. Most fair sized towns have at least one cabinet shop. A local cabinet shop might be a good source for a lot of folks in their respective areas.