Help needed with locating carving wood

westcoastscot

Thankyou also for all your advice, some lovely websites there and thankyou jammydodger - yes, i'm surrounded by woodland. Shall pick up a bit of birch on my walk today and see what I can do with it. I found these guys yesterday - http://www.a-finlay-primitive-crafts.co.uk/home.html - and am thinking of buying a spoon/fork starter kit to get me going.
WCS

westcoastscot

Lancers21 good luck with the puppets - when my children were younger we had kits from opitec for simple puppets - they were called Fidgety Philip and were basically discs of wood that had to be cut and sanded, then joined together by a series of hooks and eyes - painted and there you had a puppet who was very active just with a jiggle!
WCS

Actiongirl_2

Interesting thread...

We have a Yew tree trunk to sell for wood turning - apparently it is the best one to use for turning, but haven't got round to selling it yet, has been down since last summer seasoning. We were told it would be worth MORE seasoned....

Sadly we are in cambridgeshire so might not be able to help!

Good info for me though.

lancers21

Hi, im attempting to buy some wood to carve some wooden puppets for my university work, i have this old log that ive been practicing on, and now ready to make the finished nice looking versions of the puppets!

I was wondering if anyone out there knew which type of wood is best for carving for quite intriciate designs?

Pink.

Hi lancers,

I've added your post to your recent thread on wood carving as there are some experienced carvers on there who should be able to help.

Pink

lancers21

Thankyou, i didnt even realise there was a section dedicated to wood carving!

jammy_dodger

lancers21 wrote: »

Hi, im attempting to buy some wood to carve some wooden puppets for my university work, i have this old log that ive been practicing on, and now ready to make the finished nice looking versions of the puppets!

I was wondering if anyone out there knew which type of wood is best for carving for quite intriciate designs?

you'll be looking for a wood with a tight grain to avoid "flaking " may i suggest beech or sweet chestnut ? it is great for fine detail and etching should be readily available in local woodland too look out for abit as knot free as you can then split the woodin half to get rid of the heart wood

enjoy

Chipps

Opitec www.opitec.co.uk sell carving wood & loads of other craft stuff quite reasonably

Gingernutmeg

My stepdad is a wood carver and usually he wouldn't turn 'green' wood - that's fresh wood that hasn't been seasoned - as when it dries it tends to crack and warp. Sometimes that's the effect you want (some people specialise in turning green wood) but normally it's avoided. I don't know if it's the same for carving as it is for turning, but I do know that for turning it's generally best to buy pieces of seasoned wood, from suppliers - I know that my stepdad spends a lot of time and money travelling to find the best wood, and he's got sheds full of stuff that he's seasoning!

For carving, I've always been told that lime wood is good for fine detailled carving - it's what Grinling Gibbons used anyway!

WilliamCoffey

Thank you very much for all your advice. really this be very helpful.